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On-Page SEO: What It Is and How to Do It

Kelly Lyons
Nov 29, 202216 min read

What Is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO (sometimes called on-site SEO) is the process of optimizing parts of your webpages
so they rank higher on search engines and get more search engine traffic.

This includes updating on-page content, title tags, internal links, and more.

Search engines like Google look at keywords and other on-page SEO cues to check whether a page
matches a user’s search intent. And if the search engine decides the page will be useful to the user,
it will display it higher in search results.

Below, we’ll cover how to do on-page SEO optimization and a variety of on-page SEO examples.

What’s the Difference Between

On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO?
On-page SEO covers anything you can do on a webpage (or internally) to improve your rankings.
While off-page SEO covers anything you can optimize outside of your site (or externally) in an
attempt to boost your rankings. Backlinks are arguably the biggest off-page SEO factor. Other
examples include social media and PR.
Both are important parts of any good SEO strategy.

But you have more control over on-page SEO factors. So focusing on those is a good place to start
when building out your SEO strategy.
Why Is On-Page SEO
Important?
Search engines use keywords and other on-page SEO elements to check whether a page matches
a user’s search intent.

And if the page is relevant and useful, Google serves it to the user.

In other words, Google pays attention to on-page SEO signals when ranking pages.

The Google algorithm is always changing, but Google continues to prioritize user experience.
Google recommends focusing on “people-first content.”

Meaning creating valuable content that matches user intent is more important than ever.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can update your content to reflect on-page SEO best practices.

How to Optimize Your

Content for On-Page SEO
(+ Examples)
On-page SEO is much more than just adding keywords to your webpages.

Here’s a brief explanation of how the ranking process works:

Google starts by “crawling” or assessing pages on the web.

Next, Google may “index” the page. It uses many factors—including on-site SEO factors—to
determine what the page is about and how it should be ranked.

If Google decides to index a page, it can then be accessed via Google Search.

But Google doesn’t guarantee that every page will be indexed. Or show up in search results at all.

So it’s important to tweak the on-page SEO elements covered below to best communicate to Google
what your page is about.
That way, it can rank you for relevant queries in the search results.

Let’s get started.

Write Unique, Optimized Content

One of the most important on-page SEO steps you should take is to create high-quality content that
matches your readers’ search intent.

Start by performing keyword research to find relevant topics and target keywords.
For this example, we’ll use Semrush’s Keyword Magic tool.
Enter the topic you want to research and click“Search.”We’ll use the keyword “audio book” as our
example.

You’ll get a list of keywords related to your seed keyword, sorted by search volume.

High search volume can be useful to target. But pay attention to the keyword difficulty (KD%) level,
too. It’s much more difficult to rank for more competitive keywords (which have higher KD% scores).

Target less competitive long-tail keywords, too. They often have lower search volume but lower
keyword difficulty. Which means they can be easier to rank for.

The Keyword Magic tool automatically sorts related keywords into relevant categories.

They’re located in the left-hand sidebar. You can narrow your research by selecting one.

Once you’ve selected your keywords, it’s time to create your content.

Read our guide to formatting a blog post when you’re ready to get started.

In the meantime, here are a few best practices to follow to create optimized, high-quality content:

 Incorporate keywords naturally into your content (and avoid keyword stuffing)
 Make sure your content matches the search intent of your target keyword
 Fully answer the query—your content should be useful to users
 Write unique content that offers something competitors don’t
 Include visual content (more on that later)
Pro tip: When planning content, come up with topic clusters, or groups of posts and pages that
revolve around a central topic. This will help you brainstorm important topics to cover. And make
sure you cover all relevant subtopics.
Get Keyword Suggestions
with the Keyword Magic Tool, the biggest keyword database on the market
Try for Free →

Place Target Keywords

Strategically
So you have your target keywords. Now it’s time to strategically place them in your content.

Google scans your content to see what a page is about—and readers will likely do the same.

So you should include your target keywords in these key areas:

 H1
 First paragraph
 Subheaders (H2s, H3s, etc.)

This will help Google gain context about the topic of your page. And users will be able to quickly tell
whether the page matches their search intent.

You can begin analyzing your content with Semrush’s On Page SEO Checker.
Start by configuring the tool for your site.

