23 Sep
Your website’s SEO positioning is the foundation in which your entire digital strategy is based on. If you have a well-ranked website for the main keywords in your industry, you will have a constant source of traffic that you can use as a basis for all of your online marketing strategies. On the other hand, if your brand is difficult to find on Google, it will be much more difficult to get started.
Ranking on the first page of search engines is more competitive than ever, as more and more brands have an established digital presence and are turning to SEO strategies. Also, the “tricks” that served to rank just a few years ago are no longer working as search algorithms are constantly updated. So that you are up to date and succeed with your SEO strategy, today I want to share with you the 20 great keys to SEO on page and off page . I’m providing this information to you in 10 keys for on-page SEO and 10 keys for off-page SEO. Let’s get to it!
10 SEO keys on page
1) Work on your keyword strategy
Yes, it is basic, but it never hurts to remember it: a good selection of keywords is an absolutely essential step for your SEO strategy to work.
Keyword research is a long and complex process, but one worth spending as much time as it takes. Here are some of the key things to keep in mind:
- Keyword search volume
- Competition level: Here, above all, we are interested in detecting “gaps” that have an interesting level of searches but that are not yet taken over by other brands.
- Seasonality: Some keywords will only interest us during a certain time of the year.
- Relevance of the term: In the sector in general and for our brand in particular.
Once the keywords have been decided, we will have to see how they fit with the entire architecture of our website. Ideally, each page is optimized for a single keyword or for several that are related to each other (synonyms).
The only secret to success is hard work and strategy. Gary McKenna
InSight Founder
2) Optimize your URLs
Another must-have is to make your URLs easy to read and index for search engines, as well as easy for users to remember. This last factor is not directly related to SEO positioning , but it will help you improve direct traffic.
The basics to create good URLs are:
- The good thing if brief twice good. Try to keep your URLs as simple as possible.
- Use only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.
- Each URL must contain the keyword of the page it refers to. In fact, the ideal is that the slug is only this keyword.
This video explains the basic understanding of SEO positioning
3 ) Take care of the title and the description of the pages
The truth is that it is not very clear whether or not Google takes these elements into account when deciding the SEO positioning of a page, but that does not mean that you should leave them aside.
In most cases, the page title and description will be the items that appear in search results when a user searches for the keyword on the page in question. Therefore, its content will be decisive for you to decide to click or pass by. In addition, other search engines, such as Bing, do take this element into account to position.
Therefore, you should try to ensure that the title and description of the page faithfully reflect the content, encourage the user to click, contain the keyword for which you want to position and fall within the limits of characters that are shown in the results.
4) Structure pages with headers
The headers of a page (h1, h2, h3, etc.) are very necessary to structure the contents of your website, both for search engines and users.
These elements work as a kind of “subtitle” that allows you to divide large content into smaller blocks. Thus, users will be able to scan the information to quickly find what they are looking for and search engine spiders will be able to correctly interpret what the text refers to.
4) Structure pages with headers
The headers of a page (h1, h2, h3, etc.) are very necessary to structure the contents of your website, both for search engines and users.
These elements work as a kind of “subtitle” that allows you to divide large content into smaller blocks. Thus, users will be able to scan the information to quickly find what they are looking for and search engine spiders will be able to correctly interpret what the text refers to.
5) Optimize images
When it comes to optimizing SEO on page , we usually focus on elements that include texts. But images are also essential to improve SEO positioning.
To this day, search engine spiders can’t “read” images the way a human can. Therefore, it is necessary that we help them interpret them by putting these tips into practice:
- Put a descriptive name to the images (that includes the keyword).
- Include an alternative text and a long description (longdesc) if applicable.
- Tag images with the “title” attribute.
- Surround the image with related content.
- Save all the images in the same folder.
In addition, it is highly recommended that the images have a small weight, include information on dimensions and be in jpg, png or gif format.
6) Prepare your website for mobiles
Today, the majority of web traffic comes from mobile , so this step is absolutely essential. In fact, Google penalizes websites that do not meet this requirement.
To prevent this from happening to you, you need your website to offer a user-friendly experience on screens of all sizes and fast loading times. To achieve this, you have many options on a technical level, from responsible design to Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages.
