{"id":7802,"date":"2021-03-09T14:02:23","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T22:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/?p=7802"},"modified":"2021-04-13T14:46:40","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T21:46:40","slug":"on-page-optimization-strategies-that-still-work-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/on-page-optimization-strategies-that-still-work-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"On-Page Optimization Strategies That Still Work In 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

“My content is pretty good, so why isn’t it ranking?”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Any SEO worth their salt has fielded this question from a client.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And truthfully, it can be a hard one to answer concisely. There are lots of reasons that a website doesn’t rank.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the quality of your content absolutely shouldn’t be one of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Good News: You can easily improve the quality and “<\/span>Google-ability<\/span><\/i>” of your content – with optimization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Content optimizations are one of the most valuable SEO tactics in the toolkit.<\/b> With accurate data, basic technical understanding and a focused approach to copy edits, you gain the valuable Page 1 real estate that delivers high-quality traffic to your site.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sounds straightforward, but…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bad News: While some of the world’s most popular SEO blogs dedicate a lot of digital copy to optimizations best practices – 99% of that content isn’t sharing the key secret that makes the difference between time wasted, or a real ROI.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The secret? <\/span>On-Page Optimizations aren’t one-size-fits-all.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Some website pages are key to your sales funnel, requiring a specialized optimization that incorporates Conversion Rate Optimization and UX (user experience) improvements. Other pages may need a content refresh to ‘tip’ them over the edge from Page 2 to Page 1. And still other pages, such as Category pages for an Ecommerce store, may require adding new content to better target the variety of keywords that will drive motivated buyers to your online store. This post will focus on site and blog content optimization, but you can learn more about writing well-optimized and quality product descriptions<\/a> here if you’re an Ecommerce business owner.<\/span><\/p>\n

When building out a comprehensive SEO campaign strategy for CanIRank Full Service clients, our Optimizations experts prioritize opportunities to ensure we’re focusing the bulk of a client’s resources on the pages that matter most to their business growth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On-Page Optimization in 2021\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Everyone who\u2019s studied even a little bit of SEO tends to think they already know on-page optimization, but many common techniques are based on outdated understanding of Google\u2019s relevancy algorithms. In recent years, modern AI techniques such as deep learning and BERT have rapidly evolved Google\u2019s understanding of content and created the need for an entirely new set of on-page optimization best practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still think your on-page SEO is fine and links are what you\u2019re really missing?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Many CanIRank Full Service clients think that too, but after applying this process to \u201calready optimized\u201d pages we typically see an improvement of ranking positions <\/span>without any link building<\/span><\/i>. For example, <\/span>Third Wave Analytics<\/span><\/a>\u2019 ranking for \u2018<\/span>lims system<\/span><\/i>\u2019 (1,300 searches a month, $5,580 value) jumped 90 positions and added 35 new rankings after optimization. <\/span>EcoEnclose<\/span><\/a> jumped to page 1 for \u2018<\/span>jewelry packaging<\/span><\/i>\u2019 (1,600 searches a month, $1,229 value), increasing organic traffic by over 300%.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

View the EcoEnclose campaign strategy and results here.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So even if you feel you already know on-page SEO, we hope this guide will help you learn how to truly master it, and turn on-page optimization into your secret weapon that allows you, like our CanIRank Full Service team, to outrank much larger websites without needing to invest a ton of time and money into link building.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is on-page optimization?\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Modern on-page SEO, or on-page optimization, is all about reinforcing the meaning of a given page by including keywords, related terms and entities in the right places.\u00a0 It\u2019s part copywriting, and part technical knowledge – and it results in comprehensive, engaging content that ranks higher in search results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A thorough On-Page SEO approach includes [keyword research](link to keyword research tool page) to identify the most valuable target keyword, the addition of related terms to increase semantic relevancy, and understanding where to place these keywords and terms into the content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An important distinction: On-page optimization is not keyword-stuffing. This outdated approach of including a target keyword in a scattershot, ‘more is better’ approach no longer works. Since 2013, with the release of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm update, a greater emphasis is placed on contextual language to ensure that Google’s users are finding the results that are best suited for their query.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s a simplified example.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Target keyword:<\/strong> ‘Basketball’\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Out-dated Keyword Stuffing:<\/strong> Include Basketball in every key page element (Page Title, Meta Description, headings, etc.), and use it liberally within body content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Modern Optimization Best Practices:<\/strong> Include Basketball in Page Title, Meta Description, H1. Use related terms, entities, and long tail keyword variations in section headings, img alt tags, and throughout within the body content. By using terms that you would naturally mention when discussing basketball, like Michael Jordan, full court press, net, hoops, LA Lakers, 3 point shot, etc., you’re indicating to Google that you’re providing comprehensive, semantically relevant content on the subject of basketball.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At its most basic, content optimization consists of small, simple changes that are thorough and well-considered to drive relevant, qualified traffic to your website. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>