Once you complete the setup, you’ll see a page that looks like this:

You can click on a specific page from the recommended “TOP pages to optimize” list, or review the
“Optimization Ideas” tab for a complete overview.

Click on the “X ideas” green button to see recommendations.

The content section will let you know whether you’ve used your target keywords in key places like
the H1 and body of the of the page (and whether keyword stuffing is detected):
If the tool does detect issues, it will provide recommendations:

It also provides helpful information about semantic (related) keywords you can add to your text to
further optimize it.

When you’re ready to start updating your page, you can use the SEO Writing Assistant, which
grades your content for readability, SEO, originality, and tone of voice.

Optimize Your Pages to Rank Better

with the On Page SEO Checker
Try for Free →

Optimize Title Tags

Title tags are pieces of HTML code that indicate what the title of a page is. And display that title in
search engines, social media posts, and browser tabs.
Additionally, title tags are a ranking factor. And can influence whether a user decides to click on a
page.

They look like this on the SERP (search engine results page):

Here are a few tips to follow when writing your title tags:
  Keep it brief. We recommend keeping title tags between 50 and 60 characters so Google
doesn’t cut them off.
 Include your target keyword. This helps both Google and users determine what your page
is about.
 Be unique. Avoid duplicate title tags so that each individual page’s purpose is clear to
Google (and users know what they’re clicking on).
To find duplicate title tags, head to the “Issues” tab in the Site Audit tool.

You’ll see a list of errors to fix on your site.

Site Audit also checks for duplicate title tags. Click on the highlighted blue text to see which pages
have duplicates.
The report will show you what title tag appears on multiple pages.

Write Engaging Meta Descriptions

A meta description is an HTML element used to describe your webpage’s content.

It usually shows up on the SERP below your page’s title. Like this:

Meta descriptions don’t directly influence Google rankings.

But they can be the deciding factor between a user clicking on your page or choosing another one.
Which means they can encourage more search traffic.

And if your meta description doesn’t match the user’s search intent (or the content on the page),
Google may choose its own description for the SERP.

So it’s best to follow these best practices to increase your chances of Google using your chosen
meta description:

 Consider mobile devices. Google truncates meta descriptions after about 120 characters
on mobile. So it’s best to keep them on the shorter side.
 Include your target keyword. This helps users determine if their page matches their search
intent. Google also bolds keywords (and synonyms of keywords) that match the user’s
search query. Which stands out visually and could boost clicks.
 Use active voice. Active voice saves space and communicates your message more clearly.
 Add a CTA (call to action). Entice users to click with CTA phrases (like “try for free,” or “find
out more”).

And check Site Audit to see if you have any duplicate meta descriptions.

Use Headings and Subheadings to

Structure Your Page
H1 tags and subsequent headings allow users to easily skim your page. And allow Google to
understand the hierarchy of your page.
See how difficult it is to read a page without organized headings (compared to one that has them)?
The right is an example of on-page SEO done right. It’s easy to skim and find specific information.

Headings also help Google better understand your page’s structure and determine whether your
page matches a user’s search intent. Which can help you rank higher for relevant keywords.

You can use keywords and keyword variations in headings to give Google more context about the
structure of your page and what information you cover.

Use the H1 as your page title or headline, and include H2s to cover subtopics. If you need to cover
content in further detail, use H3s, H4s, etc.

Optimize URLs
Google recommends using simple URLS that don’t look “cryptic” or intimidating. In other words:

Use words that are relevant to your content so users can tell what your page is about.

And not random numbers, publish dates, or full sentences. Website themes will often use these by
default, so it’s important to update your URL before publishing.

Using your target keyword in your URL is a good way to ensure your URL matches the topic of your
content.

An “unfriendly” URL might look something like this:

And this is how you could update it to be more useful and easy to understand:

The more context Google has about a particular page, the better it can understand it. And if Google
understands what a page is about, it's able to match it with relevant search queries.

Add Internal Links

Internal links are hyperlinks that point to different pages on the same site. Here’s what an internal
link looks like on a webpage:

Internal links are an important part of on-page SEO optimization. Here’s why:

 They help search engines understand your site’s structure and how pages are related to
each other
 They allow Google crawlers to discover and navigate to new pages
 They signal to Google that the linked-to page is valuable
 They help users navigate through your website (and keep them on your site longer)

Adding internal links from one page to another signals to Google that these pages are related. And
helps Google understand whether the pages could match a user’s search intent—which can help
your rankings.

