11 of the Best On-Page SEO Techniques for 2019 Share: One & Zero The Marketing Trend Date Published 5 March 2019 Categories Blog Reading Time 5-Minute Read On-Page SEO is perhaps the most critical part of improving your site’s search traffic. Over the past few years, Google has released several algorithm updates. On Page SEO is perhaps the most critical part of improving your site’s search traffic. Over the past few years, Google has released several algorithm updates (Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird). Due to these updates, SEO experts all around the world have had to modify their on-page SEO tactics to reclaim their former search engine rankings. When it comes to on-page SEO, I’m sure you know the importance of keyword density and meta description. 1) Use Canonical URLs to Avoid Content Duplication A canonical URL (an HTML link tag with attribute rel=canonical) allows you to tell search engines that certain similar URLs are actually one and the same. Sometimes you may have content that is accessible under multiple URLs or websites. Using a canonical URL, you can ensure that the content exists on multiple URLs without affecting your search rankings. 2) Add LSI Keywords to Your Content Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are “synonyms and closely-related terms”. Google uses LSI keywords to evaluate a page’s relevancy and quality. In other words, when you include LSI keywords in your content, you help search engines determine what your page is all about. How do you find these LSI keywords? Just give a Google search and scroll down to the bottom of the page to see “Related Searches”. 3) Increase CTR with Schema Markup Schema markup is SEO’s latest evolution, but it’s rarely used despite being a powerful Google ranking signal. According to Search metrics, only 0.3 of all websites use schema markup. This means that there are tons of websites missing out on boosting their SEO score. So what exactly is a schema markup? Schema markup is a code that you put on your website to help search engines return more informative results for users. In other words, schema markups can offer rich snippets in Google’s search results which in turn can boost your SEO as well as your CTR. 4) Delete Older Blog Posts A pretty controversial tip, but this trend of deleting older, irrelevant posts seems to be catching on. SEO experts such as Brian Dean of Backlinko and Rand Fishkin of Moz recommend that you delete older, mediocre posts which aren’t bringing you much search traffic. Oftentimes these posts are short and sweet 100-400 word blog posts which lose out to 2000-5000 word articles which are detailed and informative. 5) Use Short, Keyword-Rich URLs Google and other search engines prefer shorter URLs over longer ones. Shorter URLs are also good from a user experience perspective. It’s also a pretty good idea to include your focus keywords in the URL. This is because: Keywords in the URL give an indication to users who see your URL on social media, in an email, etc. and get a fair idea of what kind of content they can expect by clicking on it. URLs get copied and posted regularly. When there’s no anchor text used in a link, the URL itself serves as that anchor text (yet another powerful ranking signal). Keywords in the URL show up in search results. According to research, URL is one of the most prominent elements users consider when selecting which site to click. 6) Put Your Keyword Early In Your Title Tag Title tags are displayed on SERPs as the clickable headline for a given search result. As such, they are incredibly important from an SEO perspective. The title tag of your page should be an accurate description of your page’s content and should be within 60 characters. 7) Treat Image Alt-Text Like Meta Description Google and other search engines can’t see what’s in an image. Instead, they use the image filename and alt-text to understand what’s in an image. That’s why you should include keywords in your image alt-text. To avoid keyword stuffing simply write your alt text like you’d write a meta description of 156 characters for your content. 8) Use SEMrush to Fix Your Site Errors If you really value the SEO of your website, you should run a site audit every month in order to identify and fix your site errors. 9) Use a Number in Your Title Tag Several industry reports have found that numbers in title tags significantly boost CTR. So whenever possible, include a number in your title tag. 10) Increase “Dwell Time” If a user clicks the back button immediately after landing on your site, it’s a sign of a low-quality page and Google is going to penalize you for it. Google and other search engines use “dwell time” to evaluate a site’s content quality. One way to increase dwell time is to publish long, informative content that engages your visitors to stay on the site longer. 11) Include Keyword Synonyms in H1 and H2 Tags Sometimes using a keyword too often can be detrimental to your site’s SEO. This is especially true if you repeat the keywords over and over in your H1, H2, H3 tags. So to avoid keyword stuffing, use synonyms of your focus keywords in H1 and H2 tags.