How to Improve Search Engine Optimization on Your Web Pages

Over the past decade, SEO has changed in so many ways that most people are at a loss as to what they need to do now in order not to violate the stringent guidelines that have been outlined by Google. If you are one of those people, do not despair.Some of the on-page Search Engine Optimization techniques that you are using now are still relevant and effective. But there may be a few that you are not aware of that can help to improve the level of organic traffic that your website receives. Quite a number of people are already using the newer SEO techniques and you too will benefit from knowing what they are.

Below are 10 SEO strategies that you can use, if you are not already using them, to gain more visitors to your website from the search engines. Note that they are not laid out in any specific order in terms of relevance, popularity, or effectiveness

 Keep Your Website URL Short and Descriptive

When your URL is short, it makes it easier for search engines to crawl your website. In addition, shorter URLs are more aesthetically appealing and easier to remember. Persons who visit your website will also appreciate it. Remember that one of the factors that are used to determine page rank is your URL, so the easier it is for the search engine to go through your website is the better your page rank will be. In addition, ensure that the content on your website is directly related to your URL as this helps the search engines to properly categorize the pages on your website.

 Heading Tags Are Important

Heading tags, like <H1> and <H2>, tell search engines how important the content on a page is. The <H1> tag is the highest rated tag, i.e. it means the content on that page is the most important. The <H2> is the level below <H1> and means that the content on that page is important but not as important as <H1>. I am sure you see the trend here. If you are unsure what heading tags are being used on your pages, check the HTML view. Each browser has its own way of accessing that view, but normally right-clicking on the page and selecting sometime like “view page source” will allow you to see the code below the page.

When you set up headings for your pages, do not use standard terms like “Home” or “Services.” Use terms that are SEO friendly like “Money Home” or “Money Services.” Remember to use the heading tag that you think is appropriate, in terms of importance, for each heading.

 Image ALT TEXT Optimization

Many people usually leave out the ALT TEXT option when adding images to their websites. This is not a good idea because search engines look for them when crawling websites. You may not be aware of this but adding keywords to your image ALT TEXT affords search engines another way in which they can link to your website. For SEO purposes, you can also add keywords to your image’s file name.

 Page Title Optimization

Search engines use your page titles to display search results from pages on your website. The title advises people who search for and find your website in search results what the page is supposed to be talking about. So, it is important that they can see the entire title, without it being cut off. To prevent that from happening, make sure that your page titles are less than 55 characters, including spaces, so that the entire title can be seen in search results. Another great SEO strategy as it relates to page title optimization is using keywords in your topics, especially near to the start of the topic. This will help your pages to rank better in search engine results.

 Keywords Do Not Have To Be Word for Word

It was once true that verbatim keywords were used by search engines when people performed searches. For example, if someone searched for “tall tree garden,” the search results would not include any variations of those keywords. However, that has changed over time because now you can search for those same keywords and get results that include “tall tree gardens” and “tall tree gardening.” So, it does not matter if your keywords are singular or plural as the search results will show both the singular and plural terms. In addition, people who misspell keywords will still end up finding your website since Google generally offers correction suggestions while still giving results with the correct and incorrect spelling of the keyword.

 Using One Keyword to Optimize Pages on Your Site

Many people in the past engaged in the black-hat practice of stuffing keywords in their articles. Google has long caught on and has been penalizing sites that engage in that practice, going as far as removing them from search results. The best SEO strategy to employ would be to structure the content on your pages around one main keyword. It is important that your web-copy looks as natural as possible so that search engines will not penalize your site and that it makes sense to people who are reading it. In addition, you should include the main keyword in your image’s ALT TEXT, the page heading, and the page title.

 Increase in Natural Linking

Everyone wants other websites to link to theirs. But not all inbound links are of the best quality. In some cases, sites that you do not want to link to yours make links to it. The quality of inbound links cannot be overstated because Google uses the number of inbound links to a website to calculate page ranks. If you are unsure as to which websites are linking to yours, perform a search and continually monitor them. You can also send a request to Google asking them to disavow specific links to your website so that Google will not use those links as a factor in ranking your pages. At the same time, try to increase the number of quality inbound links so that your pages can receive better rankings.

 Why Using HTTP or HTTPS Matters

Using Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) has been the traditional way of accessing websites on the Internet. This protocol is not secure and has resulted in many websites in the past being hacked. Moving forward, a greater emphasis has been placed on making websites more secure, hence a push for them to adopt Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). This protocol is secure, as the name suggests, and makes it harder for a website to get hacked due to the encryption that is used to secure it. If your website is not presently using HTTPS, consider getting it secured as soon as possible. Also keep in mind that secure websites tend to rank higher in search engine results.

 Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

As more and more people use mobile devices to access the Internet, it will become more likely that your website will be accessed from a mobile device. In 2014, mobile devices accounted for about 40% of organic traffic that websites received. If your website is not mobile-friendly, it will lose valuable mobile traffic. To prevent that from reaching you, use only mobile-friendly website themes and templates, ensure that there are no 404 errors on your website, and optimize all images, just to name a few.

 Website Loading Speed Improvement

Most people are impatient. When they have to wait what they consider to be a long time for a website to load, they end up leaving it without getting a chance to browse through. As such, it is imperative that your website loads quickly all the time. Site speed is one of the factors that are used to calculate search rankings. Websites are loading faster and faster these days, so your own has to keep up or else it will get left behind.

In order to improve your website’s speed, here are a few things that you can do:

• Optimize the images by compressing them so that they are smaller in size
• Do not use too many images
• Do not embed too many videos or other slow loading media
• Refrain from using too many plugins and ensure the ones you use are up-to-date
• Clean up website coding so that they are nested and do not make too many external calls
• Use a mobile-friendly template or theme that is already optimized for speed and mobile UX

If you implement the strategies outlined in this article, your web pages will see a vast improvement in search engine rankings as well as increased organic traffic. In addition, the improved user experience will result in more return visitors to your website.