On-page SEO and technical SEO are among the most important components of SEO. If you seriously want to outrank your competitors on Google ranking then deep understanding of these two components is very crucial. There probably isn’t a website in this world that can organically rank on Google for sustained period of time without paying heed to these two pillars of SEO.
Our latest blog post about on page SEO vs technical SEO will explore why they are individually important, their interdependence and how a cohesive strategy can maximize your organic traffic.
What is On-Page SEO?
On page SEO refers to a practice of optimizing individual web pages of your website that ultimately helps them in gaining higher visibility in Google’s search ranking pages (SERP). It is referred as on-page SEO solely because all the optimization and changes are implemented directly on the web pages. This is in stark contrast to the off-page SEO where optimization is carried outside the website.
Important elements of on-page SEO
Let us dive into different optimization practices that are implemented as part of the on-page SEO strategy. Later we will look into elements of technical SEO that will give our readers better overview about on page SEO vs Technical SEO.
Content optimization:
- Keyword research & keyword placement:
Identifying keywords that are relevant and important to your niche and industry. Identify seed keywords, primary keywords, secondary keywords and LSI keywords. Equally important is to strategically place all these keywords within your webpage content, including titles, headings and body text.
- Content creation & quality:
Creating high quality content, the one that is informative, comprehensive and also engaging. Refreshing and updating your content, if needed, is also an important part of on-page SEO.
- Title tag optimization:
Title Tag are shown in search snippet in Google’s SERP. As a good practice, you must keep title tag as concise as possible, preferably between 50-60 characters. Title tag should also feature your primary keywords.
- Heading & Sub-headings:
Search engines prefer to rank web pages that are well structured as it makes easier for readers to understand. Therefore, structuring your content with headings and subheadings (H1, H2, H3, H4 etc.) is immensely critical.
Image Optimization:
- Caption:
Describe your image in an informative and concise way. Preferably use only 5-20 words in the caption.
- ALT text:
You can also useAlttext for describing your image. It is important because when your image is unable to load or is unavailable for certain reasons, the ALT text provides text alternative to readers.
- File size:
If the file size of your images is too big then it can affect your page speed, which in-turn can affect your ranking on Google. Compress the size of files by using image compressions tools or plug ins.
URL structure
As a good SEO practice, create short yet descriptive URLs that includes your primary keyword.
Internal Linking:
Internal linking is all about linking to other pages of your website that are directly or indirectly related to the content of the page. It helps in site navigation for search engines as well as readers. Apart from navigation, it also helps in improving the user experience of the readers.
External linking:
External linking (also known as outbound links) helps in increasing the trustworthiness of your content and also provides extra-valuable information to your readers. You should always link to credible & high authority websites and also links must be contextually placed.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is an integral part of the search engine optimization process that solely concentrates on improving the technical aspects of the website to improve its ranking and overall visibility in search engine ranking pages. Although not mandatory, technical SEO is mostly carried out by someone who has certain degree of coding knowledge or is well versed with handling the technical aspect of the website.
How is Technical SEO is implemented?
Technical SEO is a dynamic process and therefore involves multiple and multifold steps.
Conducting a technical audit:
The first step is to conduct a comprehensive technical audit that helps in identifying all the technical issues with websites. This could range from slow website speed, non-responsive design, crawling issues, broken links etc.
Improving site navigation and structure:
This applies especially for large websites or websites that have simply too many pages. The website should be organized in such a way that users can easily access all the pages from your home page. Preferably, they should be able to access with just one or two clicks.
Improving page speed:
Several techniques are used for improving page’s load time. This includes techniques like reducing redirects, lowering server response time, using CDN, minifying CSS elements, optimizing core web vitals, removing unnecessary JavaScript so and so forth.
Improving Core Web Vitals:
Improving Core Web Vitals not only helps in increasing the paged speed but also the overall user experience of your web page. This metric was only recently launched by Google but has a significant impact on your overall ranking.
Ensuring mobile responsive design:
Testing website’s design and UX compatibility with mobile devices and smartphones and making necessary changes to make your website’s browsing mobile friendly. Many external tools like Google Mobile Friendly Test are used for this critical task.
Fixing canonicalization issue:
Setting correct canonical tags helps in avoiding duplicate content issues and telling explicitly to search engines which is the preferred and correct version of webpage. This is especially useful if similar content exists across multiple URL, leading to confusion for search engines.
Crawlability & Indexability:
Ensuring that search engines can easily crawl and index all the important pages of your website is immensely critical for the success of your SEO campaign. Tools like robots.txt file and XML sitemap can be immensely useful for increasing crawlability & indexability rate of your website.
It is also important to regularly check Google Search Console to check whether your website faces any
Checking and fixing incorrect schema markup:
Correcting incorrect structured data helps search engines to better understand the content and the context of your webpages, which helps in increasing its visibility in search engines through rich snippets.
Securing your website:
Implementing HTTPs to ensure data transmission. Non implementation of HTTPs can create crawlability and indexability issue for your website. Regularly checking for security vulnerabilities and updating your software is equally an important part of technical SEO
Conclusion:
While Onpage SEO and technical SEO serves unique and contrasting purposes, your website’s ranking is likely to improve significantly in search engine’s SERP if they work in perfect harmony. A well-optimized website inclusive of high-quality content coupled with technically strong website can literally open the floodgates for organic traffic, ultimately leading to your website and brand’s success in the highly competitive digital landscape.