What Is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is a search engine optimization technique. It helps search engine bots understand what your website is about by assessing the structure and characteristics of your pages.
This practice helps your website earn organic traffic and eventually, improve your site rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).
It includes optimizing relevant content or images, metadata (such as meta title), keyword density, meta descriptions, internal links, and your page’s HTML. When added together, you’ll have an improved webpage, credits to on-page SEO.
Additionally, on-page SEO entirely depends on the content of your page as anything within your site can potentially affect your SEO. This makes on-page SEO the main focus for search engines, which is why it should be your priority.
Why Is On-Page SEO Important?
The reason is simple: on-page SEO gets you better rankings on search engines.
There are a variety of high-property signals that Google uses to measure your website’s rating. Internal links, meta title, description, and heading tags are just a few examples (which can be optimized with your on-page SEO).
When a webpage contains the same keywords as your search query, this is the most basic indicator that the information is relevant.
The material is more likely to be relevant if such keywords occur on the page, in the headings, or in the body of the text. And, if Google finds your site relevant, then you get a higher chance to rank well in search engines.
The On-Page SEO Cheat Sheet to Rank on First Page
When a user visits your website, Google wants them to be satisfied. The only way Google can tell if your site visitors are happy is if they are engaged.
So, to help you out, I’ll show you this on-page SEO cheat sheet that definitely helps you earn a top rank and great visibility that boosts your brand identity.
1. Site Speed
It should take less than 3 seconds for your website to load. According to a recent survey, 47% of users expect your page to load in less than 2 seconds, and 60% of people expect it to load in less than 3 seconds. In other words, if you want people to read your page, it must be quick.
Great load times encourage consumers to visit more pages, which means Google receives more engagement signals. It also enables Google or other search engines to index more of your pages, resulting in improved relevancy scores.
2. Keywords
Your website’s content should be intended for your visitors and potential customers. You must grasp the audience’s demands, answer their queries, and speak their language in order to create quality content that will connect with them.
To do this, you need to use intentional keywords to convey intent and aid in the decision-making of ideal customers. Using intentional keywords has a number of advantages, one of which is that it boosts your website’s search engine exposure.
Intentional keywords are the search terms that people use on search engines, and are frequently the same terms they use in their daily conversations. However, it’s best to use long-tail keywords as they can convey better the exact points that your customers need.
For example, ranking for a search word like “how to recycle used tires in Burlington” will result in more sales than ranking for the term “used tires” alone. In addition, there is less competition in the search results for it.
3. Content
The words on your site are linked to the keywords in your metadata via well-written content. Quality writing combined with suitable keyword placement will satisfy both search engine inquiries and user needs. What you can do is to:
Consider the words that users might use to reach your pages, and make sure that your site contains such words.
Create a helpful, information-rich website, and produce pages that summarize your topic clearly and accurately.
Create pages with users in mind, not search engines.
Allow all site assets that might potentially alter page rendering to be scanned, such as CSS and JavaScript files that affect page understanding, to assist Google in properly understanding your site’s contents.
4. Tags
In on-page SEO, it’s extremely essential to pay attention to meta tags like Title tags, and meta descriptions.
Title tags are mainly utilized to provide preview bits of your web pages. When writing your title tag, keep it brief, concise, and descriptive while avoiding duplicating text from the page.
On the other hand, a meta description is how search engines determine what topic you’re writing about and who should be directed to that page. When writing for your meta descriptions, keep them concise and descriptive (no more than 160 characters).
5. Mobile-Responsive
The responsiveness of a website’s design is one of the factors that Google considers when ranking it in search results. This is something Google thinks about because it has an impact on the user experience.
When users are unable to access and use your website on their preferred mobile device, they leave before ever seeing your “best” content.
Additionally, 65% of smartphone users agree that when conducting a smartphone search, they seek out the most relevant, and high-quality pieces of information regardless of the business site that provides the information.
So, no matter how good your content is, if your site is unresponsive and can’t be accessed on mobile devices, your visitors might prefer to visit your competitor’s site.
Conclusion
In case you forget something that you’ve read so far, remember the true goal of on-page SEO — to correctly educate, inspire, and guide your users as they explore your site.
If you need help to make your on-page optimization right, there are top-notch SEO in Edmonton and Toronto that can guide you on this.
While this cheat sheet works individually, it can drive more effective results when done altogether. Content with the right user intent/keyword can definitely provide your visitors with what they want, help you with how you approach your SEO to deliver results, and spearhead success.
