On-Page & On-Site SEO Services
On-page SEO refers to optimizing the elements of a specific web page (like title tags or the content on the page) in order to improve how Google reads and ranks that page. While on-site SEO is essentially the same thing, it encompasses a bit of a broader scope and includes optimizing elements that affect the entire site (like a sitemap, robots.txt file, and site structure) not just a single page.
Our team of SEO experts and writers has 15 years experience helping marketing agencies and in-house teams with on-site optimization. Send us your site’s url and we’ll conduct a site audit for free to help you discover the on-site optimization opportunities available for you or your client. Whether you’re looking to have a single page improved, 10 pages, or multiple sites, we can help you improve your rankings.
On-site and on-page SEO can be very time consuming projects with many aspects that all play into getting your site ranking and in front of those searching for your services and products. Our SEO experts can help optimize your site in order to:
- Write To Searcher Intent
- Increase Page Rankings
- Grow Relevant Site Traffic
- Improve Conversions
- And Much More!
On-Site Optimization
Why Is On-Site Optimization Important?
We optimize all of the various elements on our pages and sites in order to rank better. But, why? Data shows us that:
- ~79% of organic clicks go to the first 10 results (the first page results)
- ~57% of organic clicks go to top 3 results alone
- The #1 result gets ~32% of the organic clicks
Google’s number one goal is to make it’s users happy and provide them exactly what they are looking for. Google provides “results that it thinks its searchers will like the most,” so high quality content is a must. Google and other search engines work hard to understand the intent behind what a user is searching for, they even have an entire section on user intent in their Quality Evaluator Guidelines. If your page does not match the intent of a search and is not valuable or enjoyable, your page should not, and will not, show up in the results.
With this said we must understand the intent behind keywords and develop high-quality content. Our SEO team will delve into keyword research beyond just analyzing pure search volumes, and will find long-tail terms and question queries to ensure we are targeting search intent in your pages. Our content team will help produce quality content that meets the Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT) characteristics.
Matching this intent and providing results that searchers will like the most is our ultimate goal because it can drastically increase your ROI. Moving up just 1 rank improves your page’s click through rate by about 30.8% on average.
How Does Google Read A Site?
Understanding how search engines read sites, helps us determine what we need to optimize in order to achieve our SEO and business goals.
The first step to reading a site is finding it. The Googlebot crawls the web to find information and sites to index, or list in its results. The process of finding your site and indexing it can be sped up by submitting a sitemap. As you can guess, ensuring your sitemap is optimized is important to getting your site indexed and ranking.
Once Google has found your site it tries to find your robots.txt file which gives Google permission on what it can “read” and index. Mistakes on your robots.txt could make Google completely ignore your site, or not having a robots.txt could have Google indexing information you do not want public.
Then, Google analyzes your page’s title, description, content and images (more on how Google “reads” images below). Google uses this information to understand what a page is about and the context behind it. The intention behind understanding a page is to be able to match the page’s relevancy and intent to queries or searches made by users on Google’s search engine.
Some of these on-page elements are actual ranking factors while, others like meta descriptions are not. However, we can still optimize them all. After all, not only would we like to climb in the rankings, but we want to ensure that we optimize and improve our click-through rate no matter what rank we fall in. Because of these optimizations, someone may click on your 5th place result versus the previous 4 results and a healthy click-through rate will only help to improve your rankings as well.
On-Site SEO And Mobile First Indexing
In today’s world, users are constantly on their mobile devices. Globally, more searches occur on a mobile device than desktop. This makes it very important to have results that users can enjoy on a mobile device. In order to ensure its users have a mobile friendly experience, Google has prioritized mobile-first ranking. This means that Google primarily uses the mobile version of for indexing and ranking, when it historically used the desktop version. Your site MUST be responsive and mobile-friendly to rank well.
Another important note about mobile devices and search, is that the intent behind mobile searches or queries are differing than queries used on desktop. For example, many mobile searches are looking for local information. A search done on mobile can certainly have a different intent than a search done on a desktop and Google takes this into account by having different mobile results than desktop results.
