Are you a webmaster looking to improve your website’s rankings in the search engines? If so, then there’s a good chance you’ve read several articles that say you must build more links to your site. Most online communities put too much emphasis on link building as if it’s the be all and end all of SEO. While there is no question that links are one of the main factors Google and other search engines use when determining a site’s rankings, it is important that you don’t forget having great on-page optimization. Read on to learn more about the benefits of on-site SEO and what methods you can use on your site to improve its rankings.
Search engines have changed a lot over the past decade. There used to be a time when all you had to do was stuff keywords in your article and it will rank high for that specific keyword. Obviously, this wasn’t the best way to deliver the most relevant results to search engine users. Google tweaked its algorithm and introduced Panda, one of the biggest algorithms updates ever and the SEO landscape has never been the same again.
Essentially, Panda eliminated low-quality sites and pages that are ranking high in the search listings. This was followed shortly by the Hummingbird update. This was the time webmasters started to realize that Google is becoming better at determining what a webpage is about without having to depend on keywords appearing multiple times throughout the content. Your SEO consultant might even tell you to stop looking at exact match keywords altogether, explaining that Google is smart enough to know what your article is about even if it doesn’t contain your target keyword multiple times.
This is exactly the reason why it’s vital for you to practice good on-site optimization. Keywords are still important, but you do not have to sweat overusing keywords until you reach a certain keyword density percentage. Just make sure that you use them sparingly in your content and also incorporate LSI terms, which are basically related words or phrases that help search engines understand what the article talks about.
Many webmasters who aren’t ranking well in search engines think that their site simply lacks quality links. However, there’s a good chance that their site hit the Panda penalty filter. There are plenty of cases in which making changes to the article to reduce keyword density has helped improve rankings. It is also important to understand that on-site SEO isn’t all about keywords. The overall structure of your site can have an impact on your rankings. Because of all the factors, you need to look at; it pays to work with an SEO consultant who takes a comprehensive approach to improving your rankings.
It is highly recommended that you plan the structure of your site from the very beginning. The structure of your URLs, category pages, silos, sidebars, and other design elements must be planned out well in advance to prevent making changes that might hurt your website’s rankings in the long run. All these things influence the search engine crawlers. The rule of thumb is to optimize your website in such a way that both your visitors and search engine bots would understand what your content is about and be able to navigate through your site with ease.
Before you hire an SEO consultant, be sure to have a more in-depth look at your on-site optimization strategies and put link building aside for a while. You might be surprised that employing basic optimization techniques on your articles might be just what you need to gain higher rankings, saving you a lot of money on unnecessary or excessive off-page SEO techniques.
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