On-Page SEO - What is it and How Does it Work?

On-page SEO is the practice of optimising individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic on the search engines. "On-page" refers to both the content and HTML source of a page that can be optimised, as opposed to "Off-Page SEO" which refers to links and other external signals that search engines use to rank your site. On-page SEO has changed over the years (and continues to do so), so it's important to keep up with the latest practices. 

Here we will try and give you some ideas of how StayTech already helps with On-Page SEO and how you can get involved to build your site's search reputation. We will cover:

1. Page Titles
2. Headings
3. Meta Data
4. Friendly URLs
5. Relevant, Engaging Content
6. Being Link-Worthy
7. Keywords (Primary & LSI)
8. Responsive Design
9. Outbound Links
10. Internal Links
11. Site Speed
12. Image Optimisation & Alt Tags
13. Social Signals
14. Content Length
15. Dwell Time

With all of the above it is important to remember that your customers will be searching on Google (other search engines are available!) for a specific search term. In their mind they are usually looking for something specific. 

In order to a) be seen in the results, b) have a high position and c) have a well worded listing you must always consider the way people think when searching and then incorporate this thinking into your On-Page optimisation. Too often people put the cart before the horse and write content for search engines without giving a thought to the fact that eventually a human being will be reading the content they have written.

1. Page Titles

Your title tag is the most important on-page SEO marker. Search engines place a high importance on title tags in general and specifically in the order of the keywords in the title - the most important first.

On StayTech page titles are automatically created for you. We have tried to make sure that we create the most relevant and search friendly titles that we can. We usually use the name of the page (which is also probably your H1 heading too) to build up a meaningful page title. However, in most cases, it is possible to override this. Think very carefully about overriding any meta data - This should only be done if you have a very clear understanding of how meta data works and what the current best practices are. It will also increase the amount of work you need to do as it means that you will need to maintain this going forward, instead of letting StayTech manage any changes for you.

Points to remember about your Page Title:

• Page titles should be descriptive and concise. Avoid vague descriptions like "Home" for your home page. Also avoid unnecessarily long titles, which are likely to get shortened anyway when they show up in the search results.
• Avoid keyword stuffing. It's sometimes helpful to have a few descriptive terms in the title, but there’s no reason to have the same words or phrases appear multiple times. A title like "Hottub, hot tub, hot-tub, tub, hot" doesn't help the user, and this kind of keyword stuffing can make your results look spammy to Google and to users.
• Avoid repeated titles. It’s important to have distinct, descriptive titles for each page on your site. Titling every page on a site "Cheap holiday cottage", for example, makes it impossible for users to distinguish how one page differs another.
• Brand your titles, but concisely. The title of your site’s home page is a reasonable place to include some additional information about your site—for instance, "StayTech Lettings - Holiday letting properties at affordable prices" But displaying that text in the title of every single page on your site hurts readability and will look particularly repetitive to search engines.

2. Headings

When you pick up a newspaper and just glance at the front page you can tell what each article is about just by looking at the headings.  You can even see which are the most important bits by comparing the size of each heading. Search engines work in exactly the same way by looking at the Heading Tags in your web page. StayTech makes sure that your page titles are in an H1 tag (the most important one) but any content that you have control of can contain headings. 

As you can see from the above, you can select your heading style from the drop-down on the content editor.

3. Meta Data

Meta elements are tags used in your web site's pages to provide structured metadata (data that is hidden from view but forms part of the page) about that page. On StayTech we use over 30 different Meta tags to help with the performance of your web site. But the ones that most people will have heard of are:

• Title - While technically not a meta tag, this tag is often used together with the "description". The contents of this tag are generally shown as the title in search results (and of course in the user's browser). As stated above StayTech attempts to create a meaningful Title for every page on your site but it can be overridden.
• Description - This tag provides a short description of the page. In some situations this description is used as a part of the snippet shown in the search results. StayTech will attempt to create a description that can be used as a meaningful snippet within the search results. As with the title this can be overridden.
• Keywords - Historically this tag played a major part in how search engines viewed and indexed pages. However only a few search engines still make use of it and Google has pretty much ignored it since 2009. We do allow customers to set their own keywords if they use the override tool.

The meta data can be overridden by clicking the "I wish to override the 'Meta Tags' for this Content Page" checkbox. This is usually found at the bottom of any of content page editors. Bear in mind that the meta data cannot be modified on every page.

4. Friendly URLs

Having a human readable URL is a fairly obvious benefit these days. Most search engines don't care what type of URL is used but from an advertising point of view having a URL that makes sense to a potential site visitor is crucial. Another thing to consider (and you may not have noticed before) is that every time you carry out a search on Google, the keywords in the search you made are all highlighted in bold on the results - So having keywords in the URL will help you win the click because of advertising psychology. Subtle but effective.

On StayTech all our pages use friendly, human readable URLs. On user created content pages it is possible to override the auto-created URL by checking the "I wish to override the 'Meta Tags' for this Content Page" checkbox. 

5. Relevant, Engaging Content

This topic is all down to you, the website owner. But essentially what this is about is making sure that when a visitor arrives on your site, they stay on your site. 

Quality content is the number one driver of your search engine rankings and there is no substitute for great content. Content created specifically for your intended user increases site traffic, which improves your site’s authority and relevance. Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site’s relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh.

Engaging images, videos and diagrams can reduce bounce rate and increase time on site, these are two critical user interaction ranking factors. 

