SEO checklist: 13 on page SEO optimization techniques

On-page SEO is an essential part of any successful SEO strategy. It lays the foundation for attracting more traffic and leads to your website, improving your search engine rankings, and ultimately growing your business.

What is on-page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing the content and structure of individual web pages to improve their visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). On-page SEO techniques focus on factors such as keyword usage, content quality, meta tags, and internal linking, among others, to ensure that search engines can easily understand and rank your website's pages based on their relevance and value to users.

Why on-page SEO is important?

On-page SEO is important for several reasons:

Higher search engine rankings: By optimizing your website's pages for relevant keywords and search queries, you can increase your chances of ranking higher in search engine results pages and attract more organic traffic to your site.

Better user experience: On-page SEO techniques such as using header tags, internal linking, and straightforward navigation can help improve the user experience of your website and make it easier for users to find the information they need.

Increased engagement and conversions: By providing high-quality and relevant content that satisfies user intent and includes clear call-to-actions, you can increase engagement and conversions on your website, ultimately leading to more leads and sales for your business.

Competitive advantage: By staying up-to-date with the latest on-page SEO techniques and best practices, you can stay ahead of the competition and maintain your visibility and authority in search results.

13 On-page checklists for on-page SEO optimization:

If you want to improve your website's search engine rankings and attract more traffic to your site, on-page SEO optimization is a crucial step you can't ignore. By optimizing your website's content and structure, you can make it more search engine-friendly and increase your chances of ranking higher in search results.

To help you get started with on-page SEO optimization, we've put together a checklist of 13 key factors to keep in mind. By following these guidelines, you can ensure your website is optimized for search engines and ready to attract more traffic and leads.

1. Keyword research:-

Before you start optimizing your website, it's important to do keyword research to identify the most relevant and valuable keywords for your business.

There are several free keyword research tools available online, including:

• Google Keyword Planner: This is a popular keyword research tool provided by Google that allows you to find keyword ideas, search volume data, and competition information.

• Ubersuggest: This tool provides keyword ideas, search volume data, and competition information, as well as content ideas and backlink data.

• AnswerThePublic: This tool provides keyword suggestions in the form of questions and phrases based on what people are searching for online.

• Keyword Tool: This tool provides keyword ideas based on search queries from Google, Bing, YouTube, and other search engines.

• Google Trends: This tool provides insights into the popularity and seasonality of specific keywords over time.

• Soovle: This tool provides keyword suggestions from multiple search engines and platforms, including Google, YouTube, Bing, Amazon, and more.

• Keywords Everywhere: This is a browser extension that shows you keyword search volume data and cost-per-click (CPC) information for keywords as you browse the web. you can add this as a chrome extension

2. Title tags:-

Use descriptive and compelling title tags that include your target keywords and accurately reflect the content of your pages.

It's important to keep in mind that title tags should be unique for each page on your website and accurately reflect the content and purpose of the page. They should also be concise and no more than 60 characters in length to ensure that they display properly in search results. By optimizing your title tags, you can improve both your search engine rankings and user engagement with your website.

Example of how to format the title tag in HTML:

3. Meta descriptions:-

Write concise and informative meta descriptions that entice users to click through to your site from search results.

A well-written meta description that accurately summarizes the content on the page and includes relevant keywords can increase the likelihood that a user will click through to your website and engage with your content. This increased engagement and click-through rate (CTR) can signal to search engines that your website is providing high-quality and relevant content, which can ultimately improve your search engine rankings.

It's important to keep in mind that meta descriptions should be unique for each page on your website and accurately reflect the content and purpose of the page. They should also be concise and no more than 155-160 characters in length to ensure that they display properly in search results. By optimizing your meta descriptions, you can improve your click-through rates, and user engagement, and indirectly impact your search engine rankings.

Here's an example of how to format the meta description tag in HTML:

4. Header tags:-

Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content and make it more readable for users and search engines.

Using the primary focusing keyword in header tags is a best practice for on-page SEO optimization. Including the primary keyword in the main heading (H1) can signal to search engines the main topic or theme of the page, and including related keywords in subsequent subheadings (H2, H3, etc.) can provide additional context about the content on the page.

Including the primary focusing keyword in header tags is a best practice for on-page SEO optimization, but it should be done naturally and appropriately which helps to organize and clarify the content on the page.

Six levels of header tags are used to structure the content of the webpage. H1 tags should be used for the main heading of the page, while H2-H6 tags should be used for subheadings and other sections of the page.

