On-Page SEO – Ultimate Guide

Does SEO really matter for your business?

Do you need to invest your time and effort in SEO? or

Can you generate traffic and conversions without it?

If you’re scratching your head with these questions, you’re at the right spot. Search engine optimization can make or break your business. In the article, let’s discuss what is on page SEO, the importance of SEO and how to do on page SEO.

Let’s dive into the topic!!!

What is on page SEO?

Search engine optimization is the practice of improving the “quality and quantity” of organic traffic to the website.

In other words, search engine optimization is the process of improving the website visibility for user-relevant searches. Any website can rank higher in search engines with SEO best practices and strategies. Search engines are probably the main source to discover content, ranking better in search engines is the best way to increase traffic to your website.

Importance of SEO

Search engine optimization is the fundamental and basic concept of digital marketing. It’s no surprise that people often conduct billions of searches every day, probably with the intention of finding information on the new mobile or health care service. When you hit the competition and rank higher on search results, you can generate excellent results on the bottom line.

Wait a moment!!! The search results are been evolving for the past few decades to provide online users with direct information to keep up the users. When the user got the necessary information they stop looking for other websites.

Keep a note, features such as rich snippet and breadcrumbs have greater visibility. Also, provide online users additional information about the brand immediately in the search results.

Types of SEO

Hope you got a clear understanding of the definition and importance of search engine optimization. Now, let’s discuss the types of SEO.

Most digital markers think about SEO is all about including focused keywords on all the web pages and including a couple of links. If you’re sailing on the same boat, you’re on the wrong way. There is a lot thing to consider in SEO, in fact, including the keywords and links is just a single type of search engine optimization.

If you’re planning to drive enough traffic and conversion to your website, you need to learn about different types of search engine optimization.

There are three types of search engine optimization

• On-page SEO
• Technical SEO and
• Off-page SEO

On-page SEO

On-page search engine optimization is completely related to the content on the website. The main motto is to optimize every webpage. This will help search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing to understand the information on the website. The on-page strategies will make the website friendlier to both users and search engines. Google and other search engines look for an effective website to help the users, therefore it’s important to concentrate on optimizing every webpage on the website.

Technical SEO

Technical search engine optimization is completely related to non-content things of the website. Digital marketers need to have a look and improve the backend structure of the website. It includes website speed, indexing, security, schema markup, structured data and more. An excellent user experience is highly important for search engines and users to attract traffic and conversions.

Off-Page SEO

The term “Off-page” relates to offline activities. The tasks need to be performed outside of the website. Simply put, Off-page activities are done to promote the website. While on-page and technical SEO is focused on the content and foundation of the website. Off-page SEO techniques are used to promote your products or services online to end-users. Off-page activities include link building, guest posting, promotions and more. Popular and trusted websites are more likely to appear at the top positions on the search results.

Well now let’s discuss on-page SEO strategies

How to do on page SEO?

Good news for all the newbies. Our experts have researched and curated a on page SEO checklist to make your work easier. Have a look at each on page SEO technique and improve your ranking, generate traffic and what not? Let’s begin your race.

On-Page SEO Checklist

If you’re struggling to increase visibility, you need to concentrate on on-page SEO activities. Have a look at the on-page SEO checklist below and attract search engines. These activities help search engines to identify and understand your content, and rank your website at the top of SERP results.

Our experts have researched and created the ultimate guide for on-page SEO. That way, you don’t need to worry about missing a chance to optimize the website or blog.

1. Keyword research

A “Keyword” is the common term used to describe the phrase in digital marketing. The phrase is often used by users while performing a search on the internet. Consider, users are planning to buy a new mobile phone, they might search like “latest mobile phone” into Google. Though the phrase contains three words, it’s still considered as the keyword.

Keyword research should be the number one priority in the on-page SEO checklist. If you’re a digital marketer, then you might have heard about keyword research several times. It is the process of finding and choosing the right set of keywords for your brand. Simply put, keyword research allows you to know “what users are searching for?” instead of “what you imagine users might be searching for?”. There are a lot of differences. Google can rank your website when your keywords match with the user search query.

