26 SEO Tactics To Boost Organic Traffic + Rankings

26 Best On-Page SEO Tactics

Title Tag: Tip & Example
The Title tag allows search engines to see what the main topic is about. It's the first thing your target searchers read.

Title tags shouldn’t be unique anywhere on your site.
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Title Tags Can impact Your SEO Rankings
When search engines crawl your web page, they rely on the Title tag to understand what the page is about.

This practice ensures that the tag accurately reflects the page's content and includes relevant keywords or phrases matching the searcher's intent.

If your Title tag does not feature important keywords, such as 'St. Albert Storage Unit' or a similar variation, you could miss opportunities for higher search rankings for those terms.

You can attract visitors by offering value propositions, such as $79 or 24/7 access. This can make your page more appealing and increase the likelihood of getting more clicks. However, not many people are currently using this SEO technique.

<head>

<title>St. Albert Storage Unit | $79/Month</title>

</head>

It can be beneficial to vary the order of words in the <title> tag, as it may lead to a slight increase in rankings.

The Title tag has no character limit, but it's best to keep it within 50-60 characters to display properly in search engine results. Test to find the optimal length for your business.

Title tags between 15-40 characters have an 8.6% higher CTR.

Meta Description: Tip & Example
A meta description provides a summary of a webpage and appears as a snippet in Google's SERPs. Just like the Title tag, it’s the 2nd thing your target searchers will see.
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- Before writing your meta descriptions, perform a thorough search intent analysis. This guarantees that your descriptions match the searcher's intent and assures them that they have found the answer to their queries.
- When summarizing your webpage, use an emoji or uppercase a word for emphasis. Also, try power words like "Limited Time" or "Exclusive."
- Lastly, try add a question and provide answers. Try add a solution-focused that works as well.
- Furthermore, Google displays 152 characters on desktop and 105 characters on mobile.
- Write unique meta descriptions for each page to maximize your click-through rate.
- Also, search engines may rewrite your Description if it needs to be more informative or relevant to some searchers, which could benefit you.
- <head>
  
  <meta name="description" content="Need an Edmonton SEO consultant? With 8 years of experience in SEO and website development, I'm here to help enhance your online presence. Let's chat!">
  
  </head>
- Search engines like Google will bold a user's search term in the snippet if you include it in your Description.

Meta Keyword Tag
The Meta Keyword tag has lost its significance as a ranking factor for Google.

However, Bing uses it as a spam signal to identify low-quality pages.

On the other hand, Yandex, the Russian search engine still considers this tag while assessing the relevance of a webpage to search queries.

head>

<meta name="keyword" content="SEO, website design">

</head>

Canonical Tag: Tip & Example
The canonical tag is an HTML element that enables website owners to specify their preferred version of a web page.

By adding a canonical tag to your web pages, you can help search engines to understand the original source of your content and avoid duplicate content issues that can negatively impact your website's SEO.

The link element should include the rel=canonical attribute and the URL of your preferred version of the web page.
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Using the following URLs as an example:
example.com www.example.com
https://m.example.com
https://amp.example.com
https://example.com.com?povid=

Web pages can have multiple URLs, or pages with similar content. It is important to tell search engines which URL is authoritative (canonical).

If you are unsure about your website's canonical tag, head over to SEOptimer and enter your URL to check it.

Twitter Card Tag: Tip & Example
Is your audience hanging out in X, formerly known as Twitter?
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How to add This Twitter Card to your site

Here is the code you should enter:
‹meta content="summary_large_image" name="twitter:card"›
‹meta content="" name="twitter:site"›
‹meta content=" " name="twitter:title"›
‹meta content=" " name="twitter:description"›
‹meta content=" " name="twitter:image"›
‹meta name="twitter:creator" content=" "›

Test your image with the Twitter Card Validator:

If the image is not showing up, add this code on your robots.txt:
User-agent: Twitterbot Disallow:

Open Graph: Tip & Example
Open Graph is an internet protocol created by Facebook to standardize metadata use for webpage content representation.
Internet content is created to be shared. To make it effective on social media or apps with rich previews, we need to ensure that the preview looks great.

