Onsite SEO includes multiple tactics to help your website rank higher for targeted keywords and phrases. Tactics range from keyword selection, to content creation to technical elements within the website. As you work through the various elements, having a plan in advance will help keep your efforts on point. Keywords The first step in a solid onsite SEO strategy is to carefully consider your keywords. Keywords and phrases should include branding elements, content targets and a geographical consideration. Branding elements include the business name, owners’ names and key employee names. Be sure to use words and not just logos or graphics to represent your company. Google understands words far better than pictures. Using owner and employee names helps is someone may know you and that you are part of your organization, but may not remember the organization name. A search for John Smith accountant may not display your website if John Smith is not included in your keyword content. Content focused keywords are the words people will enter into Google related to what you do. For a landscaper, think words like “lawn maintenance”, “grass cutting”, “irrigation installation”, “sprinkler systems”, etc. Multiple variations of a term will help capture a broader range of search inquiries. Geographical keywords are where your business is located and the different areas you serve. With keywords, always think “what will someone enter into Google when they are looking for my website?” Website Content Now that you have your list of keywords, begin using them to help craft the written content on your website. Keywords should repeatedly be woven throughout the content on your website. Include keywords in headings. Include keywords in paragraphs. Include keywords in image captions. Do it repeatedly, but also do it naturally. Keyword stuffing is a black hat tactic and can get your site banned. (Don’t do keywords, keywords, keywords to get more keywords.) Technical Elements Each page of your website has a <title> tag. Titles should absolutely use keywords. Website pages should also include <meta> tags including the meta description. The meta description is a snippet or summary of your page content that should be more readable but also include keywords. Images should use [alt] attributes to describe what the image represents and are another opportunity to include keywords. Page Load Speed How fast your website page loads is a factor for search engine ranking and for user experience. While not tied to your keywords, be mindful of practices to make your website load faster. Use properly sized images and next-gen image formats like WebP, AVIF and SVG for faster image loading. Use “extras” sparingly. Items like popups and other website widgets may be valuable for your user experience, but be mindful of the impact to load time and use these tools strategically. SEO Summary Keywords and their repeated but natural use throughout the content on your website is one of the strongest SEO tactics available to a website. Using those keywords throughout the technical elements on your website increases the keyword impact. A focus on these onsite, organic SEO tactics will help your website rank higher.
SEO is an abbreviation for “Search Engine Optimization”, which means utilizing tactics to help people find your website using online search. SEM stand for “Search Engine Marketing” and refers to paid advertising on the internet. SEO is “organic”. Organic refers to the listings in the search engine results that are not paid advertising. SEM results in paid listings which are marked with a tag that says “sponsored” or “ad”. But how do you know when to use SEO and/or SEM? The answer to the SEO vs. SEM question often depends on budget, time and competition. SEO is the longer play. SEO is driven by content changes, website structure and meta tags to better emphasize desired keywords. But it takes Google and the other search engines time to process these changes and begin ranking a website for those adjusted targets. SEO can be handled by the website owner and generally costs much less than SEM. And if you are in a crowded marketplace (think “real estate agents”), then the time for SEO changes to rank is much longer. SEM is fast, is a pay to play solution and is still impacted by competition. The results of an SEM campaign can be seen in days rather than weeks. Competition has less influence on where your ad will display and more influence on how much the ad will cost. If you are in a niche market and looking to make a quick splash, SEM can start generating additional traffic for a few hundred dollars per month. In more competitive fields, the cost per click is higher and could require a budget in the thousands per month to generate the desired results. Overall, SEO is a must for every website. Well defined keyword targets, combined with quality content that includes those keywords, supported by strong website structure and meta tags will help your website rank higher in search results. If your budget allows, SEM campaigns will accelerate traffic and gain exposure where the organic work has not yet reached. Ultimately, the answer is not SEO or SEM, but a blend of both to help people better find your website.