7) Include a sitemap for search engines
Sitemaps are the easiest way to make sure your site is properly crawled and indexed by Google spiders and other search engines. In them, we will indicate the different pages that make up the website and the way in which they are structured.
To create a sitemap, you can do it by hand following Google’s webmaster recommendations or use a sitemap creation tool. Then, you will have to upload it to Google Search Console and do the necessary maintenance so that it is always up to date.
8) Take care of loading times
A page that takes too long to load leads to high bounce rates . In addition to lost traffic and user frustration, it can also make a page’s SEO ranking worse.
For this reason, all on-page SEO strategies should include a complete audit of web page load times and implement the necessary measures to optimize them.
9) Create quality content
If SEO positioning is like the foundations of the web, the content is the cement that unites them and gives them shape.
When creating the contents of a web page, it is necessary to harmonize the needs of users and search engines. Gone are the days when we had to enter the same keyword over and over again. Instead, implement these recommendations :
- Enter the main keyword of the article where it is natural , as well as synonyms and other related terms.
- Look for the article to be easy to read , with short sentences and paragraphs and clearly organized ideas.
- Use tools like lists with bullet point s.
- Include smaller headings and paragraphs within each if necessary.
- Optimize non-text elements like images, infographics, and videos.
10) Create content of the right length
Much has been debated about the ideal length of the content to position in Google. It is true that long texts tend to generate more organic traffic and inbound links, and are shared more on social networks. But it is also true that longer articles require a greater investment of time, and that it is useless to lengthen at the expense of filling.
For this reason, rather than obsessing over the number of words to reach, my recommendation is that you focus on creating articles that are well focused on the keyword that you want to position, that deal in depth with the subject in question and that include all the related aspects that may be relevant to the reader.
10 off-page SEO keys
1) Get quality inbound links
Inbound links are the ultimate off-page SEO factor. The premise is very simple: links from other websites work as votes of confidence about the quality of your page that Google takes into account when establishing its reputation.
There are many possible link building techniques, but not all of them are equally beneficial for SEO positioning. The golden rule is that shortcuts do not work: you will need to create quality content that authentically attracts the attention of other websites and always work with the long term in mind.
2) Comment on industry blogs and forums
Actively participating in the conversations of your sector can be very beneficial for positioning, but beware: it is not about introducing links to your site without rhyme or reason or self-promoting your brand, but about providing real value .
3) Improve your popularity in social networks
Social networks are the new SEO , and they can contribute a lot to the popularity and positioning of your website. It’s like a snake biting its own tail:
- You post quality content.
- The content is shared on social networks.
- Your site gets new visits and subscribers, and the followers of your profiles on networks grow. In short, community is generated around your brand.
- Your site gains reputation thanks to the visits and links generated.
- The site positions better in search engines, so more users discover it and are encouraged to share your content.
4) Do video marketing
Although at first glance it may not seem to be related to SEO positioning , creating videos of your brand and uploading them to YouTube can help you rise in search engine positions. How? Thanks to the links generated to your website.
Furthermore, YouTube itself is the second most popular search engine, and its videos show up in Google searches. Everything is advantages!
5) Use guest blogging
Posting articles on other blogs helps you increase your audience and position yourself as an expert in your industry, as well as generating quality links to your site.
6) Join directories
Yes, we know that this technique is not as popular as it used to be, but don’t rule it out just yet. Subscribing to quality directories can help you generate links and visits, so it’s a good long-term investment. Of course, avoid suspicious sites and paid links.
7) Create infographics and other graphic elements to enrich your content
This will not only help you improve the quality of the content and the overall user experience, but it will also work as “bait” to attract incoming links and improve SEO positioning.
8) Control your keywords
In general, we tend to think that keywords are an element exclusively of SEO on page, but this is a mistake. When generating external links to your website, you will have to be strategic about what keywords are used in the anchor text so that they fit with the ones you have selected yourself.
9) Network
If you want to improve the reputation of your website, you will have to make the effort to relate to other websites and influencers in your sector. Thus, you can find opportunities to collaborate with each other and improve the reputation of your site.
10) Don't cheat
Last but not least: you are not only interested in doing things right… but also in avoiding doing them wrong.
A Google penalty can ruin many months of work, so you need to always be up to date with the rules and avoid resorting to ” black hat ” techniques. The promise of quick results can be tempting, but it’s never worth the risk.