Craft a compelling and concise description that fits in 60 characters or less - anything more will be truncated. A title should also be limited to 60 characters to make it engaging and memorable.
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Open Graph is also supported by at least these platforms:
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- WhatsApp
- Telegram
- Facebook
Twitter has developed its own version, called 'Twitter Cards'. However, if there are no Twitter Cards available, they fall back to Open Graph.

‹meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"›
‹meta property="og:title" content=" "›
‹meta property="og:description" content=" "›
‹meta property="og:url" content=" "›
‹meta property="og:site_name" content=" "›
‹meta property="og:image" content=" "›
‹meta property="og:image:width" content="1200"›
‹meta property="og:image:height" content="627"›

Website owners commonly use static images, but other properties can be more effective. Experiment with different options to create a visually appealing site that engages your audience.
- og:video
<meta property="og:title" content="Title of the video">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Name of the website containing the video">
<meta property="og:type" content="video.episode">
<meta property="og:description" content="Description of the video ">
<meta property="og:image" content=”Thumbnail of the video">
<meta property="og:video" content="https://example.com/video.mp4">
<meta property="og:video:width" content="350">
<meta property="og:video:height" content="200">
<meta property="og:video:duration" content="300">
<meta property="og:url" content="The URL of the webpage">

You should always run the Open Graph debugger when you're preparing the Open Graph markup for a page to ensure all data has been filled in.

Pinterest Rich Pins & how can I use them?
In February 2024, 498 million people were active on Pinterest. Generation Z accounts for 42% of all monthly active user
Pinterest is a social media platform that allows users to discover, share, and save visual content such as images and videos. It is a virtual pinboard where users can organize and curate their interests, ideas, and inspirations by creating boards and pinning content to them.

The platform is used by individuals and businesses alike to showcase their products and services, and to drive traffic to their websites.

Not sure how? 👇

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Embedding a Pin on a website is an effective strategy that is often overlooked.
Grab your pin code for your website and pin confirmation here.

Another strategy but often overlooked strategy is claiming your website and setting up a business account. These item can help boost your site's domain authority.

Hreflang Tag: Tip & Example
The hreflang tag is an HTML attribute that states the language to search engines. Then, they will display your website for that regional webpage targeting.

56.3% have pages missing x-default
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Not sure how to check your Hreflang tag?
Head over to this Hreflang Tag Testing Tool. Add this code to your page's head tag.

What Is an H1 Tag & Best Practices for SEO

The H1 heading is the biggest heading on a page that explains the main topic of the page. According to Copyblogger, "eight out of 10 people will read your headline copy, but only two out of 10 will read the rest."

By skimming through the headings, your target audience can quickly understand what they will learn by reading the content. This approach helps them assess the value of your content before they dive into it.

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For search engines, the H1 heading communicates the relevance of the page.

Google recommends matching your H1 tags to your title tags to prevent inaccurate article titles from showing up in search results.

If they are different, they should be very similar.

Keep H1 tags under 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results. Additionally, Google may switch title tags for H1 tags.

Most website builders don't always have an H1 tag, so it's worth checking. They are Squarespace, GoDaddy, Wix and Weebly,

The Importance Of Subheadings
Subheadings carry more weight than regular text.

Using synonym keywords and benefits in subheadings can improve your website's SEO by giving users a clear idea of what they'll learn.

Ensure Pleasant Reading Experience
In an average visit to a website, the Nielsen Norman Group found that people read less than 28% of the words on the page.

The optimal reading length for body text is 50-75 character -Baymard Institute

The poor reading section can make it hard to scan, while the good reading section can make it easier to scan. Improving scanability can increase engagement, comprehension, and retention of the presented information.

To improve readability, break text into smaller paragraphs and add subheaders, bullet points, and images.

Files & Folders: Best Practices
Google's John Mueller confirmed keywords in the URL are a "minimal ranking factor."

With website developers often missing out on the URL trick, they usually use random names.
This is a "very small" ranking factor. I'd recommend adding a primary keyword to every page's name.