According to SEMRush, “a staggering 30% of pages that are present on the first page of desktop search results are moved beyond the top 10 results in mobile search” and “only 13% of websites have the same position across devices.”
Our SEO experts will help determine the purpose of your pages, and optimize your pages or entire site in order to provide relevant information that matches the intent of the searcher for all devices.
Keyword Research & Search Intent
Our SEO Experts will conduct keyword research for your brand to determine the current landscape and opportunities out there by evaluating what is being searched, how much it is being searched, and what the competition looks like for those search results.
In our research our team will evaluate:
- Search Volume
- Organic CTR
- Keyword Difficulty
- Long Tail Keywords
- Question Queries
- User Intent
- Current Rankings
- LSI Keywords
- Competitive Landscape
- And More
We will incorporate keywords into your pages through using primary target keywords, related keywords, long tail, and questions on elements, like title tags, meta descriptions, anchor text, body content, urls, headings, and image alt text.
However, we go much deeper into keyword research than most SEO providers. We also look at how successfully queries are when evaluating search terms. For example, do those terms have high click through rates, or are people searching specific terms and becoming unsatisfied with the results? If that is the case, we need to evaluate the terms we target because the searcher intent may be different than we believe. For each target term we try to understand truly what the user is looking for and why. That helps us determine the tone and true purpose pages should serve.
On-Page Content Optimization
It takes more than being well written to rank a page or article. Not only does your content need to provide an enjoyable experience to users, it must reach the right audience to deliver on its true purpose. Our team will identify how to reach that audience through comprehensive research. After finding the desired target terms and understanding the user intent, our highly-skilled writers coordinate with our SEO Experts to develop relevant high-quality content that will capture the right intent. Our team will optimize your headings, subheadings, body content, and anchor text for:
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Title Tag Optimization
Title tags help search engines understand what your page is about and are the first impression of your page in search results, or when shared on social media. Query terms are actually highlighted in search results, so it is important to use your target keywords in your title tags.
Our team will optimize the format and length of your title tags, include primary and secondary keywords, and ensure your site does not have any duplicate title tags or is missing any.
Meta Description Optimization
While meta description are not necessarily a ranking factor, a good meta description can improve your click through rate of your page.
Our team will ensure your meta descriptions are compelling, of appropriate length, include relevant keywords and phrases, and are unique.
There are some scenarios where you do not need to set a specific meta description, but we will go over this strategy with you on a one-on-one basis.
It is important to note that search engines do not always utilize the description you provide, and can pull information from your page in order to match what they think would be most relevant for the query used.
Image SEO
Our team will ensure your images are fully optimized for search and your target keywords. We will optimize the following;
- Image File Name
- Image Format; JPEG, PNG, SVG, WebP, And More
- Image Title
- Image Compression
- Image Size
- Alt Text
- Captions And Descriptions
- Image XML Sitemap
Schema Markup
Schema Markup is code built within the site itself that helps search engines; (not just Google) return even more relevant search results to an end user based on the keywords & products they search for within their queries. The best example of Schema is the rich snippets section of Google, which makes up more than one-third of all Google search results.
Schema Markup explains to search engines what your data means. If your title tag is the headline, then your Schema is the story itself. Content on your site gets indexed by Google spiders and contributes to your overall page authority. That is just one side of the equation. Having Schema interprets that data to better understand what it’s saying.
Here is an example directly from the source, Schema.org:
Usually, HTML tags tell the browser how to display the information included in the tag. For example, <h1>Avatar</h1> tells the browser to display the text string “Avatar” in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn’t give any information about what that text string means — “Avatar” could refer to the hugely successful 3D movie, or it could refer to a type of profile picture—and this can make it more difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.
