STEP 6: WIX SEO COURSE - On-page optimization!

By now you should have a list of keywords assigned to the relevant pages, if you have performed all the action points detailed in step 4 of this Wix SEO course. Dig out your keyword map as this will form the basis of this next step… Optimizing each page on your website for a given keyword / search phrase.

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What is on-page optimization and why is it important?

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On-page optimization is the process of making sure the page is fully related to the target keyword / search phrase. For Google to rank your page for a certain keyword, they (the machine) look at various elements of a page to make sure it is the best result to satisfy the searches query intent.

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Why on-page optimization is important!

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If you do not fully optimize each page of the website, Google will not understand what your pages are all about and will not rank your site.

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What should you consider when optimizing a page?

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This is based on my 20 years’ experience working within the SEO industry and is my own personal on-page SEO checklist.

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Accessibility

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Are you allowing Google to crawl your website efficiently?

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• Ensure the page is accessible to search engines – If you go to the SEO (Google) tab and scroll down to the bottom, make sure ‘Show this page in search results’ is turned on.

• The page is linked from at least one other internal page – It is essential that you link every page on your website from at least one other page. Why? Simply because, how will both your website users and the Google crawler ever find that page?

 

Page title <title>

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The page title is displayed within the search results page. It is the words in blue that people click on to land on your website. Do not get this mixed up with the title at the top of each page.

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To edit your Page Title within the Wix editor, click Menus & Pages > The 3 dots icon to the left of your required page > SEO (Google) > Add your page title in the section titled ‘What’s the page’s title on search results and browser tabs?’.

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• Title length is around 60 characters – It used to be a few years ago that Google had a set character length when displaying the page title. They then changed this to the number of pixels. As the letter ‘I’ has a different pixel with than the letter ‘h’, I determined, if you stick to around 60 characters, your full title will display on both Google desktop and mobile. There is no point exceeding this to say 75 characters as it just will not show.

• Keyword is only mentioned once – Do not spam your keyword multiple times within your title as it will do more harm than good.

• If it makes sense, keyword is displayed at beginning of title – If it makes sense to do so, always try to start your title with your target keyword.

• The page only uses one page title (Wix sort this) – The advantage of building your website on Wix is, they take care of many technical aspects for you automatically.

 

Meta description

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The meta description is the paragraph of text displayed under your title within the search engine results page.

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To edit your meta description within the Wix editor, click Menus & Pages > The 3 dots icon to the left of your required page > SEO (Google) > Add your meta description in the section titled ‘What’s this page about? Add a description’.

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• Add a meta description – Make sure you fill in the meta description box. If you do not, Google will just take a random piece of content from the page which might not totally relate.

• The page uses one meta description only (Wix sort this) – Again, Wix automatically sort this out for you.

• Your assigned keyword is mentioned once anywhere in meta description – Although adding your keyword into your meta description is NOT a ranking factor, it does help to increase the number of times the searcher clicks through to your website as Google will highlight your keyword within your meta description text.

• Meta description does not exceed 160 characters – There is no point exceeding 160 characters within your meta description as Google will not show it.

• Meta description is written to drive clicks – The purpose of your meta description is to get people who search your target keyword to click through to your website instead of your competitors. Make sure you read through all the other meta descriptions on the first page of the search results and stand out from the crowd.

 

Header H1 tag

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Your H1 tag is the heading that appears at the top of each page on your website.

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To edit your H1, simply double click on your heading within the Wix editor, click on ‘SEO & Accessibility’ and select H1.

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• Page includes a H1 tag – Make sure you set the main heading of each page to H1, so Google understand that this is the main context of the page.

• Page uses only one H1 tag – Do NOT use the H1 tag more than once on any page. You do not want to confuse Google.

• Your target keyword is mentioned anywhere within the H1 tag – It does not matter where, but make sure you include your target keyword into your H1.

 

Images

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To edit an image ALT tag within the Wix editor, simply click on the image once, click the ‘Settings’ icon and add your ALT text in the field named ‘What’s in the image? Tell Google’.

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• All images on the page uses ALT tag – If your page includes more than one image, do not spam your keyword into every image ALT tag. Add it into the first image on the page then just use words as the ALT text to describe the image for all others on the page.

• At least one image file name along with ALT tag contains target keyword – Decide which is going to be your main image and rename that image to the keyword you are targeting, such as… seo-speaker.jpg, then re-upload it.

• All images are sized correctly (Wix sort this) – I prefer to resize all my images before I upload them but it is not essential as Wix automatically do this for you.

 

Content

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We already covered content in step five of this course, so I will skim over this bit.

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• Content is unique.

• It is written for the user.

• Keyword is included within first 100 words.

• Content makes sense, if read out loud.

• Related keywords are used in document.

 

URL

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The URL is sometimes called ‘website address’. To edit this within the Wix editor, click Menus & Pages > The 3 dots icon to the left of your required page > SEO (Google) > Change your page URL in the section titled ‘What’s the last part (or slug) of the page URL?’.

