on page seo checklist - guide

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On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide

On-page SEO is a key part of optimizing your website for search engines. On-page SEO mainly consists of keyword research, content optimization, and meta tags. In today’s post, we’ll go over some on-page SEO tips and tools to help you optimize your website in no time.

Table of Contents

What is On-Page SEO?

On-Page Search Engine Optimization (On-Page SEO) is a series of factors that you can use while creating your content. These factors will then help Google understand that your website is related to certain topics or keywords. The better you optimize your pages for search engines, the more traffic will come to your website, and it will rank higher on Google’s search results.

On-Page SEO checklist - The Definitive Guide

On-Page SEO Checklist

1. Keyword Research

2.Content Optimization

3. Image Optimization

4. Internal Linking & Outbound Linking

5. Page Title and Headings

6. Url Structure

7. Meta data

8. SSL Certificate

Download the full On-Page SEO Checklist and Content Checklist here:

keyword research for on-page SEO checklist

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is one of the most important aspects of on-page SEO. Before you start optimizing your website for search engines, you need to figure out what people are searching for. Once you find what your audience is looking for, it’s much easier to optimize content around specific keywords and phrases. And when done correctly, keyword research is a great way to increase organic traffic.

There are lots of tools out there that can help you do keyword research quickly and efficiently. Our favorite keyword research tool is Ubersuggest because it also tells us how competitive a keyword is (i.e. if it’s easy or hard for our page to rank). 

Best keyword research tools

1. Google Trends

2.Answer the public

3. Google Search Console

4. Keyword Generator

5. Ubersuggest

6. Google - "People also ask" box

Keyword research is about more than just finding keywords. You need to understand the search intent and create content that answers those questions.
content optimization - on-page SEO checklist

Content Optimization

Content optimization is one of several things that falls under on-page SEO, but it’s arguably more important than any other factor. Content optimization refers to making sure your content is optimally structured for search engines so they can easily crawl it and classify its content correctly. You also want to optimize for user experience. If you create stellar content that no human being could read, then you’re wasting your time. Optimize for humans first and search engines second—that’s an important rule of thumb in all aspects of on-page SEO. Once you have optimized your content through proper structure, focus on optimizing both images and links with alt text and relevant anchor text respectively. 

image optimization on-page SEO checklist

Image Optimization

Your visual content must be optimized for your customers and search engines. Without proper image optimization, you’re wasting a valuable SEO asset

Here are 6 important image optimization tips you need to know:

1. Choose the right format

2. Compress your images

3. Customize image file names

When creating an image file name, don’t put spaces or special characters, as these are hard for web crawlers to process. 

4. Use descriptive alt text and caption

5. Create an image site map

6. Serve responsive images

How to write good alt text?

1. Be concise

2. Be accurate

3. Avoid keyword stuffing

4. Avoid stating that is an image

Ps: The more images you optimize the better your SEO strategy will be moving forward 😉
internal and outbound linking - on-page SEO checklist

Internal Linking and Outbound Linking

Internal linking refers to a hyperlink pointing from one page of your website to another page within your website. Outbound Linking is a hyperlink pointing from one web page to a web page outside of your site. The appropriate use of internal and outbound links can not only increase the visitor’s experience but also help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is why each link must be utilized thoughtfully.
page titles and headings for on-page SEO checklist

Page titles and headings

Page titles and headings on your site are an important part of on-page SEO, as they play a vital role in how search engines crawl and index your website. The title of the post should be an H1 heading. Everything within each section should be wrapped in an H2 tag, and everything below it should be wrapped in an H3 tag. There are five heading levels—H1 through H6—but H1 through H3 is most important for both SEO and accessibility purposes. 

SEO-friendly URL checklist

SEO-friendly URL sctructure

The first thing you’ll want to look at when optimizing your on-page SEO is whether or not your website has an SEO-friendly URL structure. If it doesn’t, your search engine optimization will be less than optimal; even if your page is perfectly optimized for search engines, but you don’t have a friendly URL, then traffic will be lower than it could be.

meta data for on-page SEO checklist

Meta Data

After publishing your content, be sure to edit and optimize your meta tags and make sure you use them properly. One of many reasons is that these meta tags appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). By optimizing your title and description for searches relevant to your topic, you can increase organic traffic through search engines. Adding a keyword at least once in each meta tag element can also boost rankings on Google.
We use the Yoast plugin to optimize our content.

ssl certificate- on-page SEO checklist

SSL Certificate

Let’s take a look at SSL for SEO and how it can be used as a tool in your website optimization strategy. The term SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and provides encryption and authentication of communications over an open network such as our internet, making sure that all information exchanged is not readable by any third party. With SSL, your site will get higher search rankings because Google ranks HTTPS sites higher than HTTP sites.

Conclusion

On-Page SEO is often overlooked but it is one of the most important aspects of your site. On-Page SEO not only affects how Google ranks your website but also how users interact with your website. Create content that answers users’ questions and use On-Page Optimization tools like Yoast which offer quality optimization for free, to make sure you are optimizing effectively! This will make sure you are getting traffic from search engines and visitors who will engage with your content.

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