As you continue optimizing your website in 2024, focusing your limited resources on on-page SEO presents a strategic opportunity. With Google's algorithms evolving to prioritize pages that deliver a smooth user experience, small teams must double down on improving site content and structure.
This article shares four of the most impactful on-page SEO tactics to implement this year. By spending your time on these high-return activities, you can gain an edge over competitors - even without a large team.
1. Optimize Page Speed
For both on-page SEO and user experience, optimising page performance is essential. The average page speed of a website is 3.21 seconds. SEO specialists should strive for a page load time of less than two seconds in order to increase page speed. Reduce the number of HTTP requests by merging files and reducing the size of graphics and code. Activate compression on your server to reduce file sizes by 70–80%, resulting in quicker page loads.
To speed up page loads, cache static assets such as CSS, JavaScript, and pictures. Reduce the number of redirects by deleting pointless ones and avoiding redirect chains. These actions can enhance user experience and page performance.
2. Create Keyword-Rich Content
Make sure your titles, headers, and first paragraph contain your important keywords to help search engines find and rank your material. 88.2% of all search queries in the US contain 3 or less words. Put keywords near the top to let search engines know what content is relevant. To establish the topic and theme, the first sentence of the introductory paragraph should have the main keyword, and the second sentence should contain a related term or phrase. Steer clear of overusing your core keywords, since search engines may consider this to be "keyword stuffing". Instead, to build a robust semantic web, use synonyms, related words, and concepts that are semantically comparable throughout the text.
If you are aiming for more than one keyword, be sure you incorporate them into the titles, headers, and opening paragraphs. But only use several keywords if they provide accessible, interesting content; avoid stuffing keywords in places where they don't seem natural.
3. Optimize Images for SEO
Visual content is a common tool used by small businesses in their internet marketing plan to captivate customers and provide information. Nevertheless, in order to raise ranks and increase organic traffic, these photos must be optimised for search engines. When it comes to helping search engines and visually impaired people alike understand an image, alt text is a succinct, keyword-rich description of the image that is vital. The file name of the image should contain pertinent keywords and phrases, especially for important websites.
For Google Search Console to find and index every image on the website, an image sitemap has to be added. Google prefers compressed photos that are optimised for quicker loading times. Images may be compressed with tools like TinyPNG or Kraken.io without sacrificing quality.
4. Update Your XML Sitemap Regularly
For better on-page SEO and indexing, you must update your XML sitemap often. But, your sitemap may become out of current as you add, remove, or update pages. Updating your XML sitemap is advised whenever there are major changes made to the content or structure of your website, which should happen at least once a week. Use a WordPress plugin such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math to regenerate the sitemap file. Updates may be made automatically or on-demand using these plugins, and you should resubmit the sitemap to search engines to let them know about the modifications.
Over time, you may dramatically raise your search engine results by consistently optimising components like your XML sitemap and on-page content.
Final Words
Search engines can identify your website as a top result for your target keywords if you pay attention to its structure, content, and technological underpinnings. While on-page optimisation is a continuous effort, investing work each month to improve it will pay off in the long run with higher ranks.
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