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• Keyword included in the URL as close to the front as possible – Try to name your page URL as your target keyword or at least start your URL with your target keyword.

• URL uses standard characters only with a hyphen between each word – Only use letters, numbers, and hyphens within your URL. Make sure that each word is separated by a hyphen (-). Never use any other characters or spaces within your page URL.

• Keyword is included only once within full URL – Do not spam your keyword. Only use it once.

• Keep the URL length down to a minimum – There is no maximum or minimum length requirement when it comes to page URLs, but you want to try and keep your URL as short as possible.

 

Rel=Canonical tag

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A rel=canonical tag tells Google which URL the content on your page belongs to. Wix automatically set the canonical tag to match your page URL by default. Unless you have copied your content from another website (which you should never do as you are not the copyright holder of that content) or you have multiple pages on your website with the same content on them, you do not need to worry about the canonical tag.

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• Page includes a canonical tag.

• There is only one canonical tag on the page.

• Canonical tag is pointing to the correct URL.

 

Structured Data (Schema markup)

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Structured data is a piece of code which embeds into your page to make it easier for Google to understand the meaning of that page. Wix automatically add the correct structured data type and code to the blog, products, listings etc…

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You do need to manually implement structured data within the Wix editor to standard pages by, click Menus & Pages > The 3 dots icon to the left of your required page > SEO (Google) > click on the ‘Advanced SEO’ tab > Paste your structured data code into the box titled ‘Paste your JSON-LD code here…:

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Always…

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• Make sure you use the correct type – There are many ‘types’ of structured data codes. It may sound complicated, but it is kind of logical when you strip it right back. If you are a local business, serving customers within your local area, then you will use the ‘Local Business’ structured data type. If you are a National based business, you will implement the ‘Organization’ structured data type to your homepage.

• Make sure the information you use in the structured data code is displayed on the page – It is essential that all the information you use within your structured data code is also physically displayed on the page somewhere.

• Make sure you use the Structured Data Testing Tool to make sure your code is validated (https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool) – If your code is not fully validated, Google will ignore it, so there is no point adding it to your website.

 

How to create the structured data code

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Simply follow these four steps to add structured data to the related page…

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1. Visit (https://technicalseo.com/tools/schema-markup-generator/) or search Google for ‘Structured Data Generator’.

2. Select the ‘type’ associated with your page.

3. Fill in all the boxes.

4. Copy and paste the code into the Wix editor.

 

Custom meta tags

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To locate the ‘custom meta tags’ section, open the Wix editor, click Menus & Pages > The 3 dots icon to the left of your required page > SEO (Google) > click on the ‘Advanced SEO’ tab > Scroll down to ‘Custom Meta Tags’. From here you can add up to ten different custom meta tags to each page.

Important to note…

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• Do NOT add your page title and meta description code in this box.

• No need to add anything for SEO purposes.

• Only use the Custom Meta Tags if you are attaching a specific tool to a specific page, such as a Heatmap tool.

 

Understanding header tags

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Do not get mixed up with using H tags as fonts between your H (Header) tags. You can still use the Heading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 within the ‘Themes’ option as many times as you want on a page BUT make sure you set those Headings as H specific H tags by…

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1. Clicking on each heading / sub-heading within the Wix editor.

2. Scroll down to the ‘SEO & Accessibility’ section within the ‘Text Settings’ popup box.

3. Select the required H tag under ‘Change heading tag’.

 

Now we have got that cleared up, let us look at what you need to be mindful of when it comes to H tags…

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• Do not duplicate any H tag more than once on any single page – H tags are heading tags and each H tag on a page should be unique.

• Always ensure you use each H tag in order down the page – H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 then H6 – Structure your H tags in a logical order going down the page.

• Header tags are just that! They are headers relating to the content under each header.

 

When adding content to any page on any website, make sure you follow the correct H tag structure:

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<h1>Title</h1>

Content related to H1 tag.

<h2>Sub-title</h2>

Content related to H2 tag.

<h3>Sub-title</h3>

Content related to H3 tag.

<h4>Sub-title</h4>

Content related to H4 tag.

<h5>Sub-title</h5>

Content related to H5 tag.

<h6>Sub-title</h6>

Content related to H6 tag.

<p>Sub-title</p>

Content related to this sub-title.

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H tags in blog posts

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When it comes to header tags in blog posts, the structure is slightly different.

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Main blog title (H1)

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Sub-title (H2)

Sub-title of sub-title (H3)

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Sub-title (H2)

Subtitle of sub-title (H3)

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Etc...

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With blog posts, it is perfectly fine to have more than one H2 and H3 tags on a page. The sub-heading of each section of the blog article must be set to H2. The important thing to remember is that your ONLY use the H1 tag just ONCE at the top of the blog article.

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Now you should understand how to fully optimize any page on your website for its mapped keyword.

 

We are turning you into an SEO!