On-Page SEO Recommendations

This process will provide a list of recommendations for optimizing page and post content.

  1. The page URL is critical to ranking
    1. Make the URL of the page/post the exact keyword phrase if you can. For example: /long-tail-keyword-phrase/ is optimal.
    2. If you are unable to match the keyword phrase exactly, then a partial-match will be the next best choice /keyword-phrase/.
  2. The HTML Meta Title is critical to ranking and to optimizing the click through ratio from the search engine results page (SERPs)
    1. The meta title is used as the title in search results and also for the title area of the browser tab.
    2. For aggressive optimization, you will want to use the exact keyword phrase as the first part of the title. For less-aggressive optimization, use a partial phrase match or an alternate keyword phrase.
    3. Then you would follow that up with a delimiter and the website branded text like this: Long Tail Keyword Phrase | Web Site Name
    4. Keep the total characters to less than 50 if you can.
  3. While the HTML Meta Description has no bearing on the page's rankings, it is critical to optimizing the click through ratio from the SERPs
    1. The meta description tag is used for one major purpose: to describe the page to searchers as they read through the SERPs.
    2. It's the ad copy that will determine if users click on your result.
    3. Keep it to 160 characters, and write it to catch the user's attention. Sell the page — get them to click on the result.
  4. The Page Title is also critical to ranking
    1. Ideally the page/post title will also be the exact keyword phrase. For example: Long Tail Keyword Phrase is optimal.
    2. If you are unable to match the keyword phrase exactly, then a partial-match will be the next best choice Keyword Phrase.
    3. This should be in an H1 tag at the top of the page. There should be no other H1 tags on the page.
  5. Follow the On-Page Optimization Template to Optimize the Content Area
    1. Include a hero shot photo, ideally named with the exact keyword phrase: long-tail-keyword-phrase.jpg. If you are optimizing a local web site, it would be helpful to edit the hero shot photo meta information and insert the latitude and longitude of the center of the city you are optimizing for. Be sure to use an alternate keyword phrase as the alt tag for the hero shot image.
    2. Use alternate keyword phrases in the first paragraph of content and throughout the remaining content.
    3. All major topics should be introduced with an H2 tag that is a secondary keyword phrase.
    4. If your content include additional images to the hero shot, be sure to name them with alternate keyword phrases and use alt-tags.
    5. If you have a second layer of topics for the document, use H3 tags that contain partial keyword phrase matches.
    6. For extra optimization, embed a YouTube video that ranks in the top 3 positions of a YouTube search for your main keyword phrase. If the video is from your own channel, that's ideal. If all the videos that quality are from competitors or are undesirable for another reason, you can omit this step.
    7. Add testimonials if you have them.
    8. If you want to aggressively optimize, you can add a tags section and list all the alternate keyword phrases.
    9. Add a call to action to your page or post. Invite the user to contact you, join your mailing list or take some other action.
    10. Add a link to a high-authority web page that relates to the primary keyword phrase. Wikipedia, being a high-authority web site, could be a good choice.
  6. Add an FAQ section to the bottom of your content
    1. Use the 3 or 4 questions that you determined in the Planning and Writing Optimized Content step.
    2. You will want to install the plugin Structured Content by Gordon Bohme and Antonio Leutcsh.
    3. Then you will add this shortcode to the FAQ section of your webpage:
    4. [sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0="h3" question-0="1. Question one?" answer-0="Answer one." image-0="" headline-1="h3" question-1="2. Question two?" answer-1="Answer two." image-1="" headline-2="h3" question-2="3. Question three?" answer-2="Answer three." image-2="" count="3" html="true"]
  7. Once the page or post is loaded onto your web site, you may want to submit it to your Google Search Console.