Top 4 On-page SEO elements that will continue to impact ranking

Over the years, we have witnessed and are witnessing a lot of changes in search, in terms of how people search, from where they are searching, and search engines as well. With social networking adding to the search dynamics, things have not been the same. Almost everyone can have a presence on the internet because it is easy to create pages from the free and user friendly platforms available to all.

However, what has not changed is the fact that a website needs to be visible, it needs to reach out to the target audience and then convince them to convert. Even if the initial awareness is driven through social networking campaigns, the website will still need to have a strong foundation in order to get ahead of the competition.

Listed below are some very basic and yet critical on-page SEO elements that have continued to impact search; in fact they have become even more critical now :

Title:

The most critical and yet the most ignored SEO element; the title of a page is the most important element because that is what tells a visitors what the page is about, it should be relevant and attractive. I still find many sites that do not use page titles. Since a page title is one of the first things a visitor gets to see on SERPs (Search Engine Raking Pages), should we not give it more thought to make it attractive and relevant?

Content:

Content being the meat of a website, it needs to be thought out and presented in the most optimized way. Decisions such as: Does the site need more written matter or visuals or a mix of both, what will the visitor want to know? These decisions should be based on the target customer and their requirements and optimized with the help of SEO. It should of course tie up with the end objective.The focus should be on creating content that is useful to the target customer and helps the business. Content should be managed on a continuous basis, dated content should be reviewed, rewritten, and revamped as and when needed. A content strategy based on the business objective is a must.

Website Design & Layout:

Why am I setting up a website?  What is the purpose? Is it to sell? Is it to increase awareness? What do I hope to achieve out of it? Having a web presence just because others have it, is not reason enough to have a website. A strong website objective is what will drive a website’s success since that is the starting point and pretty much everything else will depend upon it. It is absolutely essential that the business objective is clearly articulated to the team while designing and chalking out the web site architecture. Design and the layout of a site should be in tune with the website objective. Decisions such as internal links, reference links, and call to action words will need to be carefully considered keeping in mind the objective and SEO best practices.  A user-friendly, easy to navigate site is a basic requirement that cannot be compromised.

Images:

Visitors today want information faster. Images and infographics are becoming very popular because of the effective and easy ways by which images can say a lot with just some powerful texts and attractive visuals. Deciding on the placement, the design, the size of images are some of the most basic yet critical elements that needs careful consideration. SEO plays a very important part in optimizing images. Images can be optimized to attract and hold the attention of the potential customers and they should be optimized accordingly.

Lastly, trustworthiness of a website comes from its ability to speak to the potential customers sincerely. A website should make all efforts to help its potential customers; they should ensure that visitors find all the necessary information in order to take the final decision. Providing information such as FAQ, contact addresses, phone numbers, and security seals that they visitors recognize and trust will go a long way in establishing a strong presence …SEO has a large part to play in all these elements.

These elements of a website when backed by SEO best practices make for a very potent combination, and they will continue to impact search in a very positive way.

I will be interested to know your thoughts on this.