Whether you’re looking to add another post or page to your website, you should keep these on page SEO tips in mind when creating your content.
Title
Be descriptive and accurate. Have your keyword close to the beginning or as it makes sense. Add secondary and tertiary keywords as it makes sense. Don’t keyword stuff here, the title needs to be read smoothly.
Description
You can either create your excerpt or set a description inside the Yoast plugin. If you don’t do either of these things text will still automatically pull from your article, but you want to rewrite it, so it has the keyword and a call to action. Dust off those copywriting skills.
Compel passersby to choose you. Clickthrough rate is an indication to Google that your article is what people are looking for.
URL
Make sure permalinks are set to use the title (Post Link setting in dashboard).
Yoast has a setting by default to use | or – to add the website name to trail
the title. Verify your keyword is in the descriptive, human-friendly URL.
Headings
Use H1 through H4 if you can. Most premium themes automatically use H1 tags for post title. Only have 1 H1 tag, you can have as many H2 – H4 tags as you want. The H1 is the most important set of words in an article according to Google so this
goes back to the importance of having a good title. You just need to know. Subtext in 200+ words per H tag is good.
Images
Alt text needs to have keyword in it as well. Be descriptive and accurate of what the image is. Image file name needs to have keyword in it as well.
Content
Make content so good that people share it or find a way to link back to it. Avoid purchasing listing to link farms or link for link schemes. This behavior is extremely risky and may get your website deindexed.
Text
First thing that’s important to organize your content so that it’s easier for your future readers to skim. Use headings as mentioned previously. This also helps Google crawl your website.
It’s important to have your keyword in your post but don’t overdo it. Focus on delivering good content that makes Google want to link to you. Write in a “you” voice instead of an “I” voice.
Naturally use variations of your keyword as well as immediate questions your reader might have. Feel free to bold or italicize but don’t go too crazy here.
Links
Link to relevant articles on your blog and outside sources. Make sure your anchor text is properly describing what can be expected by clicking the link.
Videos
Embed videos where possible. It doesn't have to be your own video although embedding your own videos is awesome. This helps show Google you know what you're talking about.
Use videos from people that match your keyword. You can have multiple videos and separate them with 150 to 400 words to help set the stage.
Social Media
Leverage the assets you own to link back to your blog posts. Think of:
- YouTube
- Quora (or even Yahoo Answers)
- LinkedIn (even their SlideShare platform)
Embed your pins or use a pin it plugin for Pinterest. Image with Pinterest can create a backlink to your website and provide lots of traffic.
YouTube
For your own videos, use your keyword as a filename. Have an intro of video with name and URL.Get keyword in video title and beginning and end of description. For more information on starting on YouTube head over to that post.
Conclusion
What else did I miss? What do you recommend when you are optimizing your content? Sound off in the comments below.