To learn more about internal linking strategies and best practices, read our guide to internal linking.

Add External Links

External links are links on your site that point to other sites.

External links are important because they enhance user experience and build trust with your
audience.

There’s been debate over whether external links directly impact rankings.
But Google has said that adding links to authoritative external sources is a great way to provide
value to your users.
And providing solid user experience is always a good thing.

So, make sure you’re including links to authoritative, trustworthy websites in your content. A good
rule of thumb is to link to your sources, but you will likely find other external linking opportunities.

Include and Optimize Images

Including images in your content increases your chances of ranking in Google Images—which
accounts for 22.6% of all searches. This is a great way to get more traffic to your site.
A good place to start optimizing your images is by writing descriptive alt text for them.

Alt text (short for alternative text) is text included in HTML code that describes an image on a
webpage.

It has two main purposes:

 1. It provides context for search engine crawlers
2. It allows people using screen readers to hear descriptions of images

Here’s an example:

Here are some tips for writing good alt text:

 Keep it brief. Screen readers stop reading alt text after about 125 characters.
 Include a target keyword. Include your target keyword for context (but don’t spam
keywords for the sake of it).
 Don’t add alt text to decorative images. Graphics like horizontal page breaks, a
magnifying glass in a search bar, etc., don’t require further explanation.
 Don’t include “image of” or “picture of.” Alt text implies that it’s describing an image, so
there’s no need to waste characters on these phrases.

To find missing image alt text on your site, head to the “Issues” report in the Site Audit tool.

You can search for “alt attributes” in the search bar if you have multiple errors to comb through.

Aside from adding optimized alt text, here are a couple of ways to optimize images you add to your
content:

1. Write descriptive file names. Google learns about a page’s subject matter through file
names, captions, and more. So something like white-dress-pants.jpg is more helpful than a
generic name like IMG353.jpg.
2. Compress images. Use free options like ImageOptim to compress images for faster load
times. You can also use lazy loading, which tells web browsers to wait to load images until
the user scrolls to them.
Find more tips in our guide to image optimization.
Find and Fix Sitemap Errors
with the Site Audit Tool
Try for Free →

Optimize for User Engagement

Google may also rank your page higher if users spend more time on it. If users leave too soon or
without completing certain actions, Google might think there’s something wrong with your page.
You may have heard of terms like dwell time and bounce rate—but do search engines actually care
about these metrics?
They sure do. Google uses what they call “interaction data” to determine whether a search result is
relevant to a search query.

This data helps Google better analyze the relevance of a page via machine learning.

One way to ensure users get what they’re looking for when they land on a page is to put important
written content “above the fold” (where users can see it before scrolling).

Like this:

The above example directly addresses the query. So the user gets their answer right away.

Beginning your page with an ad or a large image, on the other hand, may create a poor user
experience.

Like this example, where you can’t see any written content without scrolling down:

It’s also useful to write content that’s easy to skim.

Most users won’t read every single word on your page. So you need to make it easier for them to
skim to find the information they need.

Subheaders can help a lot with readability:

As do short paragraphs:

And bulleted lists:

And, of course, include useful images and visuals to support your written content.
Another way you can encourage user engagement is to include relevant CTAs in your content. Say a
user just read a piece about on-page SEO (like this one).

A logical next step would be to audit their own content for on-page SEO factors. Which they can do
with the Semrush tool in the CTA below:

Optimize Your Pages to Rank Better

with the On Page SEO Checker
Try for Free →

Just be sure your CTAs don’t dramatically increase page load time or negatively affect user
experience.

Advanced On-Page SEO

Tactics
Once you’ve got the basics down, you can try out some more advanced SEO page optimization
techniques.

Let’s start with an important on-page SEO factor—page speed.

Optimize for Page Speed

We may never know every Google ranking factor. But we do know that page speed is a confirmed
ranking factor.

So it’s more important than ever to optimize for page speed.

You can use Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool to get an overall performance score for both
mobile and desktop, in addition to actionable suggestions for improvement.
This tool assesses Google’s Core Web Vitals, which are factors that impact page experience.

