What is on-site SEO? And what is the ‘SEO Triad’?
The SEO triad is essentially the three main pillars of SEO. The success of any SEO strategy hinges on the cohesive efforts of these three disciplines. Behind the scenes, on-page, off-site, and technical SEO work to maintain or improve your site’s rankings.
With this series of blogs, we delve further into the three segments of the SEO triad. This week, we’re focusing on on-site SEO. If you’re new to SEO or need a refresher on what is on-site SEO, then this blog can essentially be your crash course!
What Is On-Site SEO?
Anyone who is new to SEO is probably most familiar with on-page SEO. It is where we usually start with training at GrowTraffic, as it is usually the easiest to grasp. Once you understand on-page SEO, the rest- somewhat- falls into place.
On-site SEO is also probably the most time-consuming SEO discipline, as it is so content-heavy.
Content
While our job is mostly kneeling to the lord that is Google, there is another- arguably more important- entity we must consider. Site visitors, content readers, potential customers… Whatever your name for them may be, they are our ultimate focus. And Google wants it to be that way too!
Post the Helpful Content Update, on-page SEO has been heavily focused on producing content that adds value to readers. Google became wise to unethical SEO tactics, which had auto-generated content reaching the no.1 spot on SERPs. They revised their algorithm to prioritise original, well-researched, and (you guessed it…) helpful content.
And it works for us website owners too. The better content is, a user is more likely to spend time on that webpage, and in turn, is more likely to convert. While it is ambiguous about whether time spent on a webpage is a ranking factor (thanks to Google’s cryptic wording), it certainly helps with engagement.
Keyword Optimisation
Keyword strategy involves uncovering possible search queries used by your target audience. The more popular a keyword is, the greater the competition and the more difficult it will be to rank.
If you consider the basic mechanics of a search engine, you enter a search query and then are given results that *should* answer that query. The best or profoundly more popular results will appear at the top of the page. How does a search engine query to content pages? The most obvious way is through keywords.
For example, if you searched ‘What Is On-Site SEO?’, and this blog appeared with a matching title, it’s likely that here lies the answer to that query.
If you’d like to read up more on the different types of keywords, read our blog Explaining The GrowTraffic Keyword Pyramid.
User Experience
One thing modern society is not short of is options. And we’ve become far too accustomed to having things on demand. And this isn’t just my opinion – read Forbes’ article Impatience Is A Virtue: How The On-Demand Economy Is Making Mobile Consumers Impatient. The internet has given us a scary amount of access.
With that in mind, if you go onto a website that takes too long to load, patience tends to run out rather quickly. Knowing you can likely get the answer you’re looking for somewhere else, we move on. For the slow-loading website, this impacts their bounce rate.
On-page, or on-site, SEO is concerned with improving the user experience so that visitors actively want to stay on-site once they’re there. So yes, that’s a quick loading speed, but also it relates to simple site navigation, accessible information, web page layout, and more. For more on this, check out our previous post on How To Keep Visitors On Site For Longer And Why It Matters.
What Is On-Site SEO? Crash Course
- Title Tags- Primary keyword placed near the beginning, within the character limit, the long-tail keyword (exact search query) (see blog ‘Should You Include Your Target Keyword In The First Paragraph?’ for more information on this.
- Meta Descriptions- Include target keyword, captivating, clearly representing the content, within the character limit, and concise summary of the web page.
- URL structure- Include the target keyword, usually the meta title, and consider shareability
- H Tags- H1 Tags should include keywords, keyword variations should be included in H2 & H3, used as subheadings to break up content
- Image Optimisation- Fast loading speed, clear image, high resolution, break up any blocky text, include the keyword in the image alt text, clear descriptive image names (no repeats).
- Internal Linking- Links embedded in text, improve site navigation and guide search engine crawlers- using keyword-rich anchor text.
- Mobile-Friendliness- Web pages easily adjust for mobile users, responsive to different screen sizes and orientations.
- Security- HTTPS in URL, trust signals like about us pages, meet the team, sponsors and certificates in the footer.
- And more…
On-Site SEO Optimisation By GrowTraffic
We hope you enjoyed this first instalment of the SEO triad series, and this blog has clarified for you what is on-site SEO.
At GrowTraffic, we specialise in all areas of the SEO. When it comes to on-site SEO, we cover all grounds, from the more technical stuff to producing content with the intent of converting visitors.
Unlike other SEO agencies, we let you set your own budget. You tell us what you’re willing to invest and we’ll find a way to work within that. This is no matter the size of your business (or your digital marketing budget), we can help in some way!
If you’re not looking to outsource your digital marketing responsibilities but would like to improve your on-site optimisation and content writing skills, we can help with that too! Why not have a look at our training courses?
If you would like to know more about on-site SEO or how GrowTraffic could help grow your business, please contact us today.