On page SEO question

[OMGVape]

I'm trying to get my head around on-page SEO and what I'm understanding is that to rank for a particular keyword I need to:

Put the exact keyword in the HI
Put the keyword in the URL
Put the keyword in the meta description

And loads of other things.......

So the way I see it is I can only try to rank with one keyword per page using the above guidelines?

 

[fisicx]

None of the above.

Start with the content. Write this to answer the question asked in the search (eg: where can I buy Rabbit flavoured vape water).

Add supporting content to back up your content (inbound links, citations, evidence etc).

Add headings as appropriate (don't have to exact match the keywords).

Write a page title that matches the content. Add a description to encourage clicks.

Make sure this page is part of the whole site - it needs to fit in with the overall focus of the site not just be a page written to promote a particular keyword.

 

[OMGVape]

None of the above.

None? I think a lot of experts might disagree with that.

 

[fisicx]

H1 doesn’t need the exact keyword, it should introduce the content which may be the answer to the searches for question.

The url doesn’t need the keyword.

The meta description isn’t a ranking signal.

 

[Paul Murray]

There's a lot going on behind the scenes with ranking algorithms, and correct mark-up, using meta titles, etc are just a tiny percentage of it. They're basically there for you to help a search engine make sense of what is on the page (and use of semantic HTML elements like 'nav', 'aside' and 'footer' are there for accessibility reasons).

The main aim should be to please a human reader and provide insight they are seeking. Ranking algorithms are constantly 'taught' what is and what isn't good content based on real input from real humans. If you're stuffing keywords where they wouldn't naturally occur, or simply waffling on, it will get noticed.

Meta descriptions have no SEO weight, but you should take time to summarise the content on your page to entice people to click-through. Getting in the top results for a search is worthless if people aren't clicking your link, or they visit your page and just leave straight away because it's not what they expected to find.

Even if you're trying to rank a single keyword (longtail has better buy intent), you'll naturally rank for several other terms too. Search engines will be able to assume that a search for something like "How to choose an e-cig" is very similar to the search term "How to choose a vape" and as such the result for one are likely also relevant to the other.

Your aim should be to write authorative content that answers a question or provides value. Format it in a way that makes it easy to skim (use lists, break it up into smaller sections with headings, etc), and use logical, human-readable URLs. If you answer a question well and in a concise manner, you may even get the snippet (aka rank 0) as well as the top result. You could even naturally get the snippet for a search term you weren't targeting because you answered a related question on your page. A large majority of search terms are 100% unique so you can't really account for everything people will be typing into Google or wherever. Hence why your content is so important.

Focus on pleasing customers and humans instead of search engines. This way you likely won't be hit by a future algorithm update (but your competitors might). A search engine's aim is to help people find what they're looking for, so your job is to help both search engines and the searcher by using things like meta titles and headings to describe or break up the content on the page. That's basically what 'optimising' a page means, you're making it easy for search engines to decide if your content is worth showing to people who are searching for something.

 

[justinaldridge]

Have a read of Google's own SEO guide (there are some basic tips there) and for more advanced help you should buy this course.

 

[Matt1966]

The beauty of SEO is one decision is very rarely life or death.

Yes, it probably would be preferable to use your main keyword in your H1 and the URL. But if you don't, it's not the end of the world - You can still rank.


A recent study (sorry, completely forgot who) concluded h1's don't actually carry too much weight. But, it is still a ranking signal. I say write naturally, IF it fits putting the keyword there, then do it. If not, don't lose sleep over it.

Meta descriptions- Not a ranking signal, some SEO's don't even use them. They just allow Google to pick it for them based on the query.

In the URL, url structure is important. It depends what context you're talking about here, but specifying what the page is about is obviously preferable. /cars/vauxhall/ is obviously better than /page1/post1/ for example.

The only place I think about keywords know adays is the title. Making it enticing and accurate to the user whilst trying to stick your main target word in can be a challenge.

 

[SEO Ninja]

Since the Google refresh a couple of days ago they seem to be adding a bit more weight to H1 tags.

 

[Matt1966]

Since the Google refresh a couple of days ago they seem to be adding a bit more weight to H1 tags.

Any evidence?

 

[SEO Ninja]

Hi Matt,

Seems to be. I know that correlations on a number of test sites (approx 100) pointed to a slight increase in rankings 3 days ago. The common factor was a matching H1 tag.

