{"id":121799,"date":"2019-03-26T04:46:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T04:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=121799"},"modified":"2020-02-12T06:54:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T06:54:00","slug":"on-page-seo-essentials-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/03\/26\/on-page-seo-essentials-content\/","title":{"rendered":"10 on-page SEO essentials: Crafting the perfect piece of content"},"content":{"rendered":"

You are now living in the midst of a tantalizing revolution as the great minds of user experience (UX)<\/a> and search engine optimization (SEO)<\/a> finally converge to produce beautiful on-page content designed to rank in search results AND engage or educate the user. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Gone are the days of plugging in keyword phrases into your blog posts to get the density just right and building landing page after landing page<\/a> targeted at keyword<\/a> variations like, \u201cautomobiles for sale\u201d, \u201ccars for sale\u201d and \u201ctrucks for sale\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since the introduction of RankBrain,<\/a> the machine-learning component of Google\u2019s Core Algorithm<\/a>, in late 2015, Google has moved farther away from a simple question and answer engine and has become a truly intelligent source of information matching the user\u2019s intent \u2014 not just the user\u2019s query.<\/p>\n

Crafting compelling content<\/a> is tough, especially in such a competitive landscape. How can you avoid vomiting up a 1,500-word blog post that will meet the deadline but fall very short of the user\u2019s expectations? If you follow these 10 on-page essential elements, your brand will be on the right track to provide a rich content<\/a> experience designed to resonate with your audience for months to come.<\/p>\n

The basics:<\/h2>\n

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Title Tag<\/h3>\n

Always seen in the <head> block or the beginning of a web page’s source code, the title tag\u00a0<\/a>is text wrapped in the <title> HTML tag. Visible as the headline of the search listing on results pages, on the user\u2019s browser tab, and sometimes in social media applications when an Open Graph Tag<\/a> is not present, this text is intended to describe the overarching intent of the page and the type of content<\/a> a user can expect to see when browsing.<\/p>\n

What I mean by \u201cintent<\/a>\u201d can be illustrated with the following example. Say my title tag for a product page was Beef for Dogs | Brand Name. As a user, I would not expect to find a product page, but rather, information about whether I can feed beef to my dogs.<\/p>\n

A better title tag to accurately match my users\u2019 intent would be Beef Jerky Dog Treats | Brand Name.<\/p>\n

Query = \u201cbeef for dogs\u201d<\/h4>\n

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Query = \u201cbeef jerky dog treats\u201d<\/h4>\n

How do I know what the title tag of my page is?<\/h4>\n

Identifying what has been set as the title tag or meta description of your pages can be done URL-by-URL or at scale for many URLs. There are distinct uses for each discovery method, and it is always important to remember that Google may choose to display another headline for your page in search results if it feels that its title is a better representation for the user. Here are a few great online tools<\/a> to get you started:<\/p>\n

URL-by-URL inspection:<\/h5>\n