On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing your web pages for search engines and users. It involves improving the content, structure, and HTML elements of your pages to make them more relevant, user-friendly, and fast-loading.
Explore On-Page SEO Checklist Guide
Why is on-page SEO important?
On-page SEO is important because it helps you rank higher in Google and other search engines, which can drive more organic traffic to your website. According to a study by BrightEdge, organic search results that rank on page 1 of Google contain an average of 1,447 words1. Moreover, organic search is responsible for 53.3% of the world’s web traffic2, and SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate.
On-page SEO also helps you provide a better user experience for your visitors, which can increase your conversions, retention, and loyalty. According to Google, user experience is one of the top three ranking factors, and Core Web Vitals will become important page experience signals in 2023.
What are the best practices for On-page SEO in 2023?
There are many factors that affect your on-page SEO performance, but here are some of the most important ones that you should focus on in 2023:
Keyword research:
Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the words and phrases that your target audience uses to search for your products, services, or information. Keyword research helps you understand the search intent, demand, and competition for your topics and allows you to optimize your pages accordingly. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, or Bing Keyword Research to find relevant keywords for your niche.
Content optimization:
Content optimization is the process of creating and improving your web page content to match the search intent and expectations of your users. Content optimization involves writing engaging, informative, and original content that answers the queries of your users and provides value to them. You should also use your target keywords naturally and strategically throughout your content, especially in the title tag, meta description, headings, and first 100 words. According to Backlinko, the #1 result in Google gets approximately 32% of all clicks, so you should also write catchy and compelling titles and descriptions that entice users to click on your results.
Site structure:
Site structure is the way you organize and link your web pages to make them easy to navigate and crawl by both users and search engines. Site structure affects your user experience, site speed, indexation, and ranking potential. You should aim to create a clear and logical site structure that follows the hierarchy of your topics and subtopics and use internal links to connect related pages and distribute authority across your site. You should also use descriptive and SEO-friendly URLs that include your target keywords and reflect the content of your pages.
HTML elements:
HTML elements are the tags and attributes that define the structure and appearance of your web page content. HTML elements help search engines understand the context and meaning of your content and display it properly in the search results.
Some of the most important HTML elements for on-page SEO are:
- Title tag: The title tag is the main title of your web page that appears in the browser tab and the search results. It should include your target keyword and a unique value proposition that summarizes what your page is about.
- Meta description: The meta description is a summary of your web page that appears below the title tag in the search results. It should include your target keyword and a call-to-action that encourages users to click on your result.
- Headings: Headings are the subheadings of your web page content that divide it into sections and subsections. They should include your target keyword or related keywords, and follow a logical order from H1 to H6.
- Image alt text: Image alt text is a descriptive text that explains what an image shows or does. It helps search engines understand the content and purpose of your images, and improves their accessibility for users with visual impairments or slow internet connections.
Page speed:
Page speed is the measure of how fast your web page loads on different devices and browsers. Page speed affects your user experience, bounce rate, conversion rate, and ranking potential. According to Google, 53% of mobile users leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load. You should aim to optimize your page speed by reducing the size of your images, videos, scripts, and other resources, using a caching plugin or service, enabling compression, minifying CSS and JavaScript files, using a content delivery network (CDN), etc.
Mobile optimization:
Mobile optimization is the process of ensuring that your website looks good and functions well on mobile devices. Mobile optimization is crucial for on-page SEO because more than half of the web traffic comes from mobile devices, and Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means that it crawls and ranks your site based on its mobile version. You should aim to make your website responsive, which means that it adapts to the screen size and orientation of different devices, and use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your site meets the mobile usability criteria.
How to measure and improve your on-page SEO performance?
To measure and improve your on-page SEO performance, you need to use various tools and metrics that can help you analyze your site’s health, traffic, ranking, and user behavior. Some of the most popular and useful tools and metrics for on-page SEO are:
Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search. It provides you with valuable insights into your site’s performance, such as your impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), average position, coverage, sitemaps, Core Web Vitals, etc. You can use Google Search Console to identify and fix any issues that might affect your on-page SEO, such as crawl errors, broken links, duplicate content, etc.
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a free tool that helps you measure and understand your site’s traffic and user behavior. It provides you with detailed reports on your site’s audience, acquisition, behavior, and conversion. You can use Google Analytics to track and improve your on-page SEO metrics, such as your organic traffic, bounce rate, dwell time, pages per session, conversion rate, etc.
Ahrefs Site Audit: Ahrefs Site Audit is a paid tool that helps you analyze and improve your site’s technical SEO. It crawls your site and checks for over 100 common issues that might affect your on-page SEO, such as missing or duplicate title tags, meta descriptions, headings, image alt text, etc. It also gives you an overall health score for your site and actionable recommendations on how to fix the issues.
Ahrefs Content Explorer: Ahrefs Content Explorer is a paid tool that helps you discover and analyze the most popular content in your niche. It allows you to search for any topic or keyword and see the top-performing pages in terms of organic traffic, social shares, backlinks, etc. You can use Ahrefs Content Explorer to find content ideas, analyze your competitors’ content strategies, and optimize your content for higher rankings.
Conclusion
On-page SEO is a vital part of any successful online marketing strategy. It helps you rank higher in search engines, drive more organic traffic to your website, and provide a better user experience for your visitors. By following the best practices and using the tools and metrics mentioned in this guide article, you can optimize your website for higher rankings in 2023.
