How to Optimise Your Content for On-Site SEO

Many internet users use search engines daily to find things online. They remain one of the most commonly used tools and Google still tops the list as the most popular. In today’s How to Optimise Your Content for On-Site SEO post, I’m going to share the possible ways you can build your written content to ensure it’s optimised for Google.

Search engine optimisation is vital for any business as you need traffic to build an audience and then convert that audience into making sales. Without traffic your business will fail to survive.

There are various types of search engine optimisation. These include off-site and on-site, and the rules are slightly different depending on the search engine. On-site SEO is just as important as off-site!

Let’s Look at How to Optimise Your Content for On-Site SEO

Selecting Your Keyword

The first thing you should do to optimise your content is choose your keyword. This is the search term that internet users are looking for so make sure you choose it carefully. Your next step is to attach that keyword to engaging and relevant content to attract people and get them interested.

It’s crucial that your keyword is related to your content and is coherent. In addition, it must provide useful and accurate information. Please avoid using “clickbait” or other misleading tactics. Moreover, Google and your visitors may view you as untrustworthy and this will have a negative impact on your credibility.

Essentially, you should look at using “long tail” keywords, or keywords that are written as common phrases or terms that people might enter into a search engine. It’s important to do some research before you choose a keyword. This involves using a tool like the Google Keyword Planner research tool to find a keyword that’s relevant to the content you’re planning to promote.

You want your keyword to be a popularly used search term, one that’s easy to rank against the competition. You could also check out an automated program like Webfire which is highly rated and will also tell you how you rank against the competition for your chosen keywords.

Headings, Subheadings, and Plain Text

It’s important, but not always possible, to try to include your keyword in all your titles and subtitles. Your headline should certainly contain it. Your keyword also needs to appear regularly, but not too often, throughout your main copy. The most important factor here is to use your keyword as much as possible in a natural way but please avoid “keyword stuffing”. This is where you pack your content with your keyword in an attempt to manipulate Google‘s search results. I don’t recommend doing this and there’s a high chance Google will penalise you heavily if you do.

Many SEO experts recommend a keyword density of 1-2%, meaning your keyword would appear once or twice within 100 words of copy. However, this is not set in stone and others believe there is no real rule of thumb. Also, because Google changes its algorithm regularly it’s difficult to be 100% sure. What you should focus on doing is to provide your audience with engaging, helpful, unique, and informative content and give them the best user experience.

Images and Alt Text

Content that includes images is more attractive and engaging and will keep your visitors interested for longer. In addition, a great way to reduce the bounce rate on your web pages is to include video too. It’s important that the images you use are relevant to your content.

It’s also important to consider inputting “alt text” (alternative text). This is a brief description of the image that appears when you hover over it when that image can’t be viewed for whatever reason. Make sure to include your keyword in the “alt text” if possible because it plays a role in your search engine ranking. Applying the “alt text” to your images improves the accessibility of your website and gives search engines clear and accurate information to rank your website with. The results being that they’ll rank it higher.

Links for Trust and Click-Through

Aim to include, at a minimum, two or three links to high authority websites in each post or webpage which will help you establish trust. In addition, make sure you use keyword rich anchor text. For example, don’t use “click here to…”. Above all you want to enhance your visitor’s experience.

Furthermore, as you add more content to your site, you’ll also want to create links to that too. Try to reference previous content within new content and include links to it. Whenever you can plan to insert at least two or three links on your page to content you’ve produced before. It’s important to make sure that the pervious content you’re mentioning relates to your current content.

Using Optimising Tools

SEO should be a long-term strategy. Optimising content for SEO can often be challenging and time-consuming. However, thankfully there are tools out there to assist you. Check out Robot Author which will automatically research and write unique content that you can post on your website, make into reports or eBooks, or sell to others!

man in suit holding a device that's illuminated with the words search engine optimisation

I hope you found some value in my How to Optimise Your Content for On-Site SEO post and that you can apply some of the above to help you rank higher in the search engines.

Remember – big corporate companies have bigger budgets to spend on SEO, but Google gives them NO advantage over anyone else. This is good news for you because it means it’s possible to outrank any of your competitors.

To Your Success!