5. Content quality:-

Create high-quality and original content that provides value to your audience and answers their questions or solves their problems.

Content quality refers to the overall value and relevance of the content on a web page. High-quality content is informative, well-written, and engaging, and provides value to the user. It should be relevant to the user's search query and provide useful information or insights on the topic.

To check the content quality score of a web page, there are several tools available that can analyze the content and provide a score or evaluation. Some recommended tools for checking content quality include:

1. Yoast SEO: This is a popular WordPress plugin that includes a content analysis feature that evaluates the quality of the content on a web page based on factors such as readability, use of headings, keyword usage, and more.

2. Grammarly: This is a writing assistant tool that can be used to check the grammar, spelling, and overall clarity of your content. It can help to identify areas where your content may need improvement and provide suggestions for how to improve it.

3. Hemingway Editor: This is a web-based app that analyzes your content for readability and offers suggestions for how to simplify and clarify your writing. It can help to improve the overall quality and readability of your content.

This is a tool that analyzes the readability of your content based on factors such as sentence length, word usage, and more. It provides a score and suggestions for how to improve the readability of your content.

4. Content length:

Aim for longer content (at least 500 words) that provides comprehensive information on your topic and satisfies user intent.

Content length can be an important factor in determining how well your content ranks in search engines. Generally speaking, longer pieces of content tend to perform better in search results than shorter ones, as long as the content is high-quality and provides value to the reader.

5. Keyword density:

Use your target keywords strategically and naturally throughout your content, without over-stuffing or spamming.

keyword density is just one of many factors that search engines use to determine the relevance and quality of a piece of content. It's more important to focus on creating high-quality, valuable content that is relevant to your target audience, rather than obsessing over keyword density.

A keyword density of 1-2% is often considered a safe and effective range to aim for.

To calculate keyword density, you can use the following formula:

Keyword Density = (Number of times keyword appears / Total number of words) x 100

For example, if you have a 500-word article and the target keyword appears 5 times, the keyword density would be:

Keyword Density = (5 / 500) x 100 = 1%

6. Use Internal Linking:

Use internal linking to connect related pages on your website. This helps search engines understand the structure of your website.

Internal linking is a valuable SEO technique that helps to improve user experience, distribute page authority, and increase website traffic. By following best practices for internal linking, you can improve the effectiveness of your website and boost your search engine rankings.

What are the advantages of linking related pages on your website:

• Improved User Navigation
• Enhances User Engagement
• Distributes Page Authority
• Helps Establish Site Hierarchy
• Increases Page Views
• Decreases Bounce Rates
• Improves Conversions

7. Use Alt Tags for Images:

Use descriptive, keyword-rich alt tags for all images. This helps search engines understand what the images are about

Here is an example of an image alt-text format

It is a very good practice for optimizing image SEO, by doing this you can improve the visibility and accessibility of your images in search engine results, and enhance the overall user experience on your website.

Here's an example of how to format the image alt text in HTML:

Giving actual alt text can improve the visibility and accessibility of your images in search engine results, and enhance the overall user experience on your website.

8. Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and has a responsive design. This is crucial since most users today use mobile to surf websites. Mobile responsiveness is important for improving user experience, search engine optimization, traffic, cost-effectiveness, and future-proofing your website.

How to check whether your website was mobile friendly or not

Go to google> google mobile friendly test>type your website URL

This shows your website is optimized for Mobile friendly

9. Check Keyword Consistency

Keyword consistency refers to the number of times a target keyword appears on a webpage relative to the total number of words on the page. It's important to maintain an appropriate level of keyword consistency to improve the visibility and relevance of your webpage in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Here are some reasons why keyword consistency is important:

1. Search Engine Optimization: Maintaining an appropriate level of keyword consistency can help search engines understand the relevance of your webpage to a given search query. Including relevant keywords throughout your content can improve your search engine rankings and visibility in SERPs.
2. User Experience: Overuse of keywords can negatively impact the readability and user experience of your content. Maintaining an appropriate level of keyword consistency ensures that your content is informative and easy to read.

To calculate keyword consistency, follow these steps:

1. Choose a target keyword for your webpage.
2. Count the total number of words on the webpage.
3. Count the number of times the target keyword appears on the webpage.
4. Divide the number of keyword occurrences by the total number of words on the page.
5. Multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage of keyword consistency.

