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Search engine optimization belongs to the online marketing fields that are subject to constant change, which means that webmasters need continuous training if they want to sustainably gain target group-relevant traffic through organic search. As this training usually takes a lot of time, there is a growing demand for practical SEO Onpage instructions on how to achieve top rankings with limited SEO know-how. In this article website owners will find helpful tips and impulses on how they should build their new content so that search engines will rank it higher in the search results for the chosen keywords in the future.
Perform Comprehensive Keyword Research
Just because sites rank for a term at the top of the search results does not mean that this term can also generate a lot of traffic relevant to the target group. Before a new site is created with which traffic or potential customers are to be generated in the future, it is important that a comprehensive keyword search is carried out in which the terms (keywords or search queries) are determined that deal with a specific need and which are also frequently searched for. This keyword research can be carried out either with the help of the Google Keyword Planner, or e.g. also with the XOVI Online Marketing Suite. XOVI offers its users a practical keyword search tool with many combinable filters, with which the keyword search is particularly easy and fast. At the end of the keyword search 1-2 terms should be defined to which the new document should be optimized.
Note Important Meta Data such as Titles and Descriptions
The title and description are among the most important SEO Onpage factors, so it is essential that website operators take them into account when optimizing their site. These meta data should not only contain the relevant keywords, it should also be positioned as far at the beginning as possible, so that the search engine can recognize even more easily which search term this site is to be used for in the search in the future.
Titles and descriptions should:
- Contain the relevant keyword (if possible at the beginning)
- Arouse the reader’s curiosity
- Describe the content of the document in the best possible way
Detailed, Helpful and Thematically Relevant Content
Two questions that many webmasters and homepage operators still have to deal with are: “How high should the keyword density be in my text” and “How detailed must the text be, so that it can achieve good results in the search engine results also in the future”.
The word “keyword density” is an outdated strategy with regard to SEO text optimization of a site, since the focus (with regard to the ratio of keywords to text volume) is only on a single page and not on the similarly relevant domains of the entire search engine index. Webmasters who want to optimize their new document with the help of text ratios should deal in more detail with the topic “WDF*IDF”, since this formula has replaced the focus on keyword density. By the way, a WDF*IDF tool is integrated in the Online Marketing Suite XOVI, with which texts can be further optimized.
In order for the search engine to be able to rank your site for a desired keyword at the top positions in the search results in the future, it is important that the search engine can recognize which thematic focus the site has. For this reason, it is essential that the keyword (to which you want to optimize) appears more frequently in the text than other (thematically similar) words. Both the search engine and the readers must be able to recognize a clear thematic focus.
However, not only text relationships play an important role in the interpretation of a document by the search engine, but also thematic context, text volume and the use of different types of content. Webmasters should therefore make sure that their text not only focuses on the selected keyword, but also uses different variations of it, such as singular/plural, declensions and conjugations, as well as synonyms. In addition, words should be used to help classify the keyword thematically.
An illustrative example:
Assuming the new site is to be optimized for the keyword “bench”, thematically complementary words should be used to help create context within the new content. It could be a park bench, a garden bench. If it is to be a garden bench, words such as “grass“, “garden“, “flowers“, “sit“, “bench for the garden“, or even “seat cushion” should be used within the text.
In order for the search engine to consider new content for a self-selected search term (keyword) to be particularly relevant, webmasters should also focus on comprehensive and high-quality content. There are correlations that “instructive” documents (such as guide content) that are particularly detailed (e.g. have over 2,000 words) and have several types of content (videos, images, tables, quotes, headings…) perform better in the search results than short and “light” content. So that both your own readers and the search engine can benefit even better from the very comprehensive content, helpful headings should be chosen that:
- Contain the relevant keywords
- Summarize the content of the next paragraph in the best possible way
- Arouse the reader’s curiosity
- As short and descriptive as possible
It is also important that:
- Only one H1 heading is used
- H2, H3, H4 headings can be used several times
For very thorough content, it is also advisable to provide your own readers with a practical table of contents at the beginning of the document, in which the various headings (topics) are linked with the help of jump labels, so that your target group can reach the desired content even faster and whose needs can be satisfied even faster as well. In addition, these hyperlinks are now also displayed directly in the search results, so that SEO efforts can also benefit from this measure.
