Hello everyone! I don’t know about you, but while I’ve dabbled in SEO, it wasn’t until recently that I truly had to apply it in a hands-on manner across my projects. With constantly evolving practices, staying informed feels akin to keeping up with the plot line of a Netflix drama. In this series, we’ll explore the three pillars of SEO, starting today with on-page SEO so you will be up to date! 

What IS On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO consists of all the measures we can take directly within our website to enhance its ranking in search engine results. This crucial aspect of SEO involves optimizing the content, the HTML source code of pages including meta tags and title tags, and the overall user experience. (Don’t stress; this isn’t as technical as it sounds.) Why does this matter? These elements help search engines perceive our content as valuable to potential viewers, which is essential for achieving a high rank on Google.

Core Elements of On-Page SEO

Understanding the core elements of on-page SEO is vital for anyone managing a website:

• Content Quality: It’s important to deliver original and valuable content that provides answers to your audience. This will boost your site and enhance the user experience.
• Keywords: These are crucial in helping potential clients find 🔍  your services. Naturally integrating these into your content clarifies your topics for search engines and readers.
• Meta Tags and Title Tags: These elements are foundational in helping search engines grasp the main topic of your pages. Ensure your title tags are concise, ideally starting with the main keyword. Meta descriptions, meanwhile, should be under 160 characters and uniquely summarize the page content, influencing how your site appears in search results.

 TIP: Templates: An easy way to kickstart your meta descriptions is with a template like “Discover [service/product] that helps you [benefit]. Learn more about our [product/service].” AI tools like ChatGPT can make this process a breeze by quickly generating multiple options to suit your needs. Check out my upcoming blogs on GPTs to learn about to automate this.

Applying On-Page SEO

Here are a few strategies that are effective for creative professionals:

• Visual Content Optimization: Our sites tend to be visually intensive. To ensure visual content support rather than overshadow SEO efforts, it’s crucial to use alt-text for images and optimize file sizes for quick loading. Software like Photoshop and Lightroom allow you to batch resize and name files before uploading. Alternatively, online tools like Batch Resize Photos can help. 
• Structuring Content with HTML Tags: Use header tags (H1, H2, etc.) to organize your content clearly; this aids in readability for users and comprehension by search engines. Tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider* can verify that your site’s template** is effectively applying these tags and flag where you need to add them by hand. 

*Screaming Frog is a great tool overall for checking total site SEOs. ** Some templates strip header tags but can be replaced by hand.

• Balancing Creativity with SEO: Striking the right balance between maintaining a strong visual identity and adhering to SEO essentials can be tricky (can even hurt the soul… let’s be honest). It often means making compromises in design to boost SEO performance, particularly on image-heavy pages like portfolios, where crucial SEO information needs to be visible above the fold for the biggest impact. Unfortunately, there’s no way around this one. I had to make some design choices for my own website, which I don’t love, but how good is a website if people can’t find it?

 TIP: Emotive, Question-Based, and Call to Action Titles: Titles that provoke emotion, have a call to action or pose a question can significantly improve click-through rates. Many online title checkers can improve the quality of your titles; ChatGPT does a great job.

SEO Plugins and Tools: Utilizing SEO plugins can simplify on-page optimizations. Tools like ‘All in One SEO’ and ‘EWWW Image Optimization’ for WordPress can automate many tasks. Personally, I found them helpful, but they unfortunately do not replace understanding the fundamentals of SEO.

 Overcoming Common Pitfalls

Here are some common pitfalls and strategies to avoid:

• Keyword Stuffing: Excessive keyword use can hurt your ranking. Focus on integrating them naturally into your content.
• Ignoring Mobile Optimization: Ensure your site is mobile-friendly, as most web access now occurs on mobile devices.
• Avoid Neglecting Rich and Featured Snippets:

Rich Snippets: Use structured data to enhance your site’s search listings. Adding Schema markup to your website helps Google understand and display information like ratings, prices, or events directly in search results. Many templates automatically do this for you. You can also get paid plug-ins to explore this further. 

Featured Snippets: To increase your chances of appearing in these prime “position zero” spots, focus on creating content that answers specific questions clearly and authoritatively. Use lists, tables, and well-organized headers to make your content more likely to be featured. I see this being beneficial if you have something like a wedding photography website where you are being asked the same questions all the time.

TIP: Clear Answers: Structure content to directly and succinctly answer common questions related to your creative field.
Quality Content: Ensure your content is expertly written and regularly updated to reflect the latest information, enhancing its authority and relevance.
Monitor Performance: Keep an eye on how your snippets perform and adjust your strategy based on what content is being featured.

Additional Resources

For those looking to delve deeper into on-page SEO, I highly recommend the detailed guides at Backlinko. They provide up-to-date strategies, breakdowns and check lists that are incredibly helpful.

Conclusion

SEO requires continuous learning and adaptation. I’ll keep updating my skills and sharing insights here, and I’m eager to hear about your experiences with on-page SEO. If you’ve encountered any difficulties or found tools that have significantly helped, I would love to hear about them in the comments below!

In the Next SEO Post:

As we continue this series, we will examine Off-Site SEO. If you don’t want to miss it sign up for the newsletter or follow on social media.