Schema markup uses a unique semantic vocabulary in microdata format. There are many different kinds of markup types, these could be the different colors of shirt in an online store, or it could be the different days of the month on a hotel reservation page. Schema Markup is most closely associated with itemscope & itemtype code formats.
The upshot of using Schema: Websites with it, rank better than sites that don’t.
XML Sitemaps, Robots.txt, Meta Robots Tag, X-Robots-Tag, And More
All of these files and tags, if not cross checked can make your efforts wasted. While your sitemap tells search engines what part of your site you want indexed, your robots.txt file gives search engine bots permission (or not) to crawl certain pages or sections of your site. As we mentioned above, your robots.txt file is the first thing a crawler looks for, so we also point out our sitemap file (or index) in our robots.txt file.
However, there are also meta robots tags that can be used on individual pages to give different commands related to crawling and indexing. Lastly, exists the X-Robots-Tag which also allows your provide commands on crawling and indexing certain pages, but it grants the ability to command this for specific elements on a page too.
With all of the places to give commands sometimes they can contradict each other which can cause poor results.
Our team will optimize your robots.txt files and sitemap.xml while ensuring none of your robots commands are blocking any pages or elements you do want crawled and/or indexed.
We will also verify proper canonical tag placement and that you have separate video and image XML sitemaps.
Site Structure, Internal Linking & URL Structure
Your site’s structure absolutely affects your SEO. Site structure should not be confused with web design, it has to do with how your pages link together more than just how your site looks.
It is best practice to have all of your pages within 3 clicks of each other. Having minimal layers of organization and good internal linking can help improve how fast search engines can crawl your site, and help users easily navigate your pages.
Our team will analyze your site to help ensure a balanced structure and organization so that your site has good crawlability. We will optimize the number of layers or categories on your site and the pages that fit under them and will implement an internal linking strategy using breadcrumbs, contextual links, and site navigation. Our team will help audit any pre-existing linking for errors such as broken links, unnecessary redirects, or improper use of link attributions.
An element of site structure is your URL structure. Pages ranking in the top 100 have an average of 38 characters in the URL. By developing an optimal site structure, it will set your site up for efficient URLs. We want to optimize keywords or phrases in URLS where appropriate in addition to keeping them as short as possible. URLs that contain keywords have higher click-through rates than those that do not.
Site Speed & Mobile-Friendliness
Our team will run audits to ensure your site is responsive and mobile-friendly for mobile-first indexing. We also know that site speed is important. Through our audits we will analyze the elements of your pages and site that are causing any loading concerns. For on-page optimizations the largest culprits are images and excessive html.
Our team will address these issues and help you analyze further areas for development and optimization.
Site Errors & Issues
Through our site audits we will identify and address any errors and issues we find on your site. Specifically relate to on-site optimization our team will optimize for the following errors and issues;
- Broken Internal & External Links
- Internal Links With Nofollow Attribute
- Redirect Issues
- Pages Couldn’t Be Crawled
- Broken Internal & External Images
- Duplicate Content Issues
- Duplicate Or Missing Meta Descriptions
- Duplicate Or Missing Title Tags
- Format Errors In Robtos.txt File
- Format Errors In Sitemap.xml File
- Incorrect Pages Found In Sitemap.xml
- Page Status Code Issues
- Non-Secure Pages
- Mixed Content
- Broken, Missing, or Multiple Canonical Links/ URLs
- Pages With Too Many Links
- Low Word Count
- Pages With Slow Load Speed
- And More
Having any of these on your site can significantly impact your SEO and user experience.
Keyword Research & Search Intent
Our SEO Experts will conduct keyword research for your brand to determine the current landscape and opportunities out there by evaluating what is being searched, how much it is being searched, and what the competition looks like for those search results.
In our research our team will evaluate:
- Search Volume
- Organic CTR
- Keyword Difficulty
- Long Tail Keywords
- Question Queries
- User Intent
- Current Rankings
- LSI Keywords
- Competitive Landscape
- And More
We will incorporate keywords into your pages through using primary target keywords, related keywords, long tail, and questions on elements, like title tags, meta descriptions, anchor text, body content, urls, headings, and image alt text.
