Alonso: 'Idiot' Hamilton can only race in first

Fernando Alonso labelled seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton “an idiot” who only knows how to race at the front after they collided on the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix.

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On-Page SEO in 2022 (Checklist Included!)

Ever noticed a change in your SEO rankings for better or for worse, even though you didn’t make any major changes? This may be Google at work.

Over the past few years, Google has released several updates to their search engine algorithm, with Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird being some of the biggest. Those updates set augmented rules on how owners should structure their sites for link building, both building incoming links and using anchor text for outgoing links.

Despite the updates, however, on-page SEO hasn’t really changed all that much. Every on-page SEO task is really for the user’s benefit. Yet, most SEO professionals still haven’t come to terms with that fact. 

Google wants the user to be happy when they visit your web page. The only way that Google will know that your site users are satisfied is when they’re engaged. How long do they spend reading your content?

In this on-page SEO checklist, I’m going to show you the essential things to pay attention to. They’ll improve your search trafficboost your rankings and make off-page SEO a lot easier for you. 

1. Site Speed

Inadvertent duplicate content can slow indexing down, so examine your site to remove it.

It makes sense. After all, don’t we all hate to wait? And, the instant gratification of the web has only made us more impatient.

So, it makes sense that Google cares about page load time (and has for a very long time). From the Webmasters Central Blog:

A quote from Google explaining the release of Google Page Speed Online.

Back in 2010, Matt Cutts announced that site speed would carry less weight than other key ranking factors, such as relevance, authority links, and so on. That’s no longer quite as accurate. Nowadays, speed is essential, nearly as much as a cornerstone keyword phrase.

One study showed that a delay of a single second in page response time can yield a 7% reduction in conversions.

A statistic explaining that a delay of a single second in page response time can yield a 7% reduction in conversions.

So, in case it wasn’t already clear, site speed absolutely affects rankings, as asserted in this infographic (click here to enlarge):

An infographic explaining how site speed impacts site rankings.

You can use Ubersuggest’s site audit tool to check your site’s load time, among a variety of related factors. Here’s how it works:

Step #1: Enter Your URL and Click “Search”

The URL entry field for Ubersuggest.

Step #2: Click “Site Audit” in the Left Sidebar

A view of the Ubersuggest side dashboard.

Step #3: Scroll down to “Site Speed”

An Ubersuggest report showing different site speeds.

You’re shown the loading time for both desktop and mobile devices. The results above show that my site is in the “excellent” range for both.

In addition to loading time, it also tests:

  • First Contentful Paint
  • Speed Index
  • Time to Interactive
  • First Meaningful Paint
  • First CPU Idle
  • Est. Input Latency

If your results aren’t optimal, don’t worry – there are many ways to increase your site speed. The easiest way, which will often cost some money, is by using search engine content delivery networks.

That aside, if you’re a WordPress user, you could delete unused plugins for an instant speed boost.

For more suggestions and how-to’s, check out the following resources.

2. Essential Tag Fundamentals

Do you take meta tags seriously? Although the effect of the title tag or meta description has changed significantly over the past several years, it’s still a good practice to pay attention to them.

A graphic depicting all the different offshoots of meta tags.

In on-page SEO, the major types of meta tags that you should pay attention to are:

Title tags: Title tags define the title of your web page or document. They’re mostly used to display preview snippets of your web pages. When you’re writing your title tag, it should be short, clear, and descriptive but don’t duplicate content from the page content.

Code depicting an HTML look at title tags.

The ideal length is 50 – 60 characters. If your title tag exceeds 60 characters, Google will only show the first 60.

You can use Moz’s preview tool to preview how your title tags will appear in the search engine.

Meta description: 

This is how a meta description usually appears in the organic search listings:

Search results in Google for "how to educate a child at home."

The meta description is what search engines use to gauge what topic you’re writing about and the exact audience that they should send to that page. So, make it descriptive and short – no more than 160 characters.

There is no need to stuff keywords in your meta description (which would work against you anyway). 160 characters are just not enough space for stuffing.  Instead, use synonyms or latent semantic indexing (LSI) of your main keyword to get on-page SEO in the meta description, keeping search engines happy.

For example, if your main keywords in the headline are “generate website traffic,” here are LSI keywords that you can use:

  • get site visitors
  • drive free traffic
  • attract site visitors
  • attract website visitors

You must also be careful to never duplicate title tags or meta descriptions. Ubersuggest can also help with this. On the same results page (site audit) that displays site speed, you’ll see something that looks like this:

An Ubersuggest report on top SEO issues for a website.

You can then examine any issues with your title tags or meta descriptions. For example, the above shows that my site has 8 pages with duplicate title tags. By clicking on the issue, you’re given the following:

An Ubersuggest report showing existing pages with duplicate title tags.

As you click on each result in the Page URL column, you’re presented with a list of pages that share the same title tag, which is displayed in the second column:

An expanded version of the Ubersuggest report showing specific pages with duplicate title tags.

Unless there’s a good reason for it, such as using the same title for content in different languages (see above), it’s important to make the necessary changes.

3. Creating Content That Drives Search Traffic

Content is the backbone of a thriving business and on page SEO is the backbone of content marketing. You’ve probably heard the saying, “content is king.” There is way more to successful content marketing than just “content,” though. You have to publish the kind of content that will drive traffic and grow your business.

This involves using specific keyword phrase components that include long-tail anchor words.

You’ll also notice that when you start creating in-depth content, you’ll see a corresponding increase in traffic from long-tail searches, a very specific keyword phrase indicating buyer positioning and urgency. These search engines help give you juice because you are helping people solve problems with your content.

A graph comparing traffic percentage driven by head terms versus long-tail keywords.

These days, your customers are smarter than you think. You have to be willing to listen to and learn from them – their search for solutions motivates them to ask certain questions. Those questions can tell you exactly what they want most from you.

