one key element to improving your online rankings on Google and overall visibility in search engines is to have a solid on-page SEO strategy. What is an on-page SEO strategy for the newbies out there? On-page SEO stands for on-page search engine optimization. Still confused? Okay, I get it. Here is a definition which I think should help you understand what it really means. On-page SEO is the practice of fine-tuning the content of a web page so it can rank higher in search engines for the keywords you are targeting and improve user experience at the same time. As opposed to off-page SEO, which is mostly based on attracting backlinks to your website, on-page SEO focuses on tweaking not only the visible content of your web pages, such as headers, paragraphs, and images, but also the HTML code that sits behind them. Don't be scared by the word HTML code. Everything I'm going to cover in today's tutorial can be done by any website owner, even those of you who are complete beginners. So let's get started. [Music]

there are many reasons why on-page SEO should be a crucial part of your marketing strategy. On its How Search Works website, Google explains that the most basic signal that information is relevant is when content contains the same keywords as a search query. Meaning that if the content of a webpage on your website contains keywords in the headings or body of the text that match a search query, it is deemed as being more relevant and likely to rank higher. But you can't repeat the same keywords hundreds of times on your pages in the hope they will clinch the number one ranking spot. Like in this example, it would result in poor customer experience and not help with rankings. Anyway, this is because Google doesn't just look at keywords in isolation to evaluate the relevance of a page and takes many other elements into consideration. For example, if you search for dogs, Google's algorithm will assess if a page contains other relevant content beyond the keyword dogs, such as pictures of dogs, videos, or even a list of breeds and more. Hopefully, you should now understand how

important on-page optimization is and why you must include it as part of your strategy. As this on-page SEO tutorial is specifically designed to help local business owners, through the next chapters I'm going to run through how you can optimize each and every component of your web pages that will help you rank higher in Google local search results. Let's go through them. [Music] The URL, aka the address of your web page, is important to search engines and visitors alike as it provides valuable context and relevant information about the page itself. For example, one of the services this lawn care company offers is gutter cleaning. This is well represented in the URL itself. If you just saw the address of the page without seeing the content, you'd have a pretty good idea of what this page is about. Make sure the URLs of your pages are clear and concise and include the keywords you are targeting as it will influence rankings. Only use this technique for new pages. Do not change existing URLs as it will be more harmful than beneficial. [Music]

probably one of the most important on-page SEO factors. Your title tag, also known as meta title (not to be confused with the page header), appears in Google search results just above the description, but also when your page is shared on social media, for example. Because of where it appears on the web, the more compelling your meta title is, the more searchers are likely to click through to your website. The meta title of your page is an HTML element that is included in the source code of your page, which you can easily update via your content management system, such as WordPress, Wix, or other popular platforms. Here is the best way of creating an effective meta title: make sure that each and every page on your site has a unique meta title. It should be between 50 to 60 characters long; otherwise, it will be truncated in search results. Include the keyword and location you are targeting at the beginning of the title. Feel free to add other information or keyword modifiers to your title if you have room to make it as compelling as possible. Here is an

example of what you could come up with for an HVAC specialist located in Detroit who is trying to rank for heating repair service in his own city best heating repair in Detroit 5-star rated three quarts. [Music] The meta description of your page is the little snippet of copy you can see right under a page title in search results and is used to describe the content of the page. Just like the meta title of your page, the meta description is an HTML element that needs to be updated via your content management system. It's as easily done as updating the meta title of your page and can be found in the same location. Although your meta description will not help your page rank higher in Google, if it's well-crafted, it can be a very powerful way to entice searchers to click through to your website. This is what I recommend you do when writing a description for your page: make sure it is under 150 characters; otherwise, it will be cut off by Google. Include your targeted keywords as they

will get bolded in the description when someone is searching for them. Try including a call to action, such as find out more or claim your coupon now, so people will want to click on the link. Add power words that can emotionally influence searches. Sticking with our Detroit HVAC specialist, here is an example of a description that could work well for their heating repair page: Fast, responsive, qualified heating repair specialist in Detroit. Get a free quote today. No hidden charges, no call out fees. We clean when we're done to make your life easier. You might want to use a search engine results simulator like this one and check the elements we've just covered all at once: your URL, your page title, and your description. It will allow you to check exactly what searchers see and make corrections if necessary. [Music] The creation of a page involves putting together multiple pieces of content, such as paragraphs, images, videos, testimonials, and more. But you can't throw all these pieces of content together onto a page without including headings and subheadings; otherwise, your pages will

