Are you looking for ways to optimise your website for Google? Want to know the key on-page SEO factors that stand out to website visitors?

Cogneesol share their tips for success in this infographic.

Here’s a quick summary of what’s covered:

• Page URL
• Page headline
• Inside Body Content
• Meta tags
• Image File name
• Image ALT Attribute
• Video File name
• Bold/ Italicized
• Social links

Check out the infographic for more detail.

It seems that almost every month, Google launches another algorithm update which changes the way their search results are ordered and displayed in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

This means webmasters need to do constant research to stay ahead of the game when it comes to website optimisation, especially on-page optimisation.

What are the best ways to optimise your website? How can you reach the top of the rankings in Google’s organic listings? Let’s take a look at some key on-page optimisation areas…

Page URL optimisation

Check whether you’ve created a custom URL structure for your website, or left it with default, unrecognisable numbers.

If you haven’t made some effort here, go and do so now – using keywords as part of your URL is seen as good practice by search engines and can help deliver more targeted traffic.

Make sure every page has its own unique URL that contains relevant keywords.

Page headline optimisation

Page headlines (technically known as the H1 tag) are by far one of the most important parts of your page because it is one of, if not THE most direct indicator of what a visitor will see when they visit your site.

An optimised headline can really help you achieve higher rankings within search engines and also helps people understand at first glance what your business/site/blog is about.

Like an elevator pitch – tell them right away what you do so that they either want to know more or move on quickly.

Inside Body Content optimisation

It goes without saying that you need great content on your website. If you don’t have that, then you won’t be successful at all.

That said, it is just as important to ensure that it is found by search engines. Focus on 2-3 keywords within the main body of your content, keeping below a 2% keyword density to avoid keyword stuffing.

Write for people first and use those words as your anchor text for links back to other areas of your site.

Meta tags optimisation

By creating meta tags (Page title and descriptions) for each page on your site, you give search engines more insight into what your pages are about.

The meta description tag allows you to let visitors know in plain English what a page is all about—rather than depending solely on keyword density that may or may not be picked up by search engine crawlers.

You can add keywords into these tags if they’re relevant; but use them sparingly!

If your meta description tag gets overly cluttered with keywords, it can actually negatively impact how attractive it looks in the results pages and discourage people from clicking through and visiting your site.

Image file name optimisation

We all know that image file names are not always displayed in search results. However, image filenames are indexed by search engines, which means you can use them to help enhance your on-page optimisation efforts.

Include keywords within your image filenames to assist with both user engagement and rankings. It’s an effective way of ‘hiding’ text from human eyes, while still allowing search engines to pick up on it.

Image ALT Attribute optimisation

Remember always to include alt text for your images where appropriate. The alt text will show up in search results when an image cannot be displayed, so make sure it’s relevant, descriptive and optimised for key terms.

Using keywords as alt text increases your chances of being ranked higher by search engines if they can’t display images on a page. Don’t use overoptimised or spammy keywords though – if you do it could actually work against you rather than help!

Video file name optimisation

Just like images, video files need special attention in your on-page SEO. Each file should be named something descriptive and relative to your keywords.

This will help your page rank higher when people use search engines like Google or Bing. Try adding words related to what you’re actually talking about in these video titles.

Use bold and italics for keywords

Using bold and italics for keywords is a great way to increase your chances of showing up in a search result, as well as making a post easier to read.

If you’re writing content that covers an extensive range of topics, try using italics when you introduce one specific idea or product. It helps orient readers within longer posts so they can see at a glance which products you’re referring to.

Social links

To increase social sharing make sure you include links to your social media accounts to help visitors find your accounts.

You can also include buttons that enable users to share your post on various social networks in a quick click, tagging your account in the process.

This can also improve your search engine rankings as each share acts as a link to your site, helping it climb up in search engine rankings.