Content that drives traffic:

  • Is practical, useful, and valuable
  • Is interesting to read
  • Is in-depth and well-written
  • Is written with the user in mind
  • Solves a problem
  • Is easy to share
  • Is optimized for a high-volume keyword

According to Demand Metric, 76% of online shoppers felt excited and closer to a company after reading its custom content. That’s why 78% of CMOs consider custom content to be the future of digital marketing.

Duplicate content was once an easy cheat to getting content so search engines would see more stuff, but duplicate content is now easily found by search algorithms and penalizes the culprit.

An infographic with several content marketing statistics.

Traffic-generating content makes the user happy. So, we’re going to start with the aspect of content marketing that matters most: user experience optimization. It often starts with a keyword phrase relating to what the user is searching for.

Remember, on-page SEO begins and ends with the user. No one should build a site for search engines. We build sites for people. After all, search spiders won’t write a comment, subscribe to your list, or buy your product. Only your users can do that.

On-page SEO consists of those activities that directly affect the content, pages, and architecture of the site – in other words, all of the internal factors that make a site useful for the visitor.

User optimization is all about presenting your content and design so that users can find what they’re looking for immediately – another reason that you need to speed up your site load time.

As part of the user experience, you may have duplicate content in your site map. This may be important for consumer ease of use, but make sure to let the spiders know not to index for the duplicate content to improve search engine speed.

A quote from Forrester describing the importance of answering questions for online consumers quickly.

It’s all about creating positive experiences for your users. One study by Ruby Newell-Legner, concluded that it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved customer experience.

A graphic depicting how it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative one.

User optimization is all about answering search users’ questions with easy-to-read content, not merely targeting their keywords. For example, if customers are searching for “electric guitar lessons,” here is the wrong way to write your headline and introduction:

Easy Electric Guitar Lessons For Those Looking To Learn Electric Guitar

Do you want easy electric guitar lessons that will make you play guitar like a hero? Well, this electric guitar lessons post will definitely guide you on the right path, so you can master the electric guitar chords in 30 days or less.

The above headline and introduction are not optimized for the user. The keywords are stuffed in and the article introduction is confusing, if not at least lame.

To help you understand what user optimization is about, let’s write a better headline and introduction, while still targeting the keyword “electric guitar lessons:”

Best Electric Guitar Lessons That Will Turn You Into a Pro

What is the best way to learn guitar at home? Many people prefer to read books, but there is a better way. Take some electric guitar lessons from a professional who knows what he’s doing. I don’t want to flaunt my guitar skills here, but trust me, I can help you master the art.

See the difference? In the second example, the main keyword phrase appears once in the headline and just once in the introduction. Moreover, the opening doesn’t promise anything that sounds too good to be true. The reader will understand the second article better because it was optimized for them.

Remember that when it comes to user experience, use of keywords is not the major factor. Instead, the critical issue is addressing the user’s intent – in other words, the reason why the user is searching for that particular keyword.

When you do your on-page search optimization efficiently, your listing will be more attractive and the users will benefit, as a consequence, even before they click to visit your web page.

Brian Clark put it well, when he said that Google is like an infant who doesn’t know what to do and relies on you as a guide.

In his words, “you’ve got to spoon-feed search engine spiders with valuable content that the users will be excited about.”

And, over the years, Clark and his prolific team have produced some of the best blog posts and articles around. Through consistent and proper use of keyword phrase content marketing techniques, Brian Clark turned a blog (copyblogger.com) into a $7 million digital company.

A screenshot of a Copyblogger blog.

Another important aspect of user experience is functional design. Steve Jobs knew that design isn’t just “how a device looks” but also about “how it works.”

A picture of Steve Jobs with one of his quotes next to him.

Other great things that make the social site a good fit for the user are:

Several points on how to make social sites a good fit for users.

Another example is the Apple brand juggernaut. Many companies focus on selling features, but Apple also believes in the power of good design.

Apple customers trust the brand completely and happily recommend it to others, not because it’s the most affordable or sophisticated, but because of the sleek design and how the Apple experience makes their lives better.

Another site that thrives on good user experience, is easy to navigate, is legible and has a nice choice of colors combined with high-quality content is HubSpot.com.

Understand the Google Panda algorithm: The Panda algorithm update was first released in February 2011. It was designed to help Google return high-quality results when users type a keyword phrase into the search box.

A depiction of Po from Kung Fu Panda with the Google logo.

While other updates have come and gone, Panda’s effect is still going strong. You may recall that Panda penalized low-quality content and thin sites. If you consider the state of search now, you’ll agree with me that Google’s ranked top results have vastly improved since Panda.

Marketers have come to realize that nothing spectacular can be achieved without the right content.

Panda made it easier for smart content marketers to start creating a conversation with their content. You give insights and advice to your customers and they respond with their questions, appreciation or suggestions.

That’s the reason for Google Hummingbird, as well – to bring the user and the marketer together and meet the user’s needs.

If you want to improve your search rankings, you need to consider two aspects of your content:

Avoid low-quality content: The days of generic content with no value are long gone. Enough said.

Avoid thin content: Your content may be high-quality, in terms of the information that you share, but if you want to give your blog a boost in the SERPs, you’ve also got to increase your content length.

No more 300- or 500-word posts, unless you’re also using an infographic on the same page. Instead, write in-depth articles of 2000 words or more, because recent content length affects rankings.

A graph from SERPIQ showing the average word count of content in the top 10 of SERPs.

98% of the articles that I publish on this blog hit that 2000-or-more word count. And, by being consistent with the creation of in-depth content that offers a lot of value, I’ve significantly improved my search rankings for several keywords. It also helps link building because there are simply more areas to redirect to. For example, I rank #4 for a highly targeted keyword, “blog traffic.” See for yourself:

A screenshot of Ubersuggest showing the keyword ranking for one of Neil Patel's pages.

Content freshness: The percentage of content, within a page, that remains fresh, has an effect on the site’s rankings. Google takes freshness very seriously.

As a result of this, Google now prefers fresh content, breaking news and other recent content updates that deal with trends.

