Last Sunday, Google pre-announced that it will roll out a new algorithm update, and unlike before, the update was not given any name. Google simply called it as June 2019 Core update, and SEO experts around the world consider this to be a major update. As I write this blog, Google is rolling out the update across various data centers around the world.
It goes without saying that over the past 3 years, Google is giving more and more importance to on-page SEO, however, that is not everything. It considers over 200 different factors to rank a website. So, it is crystal clear that off-Page search engine optimization still has an important role and it is not just about high authority backlinks anymore. 5 to 7 years ago off-page optimization was so simple with focus just on building backlinks, link wheels and link pyramids. Now it goes much deeper than that, as building unnatural backlinks even from reputed sites can harm your ranking. Today brand mentions are given so much importance, a mention even without a hyperlink is an integral part of Google algorithms.
The only constant thing with the SERPs is change, and as bloggers we should be constantly looking out for the changing importance for different parameters of SEO. As thumb rule, irrespective of the algorithm change the on-page SEO is always simple. This is not just about what Google expects from a website, it is more about what a visitor expects from your website and how to keep him satisfied. Forget Google for a moment, just think about it, don’t you want your visitor to stay longer in your website and increase the chance of conversion? Don’t you want your visitor to be happy about the loading speed of your website? Don’t you want your visitor to navigate different pages in your website easily, instead of him just moving on after visiting a page? The answer is always a simple ‘YES’. That is why factors like dwell time, bounce rate, internal links, content and loading speeds are given importance. Check this article about ranking higher without Off-Page SEO by the leading SERPs expert of Canada.
Coming back to off-page search engine optimization, the amount of efforts you need to put in on off-page SEO depends on the competitiveness of your niche and the keywords that you target. Dr. Pete Meyers from Moz in a recent blog said that most web site owners spend around 30% of their time on off-page SEO, and the rest of the time on on-page SEO. In a way, off-page SEO tells Google what other webmasters and influencers in your niche think about your website. It goes without saying that search engines will assume that you offer a lot of value for users if your website gets high authority backlinks. It is quite simple; search engines equate high authority backlinks to online ‘word of mouth’.
Search engine optimization might be overwhelming for newbies however, developing basic understanding of how on-page and off-page SEO works is not difficult. Even if you hire an SEO consultant, it is imperative on you to learn the basics of the trade.
On-Page SEO Tips:
As I said before Google is giving greater weightage to user experience and web analytics lately. Some of the simple yet effective on-page SEO techniques for 2019 are:
1. Writing well optimized titles with h1 tag for your content pages.
2. Keep the urls SEO Friendly; keep them short, have right keywords, and remove redundant words.
3. Have only one h1 tag per page along with a few h2 and h3 tags.
4. Do your keyword research well and target the right keywords.
5. Use h2 and h3 tags for the LSI Keywords.
5. Make the navigation in your website easier, use internal linking to encourage the search engine bots.
6. Use your primary keywords more often in the first and the last paragraph of your article.
7. Make your website completely responsive, custom optimize your web design for devices of different sizes and resolutions.
8. Get an SSL certificate and redirect your website to https:// . Google chrome now officially shows a website without https as ‘Not Secure’, it also lowers the ranks of such websites.
9. If you use CMS platforms like WordPress or Joomla, use right SEO plugins and optimize the meta data for every page.
10. Use the right keywords in Image titles and alt tags. This will result in additional traffic from Google Image search.
11. Have a good mix of outbound links to highly trusted websites.
12. Content is always the king, publish high quality unique articles.
13. Have a robots.txt files with correct permissions for the search engine bots.
14. Maintain an optimum keyword density, don’t stuff your keywords in articles.
15. Ensure you have a good web hosting service provider. Website loading speed is important. You can also compress JS, CSS and image files for the website to load quicker.
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