Keyword research can sound like a starting point. Use the keyword research tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner, Moz, Wordstream and more. Find the accurate keyword without hassles. After collecting the keywords, use them while creating the content. Combine your keywords with SEO strategy and rank your website at top positions on search results.

2. Select primary keyword

Once you’ve chosen the primary keywords, it’s time to include them in the website content. How many keywords do you need to insert in the content? This is the common question. It depends on the keyword type and competition. Pay attention mostly to primary keywords. Add at least one primary keyword in every 100 to 150 words. For example, if you’re creating content around 1000 words, you need to insert the primary keyword minimum 7 to maximum 10 times. 

3. Add keywords in headings

Adding the keywords in the heading is the secret to your on-page SEO success. Many digital marketers suggest using the primary keywords in heading (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6). Keep a note, never stuff the heading with the keywords. Try to add a primary keyword in heading tag (H1) to signal the webpage topic to users and search engines. When you add the keywords in the heading, it brings extra weight to the webpage and shows the value of the keywords. These are the ranking factors for Google as well.

4. Create a proper content plan for every keyword

Once you’ve gathered all the keywords (primary, secondary, etc), it’s time to create a content plan on how to use these keywords in the content. Plan accordingly, use the keywords wisely. Add them on website content, social media posts, landing pages and more.

• Make sure the keywords perfectly match the web content.
• Create quality content according to the user intent. Use the keywords in the content, this might be helpful for search engines and users.
• Create engaging content that is better than your existing content. This way, you can easily rank better on search engines.
• Review the existing content and add the primary keywords. This is an excellent method to make your page valuable, organized and original information.

5. Add the target keyword at the beginning and end of the paragraph

Keywords play a major role in ranking. Therefore it is important to ensure that you use the keywords in the right way for better ranking. Make sure your primary keyword must be your key focus. Add the primary keyword at the beginning and end of the content to reinforce what you’re talking about. This will help users and search engines why the content is related.

6. LSI keywords in Your Content

LSI stands for latent semantic indexing. These are the keywords that are similar to your primary keyword. Use the LSI keywords whenever possible, this way you will get a chance to add additional content to your blog. Just by checking the LSI keywords in the content, search engines will consider your content as valuable and high-quality. Ultimately your content will be ranked higher on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. Don’t stuff your article with LSI keywords. Use them according to the requirement, Google bots can easily understand and rank your page higher in SERP.

7. Create high quality and engaging content

Content plays a vital role in brand communication. Always remember, readers should be your utmost priority. Create high quality and engaging content for your readers. Make sure the content is valuable and structured in the right way.

Creating high quality and engaging content can achieve goals such as

• Increase brand awareness
• Improve ranking
• Increase CTR
• Generate new traffic
• Increase shares and more.

A piece of content that can easily achieve these marketing goals is “Quality & Engaging Content”.

8. Create valuable content on each subtopic

Keywords come into the picture. These keywords will help you concentrate on creating the content on what actually the users are searching for. Let’s consider, create a subtopic on “tips on the stock market”. Most of the topics are created are subtopics but each topic sounds in a different way. Clickbait-type headlines are booming, creating an excellent heading with quality content will make excellent content.

Create beautiful content on each subtopic in your industry that is the latest. Spend a couple of hours on research while creating content on the subtopic.

9. Focus on original content

It’s a universal fact, original content can often go a long run with search engines and users. Posting the copied content can make you crush down. Original content is nothing but new. Create the content with new and fresh ideas. Rewriting a similar topic, again and again, doesn’t sound like an original. If you create fresh and original content, nobody can defeat you. Create something useful and expect returns soon. Many businesses are focusing on creating original content and boosting their revenue.

10. Make your web content scannable

Do you read lengthy articles? Of Course no. Even the search engines don’t prefer lengthy articles. Many content writers create scannable content to attract their users and search engines.

