On-Page SEO Techniques and Practices

Did you know websites with stronger on-page SEO are 10x more likely to rank higher in organic search? Research shows that about 75% of users never scroll past the first page, making search engine optimization crucial. 

This blog post will discuss SEO best practices to improve on-page SEO and where to begin. We cover the following: 

• Types of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• What is ON-page SEO?
• Why Is SEO Important? 
• Pillars of On-page SEO  

Types of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

Before we get to on-page SEO techniques, it’s nice to review why we put efforts into this type of optimization. Staying on top of the game and ranking high on search engines for more visibility is essential for every online business. Usually, users tend to show interest in the first couple of URLs or pages on the first page of a search engine. Therefore, the idea is to rank high among these pages and, hopefully, get the first position on SERP. 

This process is called search engine optimization, which includes many steps and requires knowledge and expertise. 

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has three main parts: 

• On-page SEO: includes content, meta tags, internal linking, and other techniques that help search engines crawl and index the pages.
• Off-page SEO: external activities among other pages or on social media, guest posts, newsletters,… 
• Technical SEO: involves loading speed, proper URLs, mobile readiness, and technical elements of a website. 

If you are reading this article because you might own a small business or a local business, you might consider reading Effective Local SEO and if looking for a service provider make sure you read Choosing the Right SEO Company.

What is On-page SEO?

Imagine a beauty product website with many pages and blog subjects. Every product has a dedicated page that needs to be worked on to get a high ranking with relevant keywords. This process involves creating content or blog posts to discuss the product or service. A set of techniques should be employed for each page to get a high ranking and attract traffic. These techniques that focus on elements within a page’s content and HTML source codes are known as on-page SEO. In other words, on-page SEO is an activity you do on the page to improve the search engine ranking and visibility. 

On-page SEO also ensures that web pages are user-friendly and SEO-friendly, providing keyword-rich content to boost performance. 

Why Is On-page SEO Important? 

We all know that search engine optimization is the essence of all your online efforts, and on-page SEO is about centering that effort on every web page. It also helps search engines rank your website content with relevant keywords. 

Here’s why you should focus on on-page SEO: 

• Improves search engine ranking
• Enhances user experience 
• Boosts click-through rates (CTR) 
• Increases organic traffic
• Strengthens your online presence 
• Helps with crawling and indexing web pages 
• Targeting specific keywords and improving content 

So, on-page SEO is considered a must in search engine optimization; without it, your efforts would be in vain. 

Pillars of On-page SEO 

On-page SEO is like a building structure with various pillars, each holding the structure in its own way and strengthening its stability. To successfully implement on-page SEO, you need to focus on these pillars: 

1. Quality Content (visual and blogs)
2. Keyword research and optimization 
3. Title tags and meta descriptions 
4. Internal linking strategies
5. URL structure 
6. Mobile-friendliness 
7. Page titles 
8. Header tags 
9. Site speed 
10. Image Alt-text 

Generally, we can categorize all these pillars into different groups: 

• Content Optimization 
• HTML Tags and Metadata 
• URL and Internal Linking Structure 
• Technical On-page SEO 

In the following, we thoroughly get into each group. 

On-page Content Optimization 

This category focuses on content that involves keyword research and using the right amount of keywords. Quality content also includes visuals like relevant videos or pictures that manifest user intent. 

Keyword Optimization

Generally, keyword optimization refers to researching and developing a strategic plan for naturally using primary and secondary keywords in content. 

The first step for content creation, whether copy or visual, is keyword research. This process begins with identifying keywords that you want to rank for. 

You should also analyze your competitors, observe the keywords they are ranking for, and develop a long-term strategy for keyword optimization. 

For this purpose, you can use keyword research tools or general all-in-one SEO tools like SemRuch, Ahrefs, Moz, and similar tools. 

The secret ingredient to optimizing website content is keyword density. This means the number of times you use the keyword in your content should align with your text volume to get the best results. 

Pro tip: Don’t settle for just the main keyword when planning keyword optimization. Long-tail keywords, LSI keywords, and secondary keywords play a significant role in ranking our content, covering broader user intent. 

