- SEO is the practice of optimizing web pages and content to improve the ranking on a particular website
- On-page SEO is actions you personally take to help boost your site
- Improve rankings by using the right keywords, links and anchor text
- Good meta description and meta title increase website visibility and attract the reader’s attention
Nowadays, when you need information on anything you can think of, you don’t open a book anymore to look for answers. You type the question in any search engine and look up the results without looking farther down than the first few links that pop up. It doesn’t matter if your webpage contains the needed information or if it’s the most credible as long as it appears at the bottom of the search results.
Users don’t care to check for those things because they rely on SEO to do it for them. But SEO can only give you a high ranking if you take certain steps to ensure that the information provided is what users are looking for. This is why you need on-page SEO to improve your ranking and push your page to the top.
What is SEO?
Have you ever wondered what is SEO? Search engine optimization or SEO is the practice of optimizing web pages and content to improve the ranking on a particular website. SEO is used to get a higher ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, or Yandex. The main purpose of SEO is to attract organic traffic to a site.
SEO is very important because there isn’t a single person on the planet that isn’t using it. SEO uses many techniques like keywords, headings, meta description, on-page SEO optimization, or external linking, all of which help to get a better ranking. One of the many purposes of SEO is to improve the experience of the site visitors, all while providing relevant page content.
SEOs represent a modern platform for marketing. The higher your site appears on the search engines, the more traffic you will have on your website. There are simple digital marketing hacks you can use. All SEO tools have become proven digital marketing techniques that speed up the growth of small businesses.
All SEOs use algorithms and rules to decide how much a particular page is relevant to a specific audience. These algorithms are very complicated and use multiple steps and methods to determine the ranking of a site.
SEO takes into account a number of things, like the use of external links, content analysis, and the structure of the page. It also considers other things, such as using a target keyword, technical optimization, content creation, link building, monitoring, and on-page optimization.
The number one result that appears in the search engines receives the highest percentage of traffic, while the others that appear lower on the search engines receive very little traffic, probably around 2-3%. Professionals use these types of ways to boost affiliate marketing business .
What does On-Page SEO mean?
You may have heard of the two types of SEO: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO, but do you know what they are?
Off-page SEO is actions you take outside your website, like links, forum writing, or social media presence. These actions help your site reach a higher ranking level. In contrast to this, on-page SEO is the actions that you personally take to help boost your site.
On-page SEO is important because it helps reach your target audience. Once on-page SEO has a clear picture after scanning and analyzing the data (images, links, page headings, meta tags, meta descriptions, keywords, etc.), it helps boost your site to the top of the search engine results. This is something that we are all looking for when we write our content.
15 On-Page SEO Factors To Improve Rankings
In order to reach your goal, there are some key on-page SEO factors you want to take into consideration and use. This will help your website reach a positive content score. And yes, reaching a score of 100 is possible, and here is how to do it.
Keywords
This is one of the most important on-page SEO factors to take into account. Keywords are words that you type into search engines to find the desired information. Using the right keywords in your content helps to display your site at the top after someone has typed them into the search bar.
For example, if you are searching for the top 5 football teams in the U.S., you would probably type something like “Top 5 football teams in the U.S.” It doesn’t matter that you used several words to find this information. Keywords don’t necessarily have to consist of only one word or a couple. They can also be entire phrases or sentences.
When using keywords, it is essential to know what type of audience you are trying to reach. From there, you should find words or phrases that will appeal to that type of audience. For this, you must do thorough research on the keywords.
Keywords have to be relevant to the page content you are providing; otherwise, don’t expect to receive a high level of traffic on your page. Also, avoid any kind of keyword stuffing. Having too many keywords is just as bad as having none.
Anchor Text and Links
Looking at any website or article, you can easily spot some of the words in the text colored differently, often blue and underlined. When you click on these words, they redirect you to another site, a specific paragraph to your article, or a different location on the same site.
An anchor text is the visible words where hyperlinks are displayed. Search engines use these to learn more about your page and how your audience views it.
They influence your ranking because, most importantly, they give you credibility. When other websites link your site to their pages, it provides search engines with the knowledge that this site is a credible source of information.
The anchor text needs to be clear and precise and needs to reflect the content of the linked page. This helps search engines better understand the context of your page.