Obviously no magic answer or the secret to seo but an indication that after the last "medic" update a few weeks ago Google are again taking the H1 tag as more of a factor again.

 

[fisicx]

This doesn't mean though that you have to have an exact match keyword in the H1. A well crafted H1 (or any other content) can demonstrate authority without constant repetition of keywords.

 

[justinaldridge]

Replace the H1 with an H2 or an H3 and you won't see any difference. It's such a minuscule factor that you wouldn't notice any direct impact on rankings for mildly competitive terms.

Too many factors come into play for rankings to be able to narrow it down to one tiny one. For an accurate experiment you would need identical sites, with identical link profiles, identical user metrics, etc, to be able to categorically say that the H1 has made a difference.

 

[SEO Ninja]

I agree fully and know that there are around 500 ranking factors that are taken into consideration. Just saying that the H1 since mid week have been given a little more of a factor.

 

[Matt1966]

Replace the H1 with an H2 or an H3 and you won't see any difference. It's such a minuscule factor that you wouldn't notice any direct impact on rankings for mildly competitive terms.

Too many factors come into play for rankings to be able to narrow it down to one tiny one. For an accurate experiment you would need identical sites, with identical link profiles, identical user metrics, etc, to be able to categorically say that the H1 has made a difference.

I'm not sure if you're saying H1's are not a ranking signal, or if they're just a small one?

The whole point of specialising in SEO is to add all the small details up. Soon enough, these little details add up and become the difference between you and a competitor.

Plenty of tests have been done at scale regarding H1's. H1's are still, without a doubt in my opinion, a reasonably important ranking signal.

Two close friends of mine tested this at scale (100k+ pages), finding keywords in H1's still have a positive reaction. Another test was conducted by distilled, and another by this guy. (Both are a year or so old, so it's up to you if you choose to read).

The days of keywords being the be all and end all are truly gone, I completely agree. But, completely dismissing the H1 is a wasted opportunity in my opinion.

 

[justinaldridge]

Heading tags (not just the H1) are very helpful from a "what this page is about" perspective and should be thought of as structural elements of a page....for the users! It's not just the H1, use the H2, H3 etc. They help define the content. This CAN help search engines better understand the context of a page.

If you are trying to rank for anything remotely competitive, the H1 is such a tiny tiny signal that it will make no difference. If you are just trying to rank for something really uncompetitive, such as "justin's poinless seo advice" then maybe it will be the little thing that pushes your page above the a competing page.

It's the same as the https factor, it's very weak and only comes into play when the difference in weighting of competing pages is borderline.

Regarding your example....in the distilled experiment they also changed the title tag. Now that is completely different. They didn't test the H1 in isolation. The results cannot in any way come to the conclusion that the H1 had any influence at all. The title tag IS a strong signal which will have completely overshadowed any effect the change in the H1 may have had.

The other experiment....is from 2012!! In 2012 there was no AI, there was no "mobile first", there was no "speed ranking factor" there was no "https factor"....it was a completely different world back then.

Even the Distilled one is from 2016....so it's largely not relevant today. AI has completely changed how we think about SEO today.

I was doing some work on a kitchen website this morning and I just searched for "kitchen manufacturer". Does the top result (Nobilia) for this term have an optimised H1? Nope...it says "Our company".

 

[Inva]

Do not forget that Google is not the only search engine. Regarding headings, as said above it does not need to contain the exact phrase. We recommend to use a heading which corresponds to the element's depth level in the document.

Also keep in mind that synonyms are also accounted for, and if you offer information then it's best to put the keyword/phrase in singular form, if you are selling it's best to put it in plural.

 

[Tin]

So the way I see it is I can only try to rank with one keyword per page using the above guidelines?

No, that's not the case at all. Doing solid keyword analysis is the starting point which if done well will give you a good idea of how many keywords you can target easily within a single page.

There is a simple trick to adding in additional keywords beyond the main primary keyword you're wanting to target for any given page and the funny thing is, that you don't place them into your page in the same way as your primary keyword methods ie; if you've decided on your primary keyword you're wanting to target and you've found 20 other keywords that are related in some way to each other, you do not treat them as individual keywords, it's where you place them in the page that enables the page target them.