Internal Linking: Tip & Example
A website's internal links connect its pages to each other by hyperlinks.

Search engines can assess your website's credibility by these linking relevant factors.
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Vague Anchor Text
- ```
 Click here
```
Keyword Anchor Text
- Are you looking to rent the best storage unit in Edmonton.

Featured Snippets: Tips & Examples
Adding structured data (schema tags) to develop featured snippets for your website::

Search engine results pages often display these snippets.

This is my table snippet from Techsonic.com.

You can add one or all these Schema tags to your site:
Organization
Job Posting
Blog Post
Navigation
Breadcrumbs
Video - 4.6% of featured snippets are videos (an average of 6m35s)
Product and Offer
Review
Local Business
Person
Recipe
FAQ

Structured Data Markup provides a range of benefits to websites.

Improved Search Visibility	Implementing structured data enhances SERP visibility by improving content understanding.
Higher Click-Through Rates	Structured data on websites leads to higher click-through rates thanks to rich snippets that offer users more information before they click.
AFaster Indexing	Structured data allows search engines to crawl and index content more efficiently, resulting in faster indexing of web pages.
Enhanced Categorization	Schema markup improves content categorization and presentation in search results.
Control Over Knowledge Graph	Structured data enables websites to provide specific information to search engines.
Contextual Signals for Customers	Structured data markup provides relevant contextual signals that attract potential customers, contributing to a more personalized and effective user experience.
Benefits for Voice Search	Structured data improves website performance in voice search, aiding accessibility for voice-activated device users.
ClaimReview Structured Data	Adding ClaimReview structured data to a website can improve its credibility.

Pagination: Best Practices
Pagination is ideal for the time-line history, product catalogue, and others.

Pagination example:

In building a page navigation, you can follow this strategy from SiteGuru.

The Power Of XML Sitemaps
Sitemaps define the site's structure. This improves search visibility by helping search engines index your pages more thoroughly.
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Not sure how to create your sitemap? Enter the URL and hit "Start":
You are not finish yet.
- Step 1: Log in to Google Search Console
- Step 2: Select the website to submit a Sitemap
- Step 3: Go to the ‘Sitemaps’ Report
- Step 4: Copy the URL of Your Sitemap
- Step 5: Paste the URL and click “Submit.”

Breadcrumb Trail: Tip & Example
Users can navigate and understand a website's structure by following breadcrumb trails.

Google replaces the URL with the breadcrumb navigation in search result.

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The breadcrumb trail navigation typically displays links to the parent pages of the current page. Breadcrumbs help users to stay on your site longer.

Social Sharing Button
99.8% of mobile users never engage with social share buttons. 35% of desktop users click social sharing button - Moovweb

.

You should carefully weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.

Why Heatmap
If you haven't yet, consider using a Heatmap to gain insight into what's working and not on your site.

Netflix has used the Heatmap strategy, and this resulted in growth rates of over 25%.

Image Optimization
Here are some image best practices to increase UX and SEO
- Write descriptive text for the ALT attribute
- Add width and height to the Image dimension
- Add Image Sitemap to Google Search Console
- Add the description to the Title attribute (Tooltip)
- After hovering over the following image, a tooltip appears.
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Not sure how it was done?

Text Message Marketing
Over 75% said text message marketing is still climbing.

Text message marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves sending promotional messages. These messages include offers to a group of subscribers or customers.

Collecting e-Mails
Install this free SumoMe ‘List Builder’ to capture your customers’ email.

81% of small businesses rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel.

The Jump To Link
The benefit of using jump links is that they can improve your SEO.

You can help Google and target users access your particular content more quickly.

Live Chatbot: SEO Benefits
You can capture 7.5X more contacts from your website visitors
- 41% of consumers prefer live chat support, versus 32% who prefer phone support - Kayako

301 Redirects
A 301 permanently redirects one URL to another, often used for website moves or page removals.

Too many redirects can be detrimental to user experience and page rank.

Use Bold Text Sparingly
The bold text in a paragraph helps Google understand the content's relevancy.

The Art Of The Clean URLs
Clean URLs are so important for readers and search engines.

