OnPage Optimization
On-page optimization is the term used to describe all SEO optimization measures that you can carry out yourself on the website or landing page and thus actively influence. The goal is a permanently better ranking in the search engine results (SERPs).
This is primarily about content, structure, navigation, usability and keywords.
Navigation with low link depth
Visitors to a website shouldn't have to make too many clicks to get to the content they want. Otherwise there is too great a risk that they will leave the page again quickly. That would be a negative ranking signal for Google and Co. Furthermore, the search engines have their problems with content that is too deep. These are not crawled as often. Correspondingly, changes on a page are not adopted as quickly.
Ideally, a website visitor should get from the home page to the target page with 3 clicks.
Internal links
The menu structure, the navigation and the structure of a website should be clearly recognizable for the website visitor so that they can find their way around the website quickly. The URLs should be meaningful. Keywords can be used in the URLs for this purpose. In this way, the visitor can see what content can be expected on a page (see also "technical SEO").
The so-called "breadcrumbs" can also be used. These show the path of the current page. This allows the visitor to orientate himself quickly and not lose track of things.
Avoid duplicate content (DC)
If the same or very similar content is found on several pages of a website, the crawlers of the search engines can no longer classify them correctly. This then results in problems with the ranking. You should therefore only present certain content on a single page.
If this is not possible or not wanted, a so-called "canonical tag" can be used. This tells the crawler which page is to be indexed.
You shouldn't have the same or very similar content on different domains! This is also "duplicate content".
However, if the content is only in different languages on a multilingual website, then this is not "duplicate content"!
Use meta tags
Even if meta tags cannot directly influence the ranking, their optimization is still important. Meta tags decide whether a URL that is displayed in the SERPs is also clicked on. And a URL that is clicked on frequently has a higher relevance for the user and thus also for Google and Co. This in turn has a positive influence on the ranking.
What meta tags are there?
- Title Tag: Title of a page or URL that is displayed in the browser tab. It should be around 55-60 characters long.
- Meta Description: Description of the content of a page or URL The length should be less than 160 characters. 150 to 155 characters are recommended. Sometimes only the first 110 characters are shown, so that the most important things should be there.
- Meta Keywords: A few years ago you could enter keywords here. But you don't need to do that anymore because these keywords are no longer evaluated by Google. Google creates the keywords itself based on the content found.
"Title Tag" and "Meta Description" are displayed in the search results of Google and Co. for each URL. Both together form the so-called snippet. Its task is to inform the user, to arouse their curiosity and ultimately to encourage them to click. In principle, it is a kind of preview for the website or URL. Optimizing the snippets will certainly result in a higher click rate. You can use different forms of representation for the snippets or enhance the snippet with special characters, emojis or images.
Note: If "Title Tag" or "Meta Description" have too many characters, they will be shortened in the SERPs by simply cutting them off. That doesn't look particularly nice! Furthermore, you should definitely avoid duplicate "Title Tag" and "Meta Description", as this only unnecessarily confuses search engines. The consequence is usually a negative influence on the ranking. Tags that are completely missing should ideally be added!
Format headings (h1...h6)
The structure and design of texts are also relevant for search engine optimization. The heading of a text is always formatted with h1. In order to structure a text in a meaningful way, you should also use subheadings and format them hierarchically with h2 to h6. This not only makes the page more readable for the website visitor, but the search engine also clearly recognizes the structure of the page.
Further upgrades using boldface or "bullet points" are possible!
SEO texts / keywords
Use unique and high quality content on your website. This should stand out from other websites. Since Google generates its own keywords from the content of the website, you should definitely use the relevant keywords on the website! Unique and SEO-ready content are the most important SEO factors on a website.
In the search for the optimal keywords, websites with similar topics can be analyzed, for example. Services such as the "Google Search Concole" (GSC) are suitable for optimizing keywords and subsequently monitoring their success.
Important! You shouldn't overdo it with the use of keywords! Because search engines quickly punish so-called keyword stuffing, which then results in a poorer ranking for the respective URL. Keyword stuffing nowadays is the excessive use of keywords. Google checks the entire content of a page and relates it to the frequency of certain word phrases or keywords. In addition, the various keywords determined are also compared with one another. There is also a comparison with other websites that offer similar content.
There are now various test tools for evaluating content. For this purpose, for example, the WDF*IDF values and other quality factors are determined. If the excessive use of keywords should be found, simply reduce their frequency on the page!
- Keyword Density: Simple keyword density that is no longer very meaningful.
- WDF*IDF: Formula for a mathematical-statistical analysis. "Within Document Frequency" * "Inverse Document Frequency"
Optimize images
As the saying goes: "A picture is worth a thousand words!"
Images not only add variety to long text blocks, but can also ensure that texts are better understood. That is why images are very popular on websites. On the other hand, images are often neglected in search engine optimization. However, these are of particular importance.
Technical optimization of images
There are a number of optimization options that have already been explained in the menu item "Technical SEO" under the heading "Reduce loading time". These include:
- Reduce image size to display size!
- Select suitable image format (png, jpg, ...) and compression!
- Do not load images until they come into view! (lazy load)
There are also other optimizations for SEO images.
SEO images
For several years now, Google and Co. have been concentrating more and more on visual searches. There is a separate ranking list for images (Google image search). In the SERPs, images improve the value of the URLs and encourage users to click. It is therefore important that images are selected very carefully and that match the text or content. So that search engines can better assess the images, two main measures are necessary:
- Sensible naming of files (file names)
- Subject-relevant alternative texts (alt text, alt attribute)
1. Use descriptive filenames for images! Since the file name also appears in the image URL, it should not be too long. Underscores should also be avoided.
Example:
group-photo-fire-department.jpg instead of IMG812387653z5_photo.jpg
2. If an image is not displayed, the alt text is displayed instead. Ideally, this should describe the content of the image in a meaningful way and also be relevant to the topic. Each picture should have its own individual alt text. Repetitive alt texts should be avoided. This enables search engines to assess the images better. In addition, information is provided for screen reading programs that are used, for example, by the visually impaired.
Important: Under no circumstances should the alt attributes be misused for keyword spamming!
Tip: You can even create your own image sitemap for images! And if an image is used several times on a website, or on several websites, this does not have a negative effect as "duplicate content". However, you should make sure that the image is always used in the same content and not on websites with completely different topics! Otherwise, the image can quickly become uninteresting for Google and Co., which would result in a gradation. If you use your own images, you can be sure that they will not appear on other websites.
Mobile optimization (mobile first)
Google now only indexes and ranks websites using the mobile version. Therefore, websites should definitely be optimized for mobile devices. The pages have to load quickly, be clear, and easy to use, and of course there shouldn't be any errors on the page. It is advisable to build the site responsive.
There are a few points that you should definitely keep in mind:
- Readable font size (e.g. 16px)
- Not too many different font sizes
- Not too many different fonts
- Clickable buttons or links not too small and not too close together
- Big and eye-catching search function (if used)
- Optimize loading time
- Forego everything that is superfluous
- Regular checking of the mobile version e.g. in the "Google Search Console"
Avoid 404 pages
You should absolutely avoid pages that return a 404 ("Page not found")! It is not very user-friendly if the visitor to a website calls up a menu item which then displays a 404 error. If necessary, you can also forward the URL to an existing page via 301!
Of course, it can happen that a user just makes a mistake when entering a URL. In this case, the 404 error page would be displayed correctly. Ideally, the appearance of the 404 error page of the website should also be adjusted a little. Furthermore, the website visitor should be informed in a suitable form and language that the requested URL does not exist. The addition of a link, for example to the home page, is also recommended!
