Do you know the factors that influence On-Page SEO optimization and how they can help you improve your organic positioning? When we begin to take our first steps with a new Digital project, taking maximum care of all the internal details of our website is of vital importance.
If you understand what SEO is, you also know that it is evident that Google will not take us very seriously if we do not first put our own house in order. For example, among other factors, we can’t waste your time or give you wrong guidelines about what pages to crawl and index on our site.
All this and much more, you will surely understand better if you study in detail the on-page SEO factors and their influence on an Internet positioning strategy. I intend with this guide: that you know how to determine what “On-Page” actions to carry out in favor of your Online visibility.
What is On-Page SEO?
On Page SEO is all those techniques and actions carried out within a website to optimize or improve its organic positioning in search engines.
In other words, it is to work within your website all those technical and usability aspects that can make life easier for Google (or other search engines) when crawling and indexing our pages and deciding how they should be classified in the result lists.
For this reason, here also comes into play, in addition to technical issues of the Web, the semantic and thematic understanding of the contents. And, regarding the knowledge of the contents by the search engine, there is a self-evident idea:
Even though Google’s algorithms are becoming more complex and intelligent every day, they are still not capable of understanding texts as a person does.
Therefore, while optimizing technical factors of On-page SEO, it is also necessary to incorporate an information architecture that is as clear as possible in terms of the search intention of our content (keywords) so that the algorithms can better understand it.
What is the true importance of On-Page SEO?
Many projects fail before completing their first year of life, primarily because they do not have relevant organic traffic.
Therefore, if you do not have excellent knowledge about positioning, the best option is to optimize all those primary factors related to the On-Page SEO that we will see below.
Think that the great advantage of On-Page SEO is that how well or how poorly you have implemented your strategy will only depend on you. These are internal factors of your website that you can control yourself. Contrary to what happens with the Off-Page SEO, they are largely beyond your control by covering external factors external to your domain.
On-Page SEO Mega Guide The internal factors that will help in search engines!
Next, I will show you several tips with which you can improve the positioning of your website.
1. Website adapted to mobile devices and computers.
Let’s talk about On-Page optimization. We also do it about adaptability to different types of screens and terminals. Therefore, your entire website must be YES or YES adapted to all mobile and desktop devices.
For some years now, mobile traffic has increased significantly. The number of searches carried out from mobile devices exceeds those from desktops on many websites.
MobileFirst! It is estimated that around 60% of visitors usually come from mobile devices.
Consequently, users demand a good user experience on these devices, regardless of the size of the screens. And, of course, Google is aware of the importance of mobile traffic, which is why it has included it among its requirements.
That is to say, what a few years ago was nothing more than a mere recommendation; today, it is an obligation for a better On-Page SEO.
For all these reasons, AMP technology has been implemented and promoted by Google itself for some time now.
2. Search intent
Search intent is the why? Behind a Google query. In other words, it is the type of information that a user expects to find in a specific search.
Finding the right related keywords for your project and the content that best suits the search intent of those Keywords, whether we are talking about a blog, an eCommerce, or a corporate website, is one of the first steps to start working on the information architecture of that site.
Although choosing keywords well is not a natural SEO On-Page factor, but one of quantity and quality of traffic that we will obtain, a terrible choice can negatively affect the entire project.
Therefore, keep in mind for this election the competition these terms have and how your potential readers will search for those words on the Internet, whether we are talking about commercial or informative keywords.
In the same way, keep in mind that we are not talking about a single word in the literal sense. Our keyword can also be an important phrase or group of long-tail keywords.
There are free, easy-to-use tools that can help you choose those key terms better.
Free Tools
Here are two of my favorites, in addition to which I have published extensive guides.
- Google Ads Keyword Planner
- Google Trends
Another super simple procedure is to use the same search engine as your ally. When you start typing a word in the search bar before you finish, the search engine will show us different suggestions that can complete the phrase we are writing.
This functionality is often referred to as “autocomplete”:
Another option is to look at the related searches at the bottom of the page. Who better than Google to give you advice on the most relevant keywords?
Payment Tools
But it is clear that if you want your project to take a step forward and be somewhat more competitive, you will need more information, such as what semantic or long-tail keywords are closely related to the main chosen one, what questions do users ask in around that seed keyword, etc.
We have other PRO tools, which are obviously paid for due to their complexity and a large amount of information they offer.
The ones I personally use with these:
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Screaming Frog
- DinoRank
- SE Ranking
3. Information architecture and organization
For Google and other search engines to give greater importance to your commercial or informative content, it is advisable to properly categorize and structure all the elements you include.
In other words, just as it is convenient to include your eCommerce products in the categories and subcategories, your blog’s articles should also be included.