Content 

Content creation has various aspects, from visuals to copies, that should center the message on user intent. When creating content or working on content optimization, you should have the users and their intentions in the back of your mind so you can answer their questions and what they seek. Accordingly, content should convey originality and relevancy while including sufficient naturally-used keywords. Also, whether written content material or visuals like videos or infographics should provide high-quality content that is engaging and unique. 

Keep in mind that the content should be straightforward, rich, and appropriate in length. Ensure that your content is comprehensive and fully covers the topic. 

Don’t be shy to expand your content while maintaining relevancy; longer content often performs better in search engines. However, unnecessary long content may increase the bounce rate, so make sure your content offers value and helpful information for users.

Image Optimization 

As mentioned, content creation involves visuals like videos and images. Including visuals like relevant images in your content makes reading more engaging and exciting. An infographic can also be an image, providing helpful information related to your keyword, topic, or user intent. So, one of the major on-page SEO factors is image optimization. It’s the process of improving the quality, loading speed, and SEO friendliness of mages in your content. 

Image optimization significantly improves loading speed and enhances user experience, leading to higher ranking in SERPs. 

Image optimization involves: 

• File size optimization 
• File format selection (JPEG, PNG, WebP, …) 
• Resizing image dimension 
• Descriptive file names 
• Alt text 

HTML Tags and Metadata 

This category includes optimizing HTML codes and tags in every webpage to improve on-page SEO. 

Title tags 

A title tag is an HTML element that appears in the title of a webpage on SERPs with a blue color when a user searches for a specific query or keyword. If you want to improve your on-page SEO, optimizing the title tag is a must. This is because it’s one of the most critical SEO ranking factors and provides enough information about the page’s topic and primary keywords. In other words, it tells the search engines what your webpage is about and its focus.  

So, how do you optimize title tags? 

Here’s what a well-crafted title tag should look like: 

• Must include the main keyword 
• It should be compelling enough to attract clicks 
• Its length should be within 50-60 characters for the best display 
• Should convey user intent 
• Reflect the topic 
• Provide something of value 

An optimized title tag significantly improves on-page SEO by increasing organic traffic and click-through rates. 

Meta Description 

Right below the title tag on SERPs appears the meta description, which provides a concise summary of the webpage’s content. While it doesn’t directly improve ranking, a well-optimized meta description significantly increases CTR (click-through rate), which can improve SEO performance. This is where SEO copywriting reveals its significance even more than before, as crafting an attention-grabbing meta description requires copywriting skills. Including the main keyword and writing in persuasive and compelling language helps users get a glimpse of the page’s content and value and encourages them to click to find what they seek. 

For best results, keep the meta description short and sweet, between 150 and 160 characters. This will bridge the search engine and users, guiding them to relevant content and information. 

Header Tags 

Another major on-page SEO factor is the content structure centered on HTML elements. Well-crafted content should fit in a clear structure hierarchically defined by headings and subheadings. Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are HTML elements that outline the content for better search engine navigation, understanding, and improved user experience. 

Each of these tags has a specific purpose in the content structure. The H1 tag usually represents the main title, followed by H2 and H3 as subheadings. Generally, H3 and other lower tags are used for subtopics that outline the page’s hierarchy. 

In other words, H1 is the main title, H2 describes other main titles in the content structure, H3 can describe subtopics of H2, and so on. 

The trick here is to use the primary keywords in the main headings and subheadings for SEO optimization. 

Why is that? 

Headers signal search engines which parts of the content are most important while breaking up the text into scannable sections with coherent text. Aside from SEO optimization, title tags improve readability, helping retain user attention and create a better content structure. 

Also, title tags help construct your content with various sections and enable you to move to another title tag and section while maintaining coherency. 

URL and Internal Linking Structure 

Optimizing URLs and internal linking is crucial for improving on-page SEO performance. This section breaks down URL structures and internal linking strategies. 

URL Structure for On-page SEO 

Every webpage has a signature called its URL. It’s the web address that separates a specific web page from the pages, and it’s one of the main on-page SEO factors. Therefore, optimizing the URL helps improve the page’s overall performance and helps search engines identify the webpage and its content faster and easier. Also, an optimized URL helps users understand what the page contains. 

Accordingly, an ideal URL is short, descriptive, and includes the relevant keywords, tags, and features. The key to crafting an optimized URL is to keep it concise and avoid unnecessary characters or numbers. Moreover, for better optimization, you can separate words with hyphens and keep it simple. 

