Moz defines on-site SEO as "the practice of optimising individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page SEO refers to both the content and the HTML-source code of a page that can be optimised, as opposed to off-page SEO, which refers to links and other external signals"
Google is getting smarter, so should your on-page strategies in order to make Google rate you as a helpful and relevant page, that will solve the user's problem.
Your page URL should be short, concise and easily readable in order to rank higher in Google. Try including your target keyword in your URL, in order to help the user and the search engine recognize what your page is about.
Additionally, each word in your URL string should be separated by a hyphen and you should try avoiding backslashes, since every backslash will be counted as a new folder.
LSI Keywords are words and phrases that search engines use to understand what your content is about and whether it is helpful in answering a specific question. Generally speaking, LSI Keywords are closely related terms to your target keyword.
In order to find out which LSI Keywords to use in your content:
The title of your page is what users see in the search engine for both organic results and paid ads as well as at the top of each tab of your page in their browser. Since the title is one of the first things a user and a search engine sees, you should optimise it in order to improve CTR.
The following are a few tips how to optimise your title tag:
Meta Descriptions tell users what they will find on the page and helps search engines decide what audience might find value in the page's content, that's why optimising your pages' meta descriptions can generate higher click-through-rates, which lead to a higher chance at conversion.
You can use the following tips to optimise your meta descriptions:
Your landing page or blog should include multiple heading tags, although there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
Search engine algorithms compare the section of content underneath each heading tag in order to establish relevancy for the user, so it is crucial to for the content to support the heading.
4. Do NOT stuff keywords
5. NEVER use the same H1 tag for multiple pages, since that confuses the user and the search engine and will lead to you not being ranked as high
All in all, using headings and subheadings is beneficial from an SEO point-of-view (since with the use of headings and subheadings it is easier to relate the content to a topic and to decide how relevant and helpful the content is) as well as for the user experience (since it helps the user find the answer and the information they are looking for faster and easier.
Probably one of the most important things to think about, when trying to do on-page SEO, is your content. Since Google crawls your page, looking to match user intent to your content, it is crucial for your content to be helpful and relevant.
When optimising your content, always try to be aware of the Google Algorithm.
The Google Algorithm's priority is helpfulness and relevance, so you will get a boost in ranking if you are consistently meeting expectations of users. It is imperative to provide the user with quality content that is interactive, fresh, helpful and long.
Longer content tends to outrank short content, because Google will want to rank a page higher on the first page, if it provides someone with a comprehensive answer to what that person is looking for.
If the content uses a natural language and can answer the question or solve the problem quickly and easily (this does not affect the page's length), the Google Algorithm will identify the page as helpful and push it higher towards the top rankings.
External Links are links that point at any domain other than the source.
Since Google uses external links as an on-page ranking it is important for you to use them on your web page as well. It is best to use 2-5 outbound links to authority resources in every single article on your site, this is not only helpful to the user but also helps you rank higher.
An internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web-page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain. Internal links provide additional information to the user and keep them on your website longer.
The best way to use internal links is to link back to 2-5 older pages on your site every time you publish a new piece of content on your page. Keep in mind that you shouldn't link back to any random page on your website, try linking back to helpful and useful pages as well as to ones that you want to rank higher.
Speed is one of the few ranking factors that Google has publicly confirmed, so it should definitely be a priority when optimising your website.
There are a few things you can do to affect your website's speed:
It is incredibly important for your website to be reactive and fast, since 50% of mobile users will leave if a page does not load within 3 seconds.
If your page is mobile-friendly it will improve on-page SEO and relevancy and help you rank higher in the SERPs, since the majority of searches are over mobile devices.
Optimising the images on your website benefits user experience as well as SEO. User experience is a factor directly measured by Google, so it automatically influences how high you rank.
Using multimedia is a good way to make your page more attractive for the user and making it more helpful and understandable, by being diverse and explaining different concepts in different ways.
The best ways to optimise your images for on-page SEO are:
All in all, there are several practices and tips to optimise your on-page SEO in order for your website to rank higher on search engines by being more user-friendly and providing a better experience to your website visitors.
If you want to know how your website is doing and what you can do to improve and optimise your website, check out our SEO Audit Tool and Hubspot's Website Grader.