The general recommendation is to keep it below 70 characters because this is the average number of characters Google displays in the search results. If you focus on the right metrics, you may see how readers respond to your content. Since Google started to show favicons in the mobile SERPs, they have become an element that may influence the CTR. Write a unique description for all your main pages, homepage, posts and categories. Is this text easy to read for you without leaning toward the screen? On the other hand, a product page in an online store doesn’t require thousands of words.
Key Components of SEO for Beginners
Using smaller image files and giving them descriptive names, captions, and alt tags will favor your SEO. For one, you’ll make your site more accessible, so it’s helpful for a wider audience. And for another thing, you’ll have a chance of your images ranking in the Google Image search results. Read more about these topics in our posts about image SEO and alt tags. They include title tags and meta descriptions that can influence how your page appears in search engine results and significantly impact whether a user clicks on it. Write concise and informative meta-descriptions that summarize each page’s content.
Providing a great user experience
- For example, few years ago I partnered with BuzzSumo to create this content marketing study.
- Ranking for your target keyword can also be extremely competitive in some industries, and a well-planned strategy is necessary to achieve those highly desirable rankings.
- That said, by taking care of technical SEO, you can start having faster results as you enjoy more visitors to your newly-optimized website.
- While technical SEO is different from on-page SEO, you need both to rank well on Google.
- As the main descriptive title of the page, the H1 should contain that page’s primary keyword or phrase.
- Go to the “Issues” tab, type “external” in the search bar, and review any findings.
If a bunch of pages show up, you’ve got a product tagging issue to solve. There are a few ways to tackle the issue of excessive blog tag pages. Duplicate product URLs are something of a legacy issue – most modern Shopify themes don’t use “product within collection” URLs, precisely because they’re bad for SEO.
Avoid using overly long phrasing and special characters so that your URL looks neat and is easier to remember. If your URL is formatted correctly, search engines may automatically create breadcrumbs that will appear in SERP, which can point more traffic to your site. If you don’t have access to a keyword research tool, try brainstorming phrases that someone would search to find what you’re offering and look at which terms competitors rank for. If major corporations are taking up most top spots in a SERP, it’s a good sign you might want to look for a less competitive keyword option. If an image file size is too big, it may slow the load speed of your site.
The three practices work cohesively, so it’s ideal to cover each when possible. Use Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker SEO Anomaly to do this quickly and easily. It analyzes your pages against top-ranking competitors and provides actionable on-page SEO ideas.
If you’re new to working on SEO, on-page optimization is a good place to start before moving on to advanced practices. Here’s a breakdown of what on-page SEO is, how it can help your website, and a step-by-step list of techniques to use. Break down complex topics, explain technical terms, and use examples when needed. A shopper needs product details, while a researcher wants comprehensive information. The tool makes it easy to analyze your competitors’ keyword usage. In contrast, you want to avoid keyword stuffing—i.e., forcing keywords where they don’t sound natural.
Enter a list of URLs
In our guide, we’ll explain the importance of an SEO strategy and outline its main elements. We’ll review each stage of the planning process, highlighting the most important things to consider. When people bounce from your site, it tells search engines that your site is not relevant to the search results.
Besides the above characteristics, you must ensure your content satisfies the search intent. Before publishing any content on your website, you need to understand what type of content users want to see for a given search query. In this post, you’ll learn everything there is to know about on-page SEO. Follow these techniques whenever you publish a new post and improve your search engine rankings.
As it’s a massive piece of original research covering a hot topic. With keyword research, you identify the words and phrases (keywords) that people type into Google to help them find the answers to their questions or to solve a problem they’re facing. Incorporating these keywords into your content helps search engine crawlers understand what your content is about so that they can match it to the right search queries. When done correctly, On-Page SEO ensures that search engines can crawl and understand your website’s content, while also providing a great experience for users.