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How much time are you spending in between writing an article and then clicking the publish button?
Do you verify whether the article is perfectly SEO optimized or not?
As a beginner, most bloggers are eagerly waiting to click on the publish button to increase the post count of their blogs. But in a hurry most of the time, they miss the basic on-page SEO techniques which help their article to become more optimized and search engine friendly to rank better on Google SERPs.
Due to excitement, most of the beginner bloggers miss out such simple & easy to follow on-page SEO checklist items before clicking the publish button of the article.
Before proceeding further, let me tell in very short what is on-page SEO techniques for beginners, with a simple example. Assume that you are preparing a blog post after doing some keyword research. I hope you are aware of keyword research techniques, if not you will learn about them further in this post.
Now when someone searches with the keywords, will your article appear in first 2-3 articles, so that user clicks on that?
You may find that there are thousands of similar articles on the topic.
Then how your article will beat them all and become number one?
The answer is, you have to optimize your article by following all key SEO checklists.
Every search engine is nothing but a program only which continuously scans various articles and measures them with different parameters and then accordingly ranks them. As a blogger, you should know, what are those parameters which actually impact search engine ranking positions and then change your article accordingly.
Now that doesn’t mean that if you follow all of them, you will achieve the first position in Google. Even if you achieve the first position, someone may write a better SEO optimized content to beat your ranking position. That means you have to make your article SEO optimized and time to time re-do this activity to optimize further to keep your ranking well. Another thing which you need to have is quality links to your blog but that I will be telling you about backlinks in some other post or you can check this post for the same “Search engine optimization techniques that worked for me.”
In this article, I will try to explain the very basic and easy to follow on-page SEO techniques which can increase the chance of ranking your article better on the Google SERPs. They are in fact the core on-page SEO techniques which will hardly take much time to apply; in fact, when you will be used to apply them you can apply all such basic on-page techniques while preparing your article itself.
Keyword research is the essential part of writing any content. Whenever you are writing an article, you should know which search queries or keywords you would like people to get your article. You may use Google Keyword Planner for getting a keyword for your post. So, the placement of keywords within the content is very crucial. Make sure you keep the main keyword in title, permalink, first paragraph, Meta description & in any of the tags (H2, H3, etc.).
When you are preparing your content on a specific keyword, you have to make sure that all the relateád searches of queries related to the main keyword are also included in the content to make the article more useful and informative. This will help your article to rank better, and readers may find it more useful. You can also check a tutorial for related search Terms.
I have noticed many beginners like to put every possible keyword term in the article SLUG or URL to improve the chance of ranking better. But the fact is, it will make things uglier. It is always better to make the URL short & to the point of the article. E.g. I kept the URL of this article as simple as “on-page SEO techniques.” So, just try to add only the keyword in the URL of your post, it will be a better method for ranking.
The title plays a huge role when we talk about ranking your content. Try to create a catchy title including the main keyword in it. If possible, put the main keyword at the beginning of the heading, but don’t force the keyword in the beginning just for the sake of ranking benefit. There are few WordPress plugins with which one can easily get catchy article title suggestions. Sometimes a page title becomes a query and becomes a reason for better ranking.
Although Google has changed their algorithm many times in last few years, the concept of Meta description still rules the SEO world. A proper and to the point Meta description will always give a better signal to the crawler to rank your article. So, make sure you provide a good and meaningful Meta description covering the main keywords naturally. There is a complete guide to Meta description which may prove helpful to you.
Gone are the days when a short article was able to rank better. But in 2016, search engines give priority to detailed & useful content which actually explain every aspect of a topic to the user. Make sure you write your blog post with enough detail and more than 600+ words. Although there is no such rule, a blog post with 1000+ words and more information about the topic will have better chance to get rank well compared to a shorter article is less information. It is because the content is still the important Part of SEO and will be for years. But in some cases, the length of the post can help you to get a good ranking to your post.
Interlinking blog post within your article is a very good way to build quality links to your old blog posts from your content itself. Try to link the same article with various long tail keyword rich anchor text to improve the SERP. Interlinking may help you in lowering your Bounce rate.
Providing Dofollow an external link to relevant and related content is a new SEO practice which has very good on-page SEO value. You might have noticed that I have provided a wiki page reference in this article itself to provide the user a good source of information, in case the user wants to know about that term. But if you are writing a review for any product then make sure you give only Nofollow links to the source. I will request you to read an explanatory guide about Nofollow and Dofollow links.
Finally, make sure you put an image relevant to your article while keeping all image optimization factors ticket. Put a description and alt tag covering the main keyword of the article. Make sure if you take any image from any online source you provide necessary credit to that. Otherwise, you can easily get free images from websites like Pixabay and Pixaocean easily.
Being a new blogger or New to, Then I recommend you to use essential WordPress plugins for it. Using a good SEO Plugin will surely be a Good Help. You can go for SEO by Yoast or All in One SEO plugin. There are some more SEO Plugins which will be a great Help.
Do you think that these 9 On-Page SEO tips are going to help your writing skill and improve your blogs search engine rank positions better?
I know there are many other factors which can be considered further for an experienced blogger, but as a beginner try to follow these on-page SEO techniques till you are not able to apply them automatically while writing your content itself.
