Table of Contents
Every website is built based on on-page SEO, and SEO is in two types, Off-page SEO and on-page SEO; without SEO, your website can not be found on google search results.
This 20 on-page SEO checklist will assist you in optimising your content so that it communicates with search engines effectively and increases your exposure on SERPs. However, on-page SEO alone will not guarantee that your page will ranks.
If you want to improve your site’s overall ability to rank in search, you need a comprehensive SEO checklist that covers all of the finest SEO techniques. That includes a list of technical and off-page SEO in your strategy.
What exactly is On Page SEO?
On-page SEO(also known as on-site SEO) is the practice of optimising web page content for search engines and users. It encompasses strategies that aid in the ranking of a single page for a primary target keyword.
On-page optimization is a term that encompasses both the content and HTML source code of a web page that may be improved. This is not the same as off-page SEO, which relates to links and other external signals generated by websites other than your own.
While on-page SEO is concerned with optimising a particular piece of content, it is backed up by other forms of SEO. On-page SEO alone may not be sufficient to rank a page, but using strategies including topical clusters will help you build an effective on-page seo strategy. Additionally, you’ll need to have an off-page and technical SEO plan to make your entire site more appealing to search engines to rank a piece of content.
Top 20 On-page SEO checks
1) Create SEO-Friendly URLs
Avoid lengthy and cluttered URLs since shorter URLs have been shown to perform better in top ranking pages. When comparing two websites, the URL mywebsite.com/your-keyword is more SEO friendly than the URL mywebsite.com/10. Excellent reasons why your key phrase might be fantastic.
2) Ensure That Your Title Tag Includes Your Keyword
Optimizing title tags is an essential on-page ranking element, especially when it comes to positioning your targeted term on the page. The keyword’s proximity to the beginning of the title gives it greater weight with search engines. Maintain your same keyword as near to the start of your title tag as possible, as well as maintain the length of your title within 50 to 60 characters to avoid it being shortened in search results.
3) Include Modifiers in Your Title:
Including modifiers such as “2021,” “best,” “easy,” “checklist,” “quick,” and “review” in your title may assist you in keyrword rankings for long-tail variations of your target keyword, avoiding keyword stuffing. The terms “current year,” “best,” and “updated” are often used on re-launched blog articles throughout the web. Additionally, these modifications may aid in improving your click-through rate (CTR).
4) Include Your Page’s Title Within Your H1> Tag
This is the primary on-page property and may be identical to the page title. Google has said that you may use as many H1 tags as you want on a single page. We still suggest using the H1 tag just once per page since it assists Google in determining the page’s structure. Ascertain that your H1 includes your desired keyword.
5) Employ H2> Tags for Subheadings
Utilise your H2 tag for sub-headings, and ensure that at least one of the subheadings contains your target term. Include some latent semantic index (LSI) keywords in your subheadings. Subheadings are an excellent way to split up text and make relevant pages simpler to read. Multiple H2 tags may be used on a single page.
6) Incorporate Pictures on Every Page
The usage of pictures enables you to break up your text and also allows you to add your target keywords in the alt tag attribute of your image, or the image alt text. The picture file name is an often neglected optimisation. Additionally, provide a short description of your picture in the file name.
7) Include Your Primary Keyword in the First 100 Words of Your Content
Occasionally, though (especially with blog articles), authors begin their material with a lengthy introduction and only mention their keyword a few paragraphs later. This is not an acceptable practice to continue.
8) Connect outbound links
By connecting to relevant outbound websites, you demonstrate to Google Search Console that your page and website are a source of high-quality content. Associating your website with other high-quality websites may improve your page rank, and Google comprehends what your page is about.
9) Include Two or Three Internal Links
Include Two or Three Internal Links: One of the primary advantages of internal link-building is that it enables Google to discover, comprehend, and index all of your site’s pages.
Internal links, when appropriately utilised, may help transfer page authority to key sites. SEO Best Practices recommend using keyword-rich anchor text, which is the language that informs visitors and search engines about the subject of the page to which you’re connecting.
10) Include LSI keywords
Semantic search is the term used to describe a search that searches for terms with meaning, whereas a search that looks for entirely spelt out is called a lexical search. Google’s Hummingbird search algorithm enables the search engine to comprehend the entire content of your website.
By including semantic or LSI keywords into your content, you can ensure that Google understands the subject and subtopics around your target term, enabling you to rank better for both.
11) Include Long-form content
As a general guideline, ensure that all of your blog posts and articles include more than 1,100 words of information. Even service pages, I believe, should consist of more than 800 words.
