On-Page Optimization Strategies That Still Work In 2021 – CanIRank Blog

On-Page Optimization Strategies That Still Work In 2021

“My content is pretty good, so why isn’t it ranking?”

Any SEO worth their salt has fielded this question from a client.
And truthfully, it can be a hard one to answer concisely. There are lots of reasons that a website doesn’t rank.
But the quality of your content absolutely shouldn’t be one of them.

The Good News: You can easily improve the quality and “ Google-ability” of your content – with optimization.

Content optimizations are one of the most valuable SEO tactics in the toolkit. With accurate data, basic technical understanding and a focused approach to copy edits, you gain the valuable Page 1 real estate that delivers high-quality traffic to your site.

Sounds straightforward, but…

The Bad News: While some of the world’s most popular SEO blogs dedicate a lot of digital copy to optimizations best practices – 99% of that content isn’t sharing the key secret that makes the difference between time wasted, or a real ROI.

The secret? On-Page Optimizations aren’t one-size-fits-all.

Some website pages are key to your sales funnel, requiring a specialized optimization that incorporates Conversion Rate Optimization and UX (user experience) improvements. Other pages may need a content refresh to ‘tip’ them over the edge from Page 2 to Page 1. And still other pages, such as Category pages for an Ecommerce store, may require adding new content to better target the variety of keywords that will drive motivated buyers to your online store. This post will focus on site and blog content optimization.

On-Page Optimization in 2021

Everyone who’s studied even a little bit of SEO tends to think they already know on-page optimization, but many common techniques are based on outdated understanding of Google’s relevancy algorithms. In recent years, modern AI techniques such as deep learning and BERT have rapidly evolved Google’s understanding of content and created the need for an entirely new set of on-page optimization best practices.

Still think your on-page SEO is fine and links are what you’re really missing?

Many CanIRank Full Service clients think that too, but after applying this process to “already optimized” pages we typically see an improvement of ranking positions without any link building. For example, Third Wave Analytics’ ranking for ‘ lims system’ (1,300 searches a month, $5,580 value) jumped 90 positions and added 35 new rankings after optimization.

What is on-page optimization?

Modern on-page SEO, or on-page optimization, is all about reinforcing the meaning of a given page by including keywords, related terms and entities in the right places. It’s part copywriting, and part technical knowledge – and it results in comprehensive, engaging content that ranks higher in search results.

A thorough On-Page SEO approach includes keyword research to identify the most valuable target keyword, the addition of related terms to increase semantic relevancy, and understanding where to place these keywords and terms into the content.

An important distinction: On-page optimization is not keyword-stuffing. This outdated approach of including a target keyword in a scattershot, ‘more is better’ approach no longer works. Since 2013, with the release of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update, a greater emphasis is placed on contextual language to ensure that Google’s users are finding the results that are best suited for their query.

Using AI for Content Optimizations

Good data is a powerful tool. It can reveal opportunities your competitors are missing and streamline research activities that previously ate up time and resources.

CanIRank’s software provides insights into which words and phrases search engines consider most relevant to the target concept, as well as which variations to include. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, the ‘Improve My Content’ tool zeroes in on exactly what’s working for ranking content.

Why is on-page SEO important?

On-page SEO is important because, unlike other SEO tactics, the quality of the content on your website is something you control. With content optimization, the ball is in your court. You can use data to inform what elements on a page to change, where you should include keywords and related terms and how much, if any, additional content should be added.

How do you do on-page SEO?

To do optimizations well, it helps to know the elements that the Google crawler is looking at. You should include your target keyword, related terms and entities in these important places:

Page Title: should start with your primary keyword and any other relevant text that you can fit into 55 characters.
Meta Description: should start with your primary keyword and a concise description of the page content to ‘pitch’ your site to searchers. This element has a character limit of roughly 150 characters.
H1: the headline of your page. Every page should have one – and only one – H1. This is like the neon sign to Google of what this page is talking about, and should include your primary keyword.
H2s, H3s, etc.: These are subheaders, and should include secondary keywords and related terms.
Img alt: You can use keywords and related terms for img alts, but be mindful that the intent of img alt is to provide a descriptor in the event that the image can’t be seen.
Bold/Italicized content: Google’s crawler sees content that is bolded or italicized as more important than normal text.
Anchor text: Include your keyword or related terms in the anchor text.

On-Page Optimization, Step by Step

Before we dive into specific optimizations strategies, it’s important to understand how to optimize your existing content using CanIRank’s Improve My Rankings tool.

In the Improve My Rankings tool, add the keyword(s) you’d like to rank for and the URL of the content you’re optimizing into the respective fields. Then click ‘Analyze my page’.
The tool will crawl the sites that are currently ranking on Page 1 for your target keyword(s) and display those findings in a detailed report.
Filter for the URL to avoid keyword cannibalization.
Once you’ve chosen your target keyword, click on the keyword to open up the detailed report.
Review the ‘related terms’ list, and incorporate these terms into your content.
Include your target keyword, but don’t overdo it.
Answering ‘common’ questions is the fast track to ranking.
Ensure that your content is comprehensive, in comparison to existing rankers.
Use data to make better marketing decisions.
Track your progress.

What on-site content should I optimize first?

Different pages on your website have different levels of importance. For example, your homepage is more weighty, in terms of site hierarchy than a mid-level, or ‘pillar’ page that shares specific details about your product or service.

In terms of prioritization, it’s tempting to focus all your initial optimization efforts on your most powerful pages. But these pages – whether homepage or pillar – target some of the most valuable keywords in your industry – so you may find it challenging to get these pages to rank quickly.

Instead focus your efforts on a specific topic area. Choose a pillar page to optimize first, and then two or three related blog posts.

Page Optimization Processes

Because not all pages are equal, different pages will require different optimizations processes to maximize your effort. Knowing which processes to use and when will help you get the most out of your content marketing efforts.