On-page SEO is an important task for you to concentrate on when creating new web pages or posts, or if your pages are underperforming in the search results (SERPs).
There are many different aspects to search engine optimisation. You often hear of SEO strategies like backlink building and other off-page activities, but on-page SEO should never be forgotten.
On-page SEO is the most important factor to get right, as without effective on-page search engine optimisation, none of the off-page or technical SEO strategies will be successful, as the content on the page will not be good enough to rank successfully.
As your competitors will be evolving their on-page content and new algorithms are being developed by the search engines, we recommend that you regularly review your on-page SEO and make changes or tweaks as necessary to keep ahead of your competition.
In this post we will look at the 11 most important on-page SEO tasks you must keep abreast of.
What Is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is really all about optimising each and every web page and post so that the content is as relevant as possible to the topic being presented. If you can optimise your page to the extent that it is the most authoritative page on that topic, your chances of ranking high in the search results will increase.
As well as the content, on-page SEO takes into account things such as, headings, page titles, meta descriptions and images. Authoritativeness is also now an important consideration for the search engines, so the content needs to have the "expert" edge.
On-page SEO does not just mean your static informational pages. Your on-page SEO will need to take into account your products' SEO, if you run an eCommerce website, or your local SEO, if you are a local business.
If you manage to optimise all of these elements, you will start to see improvements in page rankings.
Why Is On-Page Optimisation Important?
"Why is on-page SEO important?", you ask. Without on-page SEO, search engines will have a hard time fully understanding what each page of your website is about. When indexing web pages, Google analyses the content of the page and determines whether it is relevant to a search query or not.
Google's search algorithms are being continuously updated and improved. They are advanced enough to look for whether the author of the page is qualified to write on the topic, whether the content of the page is relevant to the topic and even if the page meets the searcher's intent.
Search intent is the aim that the searcher has. Are they looking for information, are they looking to purchase, or are they looking for a specific website (navigational intent).
Evaluate the purpose of each page on your website and ensure that the on-page optimisation fulfils the intent of your expected visitors.
Take the time to fully analyse your on-page SEO and give yourself the best chance to win in the SERPs.
1. Expertise - Authoritativeness - Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
In August 2018, Google brought out its infamous Medic algorithm, which caused chaos for many websites, many of which saw huge drops in ranking. The Medic update brought in the new concept of E-A-T (Expertise - Authoritativeness - Trustworthiness).
No longer was good content alone enough for Google to rank your web pages well, they introduced the concept of correlating the content to your professional ability to write about it, or your business to be offering advice, services or products around the content of the page.
The idea behind this was to help protect searchers from false, incorrect or dubious information. It was otherwise termed the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) algorithm. Where products or services such as medical, financial were being promoted, the wrong advice could lead to adverse or severe results to the life or finances of the searcher.
E-A-T has evolved into all areas, though less so with YMYL businesses. By providing authoritativeness and expertise, you will create trust about your content. Therefore, bear in mind E-A-T and make sure your on-page content is high quality.
2. Page Title
Your page title is an element of on-page SEO. The page title is generated as a tag and is displayed both as the clickable title in the search results and also the words you can see in the web browser's tab.
The title tag is the very first indication the search engines have of the purpose of your page. It is also the first contact many searchers will have with your website, as they will see it and click it in the organic search results. It is therefore worth making the effort to optimise your page titles.
On WordPress websites, the page title is created when you create your page, or when you optimise it using the Yoast SEO plugin, which we recommend for this and other SEO purposes.
Do not confuse the page title with your main heading on the page itself. They are different things. The page title (even though it may be the same wording as the main heading) is meta data which does not physically show on the page.
Be careful with page titles. It is easy to forget to add an optimised page title and even easier to create duplicate page titles. Duplicate page titles will affect your on-page SEO negatively, as duplicate content is not liked by search engines.
3. Meta Description
The meta description is another meta tag, which does not physically appear in the content of the page. The meta description is the 160 characters of text seen on the search engine results below the page title.
The meta description also appears in the background code of your page and is used by the search engines to form the description for your page's entry.
Despite Google saying that the meta description is not a consideration in their ranking methods, the meta description is still worth optimising.
In the worst case, the searcher will use the meta description they see in the search results to evaluate whether your page is likely to be what they are searching for. Therefore, optimise your meta descriptions to encourage searchers to click on your result and enter your website.
4. Headings
Headings form the basic structure of your pages. Therefore, on-page optimisation of your headings is a no-brainer.
Headings area really meta tags, which give your page a hierarchy. The most important heading is the page's main heading. This heading will be given the "h1" tag. there should only ever be one single "h1" heading on a web page.
The heading hierarchy looks something like this:
- h1
- h2
- h3
- h4
- h5
- h6
- h5
- h4
- h3
- h2
The higher the "h" number, the less important the heading is deemed to be. In most cases you should try to stick with "h1" to "h3" and not go lower down the hierarchy, unless you have a particularly involved page of content.
Headings need to be informative and contain the keywords you want your page to rank for.
A word of warning - many web designers or business owners use headings for formatting purposes. This is a bad idea!
Most Wordpress themes allow you to set-up the size and style of each heading, usually in deminishing sizes. Where a particular font style is needed, the web designer may take the lazy route and use the heading to create that look. This is bad for SEO as you are therefore giving the words in the "heading" importance.
