Google is arguably one of the most powerful platforms in the world that business owners can leverage to increase their online awareness and attract tonnes of ‘ready to spend’ customers to their websites. However, with great power comes an awful lot of rules and regulations! In order to achieve the best results on Google, you have to play ball. And that means pandering to its many ranking factors.
One such ranking factor is the on-page experience. But, is it really that important for SEO? Surely the quality of the content you share is all that truly matters? Read on and let’s find out!
Why is the On-Page Experience so Important for SEO?
Google’s algorithm has gone through many changes over the years, which means that businesses have had to pivot and adapt in order to remain relevant and stay firmly in Google’s good graces. While the on-page experience never used to be quite so important, today it is one of Google’s biggest ranking factors. But why?
It’s quite simple really: Google’s job is to provide their users with the most relevant websites based on their search queries. But it’s no longer just about the content itself, but the overall user experience. If Google recommends a website that takes too long to load, has an unintuitive design, and ultimately causes more frustration than it does provide value, then it will reflect poorly on them.
As such, in an attempt to improve their service, Google has kindly suggested that any websites who want to rank well should follow suit and commit themselves to providing a similar level of quality.
What Quality On-Page SEO Looks Like
On-page SEO is an incredibly broad subject that includes a wide variety of criteria. It’s not just the overall look and feel of the website, or the quality of the content, but the performance as well. Here’s a look at some of the most important on-page SEO factors:
1. E-A-T
Google is looking for websites that demonstrate Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. If your content can effortlessly reflect that, not only will you be providing your website visitors with a more positive experience, but you will be appeasing the search engine gods as well.
2. Keywords
And of course, no successful SEO campaign can be actualised without the proper keyword research. If you wish to succeed and provide a superior on-page experience you need to conduct thorough keyword research, understand the intent behind your focus keywords, and filter them into your Title, headers, content, and meta as naturally as possible.
3. SEO content
While you should write for your audience first (see Google’s People First algorithm update), you should also make sure that the writing is SEO-friendly as well – albeit as an afterthought.
- Make sure that the content is relevant. You must meet your website visitor’s expectations based on the intent behind the keywords they used to find you.
- Don’t spam your keywords unnecessarily for the sake of hitting a certain ‘quota’. It reads poorly and nobody likes it.
- Keep your sentences short and sweet.
- Use shorter paragraphs with regular line breaks.
- Mix things up with clear and purposeful headings.
- Use beautiful bulleted lists like so.
4. Introduce quality visual assets
Imagery and infographics can be awesome for websites, but only if they serve a clear purpose. Don’t upload any old image for the sake of filling in empty space; make them count. Similarly, it may be worth considering adding some video content to your website as well.
5. Improved page load speed
If your website takes longer than 3-5-seconds to load you are going to miss out on a lot of potential business. The fact is, the modern consumer has a very short attention span and if you keep them waiting too long they’re going to head to your competitors instead.
6. Responsive / mobile-first design
Over 50% of internet searches are conducted on a mobile device. If your website is not responsive / mobile-first designed, then your conversions will suffer for it. Put it this way: if your website visitors need to ‘pinch and grab’ their away around your website and click on tiny links with chubby fingers, you’re throwing money away.
7. Intuitive internal linking
Internal linking is a massive ranking factor for Google. Not only because proper internal linking helps Google crawl and index your website effectively, but also because intuitive internal linking helps your website visitors navigate your website easily, progressing their way naturally from one piece of useful content to the next.
When all of the above are air-tight, your overall on-page experience will be far superior. And the best part? Many, many websites struggle with this. Most people are so caught up in simply creating good content that they fail to see the value in having a stunning UX design that makes spending time on your website a pleasure. Use that to your advantage!
A positive Experience = More Conversions
Another very important consideration when it comes to your SEO and the on-page experience that you provide is your conversion rates. Remember, SEO is not just about driving more traffic to your website. After all; what good is having more eyes on your website if barely any of those prospective customers end up spending their money with you?
In essence, the on-page experience is a double-edged sword: improved rankings AND a greater chance at converting traffic into business.
Conclusion: Give your Website a Facelift
As you can see, the user experience is critical for modern SEO. If you want the very best results you’re going to need to give your website a much-needed overhaul and provide a positive on-page experience for all of your visitors. If you don’t even know where to begin, we urge that you hire an SEO firm to handle these requirements for you. On-page SEO is one very small aspect of the larger requirements (not to mention technical SEO, offsite SEO, and content development, etc.).
In any case, we hope that you’ve got some helpful ideas from this piece and wish you the very best of luck with transforming your website and crushing your competition!
Also read: Ecommerce SEO Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make: Dos and Don’ts
