On-Site SEO: Do's and Don'ts
- debbie.m (Unlicensed)
- Tom Mulhern (Deactivated)
Do’s of On-Site SEO
Form a strong keyword strategy before you start writing
Keep in mind that creating a strong keyword strategy is important for ranking on search engines but not the goal of an overall SEO strategy like it used to be. Selecting topics to focus on and understanding what your user wants to do on your website is equally important (some say more important than keywords) in your SEO strategy.
Regularly check for new keyword opportunities and content themes
Consider using long-tail and semantic keywords as well as your core keywords in your content. Often long-tail keywords work well as there is less competition for these words or phrases. Semantic keywords are related keywords based on a user’s intent, which are like your main keywords. One tool to use to find semantic keywords is SEMrush's on Page SEO checker.
Regularly update your content (Google loves fresh content)
Google and Bing love fresh content on your brokerage’s web page. Why? Relevancy and updated content. If your web copy is outdated, Google may not rank your website as high as other websites where the page content is fresh and suitable to the topic. How often do you update?
Write for user experience. Include CTAs
A brokerage or insurer that stuffs their website content with keywords and doesn’t think of the person browsing their website as not following SEO best practices. The user, i.e., the person reading your website, decides where to click and what they deem trustworthy, or not, to click on.
It’s your job as a brokerage or insurer to build that relationship with your user before they even want to click on the call-to-action (CTA) button.
Here are some quick stats from Neil Patel, SEO expert:
96% of visitors that come to your website are not ready to buy.
Product videos can increase product buys by 144%.
A Good to Know: There must be clear and engaging CTAs and headlines to increase conversions.
Effective SEO may get your users to your homepage or product page, but they will bounce off it quickly if the content and design don’t propel them towards making an informed decision.
There is a lot to learn about your user but if you start thinking about their point of view and why they are on your website to start with, you’ve won half the battle of getting users to convert.
Whether you hire an SEO writer or UX expert, don’t skip this critical stage of implementing your SEO.
Use data and statistics to back up your content.
There is a lot of fluff on the Internet, including jargon and misleading promises that go nowhere fast.
A good way to build trust with your first-time, or seasoned, reader is to back up your content with data. If there is proof that something works, tell your readers with numbers.
Don’t let your potential or existing clients guess how much insurance can help them when a disaster strikes. Show them.
Don’ts of On-Site SEO
Keyword spam or cloak keywords
Cloaking keywords is a black-hat SEO technique that provides users with content on search engines that differ from the copy that is crawled by search engines.
Cloaking is hiding keywords in the coding of your site – this activity may result in a website penalty as it is an attempt to distort search engine results. Examples of cloaking include hiding text, email cloaking, and image-only websites, and more.
Some company websites have been banned after being caught cloaking keywords into their content as it violates Google’s web guidelines.
Use the same keyword across multiple pages
The practise of using the same keywords on multiple pages of your website is called keyword cannibalization.
Keyword cannibalization is a don’t in SEO because if you optimize your content but add too many keywords on the page, then search engines like Google don’t know which content is the most important to rank. Eventually, your content pages could end up competing against each other.
Here is a great article on keyword cannibalization: Insert: What is keyword cannibalization?
Write for the sake of writing (instead, make it purposeful and useful)
If your goal is to write content for a landing or product page and you just fill your copy with a bunch of keywords, you will not satisfy the reader’s needs. When writing your SEO content, it’s best to think like your potential or existing customers. What do your customers want to learn and what order do they want to read it in. These are key questions you want to address in your content management and website copy.
Duplicate content
It’s easier than you think to create duplicate content, especially when you write content for local SEO purposes. For example, if you write car insurance content for Calgary and Edmonton, a big part of the content could be very similar due to proximity and insurance terms required.
To reduce duplicate content, read over the content you’ve written in one city before you start writing for the next city. Also, use tools that search for duplicate content on your website to eliminate identical words to avoid being penalized by Google.
Create title tags and meta descriptions that are too long
Title tags and meta descriptions are most effective when they are within the required character length. This rule seems picky, but it has a purpose. When you write a meta description, for example, you want the full description of your summary to appear on the SERPs. If the words are cut off, the reader is likely to lose interest and move to the next search result.