Internal Linking Strategies and Structure 

Another crucial element in on-page SEO is internal linking. With a proper internal linking strategy, your website will become a powerhouse. 

Generally, internal linking refers to adding links within your content to other web pages on the same website. 

Internal linking benefits are: 

• Improving user navigation throughout your website 
• Boosts website’s authority 
• Improves SEO and page ranking 
• Enhances user experience 
• Boosts page indexing 
• Establishes content hierarchy 
• Reduces bounce rate

And many more! 

So, internal linking helps search engines better understand your website’s structure, improving SEO ranking, content relationship, and relevancy. When you link to a related blog post from within a current article, it helps distribute the website authority through various pages. It improves SEO by signaling which pages are valuable for users. 

Internal linking also reduces bounce rate, keeping users on your website for longer and providing them with related valuable topics that they may find interesting. 

Technical On-page SEO 

As the name suggests, this part requires coding knowledge and technical skills to fix site speed, schema markups, etc. 

Page Loading Speed 

Another critical element of on-site SEO is loading speed. This is highly important because if your website takes forever to load the content, users get tired and leave the page, leading to an increased bounce rate. To maintain an appropriate loading speed, the web page should be optimized through image optimization, minimizing codes, removing cache, and implementing lazy loading. 

Lazy loading is a technique for maintaining site speed and defers the loading of non-critical resources such as images, videos, and scripts until needed. 

Typically, the content appears when it enters the viewport as the user scrolls down. 

Additionally, technical SEO experts use other techniques to improve the loading speed for the best performance. 

Mobile Responsiveness 

In the past few years, mobile users have significantly increased, and search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites and even mobile-first design approaches. So, designing a responsive web page optimized for mobile screens and other devices is necessary. 

For this purpose, web designers may use a flexible grid layout and adjust images and buttons to display correctly on mobile screens with simplified navigation. 

When your website is user-friendly, keeps users engaged, and aligns with search engine requirements, it improves its overall performance and SEO ranking.

Schema Markup 

Surely, you have the experience of searching for a query, and when results appear, you see a bunch of extra information, like bullet points or ratings, in a schema markup structure. 

In a nutshell, schema markup is structured data that you can add to your website’s HTML code. This technique helps search engines understand your page’s content and context more clearly. Using schema markup, search engines can use the extra information to create “rich snippets” and enhance the results in SERPs. 

To better understand schema markup, imagine you have a recipe page. Schema markup can directly highlight specific information such as ingredients, cooking time, and ratings in the SERPs. It provides extra details about the page’s content, boosts visibility, and makes the result more engaging for users. 

Canonical Tags 

Lastly, technical on-page SEO uses canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues by indicating the preferred webpage version to search engines.

So imagine you have a website with a product that is accessible through multiple URLs, like: 

• website.com/product-page
• website.com/category/product-page
• website.com/product-page?ref=123

Although all these URLs refer to the same content, search engines see them as separate pages with the same content. This causes duplicate content issues, which decreases the website’s performance and dilutes the page’s ranking power. 

To avoid this issue, technical experts add canonical tags to the HTML codes of each duplicate page and point them to the preferred version of the content. 

How Often Should You Update Your On-page SEO? 

Since search engine algorithms frequently change, it’s recommended that you regularly update your on-page SEO to maintain visibility and improve ranking. You can start by analyzing your competitors’ performance and observing their content. 

You can also conduct a site audit every three months or bi-annually, which helps identify areas for improvement. This can include keyword updates, refreshing meta tags, optimizing page speed, and improving content quality. 

Wrap-up: On-Page SEO is the Core of Your Website’s Strength 

Search engine optimization (SEO) lies at the heart of all online marketing efforts. This process has various aspects, including technical optimization, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO, which are deeply integrated into their essence. On-page SEO involves optimizing every webpage of your website to boost visibility and improve ranking in SERPs. 

On-page SEO practices involve high-quality content, optimizing meta tags, structuring URLs and site speed, and more. 

By implementing on-page SEO techniques, you can improve your website ranking and provide visitors with a more engaging and valuable experience, setting you up for long-term success.