end up looking pretty terrible, like in the example for this carpet cleaner. Adding headings and subheadings to your page will help break the content down into logical sections and make it easier for readers and search engines alike to figure out what your page is about. Check the example of this other carpet cleaner, which illustrates what difference using headings makes. There is clearly no contest. Just like the meta title and the meta description of your page, headings are HTML elements you can add to your page via your content management system. They follow a very specific hierarchy and range from heading 1 all the way down to heading 6 in order of importance. Whenever you build a page, it's important you stick to this hierarchy. Let's say, for example, you're a dentist located in Dallas and are targeting the keyword teeth whitening. The main header of your page should be set as an H1 and could be something like Teeth Whitening in Dallas. The first subheading should be set as an H2 and could be Teeth Whitening Procedure. And if you decide to add

nested sections under your teeth whitening procedures section. They will need to be set as h3s. It is important to note you can only have one head and one per page, but you can add as many subheadings as you want. Since header 1 is the most important header, I always advise adding the keywords you are targeting in it, as well as your location. Include your location keyword in at least one of the headers too. To check the structure of your existing pages and if your headings include the right keywords, I suggest you download a free Chrome extension called SEO Minion. With SEO Minion, you'll be able to pull up all the related information with a click of a button, spy on your competitors' headings, and much more. Before I continue, I'd like to ask you for a favor. Please hit the like button as it helps my channel grow and allows me to continue making more videos so I can help you out. Thanks a lot. Moving on. [Music] According to Siteify, there are around 1.17 billion websites in the world.

that's a lot of websites to compete with. Google's mission is to troll through all of these and provide searches with the most relevant results. That's why it's important to make your content as relevant as possible for the keywords you are targeting. We've already covered part of it through the previous chapters, but this time we are talking about the written content of your page. There are several things you must take into consideration to make your written content relevant so Google chooses you over your competitors. Use a keyword research tool of your choice to find out what people are searching for. If you don't have one, I suggest you install a Google Chrome extension called Keyword Surfer. It's completely free. Since you are targeting a local market, find out what geo-specific keywords users are searching for based on where they need the services they are looking for. Make a note of the most relevant and popular keywords and pepper them into your content like in this example. No need to go mad. Remember, you are writing for users, not Google. It needs to look as natural as possible. This keyword

research should be the very first step of your content page creation process. You should use your findings not only to write your content, but also to craft your page titles, your URL, and your headings so it all fits together. Also, make sure the content you will be writing is unique to your business. Don't go copying and pasting someone else's page. It won't work anyway because Google already knows that content exists, and if you copy it, your page will be considered as duplicate and not rank. Next, ensure the grammar and spelling of your content are spot-on. You're a business owner, after all, and credibility matters. You can use a free online spell checker or an app like Grammarly, which does an excellent job before publishing your page. Finally, your content should be easily readable. Exclude jargon and complicated terms that may put readers off. You can conduct a readability test for free to find out how easy it is to read your page. You should be aiming to make your content readable by teenagers. [Music] Ninety percent of the information transmitted to our brain is visual.

processed 60,000 times faster than text. That's why images are an essential piece of content to add to any given page. Images highlight important information and trigger emotional reactions. How does this one work for you? And they also help convince your visitors they should choose your business instead of your competitors. But like everything else on your page, to get the best out of them, they need to be optimized. Just like the copy of your pages should be unique, so should your images. Stay away from stock imagery, especially the free ones from sites like pixabay.com. If you are using free images for your site, guess what, many other businesses will do too, which will reduce your chances of ranking for relevant searches. Authenticity is paramount for customers looking for local businesses. Make sure the image files you are using are not too heavy. High-quality images can really slow down the load speed of your pages, which will impact customer experience and, in turn, your rankings. You can easily reduce the size of any images using a free online image optimizer tool like Optimizely.

forget to add an alt tag to every image on your page. For those of you who don't know, the alt tag is an HTML piece of code that is applied to an image and provides a text description of the image itself. It can positively impact your rankings just like the other HTML elements I have mentioned before. Alt tags can easily be added to your images via your content management system. To find out if your existing pages are missing alt tags, use the SEO Minion Chrome extension I talked about earlier. Click on the Analyze On-Page SEO option, scroll down to the images section. SEO Minion will let you know how many images are on your page and which ones are missing alt tags. Go to your content management system to add them. For those of you who want to optimize your images a step further, use the Google Vision AI tool to select the most relevant pictures for your page. This tool enables you to find out how Google sees pictures. For example, this picture would be a very good choice for a dentist targeting dentist-related keywords as Google is 96