However, we go much deeper into keyword research than most SEO providers. We also look at how successfully queries are when evaluating search terms. For example, do those terms have high click through rates, or are people searching specific terms and becoming unsatisfied with the results? If that is the case, we need to evaluate the terms we target because the searcher intent may be different than we believe. For each target term we try to understand truly what the user is looking for and why. That helps us determine the tone and true purpose pages should serve.
On-Page Content Optimization
It takes more than being well written to rank a page or article. Not only does your content need to provide an enjoyable experience to users, it must reach the right audience to deliver on its true purpose. Our team will identify how to reach that audience through comprehensive research.
After finding the desired target terms and understanding the user intent, our highly-skilled writers coordinate with our SEO Experts to develop relevant high-quality content that will capture the right intent.
Our team will optimize your headings, subheadings, body content, and anchor text for:
|
|
Title Tag Optimization
Title tags help search engines understand what your page is about and are the first impression of your page in search results, or when shared on social media. Query terms are actually highlighted in search results, so it is important to use your target keywords in your title tags.
Our team will optimize the format and length of your title tags, include primary and secondary keywords, and ensure your site does not have any duplicate title tags or is missing any.
Meta Description Optimization
While meta description are not necessarily a ranking factor, a good meta description can improve your click through rate of your page.
Our team will ensure your meta descriptions are compelling, of appropriate length, include relevant keywords and phrases, and are unique.
There are some scenarios where you do not need to set a specific meta description, but we will go over this strategy with you on a one-on-one basis.
It is important to note that search engines do not always utilize the description you provide, and can pull information from your page in order to match what they think would be most relevant for the query used.
Image SEO
Our team will ensure your images are fully optimized for search and your target keywords. We will optimize the following;
- Image File Name
- Image Format; JPEG, PNG, SVG, WebP, And More
- Image Title
- Image Compression
- Image Size
- Alt Text
- Captions And Descriptions
- Image XML Sitemap
Schema Markup
Schema Markup is code built within the site itself that helps search engines; (not just Google) return even more relevant search results to an end user based on the keywords & products they search for within their queries. The best example of Schema is the rich snippets section of Google, which makes up more than one-third of all Google search results.
Schema Markup explains to search engines what your data means. If your title tag is the headline, then your Schema is the story itself. Content on your site gets indexed by Google spiders and contributes to your overall page authority. That is just one side of the equation. Having Schema interprets that data to better understand what it’s saying.
Here is an example directly from the source, Schema.org:
Usually, HTML tags tell the browser how to display the information included in the tag. For example,
Avatar
” tells the browser to display the text string “Avatar” in a heading 1 format. However, the HTML tag doesn’t give any information about what that text string means — “Avatar” could refer to the hugely successful 3D movie, or it could refer to a type of profile picture—and this can make it more difficult for search engines to intelligently display relevant content to a user.Schema markup uses a unique semantic vocabulary in microdata format. There are many different kinds of markup types, these could be the different colors of shirt in an online store, or it could be the different days of the month on a hotel reservation page. Schema Markup is most closely associated with itemscope & itemtype code formats.
The upshot of using Schema: Websites with it, rank better than sites that don’t.
XML Sitemaps, Robots.txt, Meta Robots Tag, X-Robots-Tag, And More
All of these files and tags, if not cross checked can make your efforts wasted. While your sitemap tells search engines what part of your site you want indexed, your robots.txt file gives search engine bots permission (or not) to crawl certain pages or sections of your site. As we mentioned above, your robots.txt file is the first thing a crawler looks for, so we also point out our sitemap file (or index) in our robots.txt file.
However, there are also meta robots tags that can be used on individual pages to give different commands related to crawling and indexing. Lastly, exists the X-Robots-Tag which also allows your provide commands on crawling and indexing certain pages, but it grants the ability to command this for specific elements on a page too.
