6 on-page seo tags that improve google search rankings
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6 ON-Page SEO Tags That Improve Google Search Rankings
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Introduction
So far, 2015 has put forth posts that mainly emphasize on effective content
marketing or social media engagement to rank better in Google SERP’s.
Following the few updates viz. Panda, penguin and pigeon of last year, the
focus has shifted to off-page strategies while not much is talked about ON-
Page issues that can affect SEO badly. Noticing the same, I have come
up with this list of ON-Page SEO factors that will help you make
ON-Page changes and improve your SEO performance.
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Listed below are 6 fundamental ON-Page tags that will help you
rank high in Google:
• Canonical Tag
• 301 Redirection
• 404 Errors
• Robots.txt file
• Robot Meta Tags
• Href Lang Tag
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Canonical Tag
Websites with more than one URLs containing similar content come
under the scanner of Google owing to duplicity. This adversely affects
website’s presence on search engines and is commonly termed as a bad
SEO practice. Use of canonical tag is very common in ecommerce
websites especially in product based pages where URL changes for
color, size & similar product parameters. This is where canonical
tag can come to your rescue.
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Right use of this tag however is important, as websites making
common mistakes with canonical tag eventually fail to get the
actual benefits.
The use of canonical tag is must to keep control over the state
of search results. With this, you can choose which page you
want to get indexed and which not. By doing so, you not only
save your site from the consequences of URL duplicity but also
ensure link popularity of the chosen page.
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Make The Most of Canonical Tag
By adding canonical appropriately, you avoid losses that occur
when website goes against Google guidelines. At the same time, all
your pages remain live to users.
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People get confused between canonical and 301 but both are
entirely different. A canonical tag allows you to get one page
indexed while keeping all live. On the other hand, 301 redirection
is meant to keep only one page live for crawler as well as users.
301 Redirection
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Using 301 Redirection is beneficial for transferring old domains to
new web address. Instead of showing 404 page, direct users and
search engines to a suitable page (home page or one with similar
offerings). This will not only prevent bounce rate but also pass
link juice thereby giving ranking power to the page.
Relevance of 301 Redirection
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Many types of redirects are used by webmasters but using too
many results in slow website. Choosing a redirect that solves a
trouble without inviting new ones is the most appropriate way for
webmasters to handle their business site. For instance, if a page is
indexing and has good links from other sites but ceases to offer a
product/service, it must be 301 redirected to a relevant page to
save your search engine benefits.
In short, 301 redirection needs to be part of your ON-Page plan in
2015.
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404 or ‘Not Found’ errors are prevalent on big ecommerce sites as online
stores are updated quite frequently owing to availability/unavailability of
products. Recurrent additions/deletions leads to broken links and this can
be risky for your web presence.
Google says that 404 errors will not impact your search engine rankings
but these errors will hurt your SERPs because too many 404 errors
or broken links leads to poor user experience. Google give top
priority to user experience, and if your website lacks in
it, you will surely notice the impact on your SERPs.
This point made 404 Errors part of this
ON-Page SEO guide.
404 Errors
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Check website pages in Google Webmaster that show ‘Not Found’
status. There could be various reasons viz. page deleted, renamed
or misspelling in link. Monitor your Google Webmaster and
redirect the ones that are renamed, and fix the others
Fixed 404 Errors
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Google Webmaster is not only about checking impressions
and clicks. Also use Google webmaster to check
about server errors, 404 errors, and other
crawl errors issues from time to time.
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Robots.txt file is used to stop crawler from indexing pages that
you don’t wish to be crawled. Blocking URL by robots.txt file is a
common action taken by programmers during testing stage. So,
checking robots.txt file is essential when it is live to ensure
complete crawling of a site.
Robots.txt File
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Risk factor
Googlebot first accesses robots.txt file to check whether a site
allows or blocks it from crawling any pages or URLs. None of your
SEO techniques can help you boost search engine rankings of a
page until it is made available to crawler. Hence, make sure your
robots.txt file is accessible and does not have improper
commands or a wrong URL listed.
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No all pages on a website are for users; therefore, should not be
indexed in search engines. For instance, admin page, portal,
checkout pages, etc. Creating robot.txt file is a handy way to keep
such pages on the backend only by providing instructions on
which pages should be disallowed from getting displayed on
SERPs.
Where to use
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Robot Meta Tags
Robot Meta tags are crucial for website indexing. Robots Meta Tag
must be placed in the head section of an HTML page. The ‘index’,
‘follow’, ‘no index’ & ‘no follow’ options tell search engine spiders
which pages are for ‘index & follow’ and which are not. The most
recommended combination from search engine point of view is
“index & follow” but you don’t have to add this to your pages
as it’s the default option.
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• Index and follow - Use this option if you want spiders to index
the page and also crawl the links on this page.
• No index and follow - Use this option if you don’t want spiders
to index the page but crawl all the links on this page.
• Index and no follow - Use this option if you want spiders to
index this page but leave the links on this page.
• No index and no follow - Use this option if you don’t want
spiders to index the page as well as links.
Let’s discuss all the 4 cases one by one
Robot Meta tags are crucial for website’s complete indexing. This
is the reason you need to take care of it while thinking on-page
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Possible loss of mishandling Robot Meta Tags
Choosing ‘no index’ unknowingly or mistakenly can block your search
indexing and throw your website out of Google SERPs.
This is a common case of errors that result in low presence
on search networks despite applying best practices.
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Robots.txt file can be used to block the whole website, a
particular folder of website pages and even bots of particular
search engines. Robots Meta tag on the other hand work page
wise.
For example, if I want to no-index only 1 page of my website,
then, I will go for robots Meta tag. If I want to block my whole
website or any specific folder, then, robots.txt file will be best
option for me.
Where to use Robots.txt File and Robots Meta Tag
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Href Lang Tag
Websites that serve users from various regions or require translating
similar content for various users have to pay special attention to this
tag. It allows one to show relationship between various site pages,
and helps search engine give accurate results for a search query.
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So, if your Mexico based client searches your business online,
Google will automatically show the translated version in search
results and also save you from the consequences of content
duplicity (only if the main content abides by the keywords, links
and other quality guidelines).
This somehow adds value to users’ search by showing results of
appropriate language based on geographic association and
improves user experience too.
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Best for serving to local audience
hreflang tag helps businesses that have wider audience belonging to
different regions serve local audience better. It adds signal that helps
spider find relevant page instantly. This way, you don’t need multiple
websites to target people from different geographical regions.
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Avoid incorrect codes to prevent invalidation of hreflang. Read
more
SEO planning can turn fruitless if any of the above mentioned on-
page points are mishandled or ignored. Many businesses lag
behind in search engine rankings due to such trivial issues that go
unnoticed.
Use this ON-Page SEO guide to get the attention your business
deserves in search engines. Take my word, Google as well as
customers will love you for it.
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