Your SEO success depends on how search engines understand your content to determine where it should be ranked. While search engines are evolving rapidly bringing in new updates and algorithms, companies need to help them better understand exactly what their content is all about. As a business owner or marketer, you have to create websites in a way so that they receive attention from both search engines and your audience.
Do search engines understand your content? Some organizations come to know the answer after going through an exhaustive trial and error process. If you don’t have a strategy in place when creating your web pages, you’re likely to end up creating something that lacks uniformity in structure and design. You should not consider each page of your site as a blank canvas where you can just draw things randomly.
If you want to survive in a competitive digital world, don’t go for a random trial and error approach because it’s inconsistent and inefficient. Simply put, a documented and proven process is what you need to build optimized and converting web pages. The good thing about this approach is that while it helps a web page rank better, it improves user experience and conversions. Here are some fundamental ingredients of optimized and converting web pages:
Title tag
The title tag is one of the most crucial on-page factors as it provides a context to help Google understand what any specific web page is about. It is also displayed in the SERP. This is why you need to consider both your audience and search engines when writing title tags. The first 70 characters of your title tag will be typically displayed, so try to keep your title tags within that limit.
Don’t forget to optimize the title tag with keyword phrases that you want to rank for. The content on your web pages should sound engaging and natural be it title tags or web copy. Users don’t click on titles that sound spammy or confusing.
Meta description
Meta descriptions don’t directly impact your SEO ranking. However, it can have a massive impact on your click-through rates which is critical to your SEO efforts. Google displays the description of a web page in the search results. Like title tags, meta description should also be written in a manner that is user-friendly and engaging; don’t try to stuff a bunch of keywords in as it will make the description spammy and unnatural. Google usually displays up to 160 characters of a description, so make sure to convey your message and stay right around there.
Related: How to Write Compelling Meta Descriptions That’ll Boost Your Rankings
Jump links
When a visitor lands on one of your web pages, they are looking to get quick information that solves their problem in a time-efficient manner. If the information you provide is ill-organized and your visitors have to struggle to reach it, you will lose your customers to your competitors.
Jump links or table of contents makes it easy for your visitors to find exactly what they’re looking for without going through unnecessary steps. Jump links are just like the table of contents, they help readers jump directly to the relevant page or content rather than randomly stumbling upon it.
Related: How to Create a Link to Jump to a Specific Part of a Page [Quick Tip]
Subheads
Today is a busy world. Most internet users just scan through pages to find what they’re looking for. Therefore, to make things easier for your visitors, you need to use subheads properly. Subheads break the text into small sections. Using heading tags the right way starting from h1 to working your way down to h6 not only helps Google better understand your content but also helps your visitors find the relevant information quickly. So, learn how to use headings on your site.
Schema
Schema is a valuable technique that can help you improve how your business and pages are displayed in the search results. The use of schema allows you to display reviews, featured images, and event dates in search results. We all know how these features can make your web pages stand out from the rest of the web pages being displayed in the search results. It is reported that websites that use schema experience increased organic search traffic.
Apart from text, make sure the search engines can understand your images and videos. For this, you need to name your visual content in a way that briefly describes them.
About Reach First
Reach First helps companies explore what their customers need, want and love. From SEO best practices to website development, we ensure your web presence outshines your competitors and help you achieve your business goals in a cost-effective manner. We welcome you to partner with us and accelerate your business growth through the possibilities of digital. Contact us for more information!