Not only can longer content help you rank higher for your goal keyword, but it will also open up additional possibilities for long-tail traffic. Additionally, lengthier content often generates more backlinks and ranks better in organic search.
12) Optimise Meta Descriptions
Your meta description should be original, include the keyword or keyword phrase you’re targeting, and be between 150 and 155 characters in length. Additionally, if your meta description is the same term the user entered, it will appear bold in search results.
Consider it a small advertisement to persuade users to click on your website link on the search results page. This is another method for assisting with CTR optimisation.
13) Use Social Media
Although social signals do not directly influence search engines, social media is an excellent way to increase the number of people who see your material. It promotes brand recognition and is a perfect way to interact with your target demographic. Additionally, the more people who view and share your material on social media, the more likely you will get a backlink.
14) Submit a New Page to the Google Search Console:
Utilise Search Console’s “URL Inspection tool.” When you enter your freshly released URL, the inspector will check if your page can be identified in search engine results. If it is possible, click “Request Indexing”. After that, GoogleBot will visit your website, crawl its content, plus index it. This tool is handy if you’ve updated or otherwise modified your material.
15) Ensure That Your Web Page Is Indexable
Usually, most individuals have unintentionally restricted search engines’ access to information on their websites by adding a no-index tag to their pages. Although this is more technical, sites that are not indexed will never appear in search results since search engine bots cannot crawl them.
16) Ascertain That Your Website Is Secure (HTTPS)
HTTPS is a protocol that encrypts data sent between a server and a web browser. Google formally stated in 2014 that it would begin using HTTPS as a ranking indicator. Numerous studies have subsequently shown a significant correlation between better ranks and HTTPS-encrypted websites. Today, websites that use HTTPS rank higher as compared to those without HTTPS.
17) Prolong Dwell Time
Increased dwell periods, or time on page, are a significant indicator to search engines that the information on your site match search intent of your visitors. This results in a better position for the relevant search volume. Increase the amount of time visitors spend on your website by creating lengthy, interesting content and including pictures and videos.
18) Testing and Optimising Mobile Page Speed
In 2010, Google officially declared that website speed is an official search ranking criterion. Google just stated (in 2018) that they would begin utilising mobile page speed results and will transition to a mobile-first indexing strategy.
This implies that Google will crawl and rank your content primarily using the mobile version rather than the desktop version previously utilised. This emphasises the critical importance of your website’s loading speed. Fortunately, Google has given a helpful tool to determine your mobile page’s speed and, if necessary, methods to enhance it.
19) Disable Inactive Links
According to Ahrefs statistics, Google seems to remove websites from search results to include broken connections to other sources. Regularly check your website for broken links and either delete them entirely or redirect them to a fresh piece of information
20) Optimise for click-through rate
Optimising for CTR has become critical. According to research performed by WordStream, if you outperform the anticipated CTR for your placement in the search engine results, you are “much more likely to rank in more important places,” whereas failing to achieve the expected CTR results in your position dropping.
Two critical aspects that contribute to higher CTR include optimising your page title using modifiers, as discussed in step three, and utilising keyword-rich meta descriptions to assist search engines in comprehending what your page is about in search results.
What is the significance of on-page SEO?
On-page SEO enables search engines to evaluate your website and the information it contains to determine if a user’s query is relevant to your site. Google is constantly updating their algorithm to understand a searcher’s intent better and provide relevant search results. As Google’s algorithm evolves, your website should do so as well.
It is critical that your site and its content, both visible to people (media, content, pictures) and visible to search engines (metadata, HTML), be optimised according to the current standards employed by Google and Bing. This enables search engines to comprehend your site and determine how to rank it.
Regardless of the size of your company, it is critical to enhancing the on-page SEO of your website. SEO is one of the most widely used digital marketing techniques, and it continues to be very popular due to its consistent return on investment.
ROI and Online Sales
Indeed, the reason that makes on-page SEO important in the SEO world, is that it has the highest return on investment of any digital marketing approach due to its cheap cost and long-term advantages, which may help websites develop and attract passive visitors for years.
Half of all website traffic originates from search engines such as Google, Bing, or other search engines which implies that close to 40% of online income also originates from search traffic. Consider the following: Google’s top-ranked result receives more than 32% of keyword traffic, and the first page of search results receives up to 91.5 per cent of traffic.
This is why it is critical to invest in on-page SEO. Without it, your site may be seriously handicapped in terms of opportunities to rank for business-specific search queries. Without a search engine optimization strategy, your site may be pushed down the search results by competitors. This is a significant reason many businesses employ an SEO firm since the search marketing industry has grown to about $79 billion.
