A step-by-step guide on On-Page SEO
Ranking high on SERPs requires a lot of effort. To succeed, you’ll have to make sure your page offers incredible value and a smooth experience to your target audience. In this article, we will discuss how on-page SEO can improve the quality of your page so that it has a chance to stand a chance against top competitors.
What is on-page SEO, and why is it important?
On-page, or on-site SEO, is the process of optimizing page elements for specific keywords to improve page rankings and user experience.
We’ll look at 7 main elements:
• Content quality
• Keyword density
• Title and description
• URL structure
• Page experience
• Media optimization
• Internal and external links, etc.
These page elements are the main points between the page, user and search engines. When it comes to SEO, each page element can be improved to increase user experience and to make your pages more search engine friendly. This increases the chance that your pages will rank higher in SERPs and get more traffic.
On-Page Optimization: Manual Approach vs SEO Tools
On-page SEO involves a variety of tasks for every page element, but some are easy to miss. To stay on track, use an SEO tool, that will provide you with an in-depth analysys and a step-by-step checklist. You can still complete most tasks manually, but on-page SEO checkers help you perform on-page optimization more efficiently.
Most SEO tools analyze pages from the search engines’ point of view. They evaluate technical parameters and present a list of issues that might influence rankings.
Some tools offer in-depth analytics. They compare target pages with direct competitors and estimate the range of recommended metrics. Recommendations are more accurate because they are based on relevant metrics and competitive aspects instead of general benchmarks.
How To Identify Pages To Optimize
Before performing on-site SEO, you must identify pages that require optimization.
Signals that indicate the page needs improvement include:
• Traffic is decreasing. As you investigate this issue, carefully study Google Analytics reports.
• Page potential is decreasing. If search visibility or the number of clicks continues to fall over time, your ranking position has dropped. Monitor these metrics by checking Google Data Studio or Google Search Console.
• The page dropped from the SERP Completely. This is often related to keyword usage, so you’ll need to track keyword rankings and analyze your competitors.
• Business performance is deteriorating. When performance metrics like conversion rates or profits drop, some page elements could be underperforming or the pages themselves may not be optimized for SEO.
Important tip: Only optimize pages displaying negative dynamics or stagnation. Don’t try to improve pages that are already showing growth.
Competitive Research
Performing competitive research can help you figure out how pages similar to yours reached the top of the SERP and how to overcome them.
Check your competitors’ overall page quality, examine page elements, pay attention to their backlinks and referring domains, and assess technical metrics. Review how they use keywords in titles, descriptions and across the page. Also, review the type of content they offer and look out for any content strategy-related weaknesses.
As you analyze your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you’ll discover best practices that can be applied to your page, including errors to be avoided.
Assign SEO issues with priority
By now, you have analyzed the page, identified the issues and examined competitors. The next step is to organize your workflow.
The on-page SEO includes fixing issues with page elements, content quality, keyword density, page experience and usability and internal and external links. Pay extra attention to critical errors and tackle them first. These issues have more impact on page quality and rankings.
SEO & Advertising Expert, Mark Valerio has served the online industry for over a decade.
