Plus must-do on-page SEO and the free cheat sheet you need when optimizing your site
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With so much information out there on SEO, it’s easy to tie yourself in knots. That’s why I’ve put together this clear-talking list of 11 on-page SEO factors you need to know.
Some of these factors are easier to implement than others. But don’t worry. I’ll walk you through each one. And at the end you’ll be able to download my on-page SEO factors cheat sheet for even more details and tips.
What is on-page SEO?
And if there’s ‘on-page’ does that mean there’s also ‘off-page’?
On-page optimization factors are tactics you can apply to each page of your website. They’re the optimizations you can control to help your website perform better in search. And I’ll be covering them in this article.
Off-page optimization factors are SEO strategies you can’t control. These often involve methods that promote your content, site and brand on the internet. But you can’t control how these show up in search. An example of this is backlinking. If someone else’s article includes a link to your website or content, you can’t control the on-page SEO for that article. That’s the role of whoever owns the site.
The 11 on-page optimizations you need to know about
You should apply these points to each page of your website to help it rank. Applying 11 factors to every page may sound like a lot. But some of these can be implemented quickly, while others can be applied in bulk using a single action.
1. Optimizing images
The image-to-copy ratio is weighted in favor of their artwork making this one of the more important on-page factors. For others, this applies to any supporting image on the page.
You do this by:
- adding alt text (sometimes called alt tags) to each image. Search can’t ‘see’ images, so this text tells the search bots what the photo is about
- keeping your alt text descriptions short and to the point
- naturally including the page’s target keyword in alt text
- including the target keyword in the filename
- adding image metadata such as copyright details. This can be done in batches using Adobe Bridge or Photoshop
- compressing your images so they load quickly.
2. Adding keywords to the page URL
When you create a site page, the URL is auto-generated. It includes your business URL, followed by ‘/’ and a series of letters and numbers. When this page was first created, the URL looked like this.
Optimizing your URL involves changing the letters and numbers after the ‘/’ to include your keyword.
In this case, I’ve removed the 11 in case the number of factors ever changes.
Generally, you repeat the page title in the URL.
This keeps it simple, as the title usually sums up the page’s content. However, you should always:
- keep URLs as short as possible (ideally at 60 characters or fewer)
- remove ‘stop’ words such as ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘a’.
Separate each word in your URL with a hyphen rather than an underscore, and avoid using any other punctuation.
Google can interpret dashes more easily than underscores and other punctuation. It also helps with consistency, as people need to remember only one separator—a hyphen—between words.
This should make your URL easier for the customer to read, remember, and type into the URL bar.
3. Writing a page title and meta description
The page title and meta description appear on the search engine results page.
The importance of setting the page title and meta description has been up for debate ever since Google announced it’s no longer a ranking factor.
While this may be the case for the search giant, other search engines such as Bing, still use them as a ranking factor.
Bots aside, it’s worth doing. Well-written metadata will include the page’s keyword and a call to action.
These can both encourage someone to click through to your site.
They’re also used when the link is shared on social media platforms, appearing as the link preview.
4. Optimizing the page’s body content
Most on-page optimization work takes place in the main body content, which should be 800 words or more.
Optimizing body content boils down to readability (i.e. making it easy for the audience to digest).
Steps you can take to make your content easy to digest include:
- using subheadings
- adding images after 2 or 3 paragraphs
- using lists
- writing for humans rather than bots (so don’t keyword stuff).
You should also use your target keyword in the first 100 words of the body copy.
This tells the search engines that you’re writing on-topic.
Use your target keyword in the first 100 words of the body copy.
5. Use a call to action (CTA)
You create pages on your site—whether they’re service pages or blogs—because you want your audience to know something so they’re more inclined to complete a particular action.
That may sound cynical, but action is at the heart of digital marketing and having a website.
You may want the person to buy, book, download, sign up, or read more.
CTAs are vital to your SEO efforts.
These are the conversions you’ll track to see how well your site is performing.
When choosing your CTA, think about the natural next step in your audience’s buying journey.
Where they’re sitting in your sales funnel will help you understand their commitment level, and how likely they are to complete the CTA.
6. Add engagement points
Keeping your readers engaged with your content and giving them ways to share it may help your rankings.
There are a few variables (which I’ll try to summarize in a moment), but when talking about engagement points I’m referring to stuff like:
- pull quotes that make an impact, which they can share on social networks
- attractive infographics they can repost
- checklists they can download and save
- gifs and memes they can share
- polls they can take part in.
Why is this important? Well, here’s where it really depends on the search engine they’re using.
While Google hasn’t explicitly said dwell time is a ranking factor in their algorithm, there’s strong evidence to suggest they take it into consideration.
Google also looks favorably on pages that are repeatedly shared and linked to on social.
Meanwhile, Bing has stated that dwell time is a ranking factor, as is social media engagement relating to a site or page.
7. Check your E-A-T signals
E-A-T stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
And Google prides itself on showing people it delivers quality websites and businesses that will help them rather than hinder them.
Showing Google (and your customers) that you’re E-A-T aware includes:
- making sure you have an About page
- using author bios at the end of blog posts
- having all business details on your contact page
- sprinkling customer testimonials throughout your site.
8. Consider schema markup
Schema markup is the most technical on-page SEO factor, and so I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible.
Schema is the code that helps search engines understand the content on a web page.
The code allows the search engine to categorize your page and return it in relevant searches.
[IMAGE SUGGESTION: I like what this page does in their side-by-side comparison of ‘what we see as humans’ and ‘what a search engine sees’. Could you recreate this?]
So how do you add schema to a page?
A lot of people don’t.
It’s often one of the jobs a die-hard SEO strategist (like myself) will insist on implementing.
But if you decide to give it a go, I suggest using a tool such as RankMath or SEOPress.
9. Link to other pages within your site
Linking from one page on your site to another is called internal linking.
From a human point of view, internal linking is useful because it guides people through your site in the same way aisles guide people around a department store.
When it comes to search engines, internal linking tells the bots a particular page is important.
The more times you link to a page on your site from other pages on your site, the more important search engines will think it is.
That’s why creating blogs that link to your service or product pages (often your more profitable pages) is so useful.
10. Link to pages beyond your site
External linking is when you link to other websites and pages that are relevant to the content on your page.
While there’s no hard and fast rule as to how many external links you should use, the general SEO industry guideline is no more than 3 per page.
11. Update the publish date
Google loves fresh content, and so including a date is an optimization factor.
However, there are a few good-practice rules to keep in mind when adding a publish date.
- Avoid using dates in the URL so the page doesn’t become dated.
- It’s OK to use dates in the page title.
- If you update content that’s year/date specific, add a revised published date.
- If the article is time sensitive (for example a ‘Best of 20-whatever’), keep using the same page or post rather than creating a new one every year. Google will look more favorably at the original publishing date.
Start optimizing your pages
Conquering SEO requires a methodical approach, especially if you have a big site.
Choose your highest-ranking pages first and make sure they include the 11 essential on-page optimizations I’ve discussed.
Feel free to download my cheat sheet, which you can use as a checklist.
It includes more detail about each optimization, as well as links to tools that will help you in your mission.
