The 10 keys to a successful onsite web positioning

In this article we are going to study which are the keys for our website to be positioned successfully in internet search engines (For example: Google and Bing), we are going to review the best on-site techniques to position our website.

1.- Keyword research

Conduct extensive keyword research relevant to your business, considering search volume and competition. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush or Ahrefs.

Keyword research is a crucial process in search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing strategy. To conduct effective keyword research, follow these steps:

• Identify your niche : Understand and define the niche of your business or website. This will help you focus on the keywords that are most relevant to your target audience.
• Make a list of important topics : Write a list of topics relevant to your niche that may interest your target audience. These topics will serve as a starting point for identifying specific keywords.
• Keyword Brainstorming : For each topic, think of possible keywords or phrases that people might use in related searches. Don't worry about being thorough at this stage; the goal is to generate ideas.
• Use keyword research tools : Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz Keyword Explorer can help you find keywords related to your topics, as well as data on search volume, competition, and relevance. These tools also allow you to analyze the keywords used by your competitors.
• Analyze the competition : Research the keywords that your competitors are using and ranking for. This will give you an idea of the keywords that you could take advantage of and the ones that you could improve to outperform your competitors.
• Consider user intent – Make sure you understand the intent behind each keyword. There are different types of intent, such as informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial. Select keywords that fit the intent you want to target.
• Choose long-tail keywords : Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that typically have less competition and a higher conversion rate. Although the search volume may be lower, these keywords are often easier to rank for and can drive quality traffic.
• Prioritize your keywords – Based on relevance, search volume, competition, and user intent, select the most important and valuable keywords for your business. Create a plan to optimize your content and marketing strategy around these keywords.
• Monitor and adjust : Keyword research is not a one-time process. Regularly monitor the performance of your keywords and adjust your strategy as necessary. Search engines, trends, and competition are constantly changing, so it's important to keep an eye on and adapt to those changes.

By conducting effective keyword research, you'll be better prepared to create and optimize content that engages your target audience and improves your search engine rankings.

2.- Friendly URLs

Friendly URLs are those that are easy to read and understand for both users and search engines. To create friendly URLs, follow these guidelines:

• Use relevant keywords : Include the most important keywords in the URL so that users and search engines can easily identify the topic of the page. Do not abuse keywords; uses the most representative ones and avoids over-optimization.
• Keep the URL short and simple : Shorter URLs are often easier to remember and share. Eliminate unnecessary words and avoid the use of numbers and special characters that are not relevant to the content.
• Use underscores instead of spaces : Spaces in URLs can cause readability and accessibility issues. Use underscores to separate words in the URL and improve its readability.
• Hierarchical structure : Organize the URL in a hierarchical way, so that it reflects the structure and organization of the content of your website. For example, "www.example.com/category/subcategory/page" is a hierarchical URL that indicates the relationship between the different sections of the site.
• Avoid numbers and special characters : Do not use numbers and special characters in the URL, as they can make it difficult to read and cause accessibility problems. If it is necessary to use numbers, make sure they are relevant and easily understood by the user.
• Use lowercase letters : By convention, it is recommended to use lowercase letters in URLs to avoid confusion and access problems. Some servers are case sensitive, so using lowercase letters ensures better compatibility.
• Do not use "stop words" : The "stop words" are common words such as "de", "la", "y" or "en" that do not add semantic value to the URL. Removing them helps keep the URL shorter and easier to read.
• Consistency : Maintain a consistent style and format across all URLs on your website. Consistency makes the site easier for users and search engines to navigate and understand.

By following these guidelines, you'll create friendly URLs that are easy to read and understand, which can improve the user experience and your website's search engine performance.

3.- Optimization of titles and descriptions

Write unique, attractive and relevant titles and descriptions for each page, including main keywords. The title must be less than 60 characters and the description less than 160 characters.

Here are some tips for optimizing your titles and descriptions:

Titles:

• Include relevant keywords : Use the main keywords of the page in the title, preferably at the beginning. This helps search engines and users quickly identify the topic of the page.
• Keep titles concise : Search engines often show only the first 60 characters of the title in search results. Therefore, make sure that the title is concise and within this limit.
• Make them unique and descriptive – Each page title should be unique and accurately describe the content of the page. Avoid duplicate or generic titles that do not offer useful information about the content of the page.
• User-friendly : Write headlines that are attractive and encourage users to click on your links. Use numbers, questions, or words that arouse interest and curiosity.

