In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some basics regarding on-page optimization within the SEO world. Including everything from meta tags to keyword optimization, page formatting and other back-end areas, on-page optimization makes your content as available and visible as possible -- both to search engines and to readers looking for you.
At Be Locally, we're proud to assist with optimization services for any website, including both on-page and off-page areas. While part one of our series went over what on-page optimization is and why it's important to format it properly, today's part two will dig into a couple specific optimization areas all businesses should be focused on -- and areas where we'll be happy to assist you during your campaign.
One of the most important areas of modern on-page optimization within SEO relates to the presence of featured snippets. Serving as a way to help provide searchers with information instantly, featured snippets refer to the box at the top of search results -- often with bold text and blue links. Sometimes also referred to as snippets, these areas generally house information or data that's pulled from your site's content in order to provide readers with instant answers.
Featured snippets play a huge role in establishing brand authority and driving organic traffic. The better you rank for specific keywords and phrases, the more likely you are to make it into these featured snippets.
One basic tip for driving your presence in snippets: Build more backlinks. The more backlinks you have pointing to a specific page, the more likely that page is to rank within snippets. Of course, the links must be from highly credible sources with great content of their own -- think Wikipedia and other similar sites.
There are also several snippet types, including list-featured snippets, paragraph-featured snippets and even table-featured snippets -- you should understand how each of these works and which is most relevant to your site.
Another major emphasis within on-page SEO optimization is structured data, or small pieces of code you can add to pages that will help Google understand them. A common format here is an FAQ section, which helps Google understand your site's content and how it relates to what users are searching for.
Adding an FAQ section to a page is as simple as adding some code (image below) -- it doesn't require any specific knowledge of HTML, and won't impact how the site looks in any way. The most important aspect of an FAQ section is that it clarifies what the page is about in a simple, straightforward way.
Schema plays much the same role as snippets when it comes to ranking highly for specific keywords and phrases, but there are some key differences. Unlike snippets, schema can be applied across multiple pages -- potentially increasing your coverage of keyword searches even more. Schema also doesn't require any special code (or the expertise of someone to apply it), and is basically just a piece of content you can format however you like.
As with snippets, schema is heavily affected by backlinks -- but is also more difficult for competitors to find and take advantage of themselves.
For more on how to optimize your website for on-page SEO, or to learn about any of our basic SEO, PPC or other online marketing services, speak to the team at Be Locally today.