5 of the Most Essential On-Page SEO Factors

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is an important consideration in terms of online visibility. Google and other search engines strive to create the most relevant matches between what a user searches for and the pages that are recommended. They want users to be satisfied with the pages they visit. Results are based upon the information that Google is able to collect about each page, and it does this through indexing your on-page content. There are many different ways that you can tell a search engine what your site or page is about, with these 5 aspects forming the essential foundations of on-page SEO:

URL

Experts from the Google team have reiterated that optimized URLs are only a very small ranking factor, with Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller saying that he ‘wouldn’t worry about keywords or words in a URL’. However, focusing on a variety of ‘small’ ranking factors can be enough collectively to help you move up the SERP. Small changes to your On-Page SEO could be the difference you need to up your ranking.
Tip: Keep URLs simple, short, and concise, but also optimized… every little helps.

H1 Headings

According to a Search metrics whitepaper titled Search Ranking Factors and Rank Correlations, 80% of first page Google results use H1 headers, suggesting Google’s algorithm strongly takes into account headings when determining ranking. Google looks at the title of your content to gain an understanding of what the page is about.
Tip: Make titles clear and easy to read, and try to incorporate a long tail keyword.

Image Alt Text

Google’s image guidelines document says that Google ‘uses alt text… to understand the subject matter of the image’, suggesting that alt text plays a big role in ranking. This is supported by Mueller who states that alt text is ‘extremely helpful’ for Google Image rankings, so this should be a primary consideration when working on your on-page SEO.
Tip: Google suggests using ‘useful, information-rich’ content for alt text optimization.

Page Content

One of the most important aspects of on-page SEO is optimizing content such as blog posts and articles. You probably don’t need to use keywords as often as you think to see an improvement in ranking; former head of Google’s web spam team Matt Cutts says it’s the ‘first one or two times’ that matters, after that it’s just ‘incremental benefits’.
Tip: Conduct a keyword analysis to see what your audience is searching for.

Internal Links

This is an essential, but often overlooked aspect of on-page SEO. With the right anchor text, internal links provide Google with even more information about what a page is about, especially if multiple links with similar anchor text all point to the same location. It helps to create a more clear and comprehensive overview of the content of that page.
Tip: Incorporate ‘bubble keywords’; those that are less valuable, yet still important.

Bring the Right Traffic to Your Site

On-page SEO is arguably much easier to manage than off-page SEO which can be impacted by a range of external factors outside of your control, such as inbound links. On-page SEO can be managed directly to ensure each aspect of your website is optimized to deliver expert results and attract the right audiences to your pages.