On-Page SEO The Complete Guide FREE Checklist Included
While it’s true there’s a lot of evidence against meta descriptions as a ranking factor, they’re wrong about everyone knowing that. Make sure that your title tag and meta description doesn’t exceed the recommended maximum characters. To review this, many SEO applications allow you to preview how these elements will appear in search to prevent overrunning text. A good rule of thumb is to aim for 60 characters or less for titles and 160 or less for meta descriptions. A URL slug is the text that comes after the main domain and slash in a web address, like squarespace.com/blog.
Write a slug that incorporates your keyword and identifies your website structure when possible. For example if you’re writing a page that will appear on a blog internal to your website, you could use a URL slug that reflects your site hierarchy. On this page, squarespace.com/blog/on-page-seo indicates that this page lives on the website’s blog and is focused on on-page SEO as a topic. Here you can see competitive pages currently ranking in SERP, and get an idea as to whether the content of your page can outrank what is ranking currently.
Repurpose Content Into Different Formats
Although keyword in the URL most probably doesn’t influence your ranking in any way, it is a good step that can improve the overall UX and the CTR. It is best practice to use the focus keyword in the title tag of your page. Google understands that “running shoes cheap”, “cheap running shoes” and “cheap shoes for running” means the same. So relax and don’t stuff your page with the same phrase over and over again just because it is your focus keyword.
How Address Fix Orphan Pages
However, with advancements in AI and natural language processing, you’ll need to think beyond individual keywords. In a world ruled by algorithms, SEJ brings timely, relevant information for SEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs to optimize and grow their businesses — and careers. Check that your images are sized SEO Anomaly appropriately for your website and the space you’ve allotted for it.
Check External Links
On-page SEO, or on-site SEO, is optimizing web pages for users and search engines. It refers to specific elements and attributes of a website, such as content (written words), HTML, system, CSS, internal links, outbound links, and more. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a digital marketing strategy aimed at improving your website’s visibility on search engines like Google.
While keywords are both helpful and necessary for SEO, it’s important to avoid keyword stuffing. This is when you excessively repeat keywords or key phrases in your content with the intention of manipulating search engine rankings. Add your target keyword to your URL so users and search engines know what kind of content they will find on the page. Most likely because it contains the information they’re looking for. Therefore it’s essential to write excellent content that corresponds with their needs.
Google actively tracks user behaviour on your site through tools like Google Analytics 4, Google Chrome and the Google SERPs. Improving it won’t only lead to more organic traffic but can also lead to higher conversion rates. Google wants their users to have a great experience visiting your site. The key is to make sure the main entities in your content are obviously linked together. But Google could choose to rank a piece of content focused on “Hoovers” to also rank for “Vacuum cleaner” terms. LSI Keywords help give context to your content which basically just means words and phrases that are related to the topic you’re talking about.
Don’t forget that with mobile-first indexing, Google is looking at your web “via the mobile device”. Therefore, pay particular attention to page speed on mobile phones. In the Coverage view, choose “Excluded” and check to see if there are any pages that should be indexed in that list. On-page SEO consists of technical optimization to a big extent.
Once you identify the three Cs of search intent, you should have a pretty good idea of what type of content Google “recommends” to its users for particular search queries. One of them is looking for linking patterns among your competition so that you can get links from the same websites. Internal links are links from one page on your site to another. They help Google understand what a page is about and boost its authority, which can lead to higher rankings. Pages often rank for keywords related to the subtopics they cover.
- No need to include your domain in the title – There is no need to include your domain name in the title because this is added automatically by Google.
- Instead, you should compress image files using an image compression tool such as TinyPNG or CompressPNG.
- With Semrush, you get to analyze data, track rankings, and uncover valuable insights that can help you tailor your content and strategies more effectively.
- This involves evaluating elements like meta titles, meta descriptions, header tags, URL structures, and content quality.
- Enter your keyword, click “Search,” then scroll to the SERP Analysis section.
To optimize these metrics, you can improve LCP by using faster hosting, optimizing and compressing images, and minimizing render-blocking resources like JavaScript and CSS. For FID, focus on reducing JavaScript execution time, leveraging browser caching, and deferring non-critical scripts. Core Web Vitals matter because they are now part of Google’s ranking factors under the Page Experience Update. Pages that perform well on these metrics not only rank better but also offer a more satisfying experience to users, leading to lower bounce rates and higher engagement. Optimized images enhance user experience, boost performance, and contribute to better rankings.