Descriptions:

• Include keywords : As with the titles, include the relevant keywords in the page description. Do not overuse keywords or repeat them excessively, as this can result in a penalty from search engines.
• Keep descriptions short – Most search engines display approximately 160 characters of description in search results. Make sure the description is informative and falls within this limit.
• Provide useful information : The description should offer useful and relevant information about the content of the page. Make sure it's clear and concise so users can quickly understand what the page is about.
• Make them attractive : Write descriptions that are attractive and persuasive, incentivizing users to click on your link. Use language that arouses the curiosity and emotion of users.
• Create unique descriptions – As with titles, each description should be unique and not duplicated on other pages on your website. Duplicate descriptions can cause search engines to consider your content to be low-quality or spam.

By optimizing your titles and descriptions according to these guidelines, you will improve your website's visibility in search engines and increase the likelihood that users will click on your links.

4.- Correct use of headers

Use H1, H2, H3 tags, etc., to structure the content of your pages. Be sure to include keywords in the headers, especially in the H1.

To use headers correctly, follow these guidelines:

• Use a single H1 per page : The H1 should be the main title of the page and clearly and concisely describe the topic of the content. Make sure to only use one H1 per page, as this helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of the content.
• Include keywords in the H1 : Include your main keywords in the H1 header to improve relevance and search engine rankings. Do not abuse keywords or repeat excessively.
• Use a clear hierarchy of headings – Use lower-level headings (H2, H3, H4, etc.) to organize and divide content into sections and subsections. The heading hierarchy should be consistent and follow a logical order, starting with H1 and then using H2, H3, and so on.
• Make headings descriptive and concise : Headings should be descriptive and accurately reflect the content of the corresponding section. Make sure they are concise and easy for users and search engines to understand.
• Don't use headers just for design : Avoid using headers just as a design element or to change the size of text. Headers should have a structural purpose and should not be used solely to modify the appearance of the content.
• Include keywords in lower-level headings : Whenever it's relevant and natural, include keywords in H2, H3, and other headings. This helps search engines understand the relevance of the content and improves search results rankings.
• Do not skip heading levels : Avoid skipping heading levels (for example, going from H1 to H3 without using H2). This can make it difficult for search engines to understand the content structure and negatively affect the user experience.

By following these guidelines, you will be able to use headings effectively to organize and structure the content of your website, making it easier for users and search engines to read and navigate.

5.- Quality content

Publish original, useful and relevant content for your visitors, updating it regularly. Quality content is valued by search engines and helps improve your positioning.

To create quality content, follow these tips:

• Define your target audience : Know your audience, their needs, interests and problems. Quality content must be directed at your target audience and be relevant to them.
• Research keywords and topics : Conduct extensive keyword and topic research related to your niche. This will help you identify areas of interest for your audience and create content that meets their needs.
• Create attractive titles : Use titles that capture the user's attention and arouse their interest in reading the content. Catchy and relevant titles increase the likelihood that visitors will click on your content.
• Structure the content : Organize the content using headings, lists, tables, and other visual elements that make it easy to read and understand. Well-structured content is easier for search engines to read and crawl.
• Provide useful and valuable information : Make sure that your content provides useful, valuable and up-to-date information for your audience. Avoid superficial or duplicate content that does not add value to your visitors.
• Use clear and simple language : Write the content clearly and concisely, using language that is easy for your audience to understand. Avoid excessive use of technical jargon or complicated words that can make it difficult to understand.
• Add images and multimedia elements : Use images, videos, infographics and other multimedia elements to enrich and complement the content. These elements help maintain visitor interest and can enhance the user experience.
• Check spelling and grammar : Review and correct any spelling or grammatical errors in your content. Well-written, error-free content conveys professionalism and confidence to your visitors.
• Update and improve content regularly – Keep your content up to date and constantly improve it to ensure it remains relevant and valuable to your audience. This also helps to maintain a good position in the search engines.
• Encourage interaction and engagement : Encourage your visitors to participate and share their opinions through comments, questions or surveys. User engagement can improve the perception of quality and increase the authority of your website.

By following these tips, you'll be able to create quality content that attracts and retains your website visitors, improves your search engine rankings, and increases your website's authority in your niche.

6.- Responsive design

Make sure your website is mobile friendly as most searches are done from smartphones and tablets. A responsive design also improves the user experience.

