Mindset
People make the assumption that “ALL” SEO changes rapidly so what worked 15 years ago doesn't work now. That is true to a certain extent but there are still some basic fundamentals that Google and other search engines look for that hold true today.
Don't get caught up in the "ALL" SEO changes as that will keep you from moving forward.
So, we'll be focusing on the factors that haven't changed or changed only slightly in the last decade.
Quick Overview Video
#1: Introduction to On-Page SEO
#2: The Main Focus
#3: 5 Important factors
- URL Structure
- Body Text Structure
- Image Optimization
- Title Optimization
- Meta Optimization
#4: Top 2 WordPress Plugins
Introduction to On-Page SEO:
The Main Focus
Because On-Page SEO is such a broad term that covers a lot of areas of your website - both on the front end and the back end - the main focus of this course to help you make your front end WordPress site more SEO friendly. What that means is we'll focus specifically on how to make your overall WordPress site structure, posts, and pages search-engine friendly.
The goal is that when Google or another search engine robot comes to your site, they will know what your site is all about.
Too many people skip over this because it isn't exciting. They are too focused on external SEO, but the reality is that there are front end factors that you MUST do on all your sites.
Once you get into the habit of doing the following and implementing these 5 factors, you'll be ahead of most of your competitors.
To clarify what this isn't however...
We're not going to focus on back linking or any external marketing strategies.
5 Important factors
Before we jump into the 5 major factors that all your WordPress sites (or even non WordPress sites) should have, it's important to know a few things first.
You're going to need to have an idea of what general keyword you're going to want to rank on + a list of specific keywords that branch off of the main keyword.
Another big mistake many folks make is implementing these - without a clear plan of attack.
In fact, we have seen this with many websites.There is no clear plan and the website owner simply creates content in area (niche) with little or no traffic.
They're not ranking on any specific keyword and this is a lot of time wasted.
We're not going to focus on keyword research. We do recommend you check out Google's suggested keywords or even Amazon suggested keywords.
This is super easy. You can do this by going to Google.com for example, and typing in your general keyword.
You will notice when you do- Google will suggests keywords.
Now You know how to some basic keywords research, let's move onto 5 Important Factors.
#1 URL Structure:
This is what shows up in the address bar whenever you go to website.
This is something that has changed slightly in the last decade, but not drastically. Before we discuss what you should use in terms of a domain name and your URL structure, let's discuss WHY it's important.
When Google and other search engines try to figure out what your website is all about - they look at your website as a whole.
Part of that is what appears in the URL. A search engine friendly URL structure can help go a long way. Not only will it help search engines, but it will also help your human visitors understand what page is what.
That means that keywords still matter, but you have to be careful not to keyword-stuff your URLs.
By keyword-stuff, I mean - you're trying to put as many of the same keywords in the same area. Big no-no.
Domain Names
Now let's talk about domain names. So, what should you name your domain name? There's a big debate that using the keyword in the domain name will get you ranked higher.
Yeah, that was quite popular maybe 5 years ago. Something like this:- yourkeyword.com
That used to work and sometimes still does, so we can't say for sure if it doesn't work - but if you haven't noticed, Google really likes BRANDS.
That's because brands are here to stay. Something like this:- YourBrandName.com
Google is quite smart and has robots that know that people try to keyword-stuff or game the system in terms of domains.
We've had success with brand names so we lean towards that as that's a long-term view. But it's really up to you.
Using a brand name in the domain name can help you - especially preventing you from creating duplicate keywords in the URL structure.
The URL structure looks like this:- www.yourdomain.com/ category/your-page-name
So, let's say you're trying to rank on "red shoes"...
The problem with naming your domain redshoes.com is let's say you have the category 'red shoes' and a product called 'big red shoes'. It ends up looking like this -> www.redshoes.com/red-shoes/bigred-shoes
See how the keyword "red shoes" shows up three times in a row?
This isn't good as it looks like you're trying to game the system.
But let's say that your brand name is "Super Fast Feet" and the product name is 'big shoes'. I know it's not great, but hold on...
It would look like this :- www.superfastfeet.com/red-shoes/bigshoes
'Red shoes' only shows up once.
The word 'shoes' shows up twice, but that's okay.
You see what I mean here and why brands actually help you avoid keyword-stuffing?
Another tip is to make sure that your URL is no longer than 90 characters.
#2 Body Text Structure:
This contain both the written text you see on your post or pages. But there's more than just slapping a bunch of content for everyone to see.
What you write on your blog post and page should be first humannfriendly and secondly, search engine friendly.
'If you merely write for the search engines, you're going to have a low stick rate, and that will negatively impact you.
What I mean by this is, the longer someone stays in your website, the lower your bounce rate is.
To Google, websites with a lower bounce rate must be good if people stay longer. This is important to Google and other search engines as it also indirectly tells them that your site must have good content.
That said - let's discuss some elements you need to have in your body text.
You want to stick to one main keyword. That keyword should be the same one in your URL structure for that page or post. So, it should appear in Headings 1 and 2.
It should be somewhere in your first paragraph and should be bold or italicized.
Don't overdo it. Try to use variations of your keywords as well.
So let's say our keyword was 'Red Shoes'
Try to use variations of the keywords or even synonyms.
Google is at least smart enough to have a huge database of words that are related.
#3 Image Optimization:
Just like body text, when it comes to images, Google and other search engines are not going to know right off the bat what they are.
In fact, there's a few more steps you'll need to take. Did you know that aside from the regular search engine, there's an image search engine too that can help you get even more traffic?
#4 Title Optimization:
This is what shows up as the title in the search engine, so You need to do right.
#5 Meta Optimization:
This is what shows up as the description in the search engine right under title.