Before creating a new site, successful webmasters ask themselves why both readers and the search engine should prefer it over all other sites in the search engine index. What makes your content so valuable in terms of quality that it is even more valuable than any other content available on the subject?
Using URL Structure Potentials
Webmasters should make the best use of the SEO Onpage factors over which they have a direct influence to increase the relevance of their document in relation to the keyword of their choice from the search engine’s point of view. An important factor in SEO Onpage optimization is: “URL structure”. When creating new content, it is particularly important to use meaningful URLs that contain the most important keywords. You should also make sure that the URLs are as short as possible, that a trail slash is used at the end of the URL, and that hyphens are used instead of underscores to separate words. In order for the document to achieve really good positions in the search results, it should be positioned as close to the front page as possible, so that important backlink juice can flow onto this document more easily and the search engine crawlers can reach it even faster.
URLs should be structured as follows:
Wrong: https://www.anexample1.com/?p=123
Correct: https://www.anexample1.com/keyword/
If there are several thematically very different categories, the site should be assigned to the corresponding category.
For example: https://www.anexamplel1.com/kategorie1/keyword/
Use the Power of Internal Linking
Internal Linking is one of the most important SEO factors, however, many website operators often neglect it or pay too little attention to it. Via the internal linking, important backlink juice is distributed to relevant subpages, search engine crawlers reach new pages through these. With the help of the anchor texts important signals can be given to the search engine in relation to with which keywords the linked content should be found in the search results. Additionally, the entire website architecture is defined and prioritized by the anchor texts.
Successful webmasters therefore link new sites internally as follows:
- The new site is linked internally exclusively with the corresponding keyword (keyword focus in the Anchor text area)
- Thematically matching subpages link to the newly created document
- In the best case sub-pages are internally linked and already have important backlinks so that the link juice can flow to the new site
- Internally, the attribute “Follow” is usually always linked
- The new site should usually be included in the sitemap submitted to the Google Search Console
Other Important SEO Onpage Factors
Since many SEO Onpage factors influence the SEO success of a site, webmasters will find a practical summary of the factors that should also be considered right here:
Use of https
SSL not only gives your target group a feeling of security, but SSL has also become a ranking factor in SEO. There are correlations that content from websites that use https perform better in search results.
Alt tags
If the new content is enriched with images, then these should also be optimized for SEO so that traffic from relevant target groups can also be generated. Images should be tagged with descriptive alt tags and have a descriptive file name so that the search engine can interpret the content of the images even more easily.
Structured data
Structured data can be used to make it easier for the search engine to understand and evaluate the content of a document. These markers provide the search engine with helpful additional information that makes it much easier for it to classify the content thematically.
Another advantage of using structured data is that these rich snippets (e.g. the star ratings in the search results) are possible. These star ratings can draw the attention of users to their own search results, so that the click rates will improve considerably in some cases.
The following topics, among others, can be showcased: Recipes, People, Products, Company, Music, Events.
Load times
Loading times not only have a considerable influence on conversion rates and user satisfaction, but also on the search engine rankings of the site. If the loading time of a site is very long, it is more difficult for search engine crawlers to crawl and interpret the content, which can have a negative effect on the search engine rankings. Webmasters should therefore make sure that loading times are as short as possible. A reduction of the loading times can be achieved by the following settings, among others:
- Using a CSS stylesheet
- Reduction of JavaScript
- File compression with gzip
- Use CSS sprites
- Avoid forwarding chains
- Use browser caching
Conclusion
Webmasters who want to perform optimally in the search engines with their internet presence should always make sure that their content represent an enrichment for the search engine index. Not only does the own target group attach great importance to high-quality content, but also the search engine has considerably increased the demands for quality. Webmasters who are mindful and implement the SEO factors presented above will be rewarded by the search engine for their work.