When it comes to on-page SEO, you may be wondering how Google scores fresh content. Well, according to Amit Singhal, “different searches have different freshness needs.”

A graphic showing a scoreboard with the words "Freshness score."

Freshness as a ranking factor isn’t new. Over the years, even before the Document Scoring Based on Document Content Update, which Google’s engineers filed a patent for in 2003, the Google search engine had scored content based on freshness for many years.

Naturally, some search terms or keywords require fresh content or insight. For example, when you’re looking for a hosting coupon code for 2019, it’d be utterly useless to find a coupon code that was generated in 2017 or 2018 and was only good for those years.

Singhal described the categories of keywords that will most likely require fresh content:

Hot trends: These are things that are happening right now, all around the world. Those in the gaming niche usually publish recent or upcoming games for a particular month. Some other keywords for hot trends can be found at Google.com/trends:

A typical example of an authority site that will benefit from a Google freshness reward is Mashable. This popular site constantly publishes fresh content, based on what’s hot in the fields of entertainment, technology, startups, business, education, and politics. Its on-page SEO checklist focuses on gossip or news keyword phrase items.

Recurring events: Events that take place every month, every quarter, every year, etc., can also lead to an increased freshness score because such content requires constant updating.  These keywords are recurring:

  • AT&T earnings
  • NFL scores
  • The Voice contestants

Frequent information update: Some other keywords that are searched for in Google require frequent updates. For example: best dslr cameras and top fitness programs.

These three yardsticks are important to Google when scoring a web page for freshness. But, don’t forget that Google also gauges the freshness of a web page based on the date Google discovered it. Over time, this freshness fades and new content with a newer inception date replaces the older piece.

So, what are you supposed to do for your site, in order to boost its freshness score and ultimately attract more search traffic?

First, you’ve got to consistently publish fresh content.

If you can, publish daily and make sure that you share helpful tips for your target audience. If you’re busy as I am, then publishing two times a week will ensure that your web pages are fresh and attract fresh crawls from Google’s spider, as well as deep bots that will sustain your indexed pages.

Research shows that Google prefers to serve up fresh results to users when they search for a keyword. To get around this preference, some people use blackhat SEO tricks to manipulate web page freshness, like changing the implementation date on older articles and pages.

This might work, but it’s very risky and it’s not sustainable. Avoid taking shortcuts that may seem promising. Why would you want to manipulate freshness and inception dates, only to risk your page getting penalized by Google?

Content engagement: The word “engagement,” in this context, means the state of interactivity. The true test of high-quality content is the engagement that it creates. When you’re conscious of engaging your audience, you’ll most likely create the right content for them. Search engines love this.

A graphic showing the different varieties of content engagement.

This initial on-page optimization will align a piece of content with the user’s needs. If you’re going to attract the right clients to your business, you’ve got to focus on engaging your prospects.

Brandon Dennis, of Scotch and Smoke Rings, increased his Facebook engagement by 200%, using Buffer. He created focused news that his audience would enjoy, then shared it with them at the exact time that they wanted it.

He did some research to find out the best times to post on Facebook and Twitter and found this infographic.

An infographic showing best practices for timing Twitter posts.

By being consistent with the right social media timing, he increased interactions on Facebook from 150 per day to over 700. That’s a 367% increase in engagement.

Content writing tools: An integral part of on-page SEO is content. You have to give it your full attention. However, you need to automate some writing tasks, because speed matters, when seeking to increase your search rankings. Some of the best tools out there to speed up your content creation are:

Ubersuggest: This is one of my favorite tools for finding high-volume, high-converting long-tail keywords. It’s a simple four-step process:

Step #1: Enter Your Seed Keyword and Click “Search”

Ubersuggest's keyword entry form.

Step #2: Click “Keyword Ideas” in the Left Sidebar

The left sidebar of Ubersuggest.

Step #3: Review the Keyword Ideas.

A keyword ideas report from Ubersuggest.

I always start with the keywords provided, but you can also click one of four tabs located next to “suggestions.”

  • Related
  • Questions
  • Prepositions
  • Comparisons

For example, I love using the questions filter, as it gives me a better idea of what my target audience is searching for:

The questions filter for the Keyword Ideas report of Ubersuggest.

Step #4: Click on a Keyword

After you find a keyword that piques your interest, click on it for a detailed report:

A detailed keyword overview from Ubersuggest

This shows you the top 100 URLs that rank for the keyword when you search for it on Google. It also provides:

  • Estimated visits – the estimated monthly traffic the page gets for the given keyword
  • Links – the number of incoming backlinks from other websites
  • Domain score – the overall strength of the website, from 1 (low) to 100 (high)
  • Social shares – the total number of times the URL was shared on social media

You can use this data to decide if a keyword is worth targeting. For example, you now know if you rank in the #1 spot for “content marketing examples” that it’ll bring you an average of 303 visitors per month.

Once you’re done with the above, click “Content Ideas” in the left sidebar. Doing so displays popular blog posts related to the keyword, which can provide both ideas and inspiration.

Popular blog posts related to a given keyword in Ubersuggest.

Take for example the third title above: 29 Essential Content Marketing Metrics.

Think about ways to improve upon this title and content, such as:

  • 59 Essential Content Marketing Metrics
  • 37 Must-See Content Marketing Metrics
  • 100 Content Marketing Stats that’ll Shock You

You get the point. Now that you know what’s working, create better content with the idea of outranking your competitors.

HubSpot blog topic generator: This is one of my favorite content writing tools. When you’re stuck and don’t know what to write about on your blog, just enter a few nouns or seed keywords. Then, click on “Give Me Blog Topics!”

HubSpot's blog ideas generator tool.

HubSpot will generate 5 blog post headline ideas or prompts that will keep you busy for a week. If you want, you could tweak the headline ideas or, if you’re pressed for time, just use them as they are. I find that the prompts are usually attention-grabbing and prepped for search engine success. Take a look at the results:

A set of blog ideas generated by HubSpot.

nTopic: Relevance is a key ranking factor. If you want to make on-page search optimization a lot easier, then your internal links, inbound links, and content in particular must be relevant to your topic. Link building is another important search engine ranking tool.

