Make use of the information you've gathered to build your message
Now that you know how your target market searches, it's time to get started on on-page SEO, which is the process of creating web pages that answer the inquiries of searchers. On-page SEO is multidimensional, extending beyond content to include things like schema and meta tags, which we'll go over in depth in the technical optimization chapter. Put on your wordsmithing caps for the time being; it's time to develop your content!
Creating your material
Putting your keyword research to use
We studied ways for determining how your target audience searches for your material in the previous chapter. It's now time to put your research into action. Here's a quick guide to putting your keyword research to use:
Examine your keywords and put those that have similar subjects and intentions together. Rather than generating individual pages for each keyword variation, those groups will be your pages.
Evaluate the situation if you haven't already.
Evaluate the SERP for each keyword or combination of keywords to establish what type and structure your content should be, if you haven't previously. The following are some ranking page criteria to keep in mind:
Are they mostly picture or video-based?
Is the information long or brief and to the point?
Is the content in lists, bullets, or paragraphs formatted?
"What unique value could I offer to make my page better than the pages that are already ranking for my keyword?" considers the author.
On-page SEO allows you to turn your research into engaging content for your target audience. Just be careful not to fall into the trap of low-value approaches that may end up hurting you more than helping you!
What exactly does the word imply?
There are certain to be a few stumbling blocks in this lengthy chapter on on-page optimization — use our SEO dictionary to look up unfamiliar words!
Definitions in Chapter 2
Avoid low-value tactics.
Your website content should be designed to answer searchers' inquiries, direct them through your site, and explain the objective of your site. Content should not be generated solely to achieve high search engine rankings. Ranking is a means to an end, with the goal of assisting searchers. We risk slipping into the trap of low-value content techniques if we put the wagon before the horse.
Some of these methods were discussed in Chapter 1, but as a refresher, let's go through some low-value tactics you should avoid when creating search engine optimized content.
Content is sparse.
While it's customary for a website to have different pages for different themes, a previous content approach was to construct a page for each iteration of your keywords in order to rank on page 1 for those really narrow queries.
If you were selling bridal gowns, for example,Even if each page was essentially stating the same thing, you might have built separate pages for bridal gowns, bridal dresses, wedding gowns, and wedding dresses. Local businesses used a similar strategy of creating many pages of material for each city or region where they desired clients. The only difference between these "geo pages" was the location name, which was often the same or extremely similar.
Why did publishers utilize tactics like these, which were clearly ineffective for users? When it came to comprehending the relationships between words and phrases, Google wasn't always as good as it is now (or semantics). So, if you wanted to rank on page one for "bridal gowns," but just had a page for "wedding dresses," you might not have been able to do so.
This technique resulted in a flood of thin, low-quality content on the internet, which Google addressed with its 2011 update known as Panda.
This algorithm change penalized low-quality pages, allowing more high-quality pages to rise to the top of the SERPs. This technique of demoting low-quality content and promoting high-quality information is still being iterated by Google today.
Google is explicit that instead of having many, weaker sites for each permutation of a keyword, you should have a comprehensive page on the issue.
