What is on-page optimization?
On-page optimization, refers to techniques you can use to increase your website’s traffic by streamlining individual pages across your website.
If you’ve ever wondered how search engines determine what results they show you, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the answer.
Getting your website and content to appear in more search results is the key to driving traffic to your web pages and winning more conversions. It sounds simple – get to the top of the search results and coast on autopilot while business booms. But it’s not that easy.
No one outside of Google really knows the exact criteria used to rank search results, so optimizing your website isn’t like following an instruction manual or checking items off a to-do list. But don’t despair! There are still plenty of reasons to optimize your website, even without the full picture of Google’s methodology.
Why should you care about on-page optimization?
Without a full understanding of everything that goes into determining how Google ranks search results, trying to crack the code might seem like a waste of time. That is a trap best left for your competitors!
The truth is that while the exact recipe is a secret, we do know the ingredients. All it takes to increase your SEO is a little familiarity of common optimization techniques. Let’s talk about the power of SEO.
Increased search results aside, optimizing your website is great for your users. Here are a few things you can do to keep your site user friendly and help increase your site’s SEO and your customers’ experience.
- Keep your site easy to navigate
- Make sure your website works well on mobile devices
- Write compelling content that your readers want
- Keep your website loading quickly (Nobody likes waiting)
When your site is optimized for conversions and guides users to CTAs, you’re able to take advantage of existing traffic and new traffic generated from improved SEO ratings.
Sites that have better optimization lead to more qualified leads and conversions, higher click through rates, and more satisfied users.
How can you optimize your website?
One of the best things you can do for your website is to make sure it gives your users a positive user experience.
Making your site user-friendly is going to keep viewers looking at your content longer, and every second they spend on your site increases their odds of becoming a customer.
Think like a consumer. When you visit a website, what are your immediate expectations?
What makes you instantly choose a new website to browse? If a website isn’t mobile friendly, users viewing the page on their phones aren’t likely to stick around for long.
Slow load times will frustrate viewers and convince them to look elsewhere for information or products.
So it’s no surprise that Google has been measuring the speed of your site, and using that in their ranking algorithms, since 2010. More recently, in 2018, the speed of your site on/for mobile devices became a much more important signal, too. They understand that a good user experience is a fast user experience.
How site speed influences SEO
Not only does brief viewership fail to produce leads, it can also have a negative impact on your SEO rating.
Optimizing your website to ensure it meets viewers’ immediate needs is the first step to improving your rating and keeping your viewers on track to become conversions.
Another critical component of managing users’ expectations is giving them relevant content.
This requires you to know your audience, but also be familiar with keywords and use them purposefully. Keywords placed in headers or titles will be more effective – both in grabbing readers’ attention and increasing your SEO rating – than keywords only buried in paragraphs of text.
Placement and usage rate of keywords helps search engines match your content to online searches and keeps your audience interested in your messaging.
Compelling content gives you an edge over competitors and can even result in your page being linked from other sites. This widens your audience, increases your credibility, and helps your SEO rating.
You can, and should, optimize your website through external means well. This is called off-page SEO.
Optimizing your website from sources other than the website itself is tricky, but can have a sizable impact on your SEO rating since fewer businesses optimize well off-page.
Off-page SEO is the natural progression of creating quality content. When that content is shared by consumers or other professionals in your industry, that creates awareness of your brand.
Capitalize on that awareness by continuing to forge relationships with influencers and those who share your content. Engage in guest blogging, cultivate a strong social media presence, and seek publication opportunities and high value endorsements.
Page optimization is more about raising brand awareness and creating multiple ways for consumers to discover your business than it is just improving your website.
The more optimization strategies you employ, the stronger your SEO rating is going to be.
Why should Carefully Crafted optimize your website?
To get the full benefit of an optimized site, it’s best to make SEO a focus all its own.
There are many components and techniques that have to be used simultaneously in order for a site’s performance and ranking to see real improvement.
A website’s SEO rating is also in constant flux, so optimization isn’t something that can be passively implemented.
When we dedicate a team of professionals to scour your webpages for opportunities to improve SEO, you’ll see quantifiable progress that can’t be achieved from passive or partial optimizations.
We specialize in several marketing microservices, and each one is done with optimization in mind. To learn more about what we can do for you, visit our services page or reach out anytime.