Most critical components of on-page SEO
Apart from the on-page SEO techniques discussed before, other critical factors contribute to a site’s success. Optimising these elements is essential to sustaining an on-page approach. Metadata, content authoring, and internal linking are the three primary methods for doing this.
Meta-information
In the HTML code of every site, your metadata will be included. This comprises the title tags and meta descriptions for each page. Search engines utilise these tags and descriptions to determine which other sites to include in their results. Optimising your metadata with relevant keywords and comprehensive information enables visitors and search engines to understand what your website has to offer.
Content
A well-written piece of content connects the phrases on your website to the metadata keywords. Quality content with appropriate keyword placement satisfies both search engine queries as well as user requirements. Additionally, content marketing is critical for other aspects of marketing.
External linking and site structure
The structure of your website is critical for a search engine to crawl and index your content effectively. With simple navigation bars, footers, and anchor links, search engines will have an easier time linking a visitor to an appropriate page based on their query. If you have a website that is difficult to browse, the search engine may have difficulty identifying the web pages on your site.
Regarding on-page SEO, user experience isn’t just some buzzword; it’s the foundation on which everything else is built. Think of your website as a house: SEO might get people to your front door, but great UX is what invites you in and keeps you coming back for more.
Why It Matters
Search engines become smarter, and the interaction of users with your site matters more. It’s no longer keywords and backlinks, but it’s about how people are able to get around your site easily, page speed, and accessibility on mobile. If they perceive your site to be clunky, slow, or confusing, they will bounce, and search engines notice. The better the experience, the more likely users are to stay a little longer, engage more, and drive through conversion events, all signaling to the search engines that you’re worthy of ranking higher.
1. Optimise for Mobile
We are living in a mobile-first world, and if you’ve got a site that isn’t optimised for those mobile users, well, you’re missing out. Make sure the website is responsive and features dynamic layouts that adapt seamlessly to any screen size. Test your site on multiple devices to ensure a seamless experience.
2. Speed It Up
Page load speed is everything. Users want to have your site up and running within less than three seconds. Compress pictures, leverage browser caching, and make use of a content delivery network to cut precious seconds off your load time. Faster sites rank better and keep users from bouncing off.
3. Mobility
One wants an intuitive and clean kind of navigation in the site. The users ought to get what they are seeking with the fewest clicks possible. You can consider using breadcrumbs, clear headings, and a well-organized menu to make the journey smooth.
4. Readability of Content
How easy is it to read your content? Use a clean, legible font, break up text with subheadings, bullet points, and image search ease, and the paragraphs must be short. The easier your content is to digest, the more likely users are to hang around and engage with it.
5. Interactive Features
Make your site a bit interactive, either with a quiz, a poll, or possibly a calculator of some kind that provides real value. It makes visitors more engaged, and they can stay longer on your website. This is also a positive signal to search engines.
Keep in mind that the process of UX optimisation is not one-time—it’s ongoing. Regularly collect user feedback, analyse site behaviour, and make tweaks to ensure your site remains as user-friendly as possible and drives conversions. Your website should work like a well-oiled machine in the background to provide each visitor with a smooth and satisfying experience.
Internal Linking Strategy
Internal linking is like a website’s circulatory system—it’s what keeps everything linked together and flowing. This means strategic placement of internal and external links from within your content distributes page authority across the site, helping search engines understand hierarchy and the relative importance of the pages.
Not only will this help your SEO by guaranteeing that internal link equity goes to key pages, but it also creates great user experience by getting visitors through related content seamlessly. Proper internal linking can improve your website’s crawlability. This helps search engines index pages more easily and eventually Rank them higher in search.
Best Practices
Use descriptive anchor text: The words or characters used to make the hyperlink clickable should be relevant and descriptive to a linked page. Try to avoid generic phrases like “click here.” Rather, use your keywords to indicate clearly what’s on that page you’re linking to. For example, if you’re linking to a blog post about “SEO strategies,” make the anchor text something like “effective SEO strategies.
Link to High-Value Pages: That means to find pages you want to rank high in search. This may include cornerstone content, product pages, or high-converting landing pages. When you link many times to such pages from other relevant content, you tell the search engines that those pages are important.
Ensure That Every Page is Linked: Every key page of your website needs to be somewhere linked. This helps to ensure that no valuable content gets orphaned.
Construct a Logical Structure: Internal links are going to define the hierarchy of your site, which is, more links should be sent to key pages. Such a framework will show search engines the relative importance of your content.
Regular site audit of links: When your site grows, auditing internal links regularly will help in making sure that they go on to be pertinent and relevant. Get rid of or upgrade links that no longer have reasons or lead to outdated information.
