The Complete Guide to On Page Optimization

Making sure the content is both relevant and offers a positive user experience is known as on page optimization. Many companies used to approach it as simple keyword stuffing, meaning they would mention their keywords as often as possible in the content. The user experience was subpar as a result. These days, smart keyword targeting mentioning keywords in important elements while maintaining a positive user experience is a part of on page optimization. This indicates that your material both reads smoothly and meets the user’s actual needs.

Since changes are made via a content management system (CMS), updating it should be possible for a non technical person. The time commitment is divided between initial work and continuing projects. Targeting keywords in important elements should be simple if you use a contemporary content management system like WordPress. Creating headings, title tags, meta description tags, and body copy all fall under this category.

Free SEO tools like MozBar, SEO SiteCheckup, and SEOptimer can be used to quickly determine whether a page has been optimized by scanning its HTML and identifying crucial on page elements.

Moz.com is the creator of the Mozbar Chrome and Firefox extension. Like many other SEO browser extensions, it is more functional in Chrome. Using this MozBar results page example. As you can see, the tool has located the page title, meta description, meta keywords, and H1 tags in addition to the URL.

Pre Click and Post Click Optimization

There are two categories of on page optimization, pre click and post click.

Pre click on page optimization: It is what a user sees on the search engine results page, or SERP, prior to clicking on a result. It contains the URL, the meta description, and the title tag. To get the user to click on your listing is the aim of pre click optimization. For this reason, it’s important to optimize your SERP listing in order to take advantage of Rankbrain’s organic performance.

Post click on page optimization: When a user clicks on your listing and lands on your website, post click on page optimization is what they see. It consists of the primary text, the primary heading and any subheadings, images, and hyperlinks.

Title Tags

Title tags are the most important element on the page to get right, second only to the main body copy. Search engines pay special attention to the words that are provided because they are the first section of the listing that a user sees following a search. This in turn affects the search engine ranking of your website. By performing a right click on the webpage and choosing “view page source,” you can see the title tag in the source code in Chrome. This page will have the title <title>Digital Marketing Institute | Corporate Training</title>.

Title tags are an important part of on page optimization.

Heavy Weight: They are a heavy weight SEO signal and the single most important place to include keywords.
Higher Rankings: Web pages are ranked more highly if they are done correctly.
First View: They are displayed as a blue clickable link and are the first thing a searcher sees.
Priority keywords must be incorporated into your page title tag as part of your SEO strategy: When optimizing title tags, it’s important to choose the ideal combination of keywords. Title tag optimization is one of the reasons keyword research is given priority. You might be accused of spamming if your title tag is just a long list of keywords; however, if it contains your primary keywords and is written in eloquent, conversational English, it should function effectively.
Here are some tips:

Include main (primary and secondary) keywords
Position main keywords nearer the beginning
Use the optimal format of ‘Primary Keyword , Secondary Keyword, Brand Name’
Avoid keyword stuffing

Utilize the Space Allotted: On desktop and mobile devices, there is a different amount of space that is available in a title tag. Furthermore, before making any changes, it’s crucial to determine the ideal length because it can vary over time. To create title tags that are optimized, utilize tools such as the Portent SERP Preview Tool.
Be Engaging and Descriptive: Use natural language to describe the page and make the searcher want to click through. Once more, CTR is important to Rankbrain.

Utilize the Space Allotted: On desktop and mobile devices, there is a different amount of space that is available in a title tag. Furthermore, before making any changes, it’s crucial to determine the ideal length because it can vary over time. To create title tags that are optimized, utilize tools such as the Portent SERP Preview Tool.

Be Engaging and Descriptive: Use natural language to describe the page and make the searcher want to click through. Once more, CTR is important to Rankbrain.

Meta description

The only places where meta description tags appear are in the source code and the SERPs. When you are looking at a page’s main content, you cannot see them. The brief description text that appears beneath the URL in a search engine results page is called a meta description tag.

Although not a direct ranking factor, meta description tags are important for on page optimization. Although they won’t have the same direct effect as title tags, keywords in your meta description will still affect whether or not someone clicks on your listing.

A medium weight on page SEO signal, meta description tags entice searchers to click on your listing. A searched term found in the meta description tag will be bolded to entice the searcher to click through.

There are ways to optimize your meta description, but occasionally Google will write its own if it has been left blank or is judged to be insufficiently relevant for a web page.

Keep it short and clearly. Make sure it is two short sentences, at most. Maximum desktop character count: 156 (may differ)
Maximum character count for mobile: 115
To test length, use the SERP Preview tool.

