Search engine optimization (SEO) is comprised of three facets, namely:
- Technical SEO
- Off-page SEO (a.k.a. off-site SEO)
- On-page SEO
Among these three, on-page SEO covers all the updates you perform on your website.
Although it’s not the only thing that matters, on-page optimization is the first thing you need to accomplish to rank for the search engine results pages (SERPs).
If you want to learn more, this article will explain what on-page SEO entails, why it is important, and how you can optimize your website, as recommended by the leading SEO company in Dubai.
What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO aims to boost search engine ranking and enhance user experience through optimizing pages within your website.
It is comprised of several elements, namely:
- Title tags and meta descriptions
- On-page content
- HTML code (e.g., metadata)
- URL optimization
- Internal links
- Images and alt tags
- User experience (UX)
This SEO component is called “on-page” because it encompasses tweaks and updates you make on your page. These changes are visible on your website, unlike any technical and off-page SEO efforts that are hidden within the code and performed externally (i.e., outside the site).
On-page SEO helps Google understand what your website is about. It is also where you can prove the value you offer to website visitors and customers.
In short, it helps both humans and search engine bots “read” your website better.
Top 7 Tips for Optimizing Web Pages
On-page SEO ensures that both web crawlers and human users can use a website efficiently. If you wish to know how you can improve your web pages according to this element in SEO, follow these seven tips for optimizing your web pages:
1. Audit your website first.
After getting your website’s index, you must conduct an SEO audit to organize and prioritize your pages. You can start by defining where each existing page is located in your website architecture.
SEO experts in Dubai do this on a spreadsheet that shows the following elements, which you can also use and categorize into “current” and “updated” as you perform on-page optimization:
- Content-Type (e.g., homepage, blog post, product page, etc.)
- URL
- Page Title
- Meta Description
If you haven’t done any on-page updates in the past, there’s a good chance that your meta description and page title columns would be blank (both “current” and “updated”). This is okay for now since you’ll be updating them later.
2. Keyword-optimize your page title.
Page titles are wrapped in an H1 tag to indicate the page’s importance to SEO. Placing your main keyword in the H1 tag is one of the oldest but most important best practices in on-page optimization.
Take note that it may not always be possible to use exact match keywords in the title in a way that still makes sense for page visitors. That means you may need to tweak your target phrases to appear more like a natural part of the page title.
For example, an SEO company is targeting the keyword “SEO outsourcing” for a blog post about the steps of outsourcing their service. Rather than using it as is, change it into “How to Outsource SEO” to prevent it from sounding awkward.
The key here is to write the page titles in natural language, which means you can use stop words and conjunctions as necessary.
3. Switch to short-but-descriptive URLs.
Another thing you may need to update for on-page SEO is the page URL.
Go with short and descriptive ones that will inform search engine users what the page is about even before clicking on the link.
Allowing users to determine a page’s topic from the URL alone makes your search engine listing clearer and more clickable while enhancing the user experience.
Again, you may not be able to use your target keyword in its raw form. There are many cases when using a variation would be better for SEO.
4. Write compelling meta descriptions.
Meta descriptions are HTML attributes that summarize a page’s content and share vital information not presented in the title.
Unlike the title tag, Google does not use the description to understand your page’s topic. Instead, the search engine features this metadata as a descriptive snippet for the sake of search engine users.
To optimize your meta description, you can follow the same best practices for optimizing title tags:
- Write according to the keyword’s search intent.
- Use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords to appeal to more users.
- Write in the active voice and second-person point of view to address your visitors directly.
- Frontload your keyword and include synonyms throughout the snippet for better visual prominence (Google shows words relevant to the query in boldface).
- Optimize according to the ideal length, which is 120 to 155
You must also remember to treat your meta descriptions as an advertisement for the page. Use emotive language and incorporate a sense of urgency and a call to action (CTA) to make it more click-worthy.
5. Update the header tags.
Besides the H1 tag, your page should have several header tags, such as subheaders H2 down to H6. This will give the page’s content a more organized structure.
Sub-headers show hierarchy in the page content and make it more scannable.
To boost dwell time and increase page ranking, create subheaders that are more attractive with the following best practices:
- Writing compelling headers to urge visitors to continue reading.
- Using primary and LSI keywords in the subheaders.
- Sticking to one H1 tag per page.
6. Give your images some TLC.
Photos and other visuals can send more traffic to your website if they can rank in Google’s image search.
To get the most out of this on-page element, make sure you:
- Name them appropriately. Replace the images’ default filenames with something descriptive and concise. Avoid using hyphens and too many keywords (k.a. keyword stuffing).
- Add descriptive alt tags. Also called alt text, these HTML attributes help search engines like Google “read” an Again, be descriptive, concise, and accurate when writing these tags.
- Compress for better site speed. Too large images can slow down your website, so compress them before uploading.
7. Add internal and external links.
Internal linking means adding hyperlinks to a page to help users reach other parts of the same website. It also establishes a healthier hierarchy of information and contributes to improved link equity or ranking power.
When adding internal links, optimize the anchor texts with keywords that help Google understand what the link is about. Avoid using too many exact match keywords as you go along to avoid keyword cannibalization.
Besides internal links, your website will also benefit from links to other sites.
External linking establishes your expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) within the niche. It also proves your website’s reliability in the eyes of search engine users.
A Final Word
On-page SEO is one of three vital facets of search engine optimization. Take the time to optimize the different elements under this SEO component to help human users and search engines navigate your website better.
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