The truth of the matter is that the days of search engines using only keywords in order to rank websites are long gone.
In fact, Google has officially stated that it uses 200+ ranking factors in order to determine where your website shows up on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).
For this reason, you need to remember that although it’s important to focus on writing high-quality content and choosing the right keywords, it’s also essential to implement high-quality website practices and optimize your content around these factors, as well.
Here’s a checklist of what to do and what not to do in order for your website to be ready for peak performance.
Web Design
What can web design do for you?
A well-designed website that is properly optimized for SEO will help you rank higher in search engine results pages, generate leads and sales, and attract more visitors.
Consider hiring a professional web designer to ensure your business website is user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and optimized for search engines.
Many people think that all they need to do is create a website and the search engines will take care of the rest, but that’s not the case.
Even if your site is already up and running, it might be time for an update.
Keyword Research
The most important part of on-page optimization is choosing the right keywords for your website.
Keywords are words or phrases that people search for in Google and other search engines, and they’re essential because they dictate where your content ranks in search results.
If you have poor keyword research, then you might as well not even have any on-page optimization at all.
You can find many different ways to do keyword research. But, Google Keyword Planner is a great place to start your research for key-phrases.
Even, you can also use Google Trends to see which keywords are trending up or down. And finally, you can use the Google Search Console to find out which keywords your website is already ranking for.
Page Titles
You want your page titles on each page of your site to include as much valuable information as possible while still being short enough that they aren’t cut off in search results.
They should be descriptive, keyword-focused, between 50 and 60 characters long, including spaces, and accurately reflect the topic of your page, and include keyword phrases that you want to rank for.
Don’t just rely on your CMS tools for title creation; take control and write titles for every single page of your site by hand. Include keywords, but don’t keyword stuff—make sure it makes sense!
Page URLs
One of the most important factors in on-page SEO is the page URL.
This is the text that appears in the browser’s address bar and the text users will search for on Google (among other search engines).
A page’s URL is often the most important SEO factor to consider, because it should be relevant to the page’s content.
If a page’s URL does not accurately describe the content on the page, it can negatively affect the page’s ranking.
Meta Description Tags
Meta descriptions provide concise summaries of the pages of your website.
They are used by search engines to generate snippets of text to appear beneath your website listing in search engine results pages (SERPs), and also by social media services such as Facebook and Twitter when users share links to your content.
Make sure these descriptions are unique for each page of your website, contain key phrases about what that page is about, and include words that people might be searching for in order to find content like yours.
At least two lines of text should be optimized with keywords you want associated with your site or product.
Heading Tags (H1 - H6)
Be sure that all website pages have heading tags on them. This is the main SEO element which you must add to your pages, and it’s where you adjust some targeted keywords for each page on your site.
It’s one of the most important parts of good on-page SEO, but is often overlooked.
By listing some common synonyms for your primary keyword in heading tags, search engines can better understand what a particular page is about, allowing you to rank higher for those terms.
Quality Images
Images are one of the key factors for successful SEO on-page optimization.
If you do not include images on your site, you are missing a golden opportunity to increase your rankings. And if you are not using a high-quality picture, you are ruining your chances of ranking high in search engines.
If you are trying to rank higher, you need to be using the right picture for your page. If you are using a low-quality image, your page will be ranked lower.
This is because the image is not relevant to the content. A relevant image will help search engines determine the content of your page and rank it higher.
In addition, it is not just about the image itself, but how you use it on your site. You need to make sure that the image is relevant, that it relates to your content.
Image ALT Tags
When you add ALT tags to your images, you’re providing both the search engines and your website visitors with additional information about the images on your site.
This can help improve your SEO and your website’s usability.
ALT tags are used to provide an alternate text for an image, in case the image can’t be displayed. They’re also used by search engines to help understand the content of an image.
If you haven’t started using them yet, I recommend that you start adding them to your images!
Body Copy Text
There are a lot of misconceptions about how much text you need on a page for it to rank well in Google. Some people think that you need to have a certain percentage of text on a page to rank well in Google.
Others think that all you need is a title, some Meta tags, and a couple of links.
