Effective SEO inherently encompasses two main areas of execution:
Off-site efforts that include things like link building and media
relations, and on-site tactics that include every nuance your content
must embrace to garner Google’s attention. You can have scads of
fantastic off-site SEO techniques, but you won’t achieve the rankings
you dream of without equally stellar on-site strategies.
So what are the core things your site must display in order to rank well? Read on for all the details.
On-Site SEO Basics
Great SEO strategies always start with the basics. Without a few core
site elements, no amount of crafty marketing will ever boost your
ranking.
Here are the on-site must-haves:
1) XML SiteMap – Your site needs to have a XML sitemap
that displays all your content pages in a format search engine bots can
read. This page should already exist in the root directory of your site,
but if it doesn’t, you can use tools like the XML Sitemap Generator to create one quickly and easily.
2) Robots.txt – While you’re at it, double check
that your site has a Robots.txt file in the root directory as well (look
for yourwebsitename.com/robots.txt). This is a file invisible to your
visitors, but it communicates to search bots what pages on your site
should be indexed.
3) 404 Error Pages – It’s quite all right for users
to occasionally hit a 404 error page on your site, but it’s not OK for
this page to be generic and create a dead end. Error pages should be
customized with your logo, have playful text and images to lessen the
disappointment, and include links to other potentially relevant areas of
your site. Include a search box as well so they may redirect their
efforts to find what they’re looking for. If you don’t feature these
options, users are likely to close the window and abort the visit all
together. Not only will you lose valuable traffic, but search engines
will also ding you for a poor user experience.
4) URL Structure – Search engines like Google love
shorter, keyword rich slugs (the last portion of your URL.) Avoid URLs
that are over 3 directories deep, as flatter slugs tend to index faster
after the page is published. Shorter URLs are also a lot easier for
users and bots to comprehend. The cardinal rule is no more than 100
characters for your URL, and 3-5 words for each page’s slug. Keep them
descriptive, and avoid stop words like ‘in’, ‘a’, and ‘the’.
5) Page Titles – Each title on your site should be
descriptive and concise. Titles need to communicate exactly what the
page contains, in the shortest form possible. Optimal length is 70-100
characters, including spaces.
6) Headings – It’s also important to include
headings (H1, H2, H3) on your site’s pages. These help to divide the
content into coherent sections, providing more value to search bots
trying to decipher the content. Headings should also include your page’s
key terms, and while they don’t need to be as concise as the other
components, they should still express topics in a somewhat brief manner.
7) Site Speed – Users and search engines love fast
loading sites, so make sure your gorgeous content doesn’t have high file
sizes that bog down load times. Use a free tool like GTmetrix to regularly test your site’s speed.
8) Meta Data and Rich Snippets – While it’s true
that meta descriptions do not affect your rankings, they do help the
click-through rates of your listing. Rich snippets and accurate meta
descriptions increase your opportunity to get a visitor’s attention, and
therefore should not be ignored.
Monitoring Your Site’s Success
Once you have the basics covered, and begin publishing quality
content to your well-designed site, consistent monitoring of ranking
changes is imperative. SEO is an ever-evolving process, so it’s
important that you stay on top of your site’s rankings week to week.
For starters, create an account on both Google’s Webmaster Tools and Bing’s Webmaster Site.
These will be your gateways into seeing the latest ranking results on
each search engine. Once your account is created, you’ll need to
formally submit your site’s XML sitemap. From here, you can monitor the
latest rankings and gain access to webmaster tools to help increase your
performance.
These days there are also dozens of excellent tools that help you
monitor your search engine statuses and determine why your results might
be less than optimal. Install a good crawler (SEOmoz
is well-known and reputable) so you can track your changes, site
errors, warnings, and other useful metrics on a daily or weekly basis.
Finally, make it a point to scan your site on Google each month to
make sure it’s indexing all the pages you intend. To do so, type in
[site:www.yourdomain.com] to the Google search box, and browse through
the results. You should see all your site’s pages listed. Look for any
warning boxes or missing results, as those are excellent clues that tell
you changes are needed.
SEO Tactics for Site Updates
Websites are dynamic creations, and you will no doubt make scads of
changes and additions over time. Be very methodical and thoughtful as
you do so, however, because you can undo great SEO results by changing
the data search engines see. As an example, if you change your site’s
URL structure, it’s imperative that you update your XML sitemap, and set
up redirects from the old to the new pages.
You should also be monitoring your site’s analytics on a weekly
basis. These metrics will tell you tons about the performance of your
best and worst pages, site speed, bounce rates, and repeat visit
percentages. Tools like Google Analytics provide an invaluable sneak
peek into the behavior of your visitors – use this data to help
determine what changes are needed to increase conversion, visit lengths,
and overall traffic.
You are now armed with an excellent starter course on creating
fantastic on-site SEO results. By following all the basic structure
protocols, and employing regular monitoring of your site’s performance
(with a willingness to make changes as needed), you stand an excellent
chance of achieving admiral rankings. Remember that nothing is as
critical as the quality of your content, but applying these tactics
along with a stellar, user-friendly website is your ticket to Google
greatness.
A Post in SPN
Top On-Site SEO Strategies to Raise Your Rankings
