What Local Business Owners Need to Know About Onsite SEO

Also known as on-page search engine optimisation, onsite SEO is the process of optimising various elements on your website to make it more search engine- and user-friendly. In contrast, off-page or offsite SEO is where you promote your website on other online spaces, such as social media and article submission sites, to attract more visitors.

To put it simply, onsite SEO is akin to cleaning up and making your house pretty so visitors will be more comfortable during their stay. Offsite SEO, on the other hand, is similar to going to your neighbour’s house and telling people to come over.

Significance of On-Page SEO

As a local business owner, you’re probably asking “What does onsite or on-page SEO have to do with my business?” Between the stiff competition and Google’s ever-changing search algorithms, you’d want to make sure that potential customers can easily find you on the Internet.

Onsite SEO has three ultimate goals.

1. To make it easier for both users and search engines to understand what your website is all about;

2. To show that a particular page is relevant to a user’s search query; and

3. To illustrate the usefulness of a webpage/site so it would rank well on search engine results pages or SERPs.

Because most purchases start with an online search, having a good online presence is key to more sales and bigger revenues. As you can see from the three ultimate goals, this is something on-page SEO can help you with.

Key Onsite SEO Elements You Should Pay Attention To

When designing or auditing your website, there are on-page SEO elements you should consider to ensure that your site will get better search rankings.

1. Content

There is a saying amongst SEO experts that content is “king” and for good reason. Search engines, such as Google and Bing, crawl and index your site according to its content and the keywords you are targeting.

However, take note that simply having content is not enough to land you on the first page of SERPs. It is also important to ensure that your content is relevant to user intent. Otherwise, search engines would devalue your site and give it a poor search ranking.

2. User engagement

Whilst it is crucial to design your website according to what search engines want, it is equally important to consider the people who would use it. Long suspected to be a ranking factor for Google, user engagement can help you determine if visitors are enjoying your site. There are three metrics you can look at to gauge user engagement: pages per session, bounce rate, and click-through rate (CTR).

a. Pages per session

As the name implies, this metric tells you the number of pages a user views before leaving your site. From a navigational perspective, this metric helps you determine how engaging and interactive your site is.

b. Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of users who leave your site after visiting a single page. It tells you how satisfied users are with your site or landing page.

Depending on how you look at it, a high bounce rate could either be a good or a bad thing. It could mean that users easily got what they are looking for. It could also indicate that your website isn’t engaging enough, thus, causing users to leave immediately.

c. CTR

CTR tells you the percentage of users who click on a specific link after viewing a page, email, or ad. It also lets you know the number of people who viewed your site on Google and other search engines versus the number of those who actually clicked and visited your site.

A low click-through rate could mean that your message doesn’t satisfy user intent. It could also be an indication of poorly constructed meta descriptions or title tags.

3. Website structure

Your website needs to have a sound technical framework. Otherwise, all the effort you put into improving your site’s content and user engagement could go be wasted.

One way to enhance your site’s technical structure is to improve its security, especially if you sell products or services online. You can start by having an HTTPS website. An HTTPS secure website is useful for ensuring the safety and integrity of transactions on your site. Google also uses it as a soft ranking factor.

Cleaning up your URLs help create a sound website structure, too. Ensure that you don’t have dead links on your website. When a user clicks on a link, they should be directed to a relevant webpage.

4. Mobile-friendliness

Your site’s mobile-friendliness also contributes to your search rankings. Not only does it make your site more user-friendly, but it is also considered a primary Google search ranking factor. With more and more people using smartphones and tablets to access the Internet, you need to ensure that users can access and utilise your site properly regardless of where it is viewed.

Let the Professionals Help

Onsite SEO is essential to having a solid online presence. It is an important part of your digital marketing campaign because it ensures that your website is both user- and search engine-friendly.

As a business owner, however, you probably have too much on your plate already. As such, to save time and effort whilst ensuring that you’ll get better results, you should consider leaving onsite SEO to the hands of experts. Seek professional SEO assistance so you can focus on what you do best: running your business.

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