The truth is that there is no magic number for how much text you need on a page to rank well in Google. There are a number of factors that go into ranking copy, and text is just one part of the equation.
You still need to make sure that your copy is high quality and includes keywords and phrases that are relevant to the topic of the website.
It is also important to use natural language that will appeal to humans, not just search engines.
Internal Linking Structures
One of the most important, but oftentimes overlooked, aspects of SEO is internal linking. Internal linking is the process of linking relevant pages with each other on your website.
By doing so, you’re telling search engines that these two pages are related to each other.
This is important because it helps search engines understand your website better and it also helps them rank your pages more accurately.
If your site is more than a single page and has links on it, make sure they are not all clustered together in one spot or in one area.
Instead, spread them out over different areas of your website.
Like, if you have 10 pages on your site with content on them, go through each page and add links within that content.
Outbound Links
Outbound links are one of the most important aspects of on-page optimization.
When you include an outbound link on your website, you’re essentially telling search engines that you trust the content on that other website, which can be beneficial.
However, there are some risks if the website you’re linking to is penalized by Google or if you overuse outbound links.
Linking to a penalized website will decrease rankings for your site and also dilute the focus of your web page.
While including too many outbound links on a page can look like you are trying to manipulate the search engine results pages (SERPs) by artificially inflating your website’s link popularity.
This can lead to your website being penalized by search engines and can even get your website blacklisted.
Affiliate Links
When used correctly, affiliate links can be a valuable part of any SEO strategy.
They can help you improve your website’s search engine ranking and drive more traffic to your site, in addition to making some passive income.
However, if you’re not careful, using affiliate links can also damage your SEO efforts and cause your website to rank lower on search engine results pages.
If you must use affiliate links, make sure that you use high-quality affiliate links, and avoid too many affiliate links as they can damage the reputation of a website.
Also, when you include affiliate links in your content, be sure to disclose that you are an affiliate. This way you will be able to build trust with your website audience.
Social Sharing Buttons
Social media sharing buttons can have a major (positive or negative) impact on your search engine rankings.
Here are a few things you need to know about social sharing buttons: They are no longer optional for most websites; they are required.
According to a recent study, over 50% of all web traffic and over 30% of social media traffic is generated from social media sharing buttons.
They can help boost your rankings. Google indicated that they are using social signals to determine page rankings, so social sharing buttons can help boost your rankings.
Moreover, they can help you gain new customers and increase your conversions.
Social sharing buttons can help generate more traffic to your site, and the more traffic you have, the more likely you are to convert your visitors into customers.
They can help you generate more revenue. Social media sharing buttons can lead to increased sales and increased revenue.
Page Speed
Page speed is one of the most important factors in on-page SEO.
Google is now pushing for an increase in speed and a decrease in load time as it is important for SEO for a few reasons:
1. It boosts user engagement.
2. It improves your rankings in search engines.
3. It reduces your bounce rate.
A few years ago, Google released a speed update that was geared exclusively to making websites load faster.
The update was so powerful that it downgraded websites with a slow load time, and it managed to increase the average page speed of the entire internet by 14%.
Google’s main focus is the user experience, so they will continue to focus on page speed.
Submit Web Pages to Google Console
One of the most important things you can do to search engine optimize your web pages is to submit them to the Search Console.
When you submit your web pages, you give Google and other search engines the information they need to crawl, index, and rank them.
The reason why Search Console is so important is because it makes the job of ranking web pages a lot easier. It’s a free tool that allows you to see your website from a new perspective and get additional information about your web pages.
Also, it allows you to make changes to your website to improve its search engine ranking and see how well it’s doing.
It’s important that you submit your website to the Search Console because it helps you track how your website ranks and if there are any issues with your site.
Conclusion
On-page SEO isn’t something you can do once and forget about it. It takes time, a lot of thought, effort, and—yes—research. But the payoff is huge.
If you’re new to SEO and on-page SEO, this checklist is an amazing place to start. If you’re already an SEO pro, this checklist will help you ensure that you’re on the right track with your SEO.
Do you have any questions about on-page SEO optimization? Leave them in the comments. I am more than happy to help.