However, if you’re not sure whether the topic or keyword that you want to write a post on is relevant, nTopic.org is a simple SEO tool that you can use.

On the homepage, plug your blog URL and topic (e.g., social media marketing) into the appropriate boxes. Click the “score” button.

nTopic's home page.

You can find a huge list or other content writing tools here, as well as content marketing tools to make your search optimization efforts more successful.

4. Optimizing Crawlability

SEO is not complicated at all. In fact, people who generate the most results aren’t operating at a higher plane than the rest of us – they simply work harder on the basic elements. If you want SEO explained simply, there are 3 crucial factors:

  • Crawlability
  • Content
  • Link building

If you’re not familiar with “crawlability,” a quick search on Google will help, straight from the Google Knowledge Graph:

A Google search result for the definition of crawlable.

You’ve got to recognize that search spiders are not as intelligent as they’ve been portrayed to be by most SEOs.

If your link is broken and spiders can’t crawl your web page easily as a result, trust me – they’re not programmed to go looking for the right link. They’ll simply stop there – and you know what comes next, don’t you? Poor performance in the search engine results because of inattention to link building.

SEO was never a “set it and forget it” proposition and it never will be. It’s a continuous learning process, wherein you put yourself in the shoes of your customers and create remarkable content that they want to read.

Remember, remarkable content will only improve your search rankings, if it triggers high engagement and sharing, on both mobile and desktop platforms.

Also, interlinking internal blog pages is an important step toward improving your site’s crawlability. Remember, search engine spiders follow links. It’s much easier for them to pick up your fresh content page from a link on your homepage than by searching high and low for it. Spending time on link building knowing how spiders perform can improve search engine results.

You should also know that there are some case studies pointing to the fact that improving the crawlability of your web pages can boost rankings.

Remember if you have duplicate content on there for a reason, you need to let the spiders know not to index it to then avoid a search engine penalty. Something like a disclaimer on every page might be perceived as duplicate content and needs to be addressed so you still have the right information where you need it and not lose search engine juice.

He made his fresh content easily accessible in one month. Little changes like this could mean a lot in your organic traffic and personal branding.

Having seen the importance of making your content pages easy to find (crawlable), let’s look at some simple ways to go about making it happen.

Your URL Structure: The URL – Universal Resource Locator – is the address of the web page on your site. It’s an important SEO best practice. So, why are there no ultimate guides for structuring your URLs?

Don’t change the URL of your older posts. If you do, it’ll cause a broken link, because your web page will no longer be accessible, when users click the URL that was initially specified.

Blog page URLs are meant to provide some information and meaningful experience to humans and computers alike. This is why we don’t use binary numbers or IP addresses, but rather real words, in our URLs.

Structuring the page URL has been a controversial topic in the blogosphere. Most people believe that you should make it shorter, while others prefer it to be long – like having the whole headline in their URL.

Since the rules aren’t set in stone, the best way to structure your URL is to see how the authority sites are doing it. You can have your category come before the keywords that you’re targeting, the way that HubSpot does:

A look at HubSpot's preferred URL structure for pages.

Or, you can model Copyblogger, which doesn’t use the category for structuring the URL of any web page. Instead, they simply add the 3 keywords that the headline revolves around:

A look at Copyblogger's preferred URL structure for pages.

Brent Carnduff recommends that, when you write your URL, you should make it 3 – 5 words separated by a hyphen (-), not an underscore (_).

In all, both long and short, keyword-rich, generic URLs do well in the search engine results pages (SERPs), especially when the content is useful and easy to implement.

Write URLs that will further educate the reader on what you’re talking about. Though I use all my headlines in the page URL, I don’t recommend this because it’s too long for readers to memorize and recall. For example, could you memorize the URL of this post?

It’s much easier for the user to memorize and tell others about this particular web page because the URL is short and contains just the 3 words representing the main topic of the article:

A sample Copyblogger URL.

Above all, your URL should first and foremost be self-explanatory. In other words, the user shouldn’t need anyone to interpret what you’ve published on that page. Make it clear and avoid spelling errors.

Crawl Error Resolution: In the process of doing on-page user optimization to attract the attention of search engine spiders, there may be a crawl error encountered.

Remember that the SEO process is one of continuous improvement of your landing pages, content, architecture, and audience. So, whatever error you discover, don’t panic – just let it motivate you to do what needs to be done.

If you go to Google Webmaster Tools (now Search Console) and click on the “Health” tab at the top left, then hover over crawl errors, you may see something like this:

These errors typically mean that your web pages were not easily accessible when the bot visited a link to your site or came directly to your site.

Google Search Console's site crawl errors report.

It might even be caused by an error in the robot.txt file.

When I say, “come to your site,” I’m not referring to the way people do it. The way bots visit a web page is quite different. That makes sense because they’re advanced programs written to scour the entire web, looking for fresh web pages and links to add to their index.

When you find crawl error messages, it means that other sites can’t get access to some of your web pages. This is a mess.  The faster you resolve it, the better off you’ll be.

If you get a “not found” error, it can be resolved in a similar manner, with a slight difference.

A list of reasons for 404 errors.

5. Mobile-Friendly (Responsive)

When Google Panda was rolled out, many sites didn’t take it seriously. And, consequently, they paid dearly. For example, eBay lost 80% of its prime rankings. It was a big loss.

The moral of the story: Before a new update jumps out at you unexpectedly, you have to prepare for it.

April 21, 2015 was a happy day for mobile users. Google gave them a gift, by setting up standards that force every site owner to consider mobile users. It was predicted that the update could affect over 40% of Fortune 500 websites.

Those who weren’t prepared got dinged in search rankings. One legal software company with a responsive design saw an initial decrease in rankings, but then a substantial rise, a week after:

A Google Analytrics graph showing sessions progression.

