SEO is a set of practices that help improve the ranking of a particular website and its pages in the SERPs.
It can be broadly classified into:
- On-Page SEO: Techniques implemented on the website/web page
- Off-page SEO: Techniques implemented elsewhere for the website/web page
In this blog, we will have a scratch-to-end discussion about on-page SEO verticals and proven ways to optimize them.
But before that, let’s comprehend what on-page SEO is.
What is On-page SEO?
On-page SEO is a set of practices that helps the search bots understand what a page is all about and rank it accordingly.
On-page SEO involves the improvement of a web page’s key elements:
- Meta tags
- Headings
- Images
- Keywords
- Page speed, etc.
When all these on-page optimization aspects are intact, the website and web page ranking automatically gets better.
So, let’s find out a few integral on-page SEO techniques.
8 Major On-page SEO Techniques
To capitalize on-page SEO for your website, you need to learn proper hacks and techniques to get it done.
Let’s find them out.
1. Incorporate SEO-Friendly URLs
https://rankwatch.com/blog/url-optimization-tips
http://rankwatch.com/blog/url_optimization_tips
Above are the two URLs. The first one is optimized and SEO-friendly, and the second one is not.
So, to create SEO-friendly URLs you need to:
- Incorporating the right keywords
- Keeping them short, simple, and sweet
- Using hyphens and not underscores as separators
- Avoid uppercase, numbers, and special characters
- Implement HTTPS security
- Follow standard practices for URL structuring
Now, the Site Audit section of RankWatch exhibits necessary issues and insights like HTTP status code distribution, sensitive issues from high to low, page depth, page response time distribution, non-indexable pages, and site score on the basis of issues found in the website.
This list of issues also gives you actionable insights like Failed URLs, Canonicalized Pages, Noindex Pages, Non-200 Pages, Excluded URLs, Non-HTML URLs, Nofollowed, Disallowed Pages, Broken Pages (4xx Errors), 5xx Errors, 301 Redirects, Non-301 Redirects, etc.
You can look over all these issues that directly or indirectly hamper the on-page SEO friendliness of your website URLs and fix them as a major initiative of incorporating SEO on-page optimization.
2. Optimize Title Tags And Meta Tags
Well-optimized titles and meta tags help your web page rank higher in the SERPs. This not only uplifts the organic search ranking but also improves the click-through rate (CTR).
You must implement the following tips to create your website’s title tags:
- Write only 50 – 60 characters
- Use informational and transactional action words like get, take, boost, learn, try, get, buy, download, etc.
- Place your business name at the end
- Employ keywords at the starting
- Include questions if possible
- Ensure every title is unique
- Align it with the search intent
To improve the meta tags you must:
- Write within the 150-character limit
- Make sure you match the user’s search intent
- Place long-tail keywords where it is very necessary
- Create unique summaries for each page
- Include a call to action
The SEO IQ feature of RankWatch can help you with this. Firstly, it offers you a computed SEO score on the basis of the optimization scale of your website. Secondly, it comes up with multiple content recommendations, including body tags, heading tags, meta keywords, word count, optimization status, and much more.
All these insights will help to optimize the title and meta tags, leading to perfect on-page optimization.
3. Leverage Header Tags: H1, H2, H3
The importance of header tags are:
- Indicate your headings
- Establish a content structure
- Improve the readability
- Optimize for featured snippets
The chronological order of header tags goes like this:
- H1: Primary keywords and subject matter; what the overall content speaks
- H2: Sections the content by incorporating the same keywords as the H1 tag
- H3: Subcategories to further break up the content, increasing the readability
The ‘do’s & ‘don’ts’ of header tags are:
- Modify each page to use one H1 & 1-2 H2s, then use H3s
- Limit the length of heading tags; use a maximum of 60 characters
- Build keyword density and include exact target phrases
- Use a heading structure and follow a proper hierarchy
- Don’t repeat the same heading on every webpage
- Don’t use complex headings; try and ask questions to kill the monotony
- Don’t use header tags at the non-header elements like footers
Here, too, the SEO IQ feature of RankWatch comes up with multiple content recommendations, eventually improving the strength of H1, H2, H3, and so on across the content for better SEO on-page.
The data like exact keywords, broad keywords, characters, page elements, page speed, page size, and Google featured snippets, give you an insightful approach to formulate better header tags.
So, next time you plan to rephrase your heading tags, don’t fail to use the SEO IQ feature of the RankWatch tool for better performance.
4. Write High-Quality Content (Free Content Tool)
Good quality content should always encapsulate “Target Keywords”, “User’s Search Intent,” and “Good Readability.” Unique, optimized, and good quality content will have:
- Correct information
- Relevant statistical data
- Coherent pointers
- Proper grammar and spelling
- Both external & internal links
So, how do you create quality content? Simply follow these easy steps.
- Understand your target audience
- Work on the outline
- Build strong headlines
- Tailor short introductions
- Use bullets and pointers
- Give examples if required
- Suggest tips and solutions
- Use conversational tone
- Use easy and simple language
- Provide relevant data and information
- Add statistics, expert’s opinion, metrics, etc.
- Do a grammar check with Grammarly
- Run it through relevant applications for readability check
To help you with this, RankWatch offers you a boutique of free content tools that comprises a plagiarism detector, spell checker, word combiner, word counter, article spinner tool, MD5 hash generator, and online grammar checker.
So, it’s time to create better content that would improve the quality and SERP ranking of your website.
5. Add Optimized Images
To make the website more appealing and attractive, you must start adding images to your content and web pages.
In fact, the more images you use, the more time they will spend on your site.
Here are some image optimization tips to help you get started:
- Opt for the right image format
- Choose the right dimensions
- Prefer lossless image compression
- Allocate appropriate names to image files
- Fill the alt texts with image description
- Use an image CDN
- Keep your thumbnails as small as possible
- Employ an image sitemap
- Limit the number of images per page, don’t overdo it
- Provide credit if you use an image from some other site
To get this done, you can use the Image Resizer Tool of RankWatch that comes under the free tool section of RankWatch.
6. Improve Your Page Speed
Majorly, unoptimized images slow the loading speed of a page. But there can be other significant reasons like:
- Javascript issues
- Server response time
- Excessive flash content
- Cluttered code
- Too many ads
Using Website Analyzer, a free tool that helps you get an overview of your onsite SEO performance, you can easily identify what’s slowing your website.
Here are some tips to increase your page’s loading speed:
- Compress the size of images, videos, etc.
- Streamline your HTML and CSS code
- Dump the unused images, videos, files, content
- Don’t use animations
- Implement lazy loading
- Leverage browser caching
7. Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
A few proactive measures to make your site mobile-friendly are:
- Get a responsive theme or design
- Compress your images and CSS
- Avoid screen-blocking pop up and ads
- Break your content into small parts
- Don’t use Flash and animations
- Use web fonts and readable font sizes
- Change button size and placement
- Add spaces between your links
Also, to see if these tips work or not, you can test your website on the mobile-friendly checker tool. Again, this tool also comes under the roof of free tools that are highly charged by other service providers in the market.
8. Include LSI Keywords
RankWatch offers you a free keyword research tool that gives you insights like keyword difficulty, CPC competition, search volume trend and geo-distribution, organic keyword suggestions, paid keyword suggestions, question-based keywords, and keyword grouping.
So, find relevant LSI keywords for your content and boost up the on-page optimization for your website.
Conclusion: Get the Best On-page SEO!
So, these are the significant checklists to boost the on-page optimization of your website. Adhere to all these pointers to fetch the best results.
Hope this blog is useful to you!