There are several ways to create scannable content

• Create subheading
• Use maximum whitespace
• Keep the content short and simple
• Use list or bullet points
• Highlight the sentence or words with bold format
• Wrap up

Sounds easy right? Yes!!! Readers and search engines can go through the content and review it quickly.

11. Create an eye-catching title

A strong and appealing title sparks reader’s interest, attention and invitation. As per analysis, more than 80% of users will read the titles and the remaining 20% of users will read the complete content. It means you need to write a catchy and good title. Make sure your title is positive, convey the message within a few words. Also excites the user’s attention to stick to the article. Don’t create headlines in a hurry, take time while creating catchy headlines. Write at least 5 to 8 titles, select the best one from it. Because headlines are the first and important thing to decide whether to read or not.

12. Add a strong call-to-action

Call-to-action is used in the landing pages and website to guide the customers towards goal conversion.

Whenever a user visits your website, they need to know their next step. These call-to-action buttons will guide the users for their next move. Make sure call-to-action buttons are related to the content. Consider, when your content on-going offers, your CTA should be “Register Now”. This way users will register and know about ongoing offers.

13. Optimize title tags

Headlines are also called title tags. These are displayed on the search results in a clickable format. Make sure your headline is optimized. The optimal format could be “Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword – Brand name. Your title length should not exceed more than 60 characters. The title tag plays an important role in helping the users and search engines about the webpage.

• Create title within 60 characters
• Don’t stuff the title tag with keywords
• Make sure every webpage has a unique title
• Put primary keyword at the beginning
• Add your brand name to the title tag
• Create title tag for your customers

14. Able to provide information or answers

Search engines are the one-stop destination to get information on a set of questions. In fact, Google performs an excellent job. For example, when a user types a search query “how to stay healthy and fit?”, Google will provide information in different kinds i.e links, images, podcasts, videos, pdf and more. When users read an article or watch a video, they always look for some information or answers to gain additional knowledge. Make sure the content is easily understandable and doesn’t need additional research to gain information.  

15. Add images and video

Nowadays people are finding new ways to learn. Few people can understand by reading the content and other people can quickly learn by watching videos. If you want to communicate with every user in a better way, make sure you add visuals. These are excellent opportunities to illustrate the content or any point.

Always concentrate on adding more and more visuals because nobody spends their time reading long paragraphs unless it’s a book. Attract users by creating content on different forms i.e screenshots, memes, infographics, videos and more.  These visuals are an excellent way to enhance the content. Don’t ever skimp on adding visual content.

16. Use Alt tags when necessary

If you’re a digital marketer then you might know the importance of using alt tags. Alt tag is popularly known as alt attribute, these tags are most commonly used for images to provide alternative text. Simply put, alt tags are used to provide additional information about the image or video for search engines. Providing proper description with alt tags can boost your ranking on search engines. On the other hand, Google Images will index the visual content according to the alt tag description. Hence, using alt tag will improve your organic traffic.

17. Create a right meta description

A meta description is the important HTML tag. It is used to compile or summarize your website content. As the meta descriptions appear on the search engines and generate click-through rates. So, it’s crucial to optimize them. 

Tips on creating meta descriptions

• The length of the meta description should be 120 to 155 characters
• Don’t encourage auto-generate meta descriptions
• Use active voice
• Include call-to-action
• Use primary and secondary keywords
• The meta description should match with the webpage content
• Create a unique meta description

18. URL optimization

URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator”. In short, URL is called a web address available on the internet. A standard URL consists of “Protocol, Domain Name, Path”. After selecting the URL, optimizing the URL is your next on-page SEO goal. There are several benefits such as enhanced user experience, increased ranking, links and more. A Good URL’s limit must be less than 255 characters and use “-” to divide. Similar to the page title, the URL must be short and descriptive. Also, it’s important to include a target keyword in the URL. 

