The ONLY On-Page SEO Guide You’ll Ever Need
Optimize Your Web Pages for Search Engines with These Expert Tips
If you’ve recently created a new website for yourself and are a beginner in the field, you don’t have much knowledge about how you can optimize your web pages to their maximum potential to rank in search engines, you are looking for an easy-to-follow guide on how you can do that, this post is perfect for you.
Whenever there’s talk about ranking higher on Google, the key fundamental thing that comes to mind is Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a method of following specific techniques to optimize your page/blog post for search engines, whether that be Bing or Google, and maximize their chances of ranking higher.
There are two types of SEOs:
- On-Page SEO.
- Off-Page SEO
Today we’re only going to cover On-Page SEO.
What is On-Page SEO?
On-Page SEO refers to tactics or practices applied within a website/web page to maximize its chances of getting ranked on a search engine and gaining organic traffic.
It includes optimizing your headlines, tags, and images, all the way to the content written on the page.
Is On-Page SEO important?
On-Page SEO is crucial to familiarize search engines with your content. Search engines use specific tactics to identify the content of a web page and all that is covered in On-Page SEO.
A web page with on-page SEO may or may not get ranked by a search engine but a web page without on-page SEO will never get ranked by a search engine.
The Ultimate On-Page SEO Checklist
Here’s a checklist you must follow to completely optimize your web page for on-page SEO and maximize its chances of getting ranked by a search engine.
I’ve used this blog post of ThemeIsle just for the purpose of demonstration.
Note: I’ll be using a term “Target Keyword”. By this, I mean the keyword that you want to rank for in a search engine. In the screenshots I’ve used below, the target keyword is “Make Money Online”.
Let’s get on with the checklist:
- Make sure to include your target keyword in the Title. The title of your web page holds an important role in On-Page SEO. Including your target keyword in your title is a good practice for letting search engines know about the content of your web page.
- Make sure to use the target keyword in the URL: This can be done by changing the permalink settings of your website builder, whether that be WordPress, Squarespace, or any other.
In WordPress, the permalink setting can be found in “Dashboard>Settings>Permalinks”
- Make sure to use the target keyword at the beginning of your web page content: Including your target keyword at the beginning of your web page increases its chances of getting ranked by a search engine.
- Use your target keyword 12–20 times throughout your webpage: This is called Keyword Density. It refers to using your keyword multiple times throughout your page so that search engines can have a better idea of what the content is about. This practice isn’t followed that commonly anymore as using it that many times can ruin the quality of your content, and may lead to keyword stuffing, and search engines prefer only high-quality content.
- Make sure that the content you’ve written is more than 600 words: This is because Google doesn’t rank content below 600 words and considers it as thin content.
- Use your target keyword/s in subheadings: These include H2, H3, H4, etc.
- Add at least 1 image and include your target keyword as alt-text: Adding images to your web page is a very good practice as it makes your page look more aesthetically pleasing and increases the read time. Make sure to include multiple high-quality images with appropriate alt-text.
- Use internal and external links: Internal links refers to linking to another one of your web pages or posts. This improves the overall structure of your website and makes it easier for the search engine to know more about your web page. It also helps your other pages gain visibility in the search engine.
External links refer to linking to sources from other websites. This might include linking to a case study, a research paper, or any other kind of source. This increases the overall authenticity of your content.
- Optimize your SEO Title and Meta tags: SEO Title and Meta is the one that shows up in the search engine.
Optimizing it can be done through any common SEO plugin or if you don’t have that, you can check out this guide. The goal is to include your target keyword in both of them.
- Include a positive or negative sentiment word in your title: You should evoke some sort of emotion through your page title to increase its chances of getting clicked by readers.
- Include a power word in your title: Power words include “Proven, Guaranteed, Free” etc. Using Power words increases the CTR (Click Through Rate) of your web page.
Let’s have an experiment, which one are you most likely going to click? “How to Cook a Delicious Meal?” or “Unlock the Secrets to Cooking a Delicious Meal Every Time”.
Obviously the second one.
- Try to include a number in your Title: If it is a listicle post, mention the number in your title otherwise you can just use something like “in 2023”, “Updated 2023”, “Updated Spring 2023”, etc.
Including a number gives the reader a better idea of the post and including the year gives out the signal that the content has recently been updated, increasing the overall CTR.
- Include a Table Of Contents in your post: This makes it easier for the reader to navigate through the post. It can be done manually or by installing a simple plug-in (if you’re using WordPress).
- Break your long paragraphs into short ones: No one likes reading big chunks of text. Try to break your long paragraphs into short ones. This makes your content more accessible and engaging to readers.
Some Additional Points To Keep In Mind
Now that the checklist is out of the way, here are some additional facts you need to understand.
- Mobile Responsiveness also matters: Even if you have followed all of the above points and applied them in your post and still the web page isn’t ranking, it might be that it is not responsive on other screens like mobile, etc.
You can check if there’s a mobile responsiveness issue with any of your web pages using your website’s Google Search Console. - Page Load Speed also matters: Make sure your pages are loading fast and you are using optimized images on your pages. You can use a plug-in to optimize images but in case you don’t want to do that, you can use a website like TinyPNG.
- Make sure your website is easy-to-navigate through: You have to make sure that your website is well-organized and that a new user landing on your website shouldn’t have a problem moving through it. A good SILO structure is important for a well-optimized site.
Is Keyword Density Really Important?
When you’re new to blog writing, it is possible that you might use your target keyword way too many times in your post which will result in keyword stuffing.
This drops the quality of your content and reduces its chances of getting ranked in search engines.
This factor was important in the past but recently, search engines have started to rank web pages based on the quality of content they provide.
So you’re better off improving the quality of your posts rather than worrying about how many times you have used your target keyword.
If it can be used multiple times naturally without seeming like you’ve tried to push it in there, Go for it!
Following this checklist will ensure that your On-Page SEO is optimized to its fullest potential and your content is visible and accessible to your target audience.
You should keep in mind that SEO isn’t something you do once and forget about it. It’s something you have to keep working on and improving.
Think of this On-Page SEO guide like a living, breathing thing that’ll help you with your SEO game for months, even years to come!
Do you have any questions? Ask in the comments. I will be happy to clear your doubts.