The best designed WordPress themes, like Themeco's Pro Theme, give you full control over your headings and formatting, so you do not fall into the trap of using the all important headings as styling tools.
5. Content Creation
Content creation is a specialised SEO task, which is crucial to on-page SEO. A content writer has specialist skills to be able to write with both the visitor and the search engines in mind.
It is all too easy to place keywords throughout your web pages and posts, but making them read naturally and authoritatively is something most people cannot do well.
If you are unskilled with content writing, thing about getting an experienced specialist to help you optimise your on-page content.
6. Keyword Strategy
You will have heard of how important keywords are to on-page SEO. You will probably be trying to use keywords effectively throughout your content too. However, are you using your keywords well? Are you using the same keywords on a single page dedicated to the topic of the keyword, or are you trying a scatter gun approach and using the same keywords time and again on different pages of your website?
Some people believe that trying to have multiple pages rank for the same keyword will help you dominate the search results for that search term. This could not be further from the truth.
By using the same keywords repeatedly, you are potentially harming yourself. You will be trying to compete against yourself, not just your competitors. Additionally, rather than having a solid page, which is authoritative on the topic of the keyword, you have multiple pages mentioning it. This waters down the prospect of the main page for the keyword ranking well.
The key mantra is one page per topic (keywords). Make that page the centre of excellence on your website for your keyword.
Your on-page SEO strategy should look to identify any duplication of the use of keywords and make the changes necessary so that you eliminate any unnecessary duplication of keywords.
7. Auditing Your On-Page Content
A website audit is a useful thing to do on a regular basis. Auditing your on-page content is even more important.
The majority of websites have a web page created and it is never touched again. People think that once on-page content has been created, that page is complete. Not true.
The world evolves, your visitors evolve, web technology and algorithms evolve.
Routinely checking the content on each page of your website will help you keep on top of whether your pages are doing the job you want them to do. therefore, it is wise to check them for things such as:
- Is the page's content still accurate?
- Is the page's content still relevant to your business?
- has the page's content become stale or outdated?
- Is the page's content still achieving the goals you set for that page?
A content audit should be a regular part of your on-page SEO strategy. It is surprising how you can find content on your website which looked okay when it was created, but now seems outdated or clumsy. A content audit can correct these situations.
8. Image Optimisation
Images are often overlooked by website owners. There is a lot of on-page SEO that can be done to optimise images.
Google Images is a place in the search results where your images can rank very strongly with relatively little competition. Optimising your images is all that is needed. Many of your competitors will not do this.
The main optimisation techniques you can do are:
- Using PhotoShop or other image processing tools, edit the image so it looks its best. Then using its "File > Export As" feature, export the image in either .JPG or .PNG format, but reduce the image' quality so that the file size is reduced to as small as possible, without losing depth. Additionally, make sure the dimensions of the image are appropriate. You should be able to get most images down to double figure Kb size. The smaller file size will mean there is less data to load when the page loads and thus a quicker overall page loading speed.
- When saving the image, rename it with a meaningful description using small letters and words interconnected with hyphens. e.g. "seo-agency-gloucestershire.jpg". The file name can be used by the search engines to "understand" the image.
- When uploading the image to the website's media library, give the file its Alternative (alt) Text and Title. This, just like the file name, should be SEO optimised and be descriptive. We often use the same as the filename, but capitalised and with no hyphens.
Image optimisation is well worth the effort and can bring you extra traffic you would not otherwise have, as well as a better user experience for your users.
9. Internal Linking
Internal linking is a vital part of on-page SEO. Internal links are like the threads of a spider's web, which brings your website together as an entity. Search engines use internal links to discover other pages on your website and the relevance of pages to one another.
Having a good internal linking strategy is therefore important to your SEO health.
10. External Links
External links also help your on-page SEO. They are used differently by the search engines from the internal links. External links have a dual purpose (when used well).
External links help the search engines understand and verify the topic of your web page. You should only link to other web pages which provide meaningful and useful content to back-up the point you are highlighting on your page.
External links can also help make your own web page a quality hub of authority on the page's topic. As mentioned over at Backlinko, Reboot Online ran an experiment to test the value of external links. Creating 10 new websites, they linked 5 of them to high authority websites, like Oxford university. The other 5 had no external links. Every website with external links ranked better than any of the ones without external links.
Do not ignore an external link strategy in your on-page SEO!
11. Optimise Your URLs for SEO
Whilst on the topic of links, don't forget to optimise your own web page URLs. Although this should ideally be done when creating the page, it is sometimes very occasionally worth contemplating changing a URL.
WARNING: However, if you do change a URL, make absolutely sure that you implement 301 page redirection from the original URL to the new one, or you could end up damaging your SEO in a bad way!
URLs should be human friendly and not too long for web pages. I WordPress's settings you can define the permalink structure so that a post name is easily understood from the URL. This will use the page's title, separated by hyphens.
Include a keyword in the page URL. If you have followed the advice in section 2 of this post and are using the post name as the permalink (URL) method, you should already have the keyword in the URL.
Summary
In summary, on-page SEO is an important task of your overall SEO strategy. Ensuring that each page of your website is optimised for search will give you the best chance of ranking well and outranking your competitors.
To find out more, or to request help with your on-page SEO, do not hesitate to get in contact with us.
We hope this guide to on-page SEO has been useful for you.
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