I stumbled across this very good SEO factors infographic that I thought I’d share with you, as it provides a great summary of the important things to consider regarding on-page SEO. I’ve extracted the main points from the image and written them as text also.
- Leverage SEO friendly permalink URLs – You want your page’s URL to be short and keyword-rich. Avoid ugly URLs, like backlinkto.comp=12343. Google has stated that the first 3-5 words in a URL are given the most weight.
- Start title with keyword – Your title tag is the most important on-page SEO element. A SEOMoz study found that pages that started their title with a keyword ranked higher than those with the keyword in the middle of the end of the title.
- Dazzle with Multimedia – Text can only take your content so far. Engaging images, videos and diagrams can reduce bounce rate and increase time on site: two user interaction-based Google ranking factors.
- Use outbound links – Outbound links to related pages is a relevancy signal that helps Google zero-in on your page’s topic. An industry study by SEOWizz.net found that adding outbound links to authority sites (like harvard.edu and Wikipedia.org) boosts a page’s rank in Google.
- Drop keyword in first 100 word – Your keyword should appear in the first 100-500 words of the article. Putting the keyword early in the content emphasises that your article’s content is about that keyword.
- Wrap your title in an H1 tag – The H1 tag is your “heading tag”. Most blog platforms (like WordPress) automatically add the H1 tag to your post title. But some themes override this setting. Check your site’s code to make sure your title gets the H1 love it deserves.
- Page loading speed – Google is on the record as saying page loading speed is an important SEO ranking signal. You can boost your site speed by using a CDN, compressing images, and switching to faster hosting. Make sure it loads in 4 seconds or less for your page load: a study by MunchWeb stated that 75% of users wouldn’t re-visit a site that took longer than 4 seconds to load.
- Add modifiers to your title – Adding modifiers like “2013”, “best”, “guide”, and “review” can help you rank for long-tail versions of your target keyword.
- Use social sharing buttons – Social signals are becoming a larger part of search engine algorithms. A study by BrightEdge found that prominent social sharing buttons can increase social sharing by up to 700%.
- Post long content – The SEO adage “length is strength” was supported by a SERPIQ.com industry study that found that larger content ranked significantly higher in Google. Aim for at least 1500 words when targeting competitive keywords.
- Slash bounce rate – A bounce (when a visitor quickly leaves your site) is used by search engines to gauge a page’s quality. Google can use the Google toolbar, Chrome browser, and Google Analytics data to determine a page’s bounce rate. To lower your bounce rate add internal links, write compelling copy, and invest in clean site design.
- Sprinkle LSI keywords – LSI keywords are synonyms that Google uses to determine a page’s relevancy (and possible quality). Find LSI keywords using “searches related to…” at the bottom of Google search results, or by entering your keyword into Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
This article negates some other important elements such as image naming and alt tags, but more of that in another article.