There are several different types of anchor text. For example, an “exact match” is where you use the words like “mountain climbing” to link a page about mountain climbing. It’s a short, descriptive, and keyword-rich anchor.
Another type is “partly matched” anchor text that uses somewhat close words to the linking page. For example, “safety precautions for mountain climbing” can be an anchor text that leads to a site about mountain climbing. An anchor text can even be an image if they are linked.
Image ALT Text
When you search for a particular thing, you will often notice a line of clickable images right above the search results. All these images contain links that lead to another website.
Many Google searches show images, which will only increase in the future. You need to consider this on-page SEO factor to make sure you will not miss out on a significant source of organic traffic. Users would likely be more attracted to the images than to the text. This is why images are a powerful tool for increasing a website’s organic traffic.
The Google search engine has a practice where it usually displays images on top of the search results. Image optimization is a golden ticket to increasing traffic and also reaching a higher ranking score.
Header Tags
Header tags are HTML tags used to separate headings or, simply put, they are the titles and subtitles you usually see on a blog post or article.
They are named H1, H2, H3, etc., with H1 being the title of the post that focuses on the main idea. H1 is the highest and most important level and the reason why you wrote the article in the first place.
Unlike H1, H2 headers are used to separate the points that can be extracted from the main idea. H3 and H4 headings, and all the smaller subheadings that follow, are mainly used to clarify the points further.
The purpose of using header tags is to give your post a structure that the reader can easily follow, scan, and understand the main point of the content quickly.
Header tags are also important and intertwined with the use of keywords. When you mark something as a heading, it tells the search engines to determine the contextual importance and helps with on-page SEO.
Optimizing keywords in the header tags gives the search engines information about the theme of the content. Header tags also optimize the content for featured snippets which are special search results that help your page to pop up among the top results. To make sure that your content will be featured in snippets, you need to use relevant H2 and H3 header tags.
URL Structure
URL provides information to the users, but it also informs the search engines about the main point of the website. A well-structured URL improves the visibility of the SEO result page. To have a good structured URL, you should have a descriptive URL from which you can clearly determine the content of the page.
URLs should always be short because they are easier for the reader to read and avoid dynamic parameters like an exclamation point. Optimizing your URLs with keywords is always a good idea and should be included in the SEO strategy. Optimization also helps with the delivery of relevant content to the search results.
Meta Title
This important on-page SEO element appears as a title on SEO results pages. Good page titles increase the website’s visibility and attract the reader’s attention. Just like with the URLs, you should also use relevant keywords when crafting the page titles that reflect the content.
Meta titles shouldn’t be longer than 50-60 characters because otherwise, they won’t be fully displayed on the screen. Try to make the page titles as unique as possible because this is the first thing your reader will see when using SEO. You want to have a title that will catch their eye instantly.
Meta description
A meta description is one of the most important on-page SEO elements that appears right below the meta title. It represents a short amount of information that summarizes the website’s main points and tells users about the page’s content.
Meta descriptions should be kept short and no more than 160 characters. Recent algorithm updates made it possible for the meta description of no longer than 120 characters to be fully visible on screens of mobile devices.
You also need to make sure that the meta description contains keywords because this influences the reader to click on the link.
Images
Using images on your pages is one of the best on-page SEO factors to keep the user’s attention. Usually, when users see only text, they don’t tend to stay long on the site. It may sound silly, but images keep the user distracted and convinced to keep reading.
Providing original images is an even better option. Authentic images make the site unique and stand out from all other web pages with similar page content. Also, using images for some specific step-by-step instructions makes it easier for readers to follow and increases traffic.
A visual example is always better at keeping the reader focused on the site. Image optimization pushes your images to appear in the search results when relevant keywords are used. Using relevant and descriptive file names, alt text, and captions can help you achieve this.
If you decide to use this on-page SEO factor on your site, remember to compress them so that the loading of your page takes less time.
Internal linking
Internal linking is when you link the other pages of your website with your current content. Using internal links helps search engines better understand the hierarchy of the site and have a clearer idea of the website’s purpose. Internal links also help to structure and organize your website and give users a better chance to navigate it.
The best way to use this practice is to use descriptive anchor texts linked to relevant pages and increase user engagement. The placement of the internal links should be logical and natural.
Don’t put the internal links just for the sake of it. They have to be relevant to the content; otherwise, it will negatively impact your search engine rankings.