Box Office Mojo, on the other hand, didn’t have a mobile-friendly site. When the update was released, their search rankings and visibility tanked:

A graph showing a major drop in Mobile SEO for BoxOfficeMojo.

Searchmetrics compiled a list of authority sites that lost and those that gained from the mobile update. Here are some of them:

A list of sites that lost Mobile SEO visbility after a major Google update.

Trust me, the passion that Google has for mobile users will only increase in the future. That’s because mobile usage is only going up.

The purpose of all of the statistics above is to help you understand the opportunities available with mobile.

The reason why you should include responsiveness in your on-page SEO checklist to pay attention to is that the majority of your users will access your site from their mobile devices.

You’ve got to organize your site for mobile users. You can always check whether or not your blog/site is responsive, through Google’s mobile-friendliness test tool. Just plug your site URL into the search box, then click the “Test URL” button:

The interface for Google's mobile-friendly testing tool.

My blog is mobile-friendly. If yours isn’t, you’ll get this result:

A result showing a site is not-mobile friendly from Google's tool.

FAQs

What is an example of on-page SEO?

On-page SEO can be as simple as incorporating primary keywords in your headers. Focus these keywords in your <h1> and <h2>. This concept can be applied to other content elements like alt text, meta descriptions, or page URLs, to name a few. So, if your keyword is ‘father’s day gifts,’ center the piece around ‘10 Father’s Day Gifts Dad Will Love.’ Making it feel like a gift guide will allow you to be seen as a subject matter expert to users and an SEO expert with Google. You’ll see how these placements reflect in your results.

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On-page SEO can be as simple as incorporating primary keywords in your headers. Focus these keywords in your <h1> and <h2>. This concept can be applied to other content elements like alt text, meta descriptions, or page URLs, to name a few. So, if your keyword is ‘father’s day gifts,’ center the piece around ‘10 Father’s Day Gifts Dad Will Love.’ Making it feel like a gift guide will allow you to be seen as a subject matter expert to users and an SEO expert with Google. You’ll see how these placements reflect in your results.


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Why is on-page SEO important?

Implementing on-page SEO ensures Google is informed about your site and how you add value to its visitors. The content you create and publish should be optimized for both human users and search engine bots. In order to rank high and draw in new potential customers, making adjustments strengthens your on-page SEO.

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Implementing on-page SEO ensures Google is informed about your site and how you add value to its visitors. The content you create and publish should be optimized for both human users and search engine bots. In order to rank high and draw in new potential customers, making adjustments strengthens your on-page SEO.


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Conclusion

A while ago, I wrote a post titled “The Ultimate Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet,” in which my goal was to give you an overview, as well as the exact steps, of how to build a content-driven blog that will generate the right leads for you.

I’ve taken the same approach with this in-depth article. However, if you don’t remember everything mentioned here, just keep in mind the true purpose of on-page SEO: to educate, inspire and guide your users properly, as they navigate your site.

Get your site ready, before going out there to build authority inbound links, because the foundation is what matters most when it comes to SEO.  Always study your Google webmaster tools and analytics, as both will educate you on what your ideal customers truly want from your site.

Both B2B and B2C marketers are beginning to realize the need to implement basic SEO practices. You need to commit yourself to the process, not just to the results that you’re after.

You’ll learn a lot more with that mindset than you could ever learn just by getting the top rank in Google.

Have you implemented any of these on-page search engine optimization hacks? What was your result?

Sirum (YC Nonprofit) Is Hiring Mission-Driven Engineers

SIRUM is making medications affordable for all. We’re a small (~35 person) but quickly growing team that’s passionate about our mission of reimagining healthcare access for those in need. We like to work hard, solve tough problems, and are determined to improve healthcare access for families who have trouble affording the medications they need to stay healthy.
We’re currently hiring for both our Palo Alto and Atlanta Offices, as well as some fully remote roles. We have opportunities for lead software developers (and other roles like operations, sales, communication) and are especially interested in anyone with fast-growth startup experience. If you want to work in healthcare, love mission-driven work, and thrive in a startup environment, then we may be a good fit. Check out our open roles at https://sirum.org/about-us/#section-431-66


Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32590497

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Ashby (YC W19, B) Hiring Engineers Who Want to Own Product/Design

Article URL: https://www.ashbyhq.com/careers?utm_source=hn

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32604108

Points: 1

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Judge announces 'preliminary intent to appoint a special master' to review Trump records seized by FBI

FIRST ON FOX: A federal judge on Saturday announced its “preliminary intent to appoint a special master” to review records seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, at the request of former President Trump and his legal team, citing the “exceptional circumstances.” 

Trump and his legal team filed a motion Monday evening seeking an independent review of the records seized by the FBI during its raid of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, saying the decision to search his private residence just months before the 2022 midterm elections “involved political calculations aimed at diminishing the leading voice in the Republican Party, President Trump.”

U.S. District Judge from the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen M. Cannon on Saturday afternoon said that the decision was made upon the review of Trump’s submissions and “the exceptional circumstances presented.”

“Pursuant to Rule 53(b) (1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Court’s inherent authority, and without prejudice to the parties’ objections, the Court hereby provides notice of its preliminary intent to appoint a special master in this case,” Cannon wrote in a filing Saturday.

FBI SAID IT HAD ‘PROBABLE CAUSE’ TO BELIEVE ADDITIONAL CLASSIFIED DOCS REMAINED AT MAR-A-LAGO, AFFIDAVIT SAYS

A hearing is set for Sept. 1 at 1:00 p.m. in West Palm Beach, Fla. Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to file a response by Aug. 30 and provide, “under seal,” a “more detailed Receipt for Property specifying all property seized pursuant to the search warrant executed on August 8, 2022.”

The current property receipt shows that FBI agents took approximately 20 boxes of items from the premises, including one set of documents marked as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” which refers to top secret/sensitive compartmented information.

Records covered by that government classification level could potentially include human intelligence and information that, if disclosed, could jeopardize relations between the U.S. and other nations, as well as the lives of intelligence operatives abroad. However, the classification also encompasses national security information related to the daily operations of the president of the United States.