Use caution when selecting keywords. You’ve probably already included a good number of keywords in your title tag, so don’t repeat them in your meta description to avoid keyword stuffing. Since keywords don’t affect rankings, it’s preferable to just include your P1 keyword since it will probably be bolded in searches.

Be evocative and captivating. Make sure your meta description is both interesting and descriptive. To promote click throughs, enumerate any unique selling points on your page here.

URLs

Another name for a web address is “Uniform Resource Locator,” or URL. Between the title and meta description tags are URLs. A page will gain authority and trust over time, and this will be attributed to its URL. Redirecting an incorrectly changed URL can cause a loss of trust. For this reason, it is preferable to try to get them right from the start rather than changing a URL whenever it is feasible.
Why do URLs matter? Lightweight on page SEO signals are URLs. Search engines use them to index and retrieve pages and to draw click throughs from search results.
URLs are frequently created from the page’s main header. This is a good default because it adds relevancy. However, they frequently grow lengthy and monotonous and must be condensed. While coming up with a URL for your website:
Add your P1 keyword or a closely related one.
Be sure to keep it brief and to the point (about 70 characters before truncation).
Place the URL right at the start.
Observe conventions by employing lowercase letters and dashes.

Headings

The three most important components for post click on page optimization are headings, main body copy, and images.
Headings assist in summarizing the content of a web page. On a web page, they are utilized similarly to how they are in Microsoft Word. H1 tags should contain the primary heading, H2 tags should contain secondary headings, H3 tags should contain tertiary headings, and so on up to H6 tags.
Having multiple H1 tags was once thought to be bad form, so it is advised to use H2 tags for secondary headings and H3 tags for tertiary headings.
Since HTML5, having secondary and tertiary headings as H1 tags and still being search engine friendly is technically correct. Since it’s not always simple to implement this correctly, we advise sticking with the tried and true method of using hierarchical header tags, which is still accepted as best practice.
An essential component of a web page are headings. Before choosing to read a page in its entirety, users skim its headings. They provide the page more relevancy and are a medium weight on page SEO signal. The hierarchy of content on a web page can be delineated using any of the six header tags (H1 to H6).
Main heading should be in a H1 tag
Secondary sub headings should be in H2 tags
H3 – H6 tags aren’t used as often in body copy but work in the same hierarchal sub heading way
Making sure that headings on a website serve a purpose for the user as well as search engine optimization is important. However, it’s also a good idea to incorporate your P1, P2, and P3 keywords into your headers; the key is to do so organically rather than artificially.

Keywords

The selection of keywords should be based on the kind of page. Adding keywords can function differently based on the kind of page

Transactional pages typically contain the primary keyword or a closely related variant and are more keyword focused.
However, Similar to blog posts, informative pages are typically more user focused and may contain the primary keyword or a closely related variation.
Additionally, the keywords used need to be precisely targeted. Seek out chances to include your targeted keywords or keywords with comparable meanings into a heading.
From the list of targeted keywords, we have used two exact keywords in this example. This is because it benefits the user and makes sense to do so.

Hyperlinks
Links In SEO, links benefit the page to which you are linking. Search engine rankings are significantly influenced by the internal linking structure of your pages.
Relevance: Make sure you routinely link to your most important pages by using anchor text that is clear and descriptive, as this will increase the relevancy of the receiving page.
Reputation: Building internal links is essential for building a website’s reputation. The more internal links a page has, the more significant it is considered to be and the higher its ranking will be.

Images

Because it adds relevancy to your website and is a lightweight on page SEO signal, image optimization is crucial. Since screen readers are frequently used by those who are blind or visually impaired, alt text for images should be included. Search engines look for images in the alt text, so this is a good place to add more keywords to your page.
Three simple steps you can take to optimize your images are to:
Add a description in the image Alt text in your website CMS
Try to accurately describe the image and this sometimes means including keywords
Make them concise, typically two to five words

Give images meaningful filenames in the media library of your website CMS
Make them concise, typically two to five words
Filenames and Alt text can be the same, but they don’t need to be

Make images web friendly
Use .gif, .jpeg,.png, and .svg
Balance small file size and good quality
Svgs are becoming more common, and because they are scalable vectors, they benefit from high image quality and low file size although they are mainly used for computer generated images rather than photographs

User satisfaction optimization is a very important part of your on page optimization strategy. It relates to rank brain. Optimizing your website to improve user satisfaction means ensuring that your content provides the answers search engines users are looking for.
This includes:
Reducing bounce rate
Improving dwell time
Improving clickthrough rate
Improving task completion