I've got a page ranking on page 1 for the primary keyword 'vat calculator' - the page only has 331 words of copy on it but it has 188 different keywords ranking on page 1 and another 92 keywords ranking on page 2. All of these keywords belong to the same page.

I didn't target all of these, just 3 of them 'vat calculator' (primary keyword) + a variety of 'how do' and 'how to' phrases (not keywords at all but common phrases used by folk which I found when I did my keyword research). I built the copy up to target just these 3 terms and good old Google gave me the rest of those keyword rankings.

I've an Excel file of the above so if you think you'd benefit from it then pop me a PM and I'll send it over.

What I do need to say is of course, all the keywords on each page must be 'on a topic' but it is perfectly feasible to go after more than one keyword per page. Think of a page as having a 'topic' rather than a 'single keyword' and do solid keyword analysis underneath that topic to see what can be built into the same page of copy.

Hope that helps.

 

[Matt1966]

Heading tags (not just the H1) are very helpful from a "what this page is about" perspective and should be thought of as structural elements of a page....for the users! It's not just the H1, use the H2, H3 etc. They help define the content. This CAN help search engines better understand the context of a page.

If you are trying to rank for anything remotely competitive, the H1 is such a tiny tiny signal that it will make no difference. If you are just trying to rank for something really uncompetitive, such as "justin's poinless seo advice" then maybe it will be the little thing that pushes your page above the a competing page.

It's the same as the https factor, it's very weak and only comes into play when the difference in weighting of competing pages is borderline.

Regarding your example....in the distilled experiment they also changed the title tag. Now that is completely different. They didn't test the H1 in isolation. The results cannot in any way come to the conclusion that the H1 had any influence at all. The title tag IS a strong signal which will have completely overshadowed any effect the change in the H1 may have had.

The other experiment....is from 2012!! In 2012 there was no AI, there was no "mobile first", there was no "speed ranking factor" there was no "https factor"....it was a completely different world back then.

Even the Distilled one is from 2016....so it's largely not relevant today. AI has completely changed how we think about SEO today.

I was doing some work on a kitchen website this morning and I just searched for "kitchen manufacturer". Does the top result (Nobilia) for this term have an optimised H1? Nope...it says "Our company".

In my mind, it's our job to give our clients every little bit of advantage possible. Both your examples of H1's and HTTPS are valid, but you also admit they're small signals. Small or large, they should be implemented. Small details matter imo.

 

[SEO Ninja]

Whatever is mentioned regarding SEO on this on this website the answer always seems to be not needed or irrelevant!

 

[xoxoseo]

it depends on keyword difficulty, that can be checked out e.g. by moz or ahrefs. You should work on so called semantic core - keyword(s), long tails, synonyms, branch phrases and related words.

 

[StevePoster]

H1 and other headings are not a ranking factor nor a signal because it only preview the content for the search engines as well as for the users.

 

[Lee Oakley]

I'm trying to get my head around on-page SEO and what I'm understanding is that to rank for a particular keyword I need to:

Put the exact keyword in the HI
Put the keyword in the URL
Put the keyword in the meta description

And loads of other things.......

So the way I see it is I can only try to rank with one keyword per page using the above guidelines?

The phrase to use in this context is 'all other things being equal'.

Whilst there are many on page seo factors that will determine how your content ranks, putting the exact keyword in the H1 or the URL for example will not propel your content to the top of the rankings alone.

They are considered good practice but the content itself and how relevant and engaging it is to the search term (compared to everyone else content) is far more important.

And as others have said you can have a single page rank for several keywords. Just depends on how good the content is compared to your competitors

 

[Richard Patey]

you can target more than one KW per page using H2 headings. I would not put the exact KW in the title + URL + H1 as this is way too optimised and could get google slapped

 

[comperio]

So the way I see it is I can only try to rank with one keyword per page using the above guidelines?

A page will rank for many keywords, not just 1. But there is usually a "main keyword" or a few. Keywords do not work in isolation, but in unisson. So if your kewyord is "best dentist in City of London", you may also rank for "City of London top dentists". Keywords can be related or synonyms.

The richer your page content and the more diverse your source of links, the more keywords your page can rank for. Keyword work is not a set and forget job, it is a dynamic process as you will never guess for what long-tail terms you may rank. So you can adapt your strategy or content over time to rank better and for more keywords.