So, for which keyword your blog is ranked first in Google?
If not did you check whether the content is SEO optimized considering all the key on-page SEO factors?
Share your experience & any query by writing a simple comment below to make this article more helpful for the readers.
Santanu is a passionate blogger & loves to write about Blogging Tips, Affiliate Marketing & Passive Income. He is the owner of my passive incometips.
Hi Shanthanu Really nice article about on page optimization techniques I Knew now many new things from your article. It will really help me to increase my SEO knowledge and practices.
Awesome tips regarding on-page SEO. Very informative article, as a beginner i learnt a lot from your post. Keep sharing your knowledge and research. Thank you.
Title and Description are very important but most of the Newbies do a mistake by writing long titles and description. Try to be in the limit because if you write more characters then Search engine will not index extra characters. Such As Google index around 56-60 characters(with space) in Title.
I must agree with you with this points. Especially include Keyword in H2, h3 tags.
Well done.
Thank u admin… nice post!
I do practice these tips for my new website
thank u amazing post!
Hey Santanu,
Great article about the on page seo. I just started seo a few months ago and found you article very informative. I was having trouble devoting my time between on page and off page. At first i thought off page was more important but know i feel like on page is. What do you think is more important, on-page or off-page?
Thanks,
Tom E.
Very good tips for putting together some sound SEO strategies, Santanu.
It’s important to get good quality content into our blog posts, but it will have a limited audience without getting some search engine exposure.
So, this is an important article, and I hope that new bloggers especially will take your advice here.
Thanks David for kind words. Ranking something #1 is very difficult. In case you have a magic keyword list, then it can be. But after writing a good SEO optimize content and increasing the off-page SEO factors one can achieve #1 position or first page ranking gradually.
Excellent post Santanu…
My posts are usually 500 words . So will be increse to 600 words. Thanks for sharing.
I think the best way to increase your content length is by reviewing them time to time and update with fresh information. This way you will find one day your content will cross even 1000+ words. 🙂
Hey Santanu,
Nice post. adding meta tags good? Do Bing and Yahoo still using meta tags for search engine ranking?
Yes Pravin, You can easily manage your meta tags across site using Yoast SEO Plugin.
Hey! Santanu Debnath, Special Thanks to you.
This is an another article about SEO, I’m reading here at TrickyEnough. You’ve done a great work for many other bloggers.
Hi Akshar, Thanks for your kind words. 🙂
Hi Santanu,
You have explained on page SEO so well. Glad you mentioned the alt tag. I used to always forget that, but lately got into a good habit with it. When everything is coordinated on page, SEO will work well, as long as it is not key word stuffed like the old days.
For me, I rely on plug ins. I get so confused to remember to do all this myself.
-Donna
Thanks Donna fr sharing your thoughts.
I think that’s why we all love WordPress. These plugins are just making our blogging life so simple & hassle free. I am also using yoast + easy wp seo to keep a check on on-page SEO factors accurate. 🙂
Hi Santanu,
Thank you for this informative article. I’m still new to SEO, so I found everything you wrote very helpful. Thank you!
Zaria
Thanks Zaria for finding my efforts useful.
Thanks for this, very helpful. I was told very early on in my blog life to get a good SEO plugin and have used one ever since. I do believe you should keep on top of new plug in developments though as some are superseded by better and more effective versions.
Enjoy the journey!
Hi Allen,
Great to see you sharing your blogging experience here. Could you please share which plug-in you are using and finding it very easy to handle SEO in 2016?
Hi Santanu,
Nice article, I must say one thing that, this post itself is a good example of on-page SEO. However, I want to add few things to your list is,
1. Always write an engaging article. Because no matter how much valuable the content is if it fails to engage audience all efforts go waste.
2. make seo friendly URL structure, that helps get more click when your post gets shared on social media without anchor text.
I know you have done those things in this post, but I want to let other people know this tips.
These are very useful points you have added Mohan. I think this will definitely make this article more useful for the readers. Thanks 🙂
Great tips on On Page SEO, very informative post.
It’s crucial to use on page SEO to help with your target market.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks EMI for finding this article useful.
On-site SEO is one of the most important factor to bring targeted traffic mainly for niche blogs.
Well this post was certainly interesting to me .. I have not been too good with SEO, but you have some very useful information that I look forward to implementing – thanks!
Thanks Lesly, I think you have just made my day. 🙂 As my effort is going to help you to learn something.
Actually these on-page sec factors are key to write good content for users as well as search engines. The more we incorporate them in our every day writing, the more our writing skill will be improved.
Hi Santanu,
I run an information portal and rank for many search queries, a large percentage of them, right at number 1 – and I must agree with this list of yours.
However, I must add two points:
1. Inclusion of rich media and
2. Writing shorter sentences in polished grammar.
With these two additions, believe me, the sky will be the starting point, especially if off page factors are also taken seriously.
Enjoy the day!
Always,
Akaahan Terungwa
Thanks Akaahan for adding more value this piece of content.
You are absolutely right. Inclusion of Videos, Info-graphic & writing grammatically 100% correct content will help to improve the readability of the content.