On-Page SEO is one of the most important pillars of search engine optimization to help your site rank among the pages of Google or any other search engine.
This is because it helps these engines understand the content in every part and every page of the site. The better the engines understand the content, the higher the rank and the higher the ranking will be given to the site. Which means more visits, more customers, and therefore more sales and profits.
To help you top the search results, I created this article to explain On-Page SEO in a clear and effective way. This article contains all of the following:
What is On-Page SEO?
On Page SEO or On Site SEO in Arabic it is called internal search engine optimization and some call it internal SEO or on - page SEO. Personally, I prefer to stay with the internal improvement for easy pronunciation! On Page SEO is some practice of optimizing web page content in order to improve ranking on
search engines and to provide valuable content and a better user experience.
Content optimization is not just about piling keywords into the textual content of a page! No, it never is. The intent is to improve the content on the page, both visible and invisible.
This is quite different from external SEO or external SEO – which improves the processes that occur outside your website ( backlinks ), improve visibility on social media, etc.
Here are the most important elements of On Page SEO :
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Internal linking with other website pages
Meta Description Tags
Headings on page H1, H2, H3
URL optimization
Pictures and alt text for pictures
The HTML code
Structured Data
User Experience
What is the importance of internal SEO?
The importance of On Page SEO is in helping website owners to get a higher ranking for their sites on search engines, most importantly Google!
Google updates its search engine algorithms throughout the year to ensure that it provides reliable and valuable information to Google search engine users. Hence the importance of learning SEO in all its parts to understand and keep up with these updates.
In fact , Google's " How Search Works " report notes the following
An illustration of how Google's algorithms work
Google algorithms
Even though Google is getting smarter than it used to be, it still uses old school tactics like (searching for a specific keyword on your page).
Google is still crawling your site for keywords.
Research also found a relationship between keyword-rich Title Tags and ranking on the first page of search results.
If you search for any competitive keyword you will notice that almost all of the first results in the ranking use that same keyword either in their title tag or tag.
I used the word “life insurance” See the result:
Illustrative image of Keywords experiment in search engine pages
Keyword experiment
But optimizing on-page search results is more than piling keywords into your pages! It is much more than that.
In fact, Google acknowledged that there are 5 main factors to appearing on search results , which are:
The meaning of the query
Relevancy of the content to the query
Content Quality
Ease of use of website pages
context and settings
All of these clues lead us to realize the importance of optimizing the content within pages, especially if we really want to lead in search results.
Internal SEO Basics
When talking about internal SEO, we are talking about page content mainly. Therefore, the basis of On Page SEO is the creation and publication of optimized and search-friendly content.
Now is the time to publish #1 worthy content on search pages.
But remember!
Not only using keywords on your page will make it number one!
For your content to be number one in 2022, you must create digital content :
relevant
Unique
Values
Clear
In this section, I will show you how to achieve these features. Come on!
RELATED CONTENT
The meaning of relevant content here is content that satisfies the intent behind the search.
In other words:
your page should be exactly what the searcher wants and what they are searching for on Google .
Otherwise your page will likely be buried on the third page or beyond
It can be said that the part of creating relevant content is the most important part of On Page SEO. Therefore, the content must be appropriate to the purpose of the research.
When you choose a particular keyword, try to know what the purpose of this phrase is and what the researcher wants and satisfy his desires.
For example: it is not possible to stay on the first page on Google if you target the word “cooking recipes” and you are on your page specialized in camera lenses and you sell them!
Ask yourself these questions to help you write relevant content:
What is the intent of this search term?
What is the researcher's intention? Does he want to educate? the purchase? Searching for information?
Is the search term appropriate to the content provided on your site as a whole?
What kind of content is he looking for? photo? video? article? …etc
Through these questions, you will have a clear picture of what the researcher's request is and thus create and present content closely related to it.
Unique content
The word “unique” is not meant to create something out of the ordinary, or to create content that no one has written about before, no! What I mean is different and distinct content from others.
Or, in other words, “ contained by the eye ”
Do you think that the first person has just used the keyword multiple times on their page?
This will certainly help, but unfortunately it is not enough.
Some pages rank first because they are unique .
Sure, these pages may have some topics that you can find elsewhere but they also have a lot of tips and examples that you will only find in their posts.
So you have to be unique, introduce something new, search the competitors' pages, are they missing something? Add that!
This new thing could be, for example:
New advice or strategy .
A better organized list of resources .
Powerful design, for example, and a better UX user experience .
Different view .
Infographics, illustrations, or video tutorials .
A new case study .
Simple step by step process .
Valuable content
Posting something unique is a good starting point, but that's not enough either.
According to Hosting Facts , there are 4 million posts and articles every day.
you are not alone!
In order for your content to stand out and be noticed, it must be of high value.
