On-page optimization is a range of activities aimed at optimizing content in order to best rank your resource in search engines. These manipulations are basically internal search engine optimization of the site.

This set of actions allows the site to attract more visitors, which automatically means an improvement in organic traffic.

SEO is not just about keyword research. If you want tangible results, you will need to do extensive work with all the content, visuals, and code. In this article, we will analyze on-page SEO: what it is and what needs to be done for high-quality website optimization.

What does On-page SEO include?

Internal SEO optimization involves working on such elements as:

–   Page content

–   Headings and subheadings

–   Meta tags

–   All visual content (file name, alt text, image size)

–   Links (both internal and external)

–   Structure (headings H1-H6)

–   URL

On-page optimization helps the search engine understand the core of the content. If the search robot can see and recognize everything, it will rank your page better. The result is a kind of symbiosis of it all: you help search engines, which leads to more and more traffic to you. Working with on-page SEO is a lot of work with so many seemingly insignificant details.

Best on-page SEO practices

Explicit and implicit search queries

It is important to improve site pages not only from explicit, straightforward SEO queries (for example, “buy a laptop in Moscow”), but also from implicit ones. Implicit search queries are those that can be interpreted in different ways. For example, the query “Vkontakte targeted ads”. What exactly did the user want to get here? Do they need instructions on targeting or do they need an agency or a freelance advertiser who provides services for launching targeted advertising? Or maybe the person here actually wanted to find some information about targeting trends on Vkontakte?

In such situations, you need to check the request using a search engine and see which option the algorithm prefers. When we googled “Vkontakte targeted ads,” Google determined that the first thing to show is a guide on setting up and launching targeted ads on Vkontakte.

Key phrases

It’s vital to put them in headlines, in texts and, in general, to select keywords so that there is maximum compliance with user requests. Carefully stuffing your SEO-friendly texts with these words is half the battle; you also need to place them in tags, in H1-H6 headings, meta descriptions and in the title of the article. And in order for all these keys to work for on-page SEO, you need to understand the interests of your target audience. So, you need to get into the client’s shoes to the maximum, going through the user path from the search bar right to your resource.

In this matter, of course, well-known and useful resources for SEO will help everyone – use Yandex Wordstat and Google Trends.

Descriptive URLs

A URL with a keyword will increase your chances of reaching the top. Just take this rule into account for on-page SEO matters, but don’t rush to rewrite all the URLs right away.

Internal and external links and their optimization

The internal links will lead to the pages of your site, and the second type will refer to resources that mention your site. Hyperlinks from trusted sources will increase the effectiveness of your pages and on-page optimization will be more productive.

Meta tags

Here, we’re talking about improving the functionality of meta tags – parts of the HTML code located in the head of the page. In fact, they are what help search engines recognize your page if you work with on-page SEO. Pay close attention to your description and robots. The first is a short description of the page, displayed in the search results and motivating to open the site.

Robots demonstrate to search engines the feasibility of studying and SEO-indexing the page. The basic tags here are follow/nofollow, as well as index/noindex.

H1-H6 headings are also a great help in optimizing meta tags.

Text

The text for productive SEO manipulations must meet the requirements of search engines and, in addition, attract visitors and motivate them to order/leave an application.

Here’s what you need to consider for on-page SEO when compiling texts for a website:

–   Readability: they should be easy to find the necessary information in the body of the text.

–   Key phrases need to be used, but not too many – they should not be squeezed into the text. In any case, search crawlers do not like such obscenity in on-page SEO just like the human eye.

–   There must be subheadings, lists, and in general the text must be conveniently structured not only for reading, but also for viewing even at the first scroll.

–   If possible, shorten the texts if you work with on-page SEO – use as few introductory constructions, participles and gerunds, vague phrases, tautologies, etc. as possible. Videos or images, necessary screenshots between paragraphs will also make the text appear visually lighter and easier to digest.

If we look at the question even more broadly, then in SEO, internal search engine optimization of texts influences behavioral factors: the time spent by the user on the site, bounces, transitions, viewing depth, etc. Search robots read these metrics and determine how interesting your page is to content consumers. If it is really interesting, then your site will inevitably reach the top.

Schema markup

This thing helps search engines better understand the content of pages and increases CTR. A clear example of how Schema works is the presence of stars that indicate the site’s rating, a picture and a short review in the search results.

The click-through rate of such an informative and capacious page will be higher, which will automatically affect traffic. Schema does not directly affect SEO rankings.

But such micro-markup is useful only for some pages: for example, for event schedules, movie lists, offer advertisements, as well as pages with reviews and recipes.

Above, you can see a micro markup in HTML format.

Visual additions

All the same images, videos or any infographic elements will not only make the page appear more visually interesting, but will also promote it in search results. So, if your on-page optimization is in full swing, don’t forget about visual search, which is often used in online shopping.

When uploading visual content, you must include “title” and “alt” tags, state titles and captions, compress, and resize. Access must be general.

E-A-T

The acronym stands for “expertise, authority, and credibility.” Focusing on these characteristics, search robots monitor the quality of content.

E-A-T indicators are, of course, not applicable to all sites – marketplaces or review sites simply do not have the ability to provide expert information due to their specifics. So, this is a measure of assessing information resources: finance, health, law, education.

Download speed

Fast page opening speed almost exactly equals good ranking. Difficulties with this point will also affect the attitude of the users themselves. And since the negative attitude of users increases bounce rates, the ranking of such pages in search results will also be poor.

You can check page loading speed in these resources that are useful for SEO – Google PageSpeed Insights. Loading time can be slowed down by images that are too high quality, bulky videos, or layout or coding problems.

More website optimization tips

In this world, internal SEO website optimization isn’t the only thing that exists, Off-page SEO is also a big thing. In other words, this means work with third-party sites and platforms. The focus here is on your domain authority. The main arsenal for working in this area is external links to the site located on third-party resources. In this way, the popularity of the resource increases too.

When you have referrals from third-party sources, search robots perceive your site as authoritative. However, Google and Yandex have a different approach to this point. Google is more sensitive to referrals from third-party sources than Yandex. But it will look not at the number of links posted, but at the quality of the sites with your publications.

Online engagement is also a tool that internal SEO optimization has in its arsenal. Online engagement is the provision of links and mention of the site name on social networks, on third-party resources, as well as on forum sites like DTF or Pikabu.

Conclusion

On-page SEO is a technique that involves the interaction of various elements of the site’s pages, directly or indirectly affecting the site’s ranking in search results. These are all your efforts together: working with texts, visuals, and with code.