The Core Web Vitals are:

 Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): amount of time it takes for the main piece of content to
load
 First Input Delay (FID): amount of time it takes for your website to respond to the first
interaction from a user (like a click on a link)
 Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): amount your webpage shifts (or “moves down”) as more
content (e.g., banners, images) loads
To get started, enter your URL and click the “Analyze” button:

Here’s what the report looks like:

And here’s the full list of errors that might slow down your site:

There’s also an “Opportunities” report that gives suggestions for improvement:

For more in-depth information on technical errors, you can use our Site Audit Tool.
In Site Audit, find “Core Web Vitals”under “Thematic Reports.” Click “View details.”

You’ll see the overall status of your pages’ performance over time.
In this report, you’ll also see technical details like we talked about earlier. Such as LCP and CLS.

The Core Web Vitals report includes Total Blocking Time (TBT) to closely estimate FID.

Under each column, you’ll find top recommended improvements and the pages affected.

Click on each underlined suggestion to read more about the issue and how to fix it.

Run this report once a month to keep up with any errors. You can also send automated reports to
yourself or clients in the “My Reports” management tab in Semrush.
Target Featured Snippets
Because featured snippets appear in “position zero” above other organic results, they can help boost
your click-through rate (CTR).

There are different forms of featured snippets, including:

 Definitions
 Tables
 Lists
 Videos
To check if a keyword has a current featured snippet, go to the Keyword Overview tool. We’ll use
the example “can dogs eat watermelon.”
Enter your keyword and click “Search.”

You’ll see information about search volume, keyword difficulty, and more.
Scroll down to the “SERP Analysis” section of the page.
To the right of this graph, you’ll see a link that says “View SERP.” Click it to view what the SERP
looks like for that keyword when it’s not influenced by location, user behavior, etc.
Now we can see that “can dogs eat watermelon” does indeed have a featured snippet. And which
pages are ranking underneath that.

If you want to take the top spot, update (or create) your own page following on-page SEO best
practices.

Some ways to target a featured snippet include:

 Answering the query in a concise, user-friendly way

 Understanding the user’s search intent
 Formatting the answer accordingly—could be a quick one- or two-sentence answer, a table,
a video, etc.

Add Schema Markup

Schema markup allows search engines to better understand information on your website.

It adds code to a page that better communicates the page topic. So you can convey to search
engines that your page is about an event, contains a recipe, etc. And the SERP result can reflect
that.

Using schema can provide rich snippets in the SERP. They look like this:

In addition to taking up more valuable space on the SERP, schema markup also can improve your
page’s CTR.

The above example uses recipe schema markup. But you can add many different types to your
pages.

Common types of schema include:

 Reviews
 Products
 Events
 People
 Local businesses
 And more
You can find information on every type at Schema.org.
Let’s look at an example of schema markup in action. Say you type “new york events near me” into
Google.

The top of the SERP looks something like this:

To better your chances of showing up above the normal search results like this, you can use “Event”
schema markup.

Which communicates the event date, address, and location to Google.

Google may then feature these events above other results because they’re more useful.

Here’s Google’s resource on adding Event structured data. And here’s what the Event schema might
look like in your page’s code:

You can use Semrush’s Site Audit tool to check if you’ve implemented structured data correctly.
To get started, set up a Site Audit project.
After you run your audit, you’ll see a report labeled “Markup” under “Thematic Reports.”
Click the “View details” button.

Site Audit will score any pages that have schema markup, break down pages by schema type, and
alert you of any existing issues.
If Site Audit does flag any issues with your markup, we recommend running those individual pages
through Schema.org’s markup validator. It will let you know if you’ve implemented the markup
properly.
Pro tip: Read our guide to schema markup to follow the step-by-step instructions to adding schema
to your site.
Find and Fix Sitemap Errors
with the Site Audit Tool
Try for Free →

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How Often Should I Update On-

Page SEO?
Brian Moseley
Nov 08, 20226 min read
SEO can be fickle in terms of results–both in terms of what works, how fast you can
expect results, and how long before the next algorithm update. For all the important
and often urgent optimizations we carry out, it can be difficult to know when (or if)
we’ve done enough and whether it’s time to do it all over again.

In many ways, the work never ends—there’s always something to tweak and improve—
but finding the balance in your workflow is a tough task in itself.