For example, if your target keyword appears 10 times on a webpage with 500 words, the keyword density would be:

10 / 500 = 0.02

Multiplying by 100, the keyword consistency would be:

0.02 x 100 = 2%

keyword consistency should be kept below 5% to avoid overusing keywords and negatively impacting the user experience. However, the appropriate level of keyword consistency may vary depending on the nature of the content and the specific keyword being targeted. It's important to balance keyword optimization with readability and user experience.

Here is an online extension tool to calculate your keyword consistency for your webpages

SEO QUAKE

10. Check Sitemap

A sitemap is a file that lists all the pages of a website to inform search engines about the organization of the content on the site. Sitemaps can be used to improve the visibility and indexing of a website by search engines.

Here are some reasons why a sitemap can be useful:

1. It improves your crawling
2. Better User Experience
3. Easy updates

Here's how to integrate a sitemap manually:

1st step: Create a Sitemap: You can create a sitemap manually or using an online sitemap generator tool. If you create a sitemap manually, it should be saved as an XML file.

XML sitemap generator

2nd step: Upload the Sitemap: Once you have created your sitemap, upload it to the root directory of your website. This can be done using an FTP client or through your web hosting provider's file manager.

3rd step: Submit to Search Engines: Finally, submit your sitemap to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This can be done using the Search Console or Webmaster Tools provided by each search engine.

Sitemap format: Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

11. Check Robots.txt

A robots.txt file is a file that webmasters create to give instructions to web robots (also known as crawlers or spiders) about which pages or files on their website should be crawled and indexed by search engines. The file is placed in the root directory of the website and is accessible to search engine crawlers.

The importance of a robots.txt file is to allow webmasters to control which pages or files on their website can be crawled and indexed by search engines. Without a robots.txt file, search engines may index all pages and files on the website, including pages that the webmaster does not want to be indexed, such as login pages, private pages, or pages that are duplicates of other pages.

Here is an example of a basic robots.txt file:

User-agent: 
Disallow:*        

The "User-agent" line specifies which web robots the following instructions apply to. In the above example, the asterisk (*) specifies that the instructions apply to all robots.

The "Disallow" line specifies which pages or files on the website should not be crawled or indexed by search engines. In the above example, the empty value after "Disallow:" means that all pages and files on the website can be crawled and indexed by search engines. If the webmaster wanted to block a specific page or file, they would specify the path after "Disallow:", like this:

This would prevent all web robots from crawling or indexing the page located at "https://www.example.com/path/to/page.html".

12. Make sure the Page gets indexed in Google SERP

To get a page indexed by Google, there are several things you can do:

1. Submit the URL: The first step is to submit the URL of the page to Google using the Google Search Console. This will notify Google that the page exists and should be indexed.
2. Create a Sitemap: Creating a sitemap of your website can help Google discover all of the pages on your website and ensure they are indexed. You can submit your sitemap to Google using the Google Search Console.
3. Build Backlinks: Getting backlinks from other websites can help Google discover your page and index it faster. Make sure to get high-quality backlinks from reputable websites.
4. Use Internal Linking: Linking to the new page from other pages on your website can help Google find the new page faster and understand its importance.
5. Optimize Page Content: Make sure the page has high-quality, original content that is relevant to the search query. Use relevant keywords in the content and meta tags.
6. Use Social Media: Sharing the page on social media can help it get noticed by Google and indexed faster.
7. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness: Make sure the page is mobile-friendly and responsive, as this can help it rank better in search engine results pages.
8. Check for Errors: Make sure there are no errors on the page, such as broken links or missing meta tags, as these can prevent the page from being indexed.

13. Use of Multi Media for a website

Using multimedia on a website can provide several benefits, including:

1. Increased Engagement: Adding multimedia elements such as images, videos, and audio can help make your website more engaging and interesting to visitors.
2. Improved User Experience: Using multimedia can enhance the overall user experience of your website, making it more visually appealing and interactive.
3. Increased Time Spent on Website: By adding multimedia elements, visitors may stay on your website longer, which can increase the chances of them taking action or converting.
4. Better Search Engine Optimization: Including multimedia elements on your website can help improve your search engine optimization (SEO), as search engines tend to favor websites that provide rich and diverse content.
5. Enhanced Branding: Using multimedia can help you build a stronger brand identity by visually communicating your message and creating a more memorable experience for visitors.

Conclusion:

By optimizing on-page techniques you can improve the visibility and ranking of your website in search engine results pages and provide a better experience for your visitors.