Schema Markup and Rich Snippets
Schema markup is a form of structured data that you can add to your website’s code, helping search engines better understand the content of your pages. This added context can significantly enhance your visibility in search results by enabling rich snippets—those eye-catching pieces of information like star ratings, event dates, or product prices that appear directly in the search results. Featured snippets not only improve your click-through rates but also provide users with more immediate answers, making your content more attractive to searchers.
Implementation
- Start with Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper: This tool is a great starting point if you’re new to schema markup. It walks you through the process of tagging your content with the correct structured data. Simply select the type of data you want to mark up (like articles, events, products), and then highlight and tag elements on your webpage.
- Choose the Right Schema Types: Make sure you’re using the correct schema types for your content. Whether it’s a blog post, a product page, or an event listing, there’s a specific type of schema markup that fits your needs. Refer to schema.org for a comprehensive list of schema types and how to implement them.
- Validate Your Markup: After implementing schema, use Google’s Rich Results Test to validate your markup and ensure it has the correct format and eligibility for rich results. This step is crucial to avoid any errors that could prevent your rich snippets from appearing in search results.
- Monitor Performance: Once your schema is live, monitor its impact on your search performance. SEO tools can provide insights into how your pages are performing in search results and whether your rich snippets are displaying accurately.
FAQs
You’ve got questions, we have the answers for you!
What is the significance of on-page SEO?
On-page search engine optimisation is the fundamental component of search engine optimisation. It assists search engine crawlers in comprehending your website and content, allowing them to determine its quality and relevancy to searchers. This is critical because you will not get search traffic unless you create a website that Google adores.
What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?
On-page SEO refers to all of the elements on your website that you can manage, such as the text, the H1 tag, the pictures, and the website’s speed. Off-page SEO encompasses any SEO activities that take place outside of your website, such as link building, social sharing, and other forms of marketing through social media platforms and other channels. All of which aim to increase your search visibility.
To learn more about Off-page SEO, you can check out our detailed guide to Off-page SEO.
What does On-Page SEO entail?
“On-page SEO” refers to almost every element that acts as a ranking factor that goes well in search engines. This includes title tags, meta descriptions, keyword research, header tags, content, site structure, ease of use, load speed, and so on. Please refer to the whole 27-point on-page SEO checklist in my lesson above for a comprehensive list of criteria.
How do you go about optimising your website’s on-page content?
You should begin by doing a basic SEO audit to identify any current on-page SEO issues that need you should address. After that, go through each of the on-page problems one at a time.
Is On-Page SEO Still Relevant in the Year 2024?
Absolutely! On-page SEO has always been critical and will continue to be so. With so many elements of SEO being out of your control (or taking months or years to implement), on-page SEO is something you have total control over and the power to impact immediately.
How Can I Improve My Page SEO Checklist for Better Search Engine Rankings?
Optimising your page SEO checklist is crucial for improving your search engine rankings and ensuring your website attracts organic traffic. Start by conducting thorough keyword research to identify your primary keyword and relevant target keywords for each page.
Incorporate these keywords naturally into your title tag, meta description tag, and throughout your content, focusing on placing them in the first 100 words for maximum impact.
Use tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to monitor your website’s performance and identify any issues that could affect your rankings. Ensure your website pages are well-optimised for speed by compressing image files, enabling browser caching, and leveraging a content delivery network (CDN) to improve site speed. Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics can help you track important factors like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which are now significant ranking factors.
Moreover, don’t overlook mobile optimisation—mobile devices account for a significant portion of web traffic, so a mobile-responsive design is essential. Regularly updating your SEO checklist to include these practices will help maintain a well-optimized page that ranks well in search results.
How Does Adding Internal Links Impact My SEO and Website Pages?
Adding internal links strategically across your website pages plays a crucial role in enhancing your SEO efforts. Internal links help distribute page authority, ensuring that search engines can effectively crawl your site and identify the most important content. When you use target keywords as anchor text for these links, it not only guides users to relevant pages but also signals to search engines the content’s importance, thereby improving your keyword rankings.
Internal links also improve the user experience by helping visitors navigate your site more easily, which can lead to longer session durations and lower bounce rates—two factors that can positively influence your search engine rankings. Regularly audit your internal links with tools like Google Analytics account to ensure they are effectively driving more traffic to your top-ranking pages and contributing to your overall SEO strategy.
Additionally, when linking internally, consider the hierarchy of your content and link to pages that need a boost in authority, ensuring that every important page is well-linked and accessible. By incorporating internal links into your SEO checklist, you help Google and Bing better understand the structure of your site, which can lead to higher visibility in search results.