If you’re asking yourself how often you should be working on your SEO, we’re here to
help. In this article, we’ll look at the ideal frequency of updates for the most essential
on-page factors, so you can work with confidence that you’re spending time on what
matters.

Why On-Page Factors

Require Constant (but
Strategic) Attention
Essentially, SEO is an evolving beast. The ways in which people search are always
changing, so the ways in which search engines provide answers to those people should
change, too.

No single site can hit position number one in the SERPs and stay there without effort, no
matter how big the brand might be. That’s why all good marketers keep on top of the
likes of title tags, headings, internal links, alt texts and more to keep up with user habits
and improve and protect their rankings.

They understand that there’s a great deal of trial and error involved in keeping a site
optimized, too. It’s important to allow time to see if your changes had the desired effect
and adapt accordingly, so on-page SEO requires both constant attention and patience to
succeed.

If you don’t have a strategy behind your optimizations, though, you’ll be wasting time
and resources. Constant attention doesn’t mean constant auditing—it means that a
constant and reliable plan of action should be in place to keep on top of issues and
optimize as a result. Carry out on-page checks and tweaks at strategic intervals and
you’ll be on your way to managing a successful site.

How Often Should a Page

be Updated for Good SEO
Results?
The answer is probably that you should be updating more often than you do right now,
but the frequency is determined by the kinds of updates you need to make.

The answer may be different for various parts of the same site. For example, a blog post
about a current event that may become outdated quickly might not need analyzing and
updating as often as a popular product page, for instance, because they perform
different roles. Moreover, the size of your site and the frequency at which you publish
new pages will affect how often you should check your site for SEO issues (a little more
on that later).
Generally, changes to on-page factors should be led by circumstance, whether you need
to be proactive or reactive in nature. Here are some of the scenarios that might dictate
how often you should be checking and updating on-page factors:

 Changes to products: If things like stock levels or product updates affect your site
every day, you might want to conduct more regular audits to keep on top of
404 errors and redirects, for instance.
 Possible audit cadence: Once per week
 Changes to competitors: If you’ve noticed a competitor’s site performing
particularly well of late, you might want to check how they’ve optimized the
pages you’re competing with and compare them to your own.
 Possible audit cadence: Once per month
  Changes to site architecture: If you’re planning a structural change to your site,
such as rearranging categories and subcategories, you will want to conduct on-
page audits before and after to see how performance is affected.
 Possible audit cadence: Twice per update - once before, once after
 Experiment planning: If you’re going to disavow a bunch of backlinks soon or
make server changes, run audits before and after in such cases, too, to be sure
of causes and effects.
 Possible audit cadence: Twice per experiment - once before, once after
 Algorithm updates: If there’s an update coming and you want to understand its
impact on your site, make sure you know where you stand beforehand with an
audit of your on-page elements.
 Possible audit cadence: Twice per update - once before, once after

Planning your audits for on-page issues in each of those scenarios is a must. It allows
you to monitor the impact of changes to your site and optimize on-page ranking factors
accordingly.

Remember, each case is different, so take the cadence recommendations above as a

starting point and work on your own personalized approach. If your audits are often
returning no issues, you might reduce the frequency. If you keep missing important
competitor updates or on-page issues on your own site, you might increase the
cadence.

There are times when

issues will crop up
without you realizing,
too. Rather than upping
the frequency of your
manual audits and using
crucial time and
resources that could be
applied to other areas,
there are ways to monitor
your site quickly,
regularly, and efficiently.
How Do I Check for On-
Page Issues that Need
Fixing?
Optimizing and improving SEO is one of those things that improve your SEO over time,
but fixing issues that pop up can be urgent. Fortunately, we have the tools that can help
take the pressure off: namely, Site Audit and On-Page SEO Checker.

With the former, you can set regular audits to run automatically for as many pages as
you like, and get an email summary every time an audit is completed. It’ll let you know
about the overall health of your site, including on-page factors like internal links,
canonicals, and thin content, so you can make the necessary changes.
With On-Page SEO Checker, you can get a full list of ideas for improvement for every
page on your site, and sort them by importance. You’ll get recommendations for
technical fixes to content best-practices, so you’ll be ready to fix any and all on-page
issues in your own time.
Having the On-Page SEO Checker at your disposal and Site Audits running on a regular
basis, you’ll have more control over your site’s SEO than ever, no matter how big or
small it is.