Here are some of the ways you can make your content optimized and insanely valuable:
Add details: Pictures and steps make it easier for people and add more value to the content.
Statistics and numbers: Using numbers and statistics always adds value to the content.
Sources: Having sources and linking to them shows that there is great research and work for those who created the content and therefore a higher value.
Recent Articles and Topics: Find topics that are new and relevant to the content of your pages. Like new strategies, steps and examples.
Hiring Experienced Content Writers: Most of the online content is written by people who are inexperienced or probably never did what they ask you to do. Content from someone with first-hand experience is often more valuable than something written by a random freelance writer.
For example, the person who wrote this article is someone who “drinks, eats and breathes SEO every day”!
clear content
The goal here is to convey the information in a simple and clear way. The required content must be clearly visible to the researcher and easy to understand.
Here are our top tips for creating clear content:
Index the content for easy navigation .
Divide the content using subheadings .
Use pictures for clarification .
Simple words that everyone can understand .
Write short sentences and paragraphs (not too long) .
Make sure to use a large, clear font .
More than using examples .
Make sure that the researcher will find what he is looking for on your page without interpretation or intimidation! Clear and direct content.
Explain how to improve internal SEO
Now that you've seen why in-house SEO is still important
it's time to start the process of On Page SEO for your content.
Page title optimization
Use the target word in the first 100 words
Repeat keywords
URL optimization
Use of title tags Title Tags
Improved Meta Description Tags
Internal and external connectivity
Photo Enhancement
First, improve the page title
According to Google , the page title still "helps a lot" to rank on search engine pages so it's worth improving.
Don't underestimate that!
How is the improvement? thus:
Make sure the headline is identified by the H1 . hashtag
Use H2 for subtitles
The headline is at the beginning of the page
Use keywords at the beginning of the headline
Use the H1 tag in the headline
Make sure that you use the H1 in the titles of your articles or in your blog posts.
In fact, Google stated that using the H1 tag "helps Google understand the structure of the page".
Most major platforms (like WordPress ) automatically add the H1 tag to the title of a post or blog post. But this is not always the case and you should check your location code or code to make sure your address uses H1 .
Use H2 in subtitles
Put the target keyword in at least one subtitle
and ensure that this subtitle uses the H2 tag.
Has someone told you that the H2 tag hampers and hurts the performance of internal search optimization , is that true?
No of course it can't hurt! Do not believe those who utter what they do not know.
If there are other subheadings, use the H3 tag and so forth. Maintain a clear and proper page layout.
Put the headline at the beginning
Personally, I think your title tag is the most important factor in the process of On Page SEO.
This is because your title tag gives search engines an overview of what the page is about.
Keywords in the foreground
Your keyword doesn't always have to be at the beginning of the title!
This is not logical. But the closer it is to the front of the title tag, the better.
In my experience, the higher the keyword at the beginning of the title, the more important it is for search engines
An image showing where to place the keywords in relation to the title and text
Place the keywords in the text and title
Second, the keywords in the first 100 words
This is an "old" tactic in the field of On Page SEO but still very effective.
All you have to do is use your keyword once in the first 100 to 150 words of your article.
For example:
In my article that was optimized around the keyword “E-MarketingYou mention this keyword directly in the first paragraph.
?Why is this important?
Because terms that appear early on your page have more weight for Google!
Which is logical! Imagine that you just published an article about hairstyles, for example,
if your article was really about hairstyles, does it make sense to mention the term “hairstyles” in the middle of the page?
of course not!
Which is why you want to drop your keyword somewhere in the first 100 words or so.
This is one of those little things that helps Google understand what your page is about and that's what we want.
Third, repeat the keywords on the page
Repetition of keywords or keywords as it is evident is the number of times
your keyword appears in your content.
In fact, Google denied that using the same keyword may help in ranking, but those who work in the field of SEO and those with experience will tell you that it is definitely useful.
Think of it this way:
Imagine you have a page that when Google crawls and ranks it, it will think about the following question:
What is the specific keyword for that page?
But your keyword appears only once on the page!
Do you think the Google machine will understand that this word is the keyword ?
Mostly not.
But what if this word was found 7, 8, or 10 times? Naturally, Google is more confident about the topic of this page now.
stuffing in your article or anything like that!
It simply points to your target keyword to make sure that your page is really relevant to that topic.
In short, if your article consists of 1000 words, repeat the keyword or its synonyms in the text 6-10 times. Don't overdo it!
Fourth, improve the URL address
The URL address is a significant part of On Page SEO.
Yes, recently Google has been using strange versions of URLs in search results and it is possible to override any additions or ratings after the site name in the URL link!
However, titles are now appearing above the title tag in SERPs , whether for
mobile or PC.
So I would say your URL or URL is actually more important now than before.
