Managing An On-Page SEO Campaign for Websites

  SEO Introduction

For a website to be visible on the SERPs it needs to rank high for chosen keywords. The keyword list is long comprising primary, secondary, and long-tail phrases and terms. To rank high, one needs to optimize the website as per the search engine guidelines. This optimization is known as search engine optimization or SEO for short.

SEO 1st Phase

In the first phase, the webmaster analyzes the site and carries out an audit. The analysis and audit are a must to ascertain the topic and the intent of the website. This is helpful in keyword research and making a list of terms that the website is meant to target.  After analysis, the SEO webmaster makes a list of keywords in an XL Sheet. This helps the webmaster target the terms during On-Page and Off-page optimization. The keyword list should be sent to the client as well to showcase the direction the website will move in its upward trajectory.

Site Audit

Site Audit is necessary to ascertain faults like a slow download or make out its performance metrics like the web core vitals, and queries being sent to the server. The latter is important since too many queries are being sent to the server the response will slow down and increase the bounce rate.   Another factor that is of utmost importance now is whether the site is mobile-friendly or not.   Since more than sixty percent of search is carried out on the SERPs the website must perform well on smartphone and other handheld devices. If there are technical issues the audit tools like ahref, Screaming Frog, and SEMRUSH will inform the webmaster so that corrective action can be taken. Involve programmers and technical people to help with technical rectification.

Google Search Console & Analytic

For constant monitoring, webmasters should use the Search Console after verifying the site. A lot of issues like site performance, and the problem with the indexing can be ascertained from the search console. Linking Google Analytics with the console offers greater insight into the site's performance and keyword response. 

Duplicate Content Checker   

Duplicate content on a website will prevent high ranking or even be penalized as the search engine will ignore it. Hence all the content on the site should be unique and well-written. For duplicate content you can use Copyscape and Siteliner are useful but there are many such tools available on the Net. For checking grammar, you can use Grammarly.  

Writing Content

Content should be written naturally and not artificially for search engines. The content must comprise keywords placed naturally and not artificially inserted. Semantic terms should also be present in the writeups. All pages including the home page and inner pages should be built on relevant topics and all should be unique. Remember SEO perfection is achieved by relevancy and uniqueness. Pages with similar content are often created in eCommerce sites but then judicious use of canonical should be made. A canonical tag is very helpful to prevent search engines from indexing similar pages. The canonical tag points to the main page and similar pages are spared from indexing. This is very helpful in escaping duplicate content penalties.

Title & Meta      

The title is the most important, and it shows above the site address and meta. Search engines use the title to accurately determine its topic and index the website accordingly.  The title tag should thus describe the page accurately and should contain key terms naturally.

Meta descriptions and keywords were once a powerful SEO tool for ranking high. In the early stages when algorithms were evolving many webmasters started to spam the description and keyword tags and thus the search engines reduced their importance. The description is now used as a source of information for visitors. Since the SERPs' description is visible, it should end with a contact number.

Scrutinise On-Page Elements

Check all on-page elements including graphics, photos, videos, and infographics. They should be stable well defined and working perfectly.  Check if the site architecture is well defined and the visitor can reach important information with one click. Add XML and HTML Maps on the site on every page. Add metadata on the home page and important inner pages for the search engines to understand the site better.   Do not make the visitors scroll down too much rather create another page. 

Site owners should hire a professional SEO Company for promoting their site. They can also hire freelance webmasters with a good record. Search engine optimization requires experience and expertise and is not a DIY thing.