Does the Size of My Site

Affect the Frequency of
On-Page Issues?
With smaller sites of, say, fewer than 50 pages, issues with on-page factors might be
few and far between, so you won’t need to run those checks or audits quite as regularly.
Every couple of weeks or even once a month should do the trick.

With sites that have hundreds of product and category pages, however, on-page issues
tend to be far more common because there are so many moving parts. The larger the
site and the more people involved in making changes to it, the higher the likelihood of
knock-on effects.

In these cases, running weekly checks with Site Audit can help alert you to any issues
that crop up because of other activity across the business, or external factors like
changing Search behaviors.
If you have total control over your CMS, most changes will be easy to make yourself, but
if you don’t or you’re not fully sure how to use it, you might need to enlist the help of
your developers. Their to-do lists are often pretty long, so it’s not always
straightforward getting these changes implemented quickly for fast SEO results, but
there is a way to fast track them by doing them yourself.
How Do I Make On-Page
Changes without Needing
a Developer?
When you’ve done your audit and you’ve got a list of on-page factors to edit, from H
tags and links to titles and metadata, PageImprove is the tool to turn to if you can’t dive
headfirst into your CMS.

Thanks to a small browser extension and a snippet of JavaScript, you can make the edits
directly from your browser and monitor the effects they have in days and not months. If
they don’t have a positive impact, you can reverse them with a single click. If they do,
happy days!
Managing On-Page
Factors with a Plan (and
the Right Tools)
While it’s true that it’s important to always keep an eye out for on-page improvements,
try not to overwhelm yourself by thinking that you have to constantly audit and action
changes as a result.

Instead, accept that you can’t get to everything at once, and arm yourself with a
planned workflow that prioritizes the most important parts of your site. That way, you
can be comfortable in the knowledge that you’re keeping on top of your site in a
proactive manner, whilst giving yourself enough breathing room to be reactive when
the likes of algorithm updates come along.

Using tools like PageImprove, Site Audit, and On-Page SEO Checker will help you
automate and quicken parts of your workflow so you can concentrate on the analysis
and the updates themselves. Put yourself in control of your own SEO future and start
planning your on-page optimization strategy today.
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8 Essential On-Page SEO Factors for Fast Impact

Emily Greene

Jun 07, 20229 min read

When you need results fast, making on-page SEO (search engine optimization) changes is often the best
place to start. On-page SEO, or optimizing pages on your site to improve user experience and give Google
a clearer idea understanding of your content, can go a long way toward better ranking and traffic.

Begin with a small subset of pages and audit them for the most important on-page SEO factors. If you
optimize for each of the essential on-page elements, your adjustments can have a drastic impact even if
each individual change involves just a small tweak.

What Are the Most Important On-page SEO Elements?

1. Title Tags

The title tag appears within the search engine result below the URL but above the meta description. Title
tags should be eye-catching, on-brand, and optimized for your keywords.

In theory, meta data optimizations are the most basic of tasks. But in practice, crafting title tags and
meta descriptions is more of a nuanced art than a hard science.

The rules of title tags are simple, but the strategy is complex. A widely-accepted rule is to stay under ~60
characters, but you should target 51-55 characters for the best odds that Google won’t rewrite your title
tags, and click-through rate studies suggest you should cut that character count in half. And if that
weren’t enough of a challenge, the rules of SEO say to use your exact-match query, but your brand voice
guidelines may require you to be playful and casual, making it difficult to work those keywords in
naturally. Fortunately, you can find that balance.
A great title tag is like a great tweet: it has an “it” factor. For your most important landing pages, take the
extra time to make sure your title tags check these boxes:

 Uses the language of your target audience, using the exact-match keyword if possible

 Speaks to the search intent of your target audience, because some page views count more than
others

 Eye-catching and on-brand, to make every impression count

 Truly descriptive of the content because an inaccurate title will destroy your bounce rate

If you are writing title tags for a client, the beauty of well-written meta data is that you’ll earn the client’s
confidence in your understanding of their audience, product, and industry. If your client is hesitant to
make a change, try these SEO A/B tests to perfect your metadata. SEO A/B testing gives you data to back
your optimizations, making it easier to get your work approved quickly and implemented faster.

