Search engine optimization, SEO, remains the most crucial digital marketing instrument to use today. We are so used to turning to search engines whenever we need information and taking our internet user journey from there that over 60% of today’s website visitors come from search engines. Not incorporating SEO into your digital marketing strategy is a mistake.
SEO is not without its challenges. Now that more sites are taking SEO seriously, you have to be one or two steps ahead of the competition to really stand out. There are many things you can do to improve your site’s SEO performance. In this article, we are going to focus more on the on-page SEO tactics you need to get right.
H1 & H2
The title of the page as well as the titles (headings and subheadings) you add to it are equally important. It is the first element that search engine crawlers review when visiting your site. Failure to add a relevant and meaningful title will only hurt your SEO performance.
The main title of the page needs to start with a keyword or a variation of your main keyword. In the case of this article, I used “On-Page SEO” to let the crawlers know that this page is going to talk about on-page SEO optimization. I also added “2018” as an identifier to get the page ranking better.
The meta title is only the beginning. You also need to add a title and subheadings using <h1> and <h2> tags. Crawlers rank these titles based on the way they are displayed. What you want to avoid is making the mistake of using <span> to differentiate your title and subheadings; <h1> and <h2> are the tags to use.
Mobile-First
Google and other search engines now prefer mobile-friendly or mobile-first sites when ranking sites in search results, which is why you need to be extra certain that the page is fully responsive. Not having a mobile-friendly site is not an option in 2018.
In fact, you want to go with the mobile-first route. This approach focuses on optimizing the site for a better mobile user experience through tactics like removing big images or replacing them with their respective mobile versions.
Local Phrases
Lastly, you need to optimize the content of the page itself. This is where having good knowledge about your target audience comes in handy. What you want to do is use phrases and keywords that the target audience use often when searching for information.
The content of the page matters too. A product page designed for customers in a specific location, for instance, require different handling than an article page that everyone finds valuable. Adding local insights and small touches of personalized phrases will really boost your SEO performance.
The same approach is being used by the best SEO companies around the world. Boston SEO companies and the SEO experts behind them know exactly how the people in Boston pick their words and use them. This insight is invaluable, especially in the competitive SEO landscape of today. Combined with the previous tips, the right choice of words and phrases alone can boost SEO performance by a whopping 50%.