With all of the places to give commands sometimes they can contradict each other which can cause poor results.
Our team will optimize your robots.txt files and sitemap.xml while ensuring none of your robots commands are blocking any pages or elements you do want crawled and/or indexed.
We will also verify proper canonical tag placement and that you have separate video and image XML sitemaps.
Site Structure, Internal Linking & URL Structure
Your site’s structure absolutely affects your SEO. Site structure should not be confused with web design, it has to do with how your pages link together more than just how your site looks.
It is best practice to have all of your pages within 3 clicks of each other. Having minimal layers of organization and good internal linking can help improve how fast search engines can crawl your site, and help users easily navigate your pages.
Our team will analyze your site to help ensure a balanced structure and organization so that your site has good crawlability. We will optimize the number of layers or categories on your site and the pages that fit under them and will implement an internal linking strategy using breadcrumbs, contextual links, and site navigation. Our team will help audit any pre-existing linking for errors such as broken links, unnecessary redirects, or improper use of link attributions.
An element of site structure is your URL structure. Pages ranking in the top 100 have an average of 38 characters in the URL. By developing an optimal site structure, it will set your site up for efficient URLs. We want to optimize keywords or phrases in URLS where appropriate in addition to keeping them as short as possible. URLs that contain keywords have higher click-through rates than those that do not.
Site Speed & Mobile-Friendliness
Our team will run audits to ensure your site is responsive and mobile-friendly for mobile-first indexing. We also know that site speed is important. Through our audits we will analyze the elements of your pages and site that are causing any loading concerns. For on-page optimizations the largest culprits are images and excessive html.
Our team will address these issues and help you analyze further areas for development and optimization.
Site Errors & Issues
Through our site audits we will identify and address any errors and issues we find on your site. Specifically relate to on-site optimization our team will optimize for the following errors and issues;
- Broken Internal & External Links
- Internal Links With Nofollow Attribute
- Redirect Issues
- Pages Couldn’t Be Crawled
- Broken Internal & External Images
- Duplicate Content Issues
- Duplicate Or Missing Meta Descriptions
- Duplicate Or Missing Title Tags
- Format Errors In Robtos.txt File
- Format Errors In Sitemap.xml File
- Incorrect Pages Found In Sitemap.xml
- Page Status Code Issues
- Non-Secure Pages
- Mixed Content
- Broken, Missing, or Multiple Canonical Links/ URLs
- Pages With Too Many Links
- Low Word Count
- Pages With Slow Load Speed
- And More
Having any of these on your site can significantly impact your SEO and user experience.
Technical Aspects Of On-Site SEO
What Is Schema And Does It Matter For SEO?
Schema Markup explains to search engines what your data means. This is code built within the site itself that helps search engines return even more relevant search results. The best example of Schema is the rich snippets section of Google, which makes up more than one-third of all Google search results.
Why Is Image Optimization Important?
Image optimization makes yours site faster, improves user experience, can improve your rankings, and increase your site traffic.
If your images are not the right format, size, or are not compressed, they can take forever to load on your page. Page speed is a ranking factor for Google, and if your site is taking forever you will not perform well in rankings. Also, users do not like waiting on a page load, or have the page bounce around trying to load pictures while they are in the middle of reading your content.
Many elements of images can be optimized to improve your site speed and SEO. Utilizing keywords and phrases in your image file names and alt text can help you rank in image results for those terms. With increased relevancy from these optimizations your page may increase in rankings as well. Increased rankings lead to more web traffic and more conversions.
How Does Site Speed Affect SEO?
As we know, Google is trying to provide the best experience for its users and they have done a lot of research to understand user behavior as it relates to site performance. In fact, Google has reported that 53% of users abandon a page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Google has taken this research into account in determining its algorithms for listing relevant, reliable, and enjoyable search results. Page Speed is a ranking factor and therefore directly affects SEO performance. If site speed can be decreased odds of ranking higher can be increased.
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