Here's how to create SEO friendly URLs :
Keep titles short
Include a keyword in each URL
This does not mean that your URL should contain only your keyword!
It's also a good idea to add an extra word or two to the title.
It is possible that your keyword will come after the subcategory in the title.
Image to show how to add the keyword to the title link
URL links and keywords
Fifthly, the use of title tags Title Tags
When ranking pages, the Google search engine searches and identifies the so-called meta tags or meta tags . One of the most important types of meta tags that are used in SEO processes are Title Tags . tags
It is very important that these tags are filled in correctly and improved, as they appear on the pages of the search engine! Here's how it's done:
Use a short title of no more than 60 characters
Add the keyword at the beginning of the titles
The site name is at the end of the title, not at the beginning
Use descriptors in the title tag (best, prettiest, etc.)
Meta tags in search engine pages
Meta tags in search engine pages
Sixth, improve meta description tags
The second important part of meta tags is the meta description tags
Google recently recommended the importance of writing your meta tags and not leaving them blank.
This is because a good meta description or meta tag helps you get noticed and can boost your CTR .
Use unique, keyword-rich meta tags!
Image showing what Google said about meta tags
meta tags
Don't forget to add your keyword once in your description, why?
The answer is because Google highlights , shades, or sometimes uses a wider font for words matching a person's search query. Which means it is really important!
An image to illustrate Google's use of boldface in search results
Google uses bold
Seventh, internal and external linkage
The link between the pages of the site in addition to linking with the pages and external sources (after experience) is one of the important pillars of On Page SEO.
There are three types of links that you can apply in internal optimization:
Links from outside the site
Outbound links within the site (with site pages)
The link is from inside the site
Here's how:
Internal linking is great for SEO
Specifically you want to link the high authority pages (high traffic or higher rank) on your site with pages that need to be promoted.
In other words, the link between strong “highly visited” pages and weak “low-visited” pages
When doing this be sure to use keyword-rich anchor text.
Here is the process I use and recommend:
First use an SEO tool like SEMrush
to tell you which pages have the highest authority on your site.
Then add some internal links from those pages to the less authoritative pages on your site.
Make sure that there is at least one incoming link from the most important site pages to the page or article being created. Don't leave her alone (orphan).
It is also important to issue at least two links to other pages of the site.
And if you want to see a great example of how to internal link look at Wikipedia ! They add tons of keyword-rich internal links to every page:
Example from Wikipedia illustrating their frequent use of keyword-rich links
Use External (Outbound) Links
External links to related pages help Google learn what your page is about. It also shows Google that your page is a high-quality information center.
And this is not just a theory! conducted Reboot OnlineExperiment to see if external links helped improve rankings for some sites.
This company has created 10 new websites. Half of the websites link to other websites (eg Oxford University) and the other half do not have external links. Sites with external links outperformed sites without them.
* The experiment is in English and soon we will re-implement this experiment in Arabic.
So make sure there is at least one outbound link from the page being created.
Eighth, image optimization
The importance of image optimization in On Page SEO is due to the ability to rank on search engines. Images can lead the search results (especially if the searcher is searching in the images field on Google) and thus more clicks and visits to your site.
Here are the top tips for improving photos:
Use original photos
Label the pictures correctly
Use Alt Text
Reducing image size
Let's dig deeper, let's go!
Use original photos
Do you use stock images in your content?
Well, these stored images may harm your SEO .
So if you're using stock images used by thousands of other sites, consider starting by creating custom images for your content.
This method is an important indication that your content is (unique) and distinctive!
This thing we do crazy .
Label the pictures correctly
Unfortunately, most cameras and smartphones use random names for images as well as computers. For example, if you want to take a screenshot, it will usually be called something like Screenshot 2022-05-18.png .
For this reason, you should rename it. Here's how:
Describe the image accurately and briefly
No to piling keywords in the file name
Use the hyphen (-) between words
Use Alt Text
Alt Text is a type of descriptive tag that is used to describe the image. The alt text does not appear on the page, it is not visible and is HTML code.
The primary purpose of alt text is to improve accessibility for visitors (disabled people) who cannot see images and who use screen readers.
These programs convert page content including images into audio. Browsers also display alt text instead of images if the image fails to load.
Google says that “when choosing alternative text, focus on creating useful, informative content that uses keywords appropriately and is within the context of the page content .”
So when you fill in the alt text for images make sure of the following:
Describe the image clearly and accurately
Use keywords correctly (no padding)
Avoid including the word (photo) in the description
compress images
Compressing images reduces file size which results in faster load times for images on the page. This is very important because page speed is one of the most important factors for ranking whether on mobile or desktop devices.
There are many free online tools to compress images. Personally, I use a tool called Ezgif to help me reduce the size of images