How can I improve my websites onsite SEO?

 

Introduction

So many digital marketing agencies frequently discuss complicated things that a business can do to improve their seo, such as building high-quality backlinks.

Yet, what some marketing agencies forget to talk about is the real SEO basics, such as onsite seo.

With onsite seo you can often make quick improvements to a website, yet as always, we only recommend that you use white hat methods. If you are in doubt about how to implement seo then we would also strongly recommend talking to an white hat seo company first.

So, here’s some of the ways onsite seo can be used to improve a website:

Think of your customers as the number one priority

So many businesses, and agencies for that matter fall into the trap of just implementing SEO with the sole focus of trying to improve where the business ranks.

Well, you may now be thinking well, that’s the whole point, no?

Well, not really, as the really good agencies focus on helping their customers first and foremost.

 

So, what do we mean by this?

Well, it may well be easy to write loads of text, which includes loads of keywords that you would like your business to rank for within the text. Then you may put a load of internal links on the page also, and then optimise the anchor text with the same keywords, yet this is an example of really rubbish and outdated seo.

It just focuses on seo and not offering a good user experience.

So, let’s think of an example to illustrate the point here, imagine you have a DIY problem, and you have a tap in your kitchen that’s leaking.

This is aggravating you, so you look on Google how to fix a leaking tap. Now let’s say you find one business, you read the text on that website yet it makes no sense at all, it just keeps stating the words “emergency plumber” over and over again.

You think that’s useless, so you quickly leave that website.

Then you find another website, this website offers really good advice, it walks you through the entire process, it even has an embedded YouTube video which has a plumber explaining what to do when fixing the tap.

Now, which website do think has better SEO?

Well this is a no brainer to us, as it’s the second website, the one that offers good advice.

The first website uses really old seo methods, which are most likely going to result in the reader being annoyed that you’ve wasted their time.

This will result in a higher bounce rate for that website, so this could damage the businesses seo efforts if the entire website also has a high bounce rate.

Then this website is likely to have very low time on site figures as well, meaning the reader may only read the website for a few mere seconds, that’s before deciding to leave.

This is not good for the businesses seo neither.

Yet the second business, the one that has good seo is helping someone to solve a problem, and because of this the bounce rate is likely to be very low, and also the time on site figure is likely to be very high, perhaps over 7 minutes because that’s how long the YouTube video lasts explaining how to fix the tap.

So, before we start suggesting ways that you can improve your businesses onsite seo, we thought it was a really good idea to mention that helping your customers must come first, then seo second.

Meta title’s and meta descriptions

Okay, so let’s say now someone is looking for a divorce solicitor on Google, and they are presented with 10 organic links to click on.

Which businesses do you think will be selected? The ones which write a meta title and meta description that just has keywords all crammed into the sentence, or the meta title and meta description which instantly makes it obvious that the business offers what the customer is looking for.

Now, if you haven’t got a clue what a meta title, or a meta description is, well these are the descriptions of what that page can offer, and these appear in the search results.

So, an example of poor seo would be a meta title that simply reads:

Meta title: Divorce solicitors, divorce lawyers, family lawyers.

This is really poor seo, that’s because it is just a blatant attempt to try and cram in as many phrases as possible that the business wishes to rank for.

As on the other hand if you write a meta title that reads as follows:

We are experienced family lawyers, if your going through a divorce we can offer family mediation

Now this is much more compelling, as it talks to the person like a human, rather than just listing a load of keywords that the business wants to rank for.

H1 to H6 tags

You can use these to split up a large block of writing, plus they also tell the search engines that the title is a heading tag.

You can normally select header tags from H1, through to H6.

However, the same rules apply, don’t try and cram the heading tags with keywords you want the website to rank for.

Instead help a reader of that page to skim-read and find a title that answers their question.

For example, you may title one heading tag “mediation”- this way someone skim reading wanting to find out information about mediation can jump to that part of the page that answers their question.

Internal backlinks

Most websites have a lot of information, and in a blog post you may not be able to explain everything all at once.

So, for example, you may well be writing a blog post about how to start the divorce process, and you may recommend different ways to cope when going through a divorce.

Then you may remember that you have previously written a whole blog post on that subject, that offers advice on how to cope during a divorce, so you may use an internal link to offer the reader to also read that page as well.

Does your business require help with its SEO?

If your business requires further help with its seo then why not call us?