Of course, sometimes approval and implementation don’t go hand-in-hand—developers may be up to

their necks with other tasks. In which case, “wow” the client once more with your ability to get the
optimizations implemented using PageImprove for title tag and meta description optimizations.

Note: Google does not always display the title tag you specify. Sometimes they pull in another header
from your page, which is why those must also be optimized.

2. Headings that Say It All

It’s not just what you say, it’s how—and where—you say it. Putting your target keyword in your heading
and subheadings is a no brainer: you’ll see greater impact optimizing an H1 than if that same term is
hidden in the page copy.

Just like title tags, the H1 should be crafty, compelling, and front-loaded with keywords, drawing your
target audience into the main content. That said, H2s and H3s are often where the real opportunity lies,
since they are more likely to be neglected, stale, and unoptimized, making them perfect targets for SEO
optimization.

Often, Content Management Systems (CMS) make it impossible to optimize headings on any pages not
containing long-form content, such as a blog post. In reality, any and every page can benefit from
optimizing subheadings, including templatized pages like ecommerce product detail page and other
standardized listings. PageImprove enables you to adjust headings and subheadings independent of the
templates restricting your CMS.

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Let’s say I wanted to optimize the H1 on a product detail page. If I did so in my CMS, I’d have to change
the actual product name. Now that would cause a chain reaction, messing with not just inbound links,
but also orders and fulfillment. Instead, optimize the H1 with PageImprove, and the product name
doesn’t have to change throughout the site—just the H1.

Same thing with subheadings. Say your product page template has a “Why We Love It” section, which
cannot be edited in the site backend. With PageImprove, you can tweak this Subheading to “Why We
Love [Keyword]” independent of the template. No more ifs, ands, or buts when it comes to revising
headings and subheading on a templatized page.
3. Rich Content—No Matter the Length

Suffice it to say, the future of on page SEO lies in semantic search and natural language processing. That
means it’s essential to make sure that your content is not just keyword-rich, but deep. Great content
should answer the query, anticipate the user’s next questions, and answer those, too.

But what about content formats where text is brief by nature? Make the most of shorter content by
being intentional with every word. To this end, ensure your copy is:

 Rich with terms semantically related to your target keyword (try swapping out pronouns like “it”
for words that are more descriptive)

 Easy to read, for people and machines (try writing in complete sentences instead of fragments
and shortening run-ons)

Apply the two simple rules above to any copy, and you may be surprised at trends you find. Product
pages use fragmented sentences that are Short. Snappy. To. The. Point.
This product description from The Grommet is easy to read, uses keywords and semantically-related
keywords, and makes the most of short-form copy.

On the other hand, long-form content is often ripe with meandering run-ons, which often lose readers
who are there for the meat not the fluff, and they certainly don’t make sense to crawlers, which are still
growing in sophistication when it comes to natural language processing, and…

Rework the grammar so your target keywords and semantically related terms act as the clear subject of
the copy.

Following the two rules above needn’t interfere with brand voice guidelines or consume implementation
bandwidth, which are often on page SEO roadblocks. If your site struggles with SEO implementations like
these, check out our recent guide on how to present and track implementations. And for the ultimate
quick-win, update your newly optimized copy with PageImprove—even without backend access.

4. Internal Links with Optimized Anchor Text

Internal links are an easy-to-action, high-impact on-page SEO optimization. From a search perspective,
we love internal links because they enable link equity to flow throughout the site, and they allow you to
optimize anchor text to the destination page. And as an added bonus for your revenue and conversion
metrics, they facilitate the path to purchase.

Internal linking optimizations should follow two rules:

 Optimize anchor text with your target keywords or semantic terms (avoid generic calls to action
like “Learn More”)

 Choose link placement wisely (links from authoritative, semantically related content will reap
more benefit to your target landing page)

Internal linking optimizations are an easy-sell to most client teams, making anchor text optimizations an
SEO go-to when brand guidelines are restrictive. Especially if your site has a mix of “I want to know” and
“I want to buy” content, most parties can get behind the idea of adding links from Top of Funnel Content
to Bottom of Funnel content.

For example, in this article, you’ll see several links to blog posts on this site and beyond. Each one
features relevant, carefully-chosen anchor text.