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Tips for setting up effective URLs:
- Shorter is better
- Use hyphen to separate words in URL
- Use focus keyword in URL
- Limit your page depth; in other words, do not bury your page too deep
To rewrite a dynamic URL, you can use the Htaccess file.

Video: SEO Tip & Example
Bottom line?
Web page with videos see a 157% increase in search traffic -Search Engine People
Read more
- Backlinko found comments, views, shares, and likes can impact YouTube rankings - Backlinko
- Blog posts with video have a 53x higher chance of ranking on the 1st page of Google- Convince & Convert
Here are your steps to rank videos on YouTube
1. Create a video content 8-15 minutes long
2. Put the keyword first in Title tag, including the current year
3. Invite friends to leave a Comment, Like & Share
4. Add the order of keywords to your video tag: Target Keywords (1-2), Alternative keywords (2-3), broad keywords (3-4)
5. Add relevant keywords from suggested videos to your video tag
6. Design a video thumbnail with green or blue background and 20-30 characters
7. Write a long video transcript - 100-200 words
8. Add video schema tags

Be Engaging And Interactive
Dwell time in SEO is the time a user spends on a website after clicking a search result.

This metric shows how relevant and useful the content is and can boost rankings and traffic
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You can integrate audio, polls, industry stats, video and quizzes to stimulate your visitor’s dwell time.

Website visitors will stay 88% longer on web pages with videos - Ledgeview Partners.

How Can Core Web Vitals Benefit Your Site?
Google's search algorithm uses Core Web Vitals, which include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), as a ranking factor. These metrics aim to improve loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

You can find these metrics in Google Search Console.
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If you log in to Google Search Console and find that there is no data, there could be a few reasons for this. One possibility is that your website is new and hasn't been crawled by Google yet.

Don't worry though, you can use the PageSpeed Insights tool to check this. Once you have identified the issue, you can improve your website by following Google's recommendations.

Content Auditing
Content audits provide insights into content gaps. They also highlight opportunities for improvement. Additionally, they identify areas where content aligns with the marketing strategy. This process helps maintain a well-organized and effective digital presence.

Here's a step-by-step guide to conducting a content audit:
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1. Define Goals and Metrics
  Clearly outline the objectives of the audit, such as improving SEO, enhancing user experience, or aligning content with business goals.
2. Take Inventory
  Create a comprehensive inventory of all content assets, including blog posts, landing pages, images, and other media.
3. Evaluate Relevance
  Assess the relevance of each piece of content to current business objectives and audience needs.
4. Check Performance
  Analyze the performance of content in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversions.
5. Establish a Schedule
  Conduct content audits regularly, with a general recommendation of at least once a year. However, for dynamic or large websites, more frequent audits may be necessary.
.

Conclusion
I hope this chapter has helped you optimize your website. Now, I would like to know - what's the first tip you plan to try?

Part 4 of a 5-part series: 31 Quick Link Building Tactics

Google SEO 101: Your Ultimate 26 Best On-Page SEO Tactics Handbook 2024!

26 Best On-Page SEO Tactics

Title Tag: Tip & Example

Meta Description: Tip & Example

Meta Keyword Tag

Canonical Tag: Tip & Example

Twitter Card Tag: Tip & Example

Open Graph: Tip & Example

Pinterest Rich Pins & how can I use them?

Hreflang Tag: Tip & Example

What Is an H1 Tag & Best Practices for SEO

The Importance Of Subheadings

Ensure Pleasant Reading Experience

Files & Folders: Best Practices

Internal Linking: Tip & Example

Featured Snippets: Tips & Examples

Pagination: Best Practices

The Power Of XML Sitemaps

Breadcrumb Trail: Tip & Example

Social Sharing Button

Why Heatmap

Image Optimization

Text Message Marketing

Collecting e-Mails

The Jump To Link

Live Chatbot: SEO Benefits

301 Redirects

Use Bold Text Sparingly

The Art Of The Clean URLs

Video: SEO Tip & Example

Be Engaging And Interactive

How Can Core Web Vitals Benefit Your Site?

Content Auditing