There are hundreds of ranking factors Google considers when determining what should be shown in search results. Many of these factors are beyond the control of an SEO expert, such as the age of the domain name or where the site server is located. Throughout all of Google’s recent updates and search ranking algorithms, basic on-page principles have remained important.
The below are basic on-page elements that tell Google what each page is about and if it is a relevant result to a search query.
Page Title or Meta Title
These titles are what appear in the tab of the browser when the page is open, and what is clickable in search results.
Meta Description
A meta description doesn’t necessarily impact your rankings much but can help with click-through-rates if descriptions are well written and enticing. The only place this description is seen is in the search results.
Page Headers or H1s
These titles appear at the top of page content and provide an overview of what the page is about. Since search engine bots look for the H1 tags to help determine the page’s subject matter, it’s recommended to include keywords here if they sound natural. It’s best practice to only have one H1 tag per page. Any subsequent content headers should be tagged H2, H3, and so on.
Internal Links
Internal links serve a few purposes. They help with user experience by allowing site visitors to click on links to related pages for more specific information. Internal links can indicate to search engines what the subject matter is for the landing page as well as spreading page authority throughout the website.
Since a property’s home page and other top-level pages have the most visitors and most interaction, they have the most authority with the search engines and rank the most often in search results. Linking from these pages, especially the home page, to other related pages throughout the site indicates to Google that the pages being linked to are also important and helps them to rank in search results as well.
Image Alt Tags (as seen below)
Navigation Structure
Another important element is the site’s navigation structure. Is it easy for the visitor to find information on your website? Do they find what they expect on the page? Are sub-pages placed accordingly? It would be irritating for a visitor searching for the hotel’s pet policy to find it as a sub-page of the dining page. Website content should be laid out in a way that is easy to browse and find relevant information on sub-pages. The navigation bar should always be visible and main pages accessible within one click.
Schema Markup
Schema markup is a language collaboratively created by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex to help their search engine bots determine the subject matter of any web page and its content. The coding is placed on the back end of website pages and is scanned by search bots to gather page content for use in search results.
It is useful for hotels and restaurants because schema markup can show star rating reviews in search results, which can really help a property stand out. It can also be used to display individual events. All content built on Vizergy hosted websites uses schema markup.
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