19. Site Speed

People are living in the era of instant gratification. Don’t you agree? It’s absolutely true. This applies to your website as well. As per analysis, even a couple of seconds delay while loading a website can decrease the conversions by upto 7%. Sounds like a horror story. If you want to increase your conversion, keep an eye on your site speed. Use Google PageSpeed Insights and know your site speed.

All you need to enter the website URL and hit the “Analyze” button. PageSpeed Insight will provide in-detailed data about field data, lab data, opportunities and more. Have a look at opportunities, consider their suggestions and improve your performance score. Site score is the most important factor in on page SEO to get a higher ranking on search engines.

20. Internal links

Is there anybody who is unaware of internal links? Nobody!!! An internal link is probably the link from one webpage on your site to another web page on your site. Readers and search engines use these internal links to find the information on the website.

It’s no surprise every content requires internal links to rank better on search engines. Because Google and other search engines find your website when you’ve enough links. Simply put, internal links help to connect your content with additional information. They can build a proper hierarchy structure on your website. These links allow you to give preference for important web pages or posts. So, you need to focus on implementing powerful internal linking strategies in your on-page SEO.

21. Add contextual links

A blog consists of thousands of articles. A good content writer will never forget to give internal links while writing on relevant topics. Consider, you’re writing a blog on “How to Make Money?”, you can give a link to “Money-Making Apps”. This is the best way to show your readers and search engines that your content is relevant.

Adding the contextual links is all your choice. You can add at the beginning or ending, but make sure the link is related.

22. Link hierarchical web pages

Do you have hierarchical web pages on your site? Yes!!! Start linking parent web pages to the child web pages. Also, link the sibling webpages as well. The hierarchy web pages will make a well-organized website.

23. Add navigational links

Linking the content to related pages is a good practice. If you want to make your content even more authoritative, start adding the navigation links. Don’t add too many navigational links, implement it on important pages on your website. Adding the navigation link to certain pages will show these pages are valuable. Also, Google will give more importance to these web pages.

24. Add an internal link to the top or recent posts

Adding the internal link to your popular or recent post is one of the effective strategies in the internal linking. You can create a top or recently added posts section in the footer or sidebar of your website. This way, the top posts and recent posts will appear on every single page of your website. When link value gets passed to the top and recent posts from every page of your website, they will get an excellent boost. On the other hand, readers can easily access popular and recent posts and generate more traffic.

25. Get high-quality backlinks

Getting high-quality backlinks is nothing by earning links from authoritative and high-quality websites. When popular websites link to your website, it will send a positive signal to the search engines. Also, indicate to the search engines that the linked website is useful and valuable.

If you’re planning to increase your visibility on SERP, you need to get more high-quality backlinks for your website.

26. Guest blogging

Guest blogging or guest posting is the practice to boost your on-page SEO. Bloggers can easily tap into an already trusted audience and connect with the audience from your industry. It’s an excellent technique to build loyalty, increase followers, generate traffic and get quality backlinks.

Small and large business entrepreneurs are using guest blogging techniques for the past few years for several reasons. One of the key reasons is to earn a quality backlink. If you’re planning to contribute a guest blog to the authoritative website, you need to consider several things

• Set a goal
• Find the relevant and authoritative website to contribute
• Check guest blogging guidelines
• Pitch an email with unique ideas
• Submit quality guest blog
• Never write already existing blog posts
• Track guest blogging results

27. Outreach

Promote your content in every possible way. No matter how good your content is, you cannot earn backlink when people are unaware of your website. If you want to gain attention, you need to work harder to find interested people in your niche and link your content. You can also link or share your content on social media for better outreach. There are few influencer research tools available in the market, use them and find the interested people in your niche. Also, keep a close relationship with other bloggers in your niche, build relationships and get a chance to share your content on their websites or blogs. Things will get better when you maintain long-lasting relationships with popular bloggers from your niche.

28. Broken link building

A broken link building strategy might be less popular in on-page SEO. But if you want to drive better traffic and improve your ranking, you need to concentrate on every on-page SEO technique. The broken link building involves finding the broken links in your website or finding the 404 errors. Identify the broken links by using the tool called “Check My Links”. Also, you can check the broken links for other websites. When you find the issue or broken links, reach out to them and tell them about the error or problem. You can give instructions on how to fix the error. When the other website owner is happy with you, request a link to your website.