External links
Using external links to your content from websites with a high ranking level instills faith in the users that your page content is accurate, supported with facts, and relevant. This technique is highly recommended in on-page SEO because it improves user experience.
Make sure that the links you use are from reliable and high-quality websites. Avoid excessive linking because it might be considered spam and can give a negative result.
Always make sure that the external links open in a new tab. Even if you click on them to go to another site, your site is still open to come back to.
Content
High-quality content is essential to reach high traffic on a website, but quantity is also as important as quality. If you want frequent interaction of users with your site, you will need to provide them with new materials and use target keywords.
When you write your web page content, use the keywords in the first part, but don’t force them. The use of the keywords should come naturally. Using the main keyword repetitively heightens the appearance of the content.
Regular interactions on your website from users have a positive impact on SEO. By reducing bounce rates stating that your site provides users with a high-quality user experience and relevant page content. Users who often visit a particular site tend to look at other pages on the same site and improve the site’s click-through rates.
Site Speed
Many do not realize that page loading time is also an important on-page SEO element, especially after the introduction of Core Web Vitals from Google. A fast-loading website can rank higher on a search engine’s result page.
First, site speed is important because it improves the overall user experience leading to higher engagement. Site speed also allows search engines to crawl and index the site better. If the loading time on a site takes longer, then the indexing might not be completed.
For mobile SEO, having a fast site has been curtailed ever since mobile internet usage exceeded desktop. Because the majority use mobile devices to access different websites, the Google search engine takes this highly into consideration when determining the ranking score of a page.
Responsive Design
A responsive design ensures that your website provides users with the best experience from any device, which plays a role in how SEO ranks the page. This also means that your website is adaptable to any screen size and improves the speed of loading time on mobile devices, which is also an important on-page SEO factor.
Because around 56% of the internet is accessed through a mobile device, Google has started prioritizing sites that are more appealing to mobile users. Sites that have a more sympathetic mobile design receive a higher search ranking. This, of course, only applies when you search from your phone and not when you use a desktop.
Site Security
Google’s algorithm also considers the security of a website when determining its ranking. This is because having a secure site increases the user’s trust in this site. If your website is not secure, many will not be so willing to enter any personal information or make a purchase, which will, in turn, lead to lower conversion rates.
Search engines like Google have taken things to another level! They decided to penalize sites that are being hacked or compromised due to the lack of security, which leads to a lower ranking.
Having an SSL certificate plays a significant on-page SEO ranking factor for Google. They decided to give boosts in search rankings to sites that have this certificate. And finally, security can compromise the site’s speed which leads to negatively impacting user experience.
Top 3 SEO Factors To Always Take Into Consideration
All this information has probably confused you, but do not worry; implementing SEO strategies isn’t that hard. The three most important on-page SEO factors to keep in mind are title tags, meta descriptions, and having good quality and relevant web page content.
Make sure to pay attention to high-quality page content that provides helpful information because it is very important to the search query. The main goal of SEO is to provide the best results to users and satisfy the user’s needs. Targeted keywords are important to use in your content, but be careful not to overdo it.
For title tags, it is essential to be keyword-rich so that search engines can better understand the contextual meaning of the page. As for the meta descriptions, even though they don’t directly influence on-page SEO, they increase the click-through rates. Meta descriptions are one of the first things readers see, so ensure they are packed with information.
Conclusion
On-page SEO factors are not something to be taken lightly. Correctly using these factors boosts your website pages to the top of the search engine results pages and increases the overall user experience.
Following some of these techniques and on-page SEO factors will surely increase your ranking score. But if you want your site to appear first among the top-ranking results, then you should follow all of these recommendations. Even the ones that you think are not as important can cause a big difference, and they may just surprise you when you receive a high SEO ranking.
These instructions will help you get your site on top of the search engine result pages in no time. Hiring an SEO agency is always best if you are having trouble with all of this new information.
FAQs
What are on page and off-page SEO factors?
On-page SEO is used by many to reach their target audience. This means precise selection and use of keywords, excellent content, choosing the right titles, etc. Off-SEO refers to the actions you are taking outside of your website. This includes link building and exchange, increasing the link popularity, etc.
What are on-page ranking factors?
The on-page ranking factors include the quality of your page’s content, as well as the targeting of keywords. If optimized well, they greatly impact the page’s ranking ability.
