Despite all the changes in SEO, some fundamentals remain true. One of those fundamentals is on-page SEO.
On-page SEO is making specific web pages on your website more search engine-friendly. This includes incorporating keywords, content, and structured data (or schema). Google is improving at understanding user intent, so on-page SEO is more crucial than ever.
Title Tags
One of the most crucial on-page SEO components is title tags. They are displayed in browser tabs, saved bookmarks, and search engine result pages (SERP). They also play a significant role in getting the hierarchy and context right for your web pages.
Title tags should describe what your page is about in a few words. The key is to make it compelling enough to entice people to click on it.
Putting your keyword closer to the beginning of the title tag makes sense, as does keeping the total number of characters under 60 because Google tends to truncate titles that are too long, showing an ellipsis “…”.
You should also ensure that your title tags are unique for every page on your site. Duplicate title tags can hurt your ranking. It also needs to be more helpful for visitors and can confuse them about your website. If you have a well-known brand name, including your branding in your title tags is fine, but avoid overdoing it.
Content
Content optimization offered by Vazoola is vital to on-page SEO, but it also goes beyond content to include page structure and HTML elements. This includes using a keyword in your URL, creating relevant and user-friendly site architecture, mobile responsiveness, optimizing images, and more.
Ultimately, you want to write content that matches the intent of your target keyword. If you do everything else right, but your content needs to answer the question searchers are asking, your page won’t rank well.
Additionally, ensuring your content is easy for users to read and understand is essential. For example, if your content is shorter, it may be difficult for users to find the information they need and may discourage them from returning to your site in the future.
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are snippets under your page’s title in search results. They’re your opportunity to tell potential visitors what they’ll find on your website and convince them to click through.
While Google doesn’t rely on a page’s meta description to determine how it ranks, a good one can help drive CTR. They’re also a great place to include critical information throughout your site (such as author, date, and byline information in news articles or product details like price, age, and manufacturer) that would otherwise get truncated when displayed in search results.
Meta descriptions should be short enough to avoid being truncated on SERPs but should still accurately summarize the topic of your webpage. For example, this category page meta description for luggage and travel accessories uses direct action words to motivate people to visit the site. It provides a clear sense of what they’ll find.
Headers
Headers (H1-H6) are vital in on-page SEO, and optimizing them is easy. They help search engines comprehend the structure of a page and what keywords it covers. For example, having a keyword like “chocolate cake recipe” in the H1 header makes sense, as that’s the page’s main topic. However, you should only include it in some headings, as that can be spammy and will harm your rankings.
Title tags are another important on-page SEO factor, as they are the clickable titles in SERPs. Make sure your titles are unique, descriptive, and keyword-optimized. Additionally, use the keyword in your meta description and within the first 100 words of the page content. Image alt text and file names should also contain the keyword. Lastly, be sure to have an SEO-friendly URL. It should be short, descriptive, and keyword-optimized. This improves your position on search engine results pages (SERPs).