6 Critical On-Page SEO Factors to Focus On

On-page SEO, or on-site SEO, refers to any strategy that optimizes page-specific elements such as keywords, headings, and content — to name a few — to improve search visibility and to drive more traffic.

Although sources cite off-page SEO (optimizing elements outside of the website) as more valuable, on-page SEO elements are the easiest you can control and are the things that your audiences engage the most with.

Why Is On-Page SEO Important?

The main value of on-page SEO is that it helps search engines understand your webpage better.

For search engines to rank your content in search results, they must analyze your content and determine whether it’s relevant to the query. And on-page SEO is a huge factor in determining content relevancy aside from the content itself.

In addition to that, on-page SEO also helps in:

• Increasing traffic: High-quality on-page content is found to have 55% more organic web visitors.
• Boosting SEO rankings: The same study also found that websites with well-optimized on-site content have 44% more indexed pages. A recent survey among SEO professionals also revealed that on-page SEO is the most critical factor (33% compared to other factors) that had an impact on rankings.
• Improving click-throughs: Webpages with relevant headlines and meta descriptions have better click-through rates than those that are generically written.

What On-Page SEO Factors Should You Focus On?

1. Target keywords

Keywords are your bread and butter when it comes to on-page SEO. Choosing relevant keywords for your content boosts its discoverability and will ultimately help you rank better in search results.

After you’ve done thorough keyword research and have chosen your target keywords, it’s important to be mindful of the keyword placement. Your target or focus keywords should be strategically placed:

• On the title of your blog post
• On the page URL (basically, the title of the content)
• In the first sentence of the first paragraph
• Once or twice in the middle paragraphs (depending on the length)
• In the last sentence

2. Visual and organizational hierarchy

Using visual breaks such as headings and subheadings makes your content easier to read. Chunking your content into shorter paragraphs with about 1 to 3 sentences each also improves readability.

Be mindful of the hierarchy of headings as well. The blog title should be tagged as H1, the main headings as H2, and subheadings as H3, H4, etc. This will make it easier for search engine crawlers to understand your content better.

Organizational hierarchy is essential as well. When developing your website, be sure that there’s a clear hierarchy of the web pages so that users can navigate your site intuitively. Blog posts (if you have a blog) should also be assigned their respective categories and/or subcategories.

3. Links

This on-page SEO factor overlaps with off-page SEO, in that it’s important to include external links to reputable sites in your content, especially when you’re citing facts, quotes, and statistics.

Internal links are essential too. It helps users find your other content easily and it aids in the navigation as well.

Be sure to include links to relevant content within your website not only for SEO purposes but also for your readers’ benefit. Navigational links in the form of menus and breadcrumb trails are considered internal links as well, and it helps in the overall usability of your website.

4. Images and multimedia elements

When adding images on your website, include an ALT text (ALT tag or description) in your image tags to give crawlers more context about your images. It also aids in the accessibility of your content to visually impaired visitors.

The same goes for other multimedia elements such as videos and audio: include descriptive tags to help crawlers understand your content more.

Images and multimedia should also be optimized for web usage; that is, it should be responsive when viewed on different devices. The file size should not be too huge as well to preserve the performance of your page load speed.

5. Page speed

Google has been putting a lot of emphasis on page loading speed, especially with the recent implementation of their core web vitals ranking signal. In fact, Google made an explicit confirmation (which they rarely do) that page speed is a landing page factor for Google Search.

How do you improve your page speed?

• Make sure images are compressed to a web-optimized size, as mentioned before. You can use tools like Compressor.io and TinyPNG.
• Use plugins sparingly to conserve website bandwidth. Only install the plugins you need.

6. Meta descriptions

Well-optimized meta descriptions give crawlers a clear “preview” of what your content is about. It also has a significant influence on increasing click-through rates, as we previously mentioned, and in decreasing bounce rates — both of which affect SEO rankings.

When writing your meta description, be sure to include your target keywords, along with strong actionable words. Keep the length within 155 to 160 characters as well.

Boosting Your SEO with the Right Strategy

All the on-page SEO strategies we covered here ultimately come down to improving the user experience. And, while tweaking your on-page elements can help achieve this, remember that SEO is a multifaceted practice and involves ever-changing algorithms that need to be adapted to.

If you need help with any of your SEO efforts, Ilfusion is here for you. We’re a full-service creative agency with a solid team of SEO professionals to help you create the best strategy for your brand.

Call us at 888-420-5115 or send us an email at [email protected] to get started!

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