On-page SEO

On-page SEO (also called on-site SEO) refers to all the actions you take directly on your website to improve its visibility in search engine results and attract more relevant traffic. It includes optimizing both the content and the HTML source code of your web pages.

High-Quality Content

  • Relevant and Valuable: Your content should satisfy the intent of the user’s search. It must be informative, engaging, and trustworthy.
  • Keyword Optimization: Use relevant keywords naturally in your content, especially in important places like the title, headings, and the first paragraph.
  • Content Structure: Break content into sections using headings (H1, H2, H3…), bullet points, and short paragraphs for better readability.

HTML Tags Optimization

  • Title Tag: The clickable headline in search results. It should include the target keyword and be under 60 characters.
  • Meta Description: A short summary of the page. Not a ranking factor, but influences click-through rates.
  • Header Tags (H1, H2, H3…): Help organize your content and make it easier for both users and search engines to understand.
  • Image Alt Text: Describes images for accessibility and helps search engines understand them.

URL Structure

  • Clean and Descriptive URLs: URLs should be short, readable, and include keywords (e.g., www.example.com/on-page-seo-tips).
  • Avoid unnecessary parameters or random strings.

Internal Linking

Link to other relevant pages within your website to:

  • Improve navigation
  • Distribute page authority
  • Keep visitors engaged longer

Mobile-Friendliness

  • Your site should be responsive and work well on all devices. Google uses mobile-first indexing, so mobile usability is critical.

Page Speed Optimization

  • Faster pages lead to better user experience and are favored by search engines.
  • Use optimized images, caching, and minimize code (HTML, CSS, JS).

User Experience (UX)

  • Easy navigation, clear layout, readable fonts, and engaging design help users stay longer and reduce bounce rates.

Structured Data (Schema Markup)

  • Add code that helps search engines understand your content better.
  • Enables rich snippets like star ratings, FAQs, product details, etc.

Content Freshness

  • Regularly update your content to keep it current and relevant.

Advanced On-Page SEO Elements

Keyword Placement Strategy

Use your main keyword in:

  • First 100 words
  • Title tag
  • H1 tag
  • URL
  • Meta description (naturally)
  • Image alt text

Include LSI keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing)—these are related terms that help search engines understand context.
(E.g., for “apple,” is it the fruit or the tech company?)

E-A-T Principles

E-A-T = Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness

  • Add author bios, credentials, and references.
  • Use HTTPS (secure website).
  • Include clear contact information and policies (about, contact, privacy, T&C pages).

Content Depth and Relevance

  • Aim for comprehensive content that answers all potential user questions.
  • Use topic clusters (covering subtopics on linked pages).
  • Include visuals like infographics, videos, charts, or comparison tables to enhance value.

Canonical Tags

  • Avoid duplicate content issues by defining the “main” version of a page with a canonical tag
  • Example: <link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/main-page-url" />

Core Web Vitals

These are Google’s performance metrics focused on user experience:

  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – speed of content loading
  • FID (First Input Delay) – time before interaction is possible
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – visual stability

Language and Localization

For multi-language websites:

  • Use hreflang tags to tell Google what language and region the page targets.
  • Make sure URLs reflect language (e.g., /en/, /fr/).

Common On-Page SEO Mistakes

  • Keyword stuffing – overusing keywords unnaturally.
  • Missing meta tags or duplicating them across pages.
  • Thin content – pages with very little value (less than 300 words with no unique insights).
  • Broken internal links or orphan pages (not linked from anywhere).
  • Slow-loading pages, especially on mobile.
  • Overlooking image optimization – large, uncompressed images without alt text.

On-Page SEO Best Practices

  • Run a content audit every few months.
  • Use tools like Yoast SEO (for WordPress) or Rank Math to guide your optimizations.
  • Monitor your pages using Google Search Console for indexing issues, click-through rates, and more.
  • Use Google Analytics or Hotjar to analyze user behavior (time on page, bounce rate, scroll depth).
  • Perform regular technical SEO checks to fix errors.