If you’re looking to amp up your website and gain more visibility on search engines, there are things you can do to up your game. Check out this list of some SEO tips and tricks to help you rank higher on the SERP.
Title Tags
As I’m sure you can imagine, a title tag is the part of the HTML that identifies the title of the page. On the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) it’ll appear as the headline for each result. In terms of social sharing and usability, title tags are imperative. Without them, the search engine will have a difficult time understanding what your page is about, and that could cost you.
So what exactly is a ‘good’ title tag? Well, starting with the basics, the length of your title tag should be between 50 to 60 characters, with your most important keywords at the beginning. There is no exact limit because characters vary in size, but Google’s display titles max out at 600 pixels. Be careful about using titles in all caps because this can sometimes limit the number of title tag characters that Google allows you to display.
Keyword stuffing (which results in bad user experience) can run your website into the ground. Some people try to outsmart the search engines by adding different variations of the same keyword, but search engines understand keyword variants, and this will get you docked as well. Unless each and every page on your website has a unique title tag, Google will consider it as duplicated content.
A good example of a title tag would be Commercial Roofing in Denver, CO | Exterior Experts.
Always be writing for the audience you wish to convert. The title tag will be the first impression the user will have of your brand and it’s your job to attract clicks by showing how valuable your content is to them.
H1 Tags
H1 tags are considered as “second title tags” and are the item on the page that holds the most weight. Considered by Google to be a second relevancy signal, the H1 on each of your web pages should be distinct.
Here is an example of a clear and concise H1 from Exterior Experts’ Residential Roofing page.
Please keep in mind that, although Google states that you can use as many H1s as you like, research shows that they still put a lot of emphasis on the first H1. Finally, to give yourself as much power as possible, we recommend using a core keyword within the H1 to help structure your page and provide information about the topic of the page.
On-Page Content
The content on your website should supply the right information to the right audience, using targeted keywords. To do so, you have to start by identifying what you think your audience needs and then consider personal habits, preferences, demographics, and statistics. Your relevant keywords should be related to your expertise, products and services, and the audience’s search intent.
If you’re having trouble coming up with topics for on-page content, identify what it is exactly that your audience demands to learn from you. Once you have that and start writing your content, keep these things in mind. Your content should be readable because this can affect user behavior signals, such as time on page, which can impact rankings. This means that, if your content proves difficult to comprehend, your visitors are likely to click away from the current page.
Just make sure that you keep clarity, organization, simplicity, and logic in mind when composing content for your website. The easier it is to understand to a wider audience, the longer users will stay on your page, which equates to better rankings.
URLs
Last on our list is the URL. Unbeknownst to many people, URLs are actually a very important aspect of SEO, because they reflect the category hierarchy of the website. If you want to create an SEO-friendly URL, follow these tips:
- A URL should be simple and accurate, but still creative. Don’t be vague and don’t overdo it. Find a happy medium.
- Try not to include any numbers. If you need to clearly separate words, you can use dashes.
- A person should be able to have an idea of what your website is about just by reading your URL. It should be an accurate representation of what your website is about.
- Steer clear from uppercase letters. Using them can confuse the search engine and may even cause multiple duplicate pages.
- For example, myexteriorexperts.com/Blog and myexteriorexperts.com/blog might be seen as two distinct URLs, which might create issues with duplicate content.
SEO requires putting in a lot of time and effort but once you start seeing results, it makes you want to try harder. If you follow these tips, you can give your website a fair chance to get to the top of the SERP. Good luck!
Author Bio – Elena Goodson
I am a social media manager and content creator at New Dimension Marketing and Research.
Outside of work, I also am a stand-up comedian and run my own website, Slow Boat Library. I speak five languages (English, French, German, Italian, and Arabic) and studied marketing, communications, and journalism in more than six countries in Europe and the Middle East.