To achieve this, follow these steps:

• Use a fluid layout – A fluid layout uses percentages instead of fixed measurements (like pixels) to define the width of elements on the page. This allows the layout to automatically adjust to the size of the device's screen.
• Apply media queries : CSS media queries allow you to apply specific styles based on device characteristics, such as screen size or resolution. Use media queries to adjust the layout and styles of your website to different devices and conditions.
• Use flexible images : Make sure images automatically adapt to the screen size by using CSS properties like max-width and height: auto. This allows images to be scaled to fit the screen size without distorting or affecting quality.
• Take advantage of relative units of measurement : Use relative units of measurement (like em, rem, vw, vh) instead of fixed units (like px) to define sizes and spacing in your layout. These units automatically adapt to the characteristics of the device and ensure a more flexible design.
• Implement a responsive navigation menu – Make sure your navigation menu is accessible and easy to use on all devices. You can implement a dropdown menu (hamburger menu) on mobile devices to save space and improve usability.
• Optimize performance – Mobile devices can have slower internet connections, so it's crucial to optimize your website's performance. Compress images and files, use lazy loading, and reduce heavy resource usage to improve loading speeds on all devices.
• Test on different devices and browsers – Make sure to test your website on different devices, browsers, and screen sizes to ensure a consistent, high-quality user experience. Use emulation tools and test on real devices whenever possible.
• Consider using CSS frameworks : Using a CSS framework like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Tailwind CSS can make it easier to create a responsive design. These frameworks offer a basic structure and predefined components that automatically adapt to different devices and screen sizes.

By following these steps and paying attention to detail, you will be able to create a responsive website that offers an optimal user experience on all devices and screen sizes, thus improving accessibility and user satisfaction.

7.- Load speed

Optimize the loading speed of your website, since it is a key factor for search engine positioning. Reduce image sizes, use file compression and minification, and consider implementing a content delivery network (CDN).

Here are some strategies to optimize the loading speed of your website:

• Optimize Images : Compress and resize images to reduce their size without compromising visual quality. Use efficient image formats like WebP or JPEG XR when possible.
• Minify and Merge CSS and JavaScript Files : Minify CSS and JavaScript files by removing spaces, comments, and unnecessary characters. Combine multiple files into one to reduce the number of HTTP requests.
• Use file compression : Enable GZIP or Brotli compression on your web server to reduce the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files before sending them to the browser.
• Take advantage of browser caching : Configure cache directives on your web server to tell browsers when to cache resources and for how long. This reduces requests and data transfer on subsequent visits.
• Implement lazy loading : Use lazy loading techniques to load images, videos, and other resources only when they are visible on the screen. This reduces the amount of data that is initially uploaded and improves the perceived upload speed.
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) : A CDN is a geographically distributed network of servers that stores and serves static content (images, CSS, JavaScript) to users from the server closest to their location. This reduces latency and improves upload speed.
• Remove or reduce the use of unnecessary plugins and widgets : Additional plugins and widgets can slow down the loading speed of your website. Evaluate and eliminate those that are not essential or replace them with more efficient alternatives.
• Optimize critical rendering : Identifies and prioritizes content and resources critical to initial rendering of the page (CSS and JavaScript required for visible content). This allows for faster loading and viewing of the main content.
• Reduce redirects – Avoid unnecessary redirects, as each redirect adds additional load time. Remove or minimize redirects whenever possible.
• Optimize server response time : Monitor and improve the response time of your web server, solving bottlenecks in the server infrastructure, configuration or application code.

By applying these optimization strategies, you will be able to improve the loading speed of your website, providing a faster and more satisfying user experience, and improving search engine rankings.

8.- Image optimization

Include keywords in the file name and in the alt tag of the images. Also, it compresses images to reduce their size and improve loading speed.

Here are some strategies for optimizing images:

• Resize Images – Make sure images are the correct size for your website design. Do not use larger images than necessary, as they increase loading time.
• Compress images: Use image compression tools to reduce their size without sacrificing visual quality. Tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or Squoosh can help you compress images in JPEG and PNG formats.
• Use efficient image formats : Consider using modern and efficient image formats like WebP or AVIF, which provide better compression than JPEG or PNG without loss of quality. However, please check browser compatibility before implementing these formats.
• Implement lazy loading : Lazy loading allows images to be loaded only when they are about to be visible on the screen, which reduces the amount of data that is initially loaded and improves the perceived loading speed.
• Use responsive images : Make sure images adapt to different devices and screen sizes by using CSS and HTML attributes like srcset and sizes. This allows browsers to choose the most appropriate image based on device conditions.
• Optimize images for SEO : Add descriptive and meaningful "alt" attributes to images to improve accessibility and relevance to search engines. It also uses descriptive filenames and relevant keywords for the images.
• Use CSS sprites for icons and small images : Combine multiple small images into a single image file (sprite) and use CSS to display the corresponding part on each element. This reduces the number of HTTP requests and improves loading speed.
• Take advantage of browser caching : Configure cache directives on your web server to tell browsers when to cache images and for how long. This reduces requests and data transfer on subsequent visits.
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) : A CDN is a geographically distributed network of servers that stores and serves images and other static resources to users from the server closest to their location. This reduces latency and improves upload speed.

