The new rules for on-site in 2015 -The times are changing fast, especially in the world of SEO. Staying on your toes is really important if you want to keep your rankings high and clients happy. The goal of this article is to keep you up to date with all of the latest on-site SEO changes, so buckle up.
In the last articles we talked about keyword research. We can’t stress how important that is. Most people blow it off or do it half-assed, or go for terms that have 0 volume. It’s like strapping weights onto your feet before you start a race… You aren’t going anywhere.
But if you’ve followed our tips thus far and picked out good keywords, proper on-site optimization is your next step. Here we go!
One common mistake is too much exact match keyword density on-page:
The common recommendation used to be that you put your exact match keyword in your URL, your title tag, your meta description and your H1 tag. That’s just not the case anymore as Google is in an all out war against over-optimization.
Have a look below at a case study site where we added in a bunch of exact match keywords to the page, increasing the keyword density.
Notice how the rankings just dropped off the map in a matter of days. We removed the bloated exact match keywords and the rankings shot back up to page one.
The solution: Go into the on-page text and switch up some keywords. Use keyword synonyms! More on that…
Here’s an example of how to go about on-page optimization the right way:
If you are ranking a page about “Boise ID Home Remodeling,” don’t just keep hammering on that one keyphrase. Replace instances of that phrase with synonyms like…
“Boise Idaho house remodeling”
“House renovation”
“Boise home redesign”
Google is better at detecting synonyms now, so you’ll start ranking for more long tail phrases as well.
Example: Check out the graphic below of a search for “Metallica guitar tabs.”
Notice how the words “tabs” AND “chords” are highlighted because Google knows that they are very similar searches, even though the words are completely different.
Google treats the words “tabs” and “chords” as the same thing, so keep that in mind when you choose your own on-site keywords.
In summary:
By using different synonyms and long tail keywords in your title tag, h1 tag, meta description, and URL, you’ll avoid on-site over-optimization AND rank for more keywords. That means more traffic and ultimately more $ for you.
Written by: Greg Webb, Account Manager Outsourced, SEO Link Building for Agencies & Publishers: The HOTH
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