There’s no point at which you can sit back and relax, content that your site is at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) once and for all. Sure, you might have reached the pinnacle today, but an SEO pro’s work is never done. Every change to Google’s algorithm or competitor content could knock you off that top spot, which means you have to keep up with changes. And that means your on-page SEO needs to be on point. It’s important to have a high-level overview of how Google and other search engines work.

In Google’s never-ending quest to provide better results to users, its algorithm is updated frequently. This inevitably leads to changes in rankings, which then requires someone to optimize the website to improve or ensure rankings. On-page SEO, which is sometimes called on-site SEO, is the process of tweaking a page’s content, tags, and internal links to improve search visibility and increase traffic.

12 Essential On-Page SEO Factors

Website architecture, HTML, and content are the three basic areas into which on-page SEO may be split. We’ll examine each in turn.

Content

Without it, SEO would be like a brand-new sports car without an engine: it could look wonderful, but it wouldn’t move. However, not all material is made equally. The following content characteristics should be taken into account to improve your on-site SEO:

1: Keywords

The simplest approach to let them know that the information on your website responds to a user’s query is in the language you employ. In the body, headers, or both, pages with the query’s keywords are more likely to be pertinent to the search. Sometimes, it’s simple to figure this out. To put it briefly, you must be aware of the search phrases used by your intended audience while creating content. Always do your homework to ensure you don’t miss any possibilities.

2: Visual Assets

Visitors are drawn to your page visually when you include photos, videos, and infographics. Additionally, it offers you chances to improve your SEO. When people purchase online, more than 36% of consumers utilize visual search, so if you aren’t using photos, you’re losing out on traffic. Make sure your supporting text is optimized wherever feasible.

3: E-A-T

E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, is one metric Google uses to evaluate your website. Although Google has only officially endorsed a small portion of E-A-T (PageRank and links), it is widely acknowledged in the SEO community that on-page signals play a significant role in Google’s assessments.Using the right Meta description can have a positive impact:

HTML

Your web pages’ structure and content are created using a language known as HTML. They instruct the browser of the user on what and where to display. Additionally, it explains to search engines what your website is about and how to rank you. The following are some on-page SEO HTML considerations:

4: Title Tags

This is one of those instances where paying attention to the details is crucial. This small piece of code, which allows you to give a webpage a title, definitely won’t be enough to propel you to the top of SERPs on its own. However, when used in conjunction with other on-page components, it may support context-building and highlight the relevance of your site.

5: Meta Description

Despite being underutilized in SEO, they do have the following two advantages: They have a significant impact on your CTRs and can aid Google in understanding the purpose of your website. Better meta descriptions help searchers grasp the content of your website, which encourages higher clickthroughs.

6: Image Optimization

The significance of graphic assets for your website was previously briefly mentioned, but now it’s time to go further into their technical details. Here are some suggestions to improve yours:

  • Put in SEO-friendly alt tags.
  • For quick loading, pick the proper file format and size.
  • Use unique file names rather than generic ones like IMG 08759.
  • Make sure your photographs are suitable for mobile use.

Website Architecture

For two reasons, having a well-structured website is crucial: A website with a logical layout can benefit from more efficient search engine crawling as well as richer user experiences. When making your site’s architecture more optimized, keep the following things in mind:

7: Site Speed

In addition to frustrating and losing visitors, a clumsy, slow-loading website really lowers your search score. A thorough investigation by Search Engine Journal into how long it takes for a page to load found that page speed affects how well a website ranks in search results. What minimal speed your site must achieve, though, changes frequently. At the moment, it may be achieved by reaching Google’s Core Web Vitals minimal requirement.

8: Responsive Design

For the first time ever, mobile search traffic overtook desktop in 2016. And that number has only increased in the years thereafter. Google started giving websites with responsive designs a higher rating in mobile search results since more visitors are using mobile devices. While it’s still possible to rank in these results without responsive design, Google highly advises that sites have a mobile version. This mobile-friendly upgrade only affects search results conducted on mobile devices.

9: Links

Links from trustworthy websites are one of the finest methods for your website to establish its knowledge, authority, and dependability. You should be aware of the following three categories for SEO:

  • Internal links are those that go to pages within your own website, such as this one.
  • Links leading to a site on a different domain, like this one linking to Google’s SEO page, are known as outbound links, sometimes known as external links.
  • Inbound links, also known as backlinks, are links that go to your page from other websites.

Everything you can do internally to improve your results is known as on-page SEO, which also includes optimizing your keywords, meta descriptions, title tags, alt text, and website architecture. Search engine optimization ultimately comes down to two things: figuring out the best approach to give searchers useful information, and making sure your website is at the top of SERPs.

Your objective is to give people greater experiences while also proving to search engines how valuable you are. Fortunately, these two go together. And they begin by optimizing the page itself.