11 Proven On-page SEO Techniques To Skyrocket Your Traffic

You’ve carefully crafted your blog post. You finally hit “publish,” and what happens? 

No traffic… You’re still not seeing any increase in your organic traffic.

What’s the solution to this? 

On-page SEO.

You need to optimize your content for On-Page SEO.

And today you’re going to learn how to implement proven On-page SEO techniques. Specifically, actionable techniques that will show you EXACTLY how to optimize your blog post and web pages to rank in Google and get more traffic.

Let’s get started.

1. Increase Dwell Time

If you’re serious about SEO you need to optimize your content for Google RrankBrain.

It’s no secret that Google RankBrain pays very close attention to dwell time, along with :

• Bounce Rate
• Organic Click-Through Rate.
• Pogo-sticking

The question is, how do you optimize your content to increase dwell time? Below are some of the strategies, you can use to improve user experience and keep visitors longer on your web pages.

Use Shorter Intros

Have you ever land on a blog post and the intro looks like this? 

Compare that with an intro that looks like this…

By looking at these images, it’s clear that the short intro is much easier to read because it gets straight to the point. (without beating around the bush).

By being clear and to the point you will help users better absorb the content and user-friendly content will likely result in people sticking around longer on the site.

Another way to increase your dwell time is to use sub-headings: 

Add SubHeadings

Subheadings help readers quickly figure out what the post is about. It’s another way to improve the experience users have when they land on your website.

When someone visits your site and reads an article. The first thing they do is scroll through to see if there is anything that looks interesting. (at least I do).

And when they see a big wall of alt text that looks like this…

It’s likely that only a handful of visitors will stick around and read your article, 

So what’s the secret?

Use subheadings after every 200 words to break up your article into bite-size chunks.

2. Maximize CTR (Click Through Rates)

Click-through rate is also something that tells google which search results users are clickinig the most.

With that being said.

If you can’t get users to click-through to your website from Google’s first-page there’s no reason to increase your dwell time.

So here’s how you can increase your website CTR to get more clicks from Google’s

The first step is to search in google using your focus keyword…

Then look for common words that keep showing up in the results on the first page.

Add a few of those words in your title and meta tag using Yoast SEO plugin in WordPress.

And that’s it.

3. Start Your Title with Focus Keyword

Google places more weight on target keywords that appear at the beginning of your title.

It’s no surprise why most of the results on the first page have the keyword at the beginning of the title.

So ensure to include your keyword at the beginning of your blog post title where applicable.

The closer it is to the beginning of the titletag, the better…

For example, I try to include my keyword at the beginning of almost every content I published.

Also don’t forget to use keywords in meta descriptions. Even though Google doesn’t technically use meta tags to rank the content, providing an accurate description is helpful to users so they can decide if they want to read it.

4.  Put Main Keywords at The Beginning of Your Article

Your keyword should appear in the first paragraph of your page content. Ideally, it should be in the first 100 words. 

This gives google a better context of what your article is all about.

This should happen naturally but unfortunately, most intros are full of fluff and long which results in the keywords appearing much later on in the article which devalues the purpose. 

So always try to include your keyword in the beginning if possible.

It’s also wise to use LSI keywords to avoid penalties by Google

For example, this article from single grain has the keyword in the first sentence of the content.

5. Use Short SEO Friendly URLs

Google states that when a page has short URLs the algorithm puts more weight on it.

So if you want to increase your chances of ranking in the search results, it’s better to pay attention to url structure and use short URLs. Specifically, your URLs should be 4-5 words long that accurately describe the content of the post. They’re easier to remember and also don’t get cut off in search engine results and thus give users cues on what the post is about

 Ensure to avoid using URLs that look like this:

• /releases/2019/07/190722105935
• /article/348496/google-home-vs-amazon-echo-which-one-should-rule-your-smart-you-decide

Also, its best to include your keyword in the URL. 

NOTE: Don’t change previous URLs. it might do more harm than good.

6. Use Numbers, brackets or Parentheses in Titles

Want to get more organic clicks? 

Well, you’re going to love this technique.

Adding brackets and parentheses to your title gives you a higher chance of getting more clicks in the search results.

According to a study done by HubSpot and Outbrain analyzing 3.3 million headlines which reveals headlines with brackets outperform titles without brackets by 33%.

Here are some examples of brackets and parentheses you can use:

• [Infographic]
• (Proven Strategies)
• (2019 Update)
• (Case Study)
• [Checklist]
• [Template Included]
• [New Guide]

Also, use numbers in the title. Odd numbers tend to perform better.

And there is data that shows why headlines with a number perform better than headlines without.

7. Use Multimedia

Bounce rate can negatively impact your SEO and search engine rankings. 

Needless to say, without engaging content, it’s almost impossible to keep someone on your site. 

And if someone clicks the back button after they visit your site from Google search results it will increase your bounce rate and sends a negative signal to Google.

What’s the solution?… Use multimedia. 

For example, to make your post more engaging, you can use : 

• Images
• Diagrams
• Infographics
• Videos 

Using these multimedia in your content will increase user interaction and keep visitors from leaving your site.

As you may notice there are a lot of screenshots and diagrams included In this article.

8. Improve Speed

Page speed has confirmed by Google to be a ranking factor. So it’s important to optimize your pages for speed.

Having a slow site can hurt your site’s rankings. 

The question is how do you increase your site’s loading speed? 

According to a report from Radware, image compression and optimization are vital factors in the speed of your website.

So optimizing images on your site can make a big difference in site speed. One of the easiest ways to speed up your website is by optimizing images. You can optimize the images before uploading them or use compression WordPress plugins, which will automatically compress any images that you upload to your site.

Here are some other ways to Optimize your Site Speed

9. Optimize Images for SEO

Did you know that images contribute to your overall website SEO score? 

Yes, but only when you optimize them the right way.

Images help search engines determine your page topic…

In fact, Yoast confirms “The image should reflect the topic of the post, or have illustrative purposes within the article, of course.”

So how do you optimize your images to improve your on-page SEO?

Use your keyword in the alt tags of images on your page.

You can add the alt tag from inside the WordPress editor.

First, select the image in your article.

Then add the image alt tag with your keyword.

10. Publish Long-Form Content

There’s no other way to say it.

If you want to rank on page 1 of Google you need to publish long-form content. Even studies found that longer content tends to rank higher in Google’s search results.

 Image Source: Backlinko

So ensure you publish in-depth content that is at least 1500 words long.

11. Use Internal And Outbound Links.

Internal linking to other pages of your site strengthens the keywords explorer and enable Google to determine where to rank a particular keyword.

Also, when you link internally throughout your site it benefits the user experience and boosts your SEO.

At the same time, linking out to authority sites related to your page’s topic helps Google determine what your page is about and also increase your page authority. Aim to add 2-3 outbound links to authority resources that relate to your topic in each blog post you write. 

Final Thoughts.

On-Page SEO is all about optimizing your content so that search engines can better understand what your content is about. 

Follow these simple tips seo optimization strategies and you will see your search engine rankings increase and your website attracting more organic traffic as the result.

Author bio: Floyd Johnson is a freelance copywriter and content marketer, he is also the founder of Conversions Lab where he helps bloggers and content marketers grow their email list with actionable email marketing strategies and tips.