The property receipt also showed that FBI agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents and three sets of confidential documents, but the document does not reveal any details about any of those records.

DOJ ‘TAINT TEAM’ EXAMINING TRUMP MAR-A-LAGO DOCUMENTS

The government initiated the search in response to what it believed to be a violation of federal laws: 18 USC 793 — gathering, transmitting or losing defense information; 18 USC 2071 — concealment, removal or mutilation; and 18 USC 1519 — destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations.

The allegation of “gathering, transmitting or losing defense information” falls under the Espionage Act.

Trump and his team are disputing the classification and say they believe the information and records to have been declassified.

Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to file under seal a “particularized notice indicating the status” of its review of the seized property, “including any filter review conducted by the privilege review team and any dissemination of materials beyond the privilege review team.”

Cannon also said that the Justice Department should include in its filings its “respective and particularized positions on the duties and responsibilities of a prospective special master, along with any other considerations pertinent to the appointment of a special master in this case.” 

Trump’s motion for a special master filed Monday evening, requested that the Justice Department halt its ongoing review of the material seized by the FBI during the raid — some labeled classified, and others covered by attorney-client privilege — until an independent review could be conducted.

At this point, a Department of Justice “taint” or “filter” team has been reviewing documents seized by the FBI during its raid.

A senior law enforcement official familiar with the process told Fox News that the review began soon after the search warrant was executed on Aug. 8.

The official told Fox News that it is standard procedure for the Justice Department to use a “taint” or “filter” team to go through documents obtained during a search — in part, to identify records that may be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Fox News first reported earlier this month that FBI agents seized boxes containing records covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege during the raid.

TRUMP FILES MOTION SEEKING INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF DOCS SEIZED DURING FBI RAID ON MAR-A-LAGO

Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Saturday that the former president’s team was informed that boxes labeled A-14, A-26, A-43, A-13, A-33, and a set of documents — all seen on the final page of the FBI’s property receipt — contained information covered by attorney-client privilege.

Attorney-client privilege refers to a legal privilege that keeps communications between an attorney and their client confidential. It is unclear, at this point, if the records include communications between the former president and his private attorneys, White House counsel during the Trump administration or a combination. 

The ruling Saturday comes after another federal judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, released a redacted version of the affidavit used to justify the FBI’s raid. 

The FBI, in the heavily-redacted affidavit, said it had “probable cause to believe” that additional records containing classified information, including National Defense Information, would be found on the premises of Mar-a-Lago, beyond what he had previously turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. 

Reinhart signed the FBI’s warrant for the raid on Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 5, giving the FBI authority to conduct its search–a document Reinhart unsealed, along with the property receipt from the raid earlier this month. 

Princess Diana's custom Ford Escort sells at auction for more than $850,000

Princess Diana’s custom 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo Series 1 car sold at auction Saturday for more than $850,000.

Ordered and specifically made for the late Princess of Wales, the black hatchback vehicle was only used for a few years until it was returned to the manufacturer with fewer than 6,800 miles on it.

“The car is believed to be unique as the first and only black RS Turbo Series 1,” according to the Silverstone Auction house.

PRINCESS DIANA’S CUSTOM FORD ESCORT RS HOT HATCHBACK IS BEING AUCTIONED

She owned the two-door vehicle beginning in 1985 while she was married to Prince Charles and was famously seen driving Prince William around town in the back seat.

The Escort was fitted with a regular, five-slat front grille to “assist in the stealth makeover and a secondary rear view mirror for the protection officer with a radio in the glove box.” 

PRINCESS DIANA’S 1981 FORD ESCORT AUCTIONED FOR $65,000

The vehicle racked up a few thousand more miles under different owners before being returned to the manufacturer, with a total of 24,961 miles.

The five-speed manual transmission with 130 horsepower made for a fast drive, and was sold for 724,000 pounds.

“Notwithstanding its very special provenance, this Escort RS Turbo Series 1 is an outstanding example in its own right, subject to nut and bolt detailing to a Concours standard,” Silverstone added.

Diana tragically died following a vehicle collision while in Paris, France, with boyfriend Dodi Fayed nearly 25 years ago on Aug. 31, 1997. She was 36 years old at the time of her death. 

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She was operated on for two hours at La Pitie Salpertiere Hospital, but doctors couldn’t get her heart beating again. She died from the internal bleeding that she sustained from the injuries. 

Her full name was Diana Frances Spencer. 

She was formerly known as Lady Diana Frances Spencer but upon her marriage to Prince Charles, became Diana, Princess of Wales. 

While she was married to Prince Charles from 1981-1996, she gave birth to two sons, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. 

Fox News’ Ashlyn Messier contributed to this report.

Hamilton 'definitely won't miss' Mercedes' 2022 car

Lewis Hamilton is looking forward to seeing the back of his current Mercedes car after admitting Ferrari and Red Bull were in a “different league” during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The post Hamilton 'definitely won't miss' Mercedes' 2022 car appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Leclerc: Red Bull found something impressive

Charles Leclerc is concerned Ferrari’s rival Red Bull has found a significant step in performance after Max Verstappen qualified over 0.7s clear of the rest of the field at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The post Leclerc: Red Bull found something impressive appeared first on Buy It At A Bargain – Deals And Reviews.

Content Optimization: A Step-by-Step Guide

Is your content not getting the results it deserves?

Unfortunately, in today’s ultra-competitive, crowded SERPs, creating great content isn’t enough. You need to optimize it effectively if you want it to rank and sell.

That doesn’t just mean optimizing content for Google. You also need to optimize your content for readability and for conversions.

Confused? This is the guide for you. I’ll show you a step-by-step guide for optimizing your content. We’ll cover:

  • what content optimization is
  • why you need content optimization
  • how to optimize your content for SEO
  • how to optimize your content for readability and style
  • how to optimize your content for conversions
  • common optimization mistakes

Ready? Let’s begin.

What Is Content Optimization?