 

[Rober Williams]

I'm trying to get my head around on-page SEO and what I'm understanding is that to rank for a particular keyword I need to:

Put the exact keyword in the HI
Put the keyword in the URL
Put the keyword in the meta description

And loads of other things.......

So the way I see it is I can only try to rank with one keyword per page using the above guidelines?

No it's not all the factors you have to focus on. putting keyword in H1 or in URL may effect your ranking but you should focus on content of your page. You can put different keywords in your content and bet on them as well for SERP Ranking.

 

[Dezvolta]

I'm trying to get my head around on-page SEO and what I'm understanding is that to rank for a particular keyword I need to:

Put the exact keyword in the HI
Put the keyword in the URL
Put the keyword in the meta description

And loads of other things.......

So the way I see it is I can only try to rank with one keyword per page using the above guidelines?

Yup you are right you have to place the particular keyword in H1, meta tile and in meta description which you are trying to rank but not this only will help in ranking that particular keyword. First of all you need to share the competition of the keyword in the market.

 

[fisicx]

Yup you are right you have to place the particular keyword in H1, meta tile and in meta description which you are trying to rank but not this only will help in ranking that particular keyword. First of all you need to share the competition of the keyword in the market.

I think you need to update your SEO skills. Your advice isn't correct.

 

[Ginger Egg]

Most importantly make your content engaging.
Write it naturally in your own voice.
Include internal and external links to relevant authoritative sites.
Include your keyword in your H1 and throughout your content but don't stuff.
Include your keyword in your alt tags

 

[ukbf0001]

This is one of those threads that will go on and on.
There are over 200 Google rules re what makes your page 'rank'.
H1, page title, valid quality content etc. Dont fall into the trap and stuff your keywords everywhere. And yes someone was right when they you dont need to do these things (although Google will tell you otherwise).
You see - great content , that answers a question, is easy to read and compelling enough to make the end user buy something is what counts. You could be page1 of Google - with all the rights ticks in the boxes and links etc - but if the way you talk about your product is bad - then people wont buy it - simple as that.

I use a website audit tool for my sites, it compares the top 10 competition to my site for the keyword phrase. It then tell sme what the competition have done - compared to my site. I then do what the competition have done in terms of title, H1s url etc - but I usually do it better than the competition. Once done - you can then concentrate on off site SEO and also (more importantly nowadays) social media monitoring. I use another tool for that - that works perfectly - happy days.

 

[Happy Koala SEO Agency]

a good rule of thumb is to put your main keyword in a google search.

Then scroll to the bottom and see what google says are related searches.

These are very often great keywords to use in your H2, H3 and H4 titles.

When it comes to getting your keywords in the content.

Imagine having a conversation with someone about the topic, during that conversation you are going to touch on a number of different ways to say similar things.

You will also talk about things that are related to it.

So all this paints a picture from different angles about the same topic.

Think that you want to be the expert about your topic, and when people will come to your page they will have all their questions answered and they won't need to go to another website.

Think in terms of pure value to the end user - have a conversation with them.

 

[Adm4g]

Somewhere I also faced this same difficulty with On-page.

I understand, On-page is basic but important factor for the SEO but most of the cases are fail with On-page.

 

[Ecomccountant]

This is one of those threads that will go on and on.
There are over 200 Google rules re what makes your page 'rank'.
H1, page title, valid quality content etc. Dont fall into the trap and stuff your keywords everywhere. And yes someone was right when they you dont need to do these things (although Google will tell you otherwise).
You see - great content , that answers a question, is easy to read and compelling enough to make the end user buy something is what counts. You could be page1 of Google - with all the rights ticks in the boxes and links etc - but if the way you talk about your product is bad - then people wont buy it - simple as that.

I use a website audit tool for my sites, it compares the top 10 competition to my site for the keyword phrase. It then tell sme what the competition have done - compared to my site. I then do what the competition have done in terms of title, H1s url etc - but I usually do it better than the competition. Once done - you can then concentrate on off site SEO and also (more importantly nowadays) social media monitoring. I use another tool for that - that works perfectly - happy days.

What tools are you using ?

 

[Jackson19]

It is not from these factors that you can get a ranking of keywords. Meta tags and H1 are the main factor, but the content of a website is the main role for ranking keywords. You can insert keywords into your content.

 

[Sam Khan]

You are saying good way, but in the URL not use the same keyword and you will also use the keyword in the content.