StayTech allows you to edit every piece of content on your site, our video plugins and bespoke CMS are all aimed at allowing you to make the most of the content on your web site. 

6. Being Link-Worthy

First of all you need to understand why having a link worthy site is important. If you write unique, authoritative content then naturally people will link to it. If they do then not only might you benefit from visitors browsing their way onto your site from another, but more importantly the search engines will recognise that your site is becoming an authority that others link to. This will increase your chances of search engines like Google ranking you above your competition. 

So, a page in your blog entitled "The 10 Best Walks in the Mendips" for example, may end up doing the rounds on social media or shared via other walking websites etc. The idea is to create a buzz, get people sharing and talking about your content. Maybe you can carve out such a niche that you are viewed as the "go to place" for information. 

If you are passionate about a topic, know more about it than anyone else, and openly share information, then eventually people will notice and link to you. 

7. Keywords 

This one sounds obvious but take care, it is not as simple as you might think. Firstly, gone are the days of simply adding a keyword over and over in your text. A thin line separates optimisation and over-optimisation. Optimisation is good, as it will increase the page’s rankings, while over-optimisation is bad, as it can generate exactly the opposite results.

Think about what the purpose of the page is and what phrases are likely to be used when searching for it. Make sure these are your "key" words and phrases. Ensure that they are in your titles, headings and main content. Always make sure that the content you write is fit for humans to read - don't fixate on the "googlebot".

Remember too that Google will also use something called LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords to help rank your page content. LSI Keywords are essentially keywords related to the keyword that you search for on search engines such as Google. In a nutshell, they are keywords that are semantically linked to your main keyword. In practical terms, Google has confirmed that by using more LSI keywords, your page will typically rank better. So, if your main keywords for a page were "walking in the Cotswolds" then some LSI phrases could be:

• Cotswolds walking tours
• Cotswold walks near Cheltenham
• Cotswold way route planner
• Cotswold walking tours reviews
• Cotswold walking trails
• Cotswold walks with pubs
• Cotswold way map
• circular walks Cotswolds
• woodland walks near Cheltenham

8. Responsive Design

Google started penalising mobile unfriendly sites in 2015. They're likely to crack down even more in the future. We make all our StayTech sites responsive from the start, this means they look fantastic across desktop, tablet and mobile meaning customers can book your properties from the comfort of their sofa on the 'family iPad' or on their way back from work on their mobile phone on the train.

9. Outbound Links

Outbound link to related pages is a relevancy signal that helps Google figure out your page's topic. In studies pages with outbound links perform better in Google than those without. But be careful not to overload your pages with links just for the sake of a small boost in Google - remember that every outbound link is a potential reason for your customer to leave your site!

10. Internal Links

Internal Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) the same domain as the domain that the link exists on (source). In layman's terms, an internal link is one that points to another page on the same website. Internal linking has three main purposes:

1. Aids in website navigation
2. Defines the architecture and hierarchy of a website
3. Distributes page authority and ranking power throughout the site

The basic theory is this: Internal linking strengthens the overall search-optimised value of a website. Inner linking does so by providing clear paths for spiders, prolonged sessions for users, and a tight-knit network of pages and posts.

• Create lots of content - Obvious one really, lots of linked content for those web spiders to crawl.
• Use anchor text instead of image links - This will help Google to contextualise your content.
• Use links that are natural for the reader - Internal linking requires a user-focused approach to adding value and information. 
• Use relevant links - Don’t merely link for the sake of linking. Instead, link to content that is relevant to the source context.
• Only use a reasonable number of internal links - Google’s instructions are simple: “Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number.”

11. Page Speed

Page speed refers to the amount of time a page needs to be completely loaded. Page speed depends on many different factors, from host to design and can be optimised. In fact, load time does matter for both users and search engines. Users are less likely to stay on a website that takes ages to load and Google will certainly penalise your website for being too slow. Also, a fast website also converts better.

StayTech uses both the latest techniques and the best technology to ensure that our customer's pages load as fast as possible. We are continuing to invest in our infrastructure to help us stay ahead of the curve.

12. Image Optimisation & Alt Tags

With image search, just as with web search, Google's goal is to provide the best and most relevant search results to their users. Many people-for example, users with visual impairments, or people using screen readers or who have low-bandwidth connections—may not be able to see images on web pages. Descriptive alt text provides these users with important information.

• The alt attribute should be used to describe the image. So if you have an image of a big blue pineapple chair you should use the alt tag that best describes it, which is alt="big blue pineapple chair."
• The title attribute should be used when the image is a hyperlink to a specific page. The title attribute should contain information about what will happen when you click on the image. For example, if the image will get larger, it should read something like, title="View a larger version of the big blue pineapple chair image."

13. Social Signals

Social signals may not play a direct role in ranking your site, but social shares generate more eyeballs on your content - and the more people looking at your content, the more people are to link to it. A recent study demonstrated that sites with prominent social sharing links were 700% more likely to have its content shared.

StayTech facilitates this by allowing you to connect your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ & Pinterest accounts directly via the admin system. By linking these we will automatically create the relevant share/link buttons where needed.

14. Content Length

15. Dwell Time

Dwell time is simply a measure of how long people spend on your pages. The longer the better (in general) - too short and it will probably be considered a bounce by Google. If you apply all the above techniques you should be able to keep people engaged and interested in what you have to say.