Content optimization is the practice of updating and improving your content so it has the best possible chance of achieving its goals. That goal could be ranking in Google, but it could also be converting readers into customers or acquiring backlinks. In many cases, it’s a combination of several of these metrics.

Why Do You Need Content Optimization?

From an SEO standpoint, content optimization is essential if you want to rank. You might have written the best article in the world from a reader’s perspective. But if you don’t optimize content for Google, it won’t rank.

Getting your content to rank in Google has many additional benefits. These include:

  • earning backlinks
  • growing your audience
  • increasing leads
  • building trust

Optimizing your content for readability improves audience engagement and helps your brand to build trust with readers. It can also help to position your brand as an authority. It’s a lot easier to trust a brand that clearly puts time into content creation compared to one that puts out barely legible content.

Optimizing content for conversions is critical if you want to squeeze as much money out of your efforts as possible. You’ll never write the best-converting piece of copy the first time around, which is why tweaking your headings, targeting new keywords, and improving your CTA is vital. In addition, goals for conversion may change over time, and you want to make sure your content adapts with them.

How To Optimize Content For SEO

Improving your content’s rankings is the primary reason for content optimization. So let’s start by looking at how to optimize content for SEO.

Keyword Research

Optimizing content for SEO starts with keyword research. You need to make sure you’re targeting a keyword that

  1. has traffic potential
  2. you can rank for

Ubersuggest is one of the best ways to find suitable keywords. Use the Keyword Ideas tool to enter a seed keyword and get a list of relevant keywords along with their potential volume and SEO difficulty.

Keyword research from Ubersuggest for content optimization.

You’ll want to choose the keyword that best represents your content, but also has a decent amount of traffic and a realistic keyword difficulty. If your site is new, there’s little point optimizing for a term with an SEO difficulty in excess of 50. You’re fighting an uphill battle from the start.

You can also use this tool to find semantically related keywords that you should also use in your content. The more of these topics you include, the easier it will be for search engines to understand what your content is about.

Competitor Research

Once you have your keywords, it’s time to see what’s currently ranking on Google. In particular, you need to make sure your content aligns with what users are searching for. Luckily, that’s pretty easy to understand by analyzing each of the top-ranking results. Open them up and look at:

  • The page type: is it a blog post, an e-commerce page, or something else?
  • The format: is it a listicle, a how-to guide, or a review?
  • The content: Do the top pages write about the same thing? Do they all come at the topic in a similar way?

Don’t try to be unique here. If Google is prioritizing blog posts over e-commerce pages for a certain query, then you need to create a blog post. The same goes for the content’s format and angle. Understand what Google wants and then deliver it.

Don’t just create cookie-cutter content, however. By analyzing the content for each page, you can see what’s missing and find places to add your own perspective.

Integrate Keywords Into Your Content:

At the same time, you’re editing your content to align with Google’s preferred format, make sure you’re integrating your keywords into your content.

You should include keywords in the page’s:

  • title
  • meta description
  • H1 tag
  • image alt tags

You should also naturally include your main and related keywords throughout your copy. Be careful of keyword stuffing, however. Keyword stuffing is when you fill a webpage with a specific term. Not only does this provide a terrible user experience for your readers — who have to trip over the phrase every other sentence — but it will also get your site penalized by Google.

If in doubt, err on the side of caution and follow Google’s advice:

“Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.”

Add Internal and External Links

Internal linking is criminally overlooked when it comes to content optimization. The more internal links you have on your site, the easier search bots can crawl it, and the more link authority will be passed between pages.

Internal linking also makes it easier for humans to navigate your site.

When optimizing a page, list all related pages on your site and find a way to link to them naturally in the copy. Then go to each of these pages and make sure there is a link back to the page you’re optimizing.

How To Optimize Content For Style and Readability

Next, let’s look at how to improve your content from a human perspective. There’s no point in having an article that ranks well if users aren’t going to spend time reading it. At the same time, the more readers engage with your content, the better your rankings will be.

Improve Your Content’s Structure

Does your content look like a stream of consciousness, or is it carefully structured and easy to scan? If it’s more the former than the latter, then you’re going to need to reassess your content’s structure.

Luckily, improving your content’s structure and increasing visual comprehension is easily done:

  • Add a table of contents at the start of the post
  • Use bullet points to break up paragraphs
  • Use headings and subheadings
  • Add a takeaway sentence at the end of section

Add Images and Other Media

Another way to improve your content’s structure is to add images and videos to your content. Make sure the images are relevant and add to the content — in other words, limit the use of stock photos.

When you add images, improve your SEO by adding keyword-rich,descriptive titles and alt tags to all of them. But again, be careful of keyword-stuffing.

Imagine I’m writing an article about choosing the right sized moving truck and I want to include the following image:

A man in a truck helping unload it.

(image source)

Here’s a bad example of a title and description for this image.

Title: truck.png

Alt text: moving truck

Neither are particularly descriptive, despite including the keyword.

Here’s another bad example:

Title: moving truck.png

Alt text: moving truck image to find the right sized moving truck

This is a classic example of keyword-stuffing. The alt text has too many keywords that it becomes unreadable.

Here’s what the title and alt text should look lke

Title: loading-moving-truck.png

Alt text: Loading a moving truck with black crates

Both the title and alt text accurately describe the image and include a relevant keyword once. Were someone to use a screen reader on this image, they’d be able to imagine what it looks like fairly easily.

Optimize for Readability

If your users are spending their valuable time reading your content, make sure it’s a great experience.

There are lots of ways to improve your writing:

  • Use a spellchecker to eliminate errors.
  • Eliminate fluff like cliches and words like “that.”
  • Use short sentences and write as you speak.
  • Vary sentence length, so your copy isn’t monotonous.
  • Write in an engaging tone.

Tools like Hemingway, Grammarly, and Writer are fantastic additions to your arsenal when it comes to improving your content’s readability.

Grammarly and Writer are writing assistants that will improve your spelling, grammar, and clarity. Think of them as spellcheckers on steroids.

