Best practice for SEO
Search engine optimisation (SEO) focuses on getting traffic from free, organic search results in search engines.
When a user searches on the web with a search phrase or keyword, the search engine brings up search engine results pages (SERPs) with websites and pages that align best to users’ key phrases or words. On-page optimisation enables us to improve our SERP rankings by ensuring the content on our site is relevant to audience search queries.
Identifying target keywords
Ideally, keywords should be identified for each digital content piece as part of the content creation planning process. Keyword research has many benefits for SEO, like getting relevant visitors to our website and identifying content gaps online.
When selecting keywords, it is important to consider the keyword difficulty (how competitive it is) as well as search volume. The key is to balance the size of search volume with ease of difficultly so it will still be possible to rank on search pages. Another thing to consider is the intent of the keyword that is being searched – are people looking for information about a query or are they shopping?
Keyword research resources
If you would like to find out more about SEO keyword resarch, take a look at some of the resources listed below:
- Moz’s master keyword research guide
- Moz’s beginners guide
- Moz Keyword explorer
- Google trends
- SEMRush
Another resource freely available is google search – type in your keyword and see what google autofill recommends. The ‘people also ask’ feature on the results page is another good resource for understanding terms often associated with your keyword.
Please note that best practice for using the above tools and resources is to pick one tool to use alongside google. Using too many tools at once can cause confusion.
Overview of main on-page optimisation elements
Metadata
Each web page should include unique metadata to help define it, like a fingerprint. Metadata is a collection of information that search engines can use to decide what a page is about. It includes elements like meta titles and meta descriptions.
Clearly defined, unique metadata allows search engines to display pages that are relevant to user queries. It provides contextual information about a web page that reassures users that the page meets their requirements before they click through.
When creating PDFs, APS include metadata, which must be ported over to the PDF properties information on AEM when uploading documents. For more information, see the accessibility on MOS process.