By following these strategies, you will be able to optimize the images on your website, improve loading speed, provide a more pleasant user experience and improve search engine rankings.

9.- Structure of internal links

Create an internal link structure that makes navigation easier and helps search engines crawl and understand the content of your website. Use descriptive and relevant anchor text for links.

Here are some strategies to optimize the internal link structure on your website:

• Create a clear and logical hierarchy : Organize your content into categories and subcategories that follow a logical and easy-to-understand structure. This makes navigation easier and helps search engines understand the relationship between pages.
• Use contextual links : Take advantage of the content of your pages to include relevant and natural internal links. These links can help users find related content and improve the distribution of authority between pages.
• Make sure the navigation is accessible and easy to use : Use clear and consistent menus and navigation bars throughout the website. This helps users find what they are looking for and allows search engines to crawl and index your pages efficiently.
• Limit the number of links per page : Don't overwhelm users with too many links on one page. Keep a reasonable number of internal links to avoid dilution of authority and improve user experience.
• Use descriptive anchor text : Anchor text is the visible text that is used in a link. Make sure your anchor text is descriptive and contains relevant keywords, but avoid overusing exact keywords so you don't come across as manipulative.
• Avoid broken links or links to low-quality pages : Regularly check your website's internal links to make sure there are no broken links or links to low-quality pages. Use link analysis tools to identify and fix problems.
• Link to important pages from the home page : The home page usually has the most authority on a website. Take advantage of this by linking to important pages from the home page to distribute authority and improve your search engine rankings.
• Use Breadcrumbs : Breadcrumbs are a secondary navigation that shows the path of a page within the website structure. They make navigation easier and help search engines understand the hierarchy of your site.
• Take advantage of evergreen content : Create evergreen content (content that doesn't lose relevance over time) and link to it from multiple pages to increase your authority and visibility in search engines.

Keep an internal link structure up to date: As your website grows and evolves, it's important to regularly review and update your internal link structure to ensure it remains optimal and efficient.

10.- Implementation of structured data

Use structured data (schema markup) to provide additional information to search engines about the content of your site. This can result in rich snippets in search results, which in turn can improve visibility and CTR (click-through rate).

To implement structured data on your website, follow these steps:

• Choose the structured data format : There are several formats for implementing structured data, but the most popular and widely recommended is JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data). Other formats include Microdata and RDFa, but JSON-LD is preferred by Google.
• Identify content types to flag – Take a look at your website and determine what types of content can benefit from structured data. Some common examples include articles, products, recipes, events, organizations, and people.
• Use the Schema.org Vocabulary : Schema.org is a shared vocabulary developed by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex to standardize the way search engines interpret structured data. Be sure to use the tags and properties defined in Schema.org to mark up your content.
• Create the JSON-LD code : Write the JSON-LD code for each type of content that you have identified. Be sure to include all required and recommended properties for each content type. You can use online tools like Google's "Structured Data Markup Helper" to make this process easier.
• Add the JSON-LD code to your website : Once you have created the JSON-LD code, add it to the corresponding pages of your website. Usually this code is placed in the section of the page, but it can also be placed in the section if needed.
• Validate structured data – Use Google Search Console's "Structured Data Testing Tool" or Bing's "Structured Data Validator" to validate and verify that your structured data is correctly implemented and free of errors.
• Monitor results in Google Search Console : After implementing structured data on your website, regularly check the "Site Appearance Improvements" section in Google Search Console. Here you can see how Google interprets your structured data and if there are any issues or bugs that need to be fixed.
• Update and maintain your structured data – As your website evolves and changes, be sure to keep your structured data up to date. Review and update the JSON-LD code as needed to ensure it remains accurate and relevant.

By correctly implementing structured data on your website, you can improve the way search engines understand and interpret your content, which can result in increased visibility and richer presentations in search results.

With all the indications that we give you in this article you will be able to optimize your website and improve the positioning of your website in Google. Keep in mind that Google also reviews many other parameters to position your website, but taking into account all the data that we provide here, you will undoubtedly be closer to achieving your goals.