confident this is the picture of a dentist as opposed to this one where the accuracy drops to 86 percent. Based on this principle, whenever you can include images which contain recognizable local sites or landmarks, like for this window cleaning company based in New York. [Music] NAP is an acronym for Name, Address, and Phone Number. The accuracy and consistency of your business NAP wherever your business is listed on the web is an important part of the Google search algorithm. Make sure you have this information listed on your pages. The easiest and most common way to add your NAP to a page is to include it in your website footer so it will appear on all the pages. I would also suggest you optimize your NAP using what is known as local schema markup. Don't worry, it doesn't bite. Local schema markup is code that tells search engines with 100 percent accuracy what your business name, your phone number, your business category, your address, your geo locations, and more are. It's like telling Google, This is a spade. Although schema markup is not a

direct ranking factor google may reward you by enhancing your google listing with the information you have specified. To create your very own local schema markup, head over to the schema markup generator tool on technical seo dot com, select the local business option, and fill in the fields using the form. Your code will automatically be created as you add your information. Once you're done, click on the copy button and paste your code into the html head of your pages. Verify your schema markup has been properly implemented using the google rich result test tool. Simply enter your url, wait for a minute or two, after which you should see the local schema markup being displayed. [Music] Frequently asked questions, aka faqs, are a great way to improve your on-page customer experience. They enable you to provide answers to some of the most common questions customers ask about your products or services but also help them make an informed decision, making it easier for them to pick up the phone. But beyond improving the customer experience, they're also great for improving your visibility on google. Adding faqs to your

page is another chance to enhance your content and make your page even more relevant for the keywords you are targeting. But also a chance to rank for even more keywords. FAQs can also be included directly in search results right under the title and description of a page, giving your business more prominence. To do this, you'll need to use the schema tool generator we use for your NAP. Once again, this time choose the FAQ option and start adding your questions and answers. Copy the script and add it to the HTML head of your page. You'll also need to add the matching content on your page to make it visible to the viewers. Then all you need to do is wait. Once Google crawled your page, it should add some of your FAQs to the results. For a detailed tutorial on how to do this, watch my tutorial called One SEO Tip That Doubles the Size of Your Rankings. [Music] Google reviews will help your Google listing rank on Google Maps, but can also be a very valuable asset if you add them to your web pages. The trick here is to

add relevant reviews to the right pages head over to your Google Business profile and click on your review link. Make sure all your reviews are being displayed by scrolling all the way down. Then search for reviews that contain a keyword you are targeting with one of your pages. Once you've found a couple of relevant reviews, simply add them to your page to make your page keyword-rich. It will also make the content of your page even more unique. 

There are three types of links you can come across on the web: backlinks, external links, and internal links. Backlinks are links coming from other websites pointing to your website. External links are the opposite of backlinks; they are links that point to other websites from your website. Internal links are links that point from one page of your website to another page on your website. Search engines like Google follow all three types of links on the web to find content and to rank the content it finds in search results. 

As this video is about on-page SEO optimization, we're going to talk about external links and internal links, which

are both controllable at the page level by website owners. Let's start with external links. Adding external links to your page that point to another website can provide Google with additional context about the content of your page, but also shows Google your page is a reliable source of information on a specific topic. You can find an example of this on this lawyer's website located in LA, California. They added external links to the official LAC government website and Los Angeles County website, but also to the bill that features on the congress.gov website, which is relevant to the service this lawyer provides. Let's now look at internal links. Internal links help connect the pages of your website together and for Google to understand the structure and hierarchy of your website. When using the right anchor text, which are the words that get highlighted as part of the link, you're telling Google what the page where the link points to is about, which will help Google rank it better. A page that receives a lot of internal links from other pages on your site will be deemed

as more important by Google and will get more ranking power. Be cautious about the keywords you use as your anchor texts. Make sure they are varied; otherwise, it might be seen as a manipulative technique. For example, if you were an electrician and wanted to link to a page on your site which is all about emergency, you might want to consider the following anchor texts: emergency electrician, 24-hour electrician, emergency electrician London, and so on. [Music] When optimizing your pages, you want to know if your work is paying off. That's why it's important to monitor your progress. To do this, I suggest you use an analytics tool such as Google Analytics, which is free. As you implement the various points I have covered today, check if your page or pages are getting more traffic and where this traffic is coming from. If the number of organic visits is increasing, it will be a clear indication that whatever you are doing is working. No need to check daily. SEO is a slow burner, and the work you do can take several weeks to come to fruition.

checking the data once or twice a month should be more than enough. That's it for today, guys. I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, remember to give it a thumbs up and to subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet. And until next time, happy marketing. [Music]

On Page SEO Tutorial For Small Businesses (2023 Edition) - 11 Simple Ways to Boost Your Rankings

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If you'd like help with your own business you can hire me from the links on this page or access awesome resources that will guide you to success :)