29. Add social sharing links

Is there anybody who doesn’t use social media accounts? Nobody. Adding social sharing links on your website can increase brand awareness and reach. Optimize your content for users, search and social media. This way, your content can easily be found.

Never add social media buttons on unnecessary pages because nobody will share it. Adding social buttons within the content will have a great impact. You can add the social button in the middle of the content and end with a proper CTA.

30. Set links to open a new web page

Millions of people might visit your website. When they click on a link, there might be a chance of leaving your website completely. Hence setting links to open in the new tab will remain your website open when the reader visits another website.

Start building backlinks to your site using the above-mentioned linking techniques. If you’re a newbie, the complete process may take time, but for sure it’s worth it in the long run. Because quality backlinks are the popular ranking factors.

31. Mobile responsiveness

It’s no surprise that mobile users are increasing every day. Many people use mobile phones to search for information, send emails or other purposes. Hence, it’s a primary goal for you to optimize your website for mobile users. Make sure your desktop and mobile version are similar. Pay attention to every single delta such as layout, pop-ups, images, links, font size and more. A mobile-friendly website can increase the visibility on Google and other search engines. More traffic means more conversions.

32. User engagement

Many digital marketing experts always focus on user engagement. But why? Highly engaged customers or users are likely to purchase the product or service.

When a user or customer doesn’t engage with your product or service, all your hard work is in vain. The ultimate goal of on page SEO is to make sure that your customers interact with your website and don’t bounce to another website. Also, stay connected with your website for long periods of time. The user engagement depends on the relevance and quality of your content. Pay attention to content optimization, link building, site speed and more. 

33. Provide excellent user experience (UX)

User experience is highly important. You need to provide excellent UX to make your users super happy. Because users often look for a seamless experience whenever they visit your website. There are several factors that are needed to be considered for providing a better user experience, 

• Create short and easy to understand the content
• Make sure all the internal and external are redirecting to the right place
• Improve page loading speed
• Focus on offering responsive web design

When the user is accessing your website on a mobile phone, it might look pleasing when you offer content, size and colour in the readable format. Also, make your buttons visible (not big or not small). When a user finds it difficult to navigate, then they may switch to another website. Consider these factors and provide an amazing user experience to increase traffic and generate better results.

34. Satisfy search intent

Satisfying the search intent should be your ultimate goal. There are four key categories for satisfying the search intent, let’s have a look

• Informational
• Transactional
• Comparison 
• Navigational

Informational includes tutorials, articles, guides, how-to-use, terms and conditions and more. Transactional include placing an order for an existing customer. The comparison includes comparing two products and weighing in the options. Navigation is nothing but finding a specific website or looking for a particular product or service.

Whenever you’re writing a blog, keep a closed eye on these search intent. Make sure your satisfying users with your content.

35. Optimize for voice searches

Right from the 3-year-old kid to 75-year-old people are performing voice search rather than typing their query on Google. As per analysis, 50% of conducted voice search. Yes, it’s absolutely true. Hence, you need to optimize your content for voice search as well.

Following are tips to optimize for voice search

Structured data is an excellent option to optimize for voice search. Just by enabling search enhancement, you can get visually appealing results on SERPs. Use Google My Business Listing and share your website or brand information. Make sure you design a mobile-friendly website to attract maximum mobile users.

36. Add comment section

Adding a review or comment section on your website can be helpful. This way, you can easily interact with the audience and understand whether your content is useful or not. Spend time interacting with your reader’s and increase trust and authority.

Wrapping up

You’ve reached the end. Ticking all the techniques in the on page SEO checklist will surely optimize the website or blog for 2021. With good on page SEO practice, you can easily encourage your users to visit your website. Make sure your website has an excellent user experience, faster page loading speed, attractive visuals, adding relevant links and more.