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On-page SEO Factors

TLDR: Start with keyword research, then optimize content (1000+ words), place keywords strategically (title, headings, first 100 words), optimize images (alt text, file names, compression), use internal/external links with proper anchor text, and keep URLs short and descriptive.

All On Page SEO optimization begins with keyword research. Because if you don’t know what keywords your target market is using to search for your business online, then you can’t optimize your page. So the beginning step is to find the right keywords for each of your site’s pages. Remember that you need to have your target keyword and variations of your target keyword on each page you’re trying to rank. One set of keywords per page. If you’re a digital marketing agency, you might have a page on each of your different services and each of those pages would be targeting different keywords.

Content​

  • Amount of Content - the more content, the better. Aim for 1000+ words per page, more if you're targeting a highly competitive keyword. Make sure your content is unique, valuable, and comprehensive and better than what's already out there
  • User-Friendly Content - make sure that your page content is laid out well, is visually appealing, easy to consume and easy to navigate.
  • Avoid Duplicate Content - the content you add to your site needs to be unique and can’t have been duplicated from any other site or from other pages on your own site.
  • Add More Multimedia - adding multimedia such as video, images, GIFs or MP3 recordings adds to the user experience and improves on page metrics
  • Include Social Sharing Icons - since you've already done the hard part and created awesome content, make sure it's shareable.

Keywords​

Add target keywords to strategic places throughout your page

  • Keyword in Beginning of Content - add your main keyword within first 100 words of the page content
  • Keyword Optimized Headings - ideally, you only want one <H1> heading per page and then an <H2> for the subheading and <H3> tags for other headings down the page (also containing keywords related to your main keyword).
  • Add Keywords Throughout the Page - you'll want to sprinkle your main keyword and variations of it throughout the page. In addition to the above headings and the beginning of the content, try to naturally weave your keywords into your content, adding bold text or other font attributes where it makes sense.
  • Keyword Optimized Title & Description - add your main keyword(s) to the page title and description and make them "click-worthy". Titles should be no longer than 60 characters and descriptions should be kept to 160 characters or less.
  • Keyword Density (aka Keyword Frequency) - while there is no magic number for the best keyword density to have on a page, most SEOs agree that it hovers in the 2-4% range.

Images​

  • Optimize Image File Size - ensure images are around the 100kb size (before they are uploaded). To optimize images that are already uploaded to your site, you can use a WordPress plugin such as Smush or ShortPixel.
  • Add Alt Text To Images - add alt text descriptions for every image on your page. Not only does this help with on-page SEO but it also provides a description if the image fails to load.
  • Optimize the Image Title - the title can be the same as your ALT text above.
  • Optimize the Image File Name - rather than leaving the name of your image as DSC890.jpg, change the file name before you upload it to your site. Often the filename of the image can be the same as the ALT text and title of the image. (eg. "RankPast SEO agency - reception.jpg")

Linking​

The difference between internal and external links is that internal links point to other pages on your own website while external links point to someone else's website.

  • Internal Linking - internally link to other relevant pages on your site with keyword-optimized anchor text (i.e. the clickable text which is often blue in colour).
  • External Linking - externally link to high-authority, non-competing sites where appropriate (remember to open links in new windows so that you keep your reader on your site).

URLS​

Note that it is typically not worth the effort or SEO benefit to change the URLs of older posts just for the sake of increased rankings.

  • Make sure that your site is using the more secure HTTPS protocol. Security is important to users and to Google. Most web browsers actually show an insecure icon for sites that are not HTTPS.
  • The URL (ie. webpage address) of your webpage should accurately describe what the page is about. When creating a new page, make sure the URL is short and keyword optimized. You’re essentially aiming for the shortest URL you can get that is still keyword rich and descriptive.
  • The URL should either be the same as or similar (i.e. shorter) to your page’s H1

Advanced On Page SEO Tips​

  • Use a Table of Contents - not only is a clickable table of contents really useful for long articles, it also helps with SEO as it provides an opportunity to add keyword-optimized, clickable links to your page (users click the link to go to that section of the page).
  • Site Speed - use Google’s page speed insights tool or GTmetrix to test your site’s speed. Both of these tools will also tell you how you can fix the issues that are preventing your site from ranking higher.
  • Add Schema to your Pages - Schema is essentially a snippet of code that, when placed on your website (properly), allows Google to more easily understand the contents of your webpage.
  • Make use of Breadcrumbs for Larger Sites - if you're a small, local business, then your site is likely not big enough to benefit from the use of breadcrumbs. For ecommerce sites, however, breadcrumbs are invaluable.