This linked text includes appropriate keywords in the anchor text.

5. On-page E-A-T Signals

If your rankings ride the waves of the latest algorithm updates, you may want to deep dive into your
site’s E-A-T signals. E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness and is one of the
ways Google measures the value of your content.

Improving expertise and authority requires a holistic E-A-T strategy, and the subject itself is worthy of a
novella. In the meantime, there are some quick on-page wins you can make when it comes to E-A-T.

Look to add high-quality external citations to informational content and long-form articles. Ensure the
author is reputable and provide author bios. Remember that E-A-T signals are there for users as much as
Quality Raters, so awards, testimonials, and studies can all add value for your target audience.

Admittedly, it can be tricky to quantify the benefit of E-A-T when it comes to your bottom line. After all,
what does authorship have to do with revenue? Well, if your site is Your Money Your Life (YMYL),
establishing beneficial purpose and demonstrating trustworthiness is important for rankings, conversion,
and thus overall lead generation. Still, E-A-T optimizations still can seem a bit too “meta” for a brand that
has to put time and development resources behind SEO implementations. In which case, tackle E-A-T
optimizations with PageImprove. You’ll spend more time doing and less time debating.

6. Content that Answers ‘People Also Ask’ and FAQs

Back to the topic of semantic search, do some research on the SERPs you’re targeting. The first place to
look is the People Also Ask (PAA) box—an interactive search result that displays a box of questions that
other searchers have asked in relation to your original search. PAA functionally enables Google to
increase the number of featured snippets on the SERP—which will give this SERP feature longevity.
Your article targeting “Quality Raters” should include headings such as “What is a quality rater?” “How
do I become a Google quality rater?” and any other that are relevant to your topic.

If you can find them, target PAA that have weak answers that can be improved upon. But even if the
current PAA results are totally on-point and you don’t expect to unseat the current ranking page, you
should still incorporate these questions in your content. Why? This will ensure your content is thorough
and robust. In other words, it all comes back to semantic search.

To optimize for PAA, start by directly asking the relevant questions in subheadings and answering in list
or paragraph format as appropriate. For long form articles, you may be able to do this directly in an H2.
For ecommerce pages, you may want to create a dedicated FAQ section. All you need is the ability to edit
headings and copy, and you’re on your way to an enhanced search appearance. Inflexible CMS? Do it
with PageImprove.

7. Descriptive Image Alt Text

Depending on the nature of your content, image optimizations can be somewhat important or truly
essential for SEO. If the content is an infographic or the subject matter is visual in nature (i.e. interior
designs, fashion trends), making sure your alt text is optimized falls into the “truly essential” grouping.
And of course, descriptive alt text is always critical for visually impaired users.

A “truly essential” example from my work at Stella Rising (which pains me still) was a local landing page
whose services were detailed in an image rather than good old-fashioned HTML. Getting client buy-in to
rectify this was an arduous process, so adding image alt text was our only ray of hope. And with dev
resources focused on overhauling the content all together, having a tool like PageImprove to add the alt
text as an interim solution would have felt like a miracle.

8. Valid Schema Markup

Schema markup is a collection of code snippets that can be placed on any page of a website in order to
call out specific aspects of the page in the search results. Pages with structured data tend to receive
higher click-through rates than those without, as the snippets are more engaging and attractive to
searchers.
These sites have mastered schema markup, making their presence in the SERPs beautiful, helpful, and
likely to result in substantial traffic.

Incomplete structured data may mean you’re missing out on valuable organic SERP presence. For
example, with product schema, we often encounter product schema missing Global Trade Item Numbers
(GTINs), preventing client sites from appearing in popular products panels. Or worse yet—your hard-
earned star ratings won’t appear on SERPs because the aggregateRating limits aren’t fully defined.
Invalid structured data got you down? Start solving schema puzzles with PageImprove.

On-Page SEO Implementation Is Key

At the end of the day, SEO recommendations are only as good as our ability to get them implemented.
So, while “implementation” isn’t technically considered “on-page SEO,” it’s worth reflecting on whether
past on-page SEO recommendations are collecting dust in the dev queue. If that’s the case, take SEO
implementation into your own hands and jump into the low-hanging fruit on this list.

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