So not only will they highlight spelling mistakes and suggest places to add an Oxford comma, they’ll also offer style and tone suggestions.

In the example below, for instance, Grammarly suggests you replace “very helpful” with “constructive” because it’s a stronger and more concise alternative.

Using Grammarly to improve content.

Both platforms have their own app and can be integrated into common writing tools. Writer, for instance, offers add-ons for Chrome, Microsoft Word and Figma. Grammarly can be integrated into an even wider range of tools, including Gmail, Outlook, Slack, LinkedIn, Notion, Google Docs and even Salesforce.

Hemingway can also improve your grammar, but it excels in suggesting ways to make your copy bolder, more concise, and more engaging.

For instance, it highlights hard-to-read sentences, suggests simpler phrases, and gives your content a readability score. It won’t turn you into Heminway, but it can certainly help you write with more style.

Using Hemingway to optimize content.

How To Optimize Content For Conversions

Good content converts. But here’s how to create great content that converts.

Target Commercial Keywords and Topics

Choosing the right topic is the first step to driving sales with content. Just as you did when optimizing for SEO, make sure the keyword you’re targeting has a high user intent. You can use Ubersuggest to analyze keywords, but the following sources are also a great way to find suitable topics:

  • Reddit
  • Quora
  • Alexa
  • Buzzsumo

Bonus points if your product or service is relevant to the keywords. For instance, we can use the related questions tab on Quora to find a great list of blog topics for a company that sells kitchen knives.

Find suitable keywords and topics by using forums.

“Is a good chef knife worth it?” and “what is the best type of kitchen knife?” are great high-intent information-based topics that may be easier to rank for than a more general keyword like “best kitchen kife”.

Be Persuasive

There are several persuasive strategies you can use to make your copy much more enticing. These include:

  • Add social proof to show real people love your product.
  • Write in a friendly tone to get on your reader’s good side.
  • Show your product works through case studies.

If you can combine several of these points in a single piece of content, even better. Take this blog post about e-commerce website security by BigCommerce as an example:

A quote from Jason Simmons about fraud protection.

In a section about fraud protection, they include a quote from a store owner explaining how a specific app on the BigCommerce platform helped them reduce chargebacks after losing thousands of dollars in merchandise.

Not only does it show BigCommerce apps work, it also proves they are used by real retailers.

Improve your CTA

Every piece of high-converting content features at least one call-to-action. CTAs can take many forms. You could:

  • promote a free trial
  • encourage email sign ups
  • add links to relevant products

CTAs typically come at the end of a landing page or blog post, but they doen’t have to. Buffer, for instance, include an email signup CTA in the middle of their blog post.

An example of a strong CTA by Buffer.

Note how hard it is to miss and how far down it is on the page. That’s on purpose. If you’ve read this far, there’s a good chance you enjoy the content and will want to be updated whenever a new post goes live. This CTA wouldn’t be half as effective if it was used at the start of the article.

What Are Common Content Optimization Mistakes?

Now that we’ve looked at the three major methods you can use to optimize your content, let’s cover the most common content optimization mistakes I see time and again.

  • Not aligning content with search intent. Don’t just optimize your content for a specific keyword, optimize for the intent behind that keyword. If it’s an informational query, like “how to groom my puppy” make sure you write a how-to guide and don’t just sell your grooming tool.
  • Failing to improve the reader experience. Many site owners spend ages improving their content’s SEO, but give no thought to the reader experience. The result is a lot of traffic but a huge bounce rate and no conversions.
  • Not adding internal links. Internal links are an easy way to optimize a number of pages at once, yet they are criminally underused.
  • Not improving the content. Content optimization isn’t just about adding keywords. You also need to make sure you cover a topic in its totality to rank well.
  • Not deleting irrelevant content. At the same time, you should delete content that’s outdated.
  • Over-optimizing content. It’s possible to go too far and stuff your content full of keywords. Avoid this at all costs. Not only will Google penalize your site, but it will also create a poor user experience.

FAQs

What is content optimization?

Content optimization is the process of improving your content so that it ranks better on Google and is more digestible to human readers.

How do I optimize my content?

There are several ways to optimize your content. You can improve your content’s SEO so that it ranks better in Google. You can improve its structure and readability so that it’s more engaging. And you can improve its sales elements like the CTA so that it converts more readers.

Why is content optimization important?

Content optimization offers a ton of benefits. It can bring better rankings, a larger audience, more backlinks and help you build trust. 

Conclusion

Optimizing your content is essential if you want it to be read and drive conversions.. A well-optimized mediocre article will always perform better than a poorly optimized but well-written article.

So make sure you optimize your content for the right keywords, use tools like Grammarly and Hemingway to improve your copy and, and think about ways you can improve your copy’s conversion rate.

Do all three, and you’ll have a killer piece of content that ranks well, engages readers, and sells.

How are you going to optimize your content?

New comment by gnanesh in "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (August 2022)"

  Location: India
  Remote: Yes
  Willing to relocate: Yes
  Résumé: gnanesh.me/resume.pdf
  Email: gnaneshkunal@outlook.com
  Github: https://github.com/GnaneshKunal
  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gnanesh-kunal/
  Technologies: Python, Golang, Typescript, Rust, React, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Postgres, Cypher Query, Distributed Systems, Cloud computing, OpenTelemetry, Google Cloud, Reverse Engineering, Distributed Tracing

I have been doing Golang, TypeScript and Python professionally, mostly targeting Backend development. I have led JavaScript to Typescript migration of frontend and took complete responsibility to add multiple enterprise backend modules with test driven approach. Furthermore, I tend to be a T-shaped person with the core in full-stack/backend and consistently learning leadership skills. I understand database internals and actively contribute to Redis ecosystem. Properly skilled with distributed technologies and cloud native patterns. Currently working for a fintech company. I have multiple independent contractor experience spanning from desktop & web application development to reverse engineering mobile applications. I also contribute to OSS during my free time.
Please mention HN while connecting with me.