In short, this advice benefits the On-Page SEO of your website as long as you can facilitate the tracking of Google’s “spiders” their work, which will cause them to optimize their Crawl Budget or crawl time assigned to your site ( don’t waste their time!).
4. URL syntax
The URL is also a way to describe your content so that search engines better understand what terms you are trying to rank your content for.
These URLs must be friendly and not include unnecessary symbols or numbers.
At the same time, a suitable URL should be precise (although not necessarily too descriptive), relevant, and include your keyword density.
And be very careful with spelling errors since a title or any detail within the text/images can be corrected and edited.
However, the URL is immovable; correcting it after it is published will cause the previous one to stop working wherever it is. And if you have web domains that link to you externally, that link will cause an HTTP 404 error on your site.
Specialists recommend personalized URLs without prepositions or words or extra things:
5. Titles and subtitles of the content
I don’t want to debate who comes first, the chicken or the egg. Still, in my experience, content with well-optimized text for SEO doesn’t rank the same if its Title isn’t as well.
Although above what is said in the title, both the H1 of the page or article in question and the meta title or SEO title, is whether the content meets the user’s actual needs.
Use our most relevant keyword in the Title and as far to the left as possible. These tips are usually forecasted by specialists, but, as we all know, the absolute truth is only known by the search engine.
Also, Google won’t show more than the first 60 characters in search results (so it’s important not to dwell on them too much). You may also be interested in How to write more viral titles?
The title tags H1
This is the highest level HTML title tag that most websites associate with the Main Title of the content.
Search engines will also pay special attention to those H2, H3, and H4 tags… Always keep in mind that you should only use one H1 per page.
Subtitles H2, H3, H4, etc.
They are a complement, not a repetition of the Main Title. They serve us to subdivide and categorize our text according to sub-themes (don’t forget to include keywords in them ).
Likewise, well used with an appropriate size, typography, and format, they help readers who like to scan the content more than reading.
Again, I remind you that we are not only talking about blog articles but that this applies to any type of page within a website (service page, product page, etc.)
Snippet: the Title and the Meta descriptions
The snippet is the block of text displayed in Google results and is made up of a URL, a title (or Title), and a meta description of each web page. Optimizing this snippet encourages users to click on it and go on to read the rest of your content.
This is an on-page factor, but its significant influence is caused by an Off-Page action. Optimizing the Title and the meta has a substantial impact on the CTR (Click Through Rate) or percentage of clicks that take 1000 times that all the search engine results in the SERP (search engine results pages) are shown.
And consequently, this CTR has a good influence on the site’s overall ranking.
The Title must have a maximum of 60 characters or 512 pixels to ensure that it is displayed correctly in Google results.
If this Title is more significant, it is cut off with ellipses (…). Some studies say that fewer clicks and visits occur in the results whose SEO titles (Title) appear with ellipses.
The number of characters displayed so far is approx. About 140-150 on desktop and 110 on mobile, although Google will measure this in pixels (+/- 927 pixels ) and not characters, so I always say “approximately.”
6. Content quality
A lousy on-page SEO strategy and content structure can ruin all the technical work.
Keyword density
We must add several keywords of around 1% of the total words of the content that we include within the page or entry.
But this is not a fixed rule either. However, there is indeed talk of approximately that percentage due to the evolution of the Google algorithm over these years; since 10 or 15 years ago, it was not strange to see how the exact keyword we wanted to rank appeared repeated ad nauseam.
But not in any way, but in the most natural way possible. To do this, use synonyms and related or similar terms that are semantically linked to the particular keyword you are trying to position your post.
Google, especially with the Hummingbird update, put much more emphasis on semantic search, so it is a key aspect to consider when defining which terms to use.
In short, try not to fill your content with repeated phrases that do not add value to the whole.
Remember that you are not only writing for search engines but also for people to read you, whether you create an informative article or a page where you describe your professional services.
A very repetitive text, or with those keywords placed “with shoehorn,” will end up being boring and will tire your readers, increasing the percentage of abandonments (or rebound effect) of your blog.
Include keywords in the first 100 words.
Search engines give greater relevance to the first paragraph of your post. Therefore, you should emphasize including the keywords for which you want to position your content in those sections.
The length of your content also counts.
Another “unwritten” rule in matters of SEO On Page is that content containing less than 300 words approx. , it may be seen by search engines as Thin Content or irrelevant content.
In general, more than the extension, what Google considers, in this case, is whether what you offer the user meets the expectations they had and why they came to see your content, whether informative or commercial.
Likewise, each “teacher has his booklet,” so my advice is to generate pages or articles of no less than 600 words.
In addition, a more significant extension will allow you as a professional to “play” more with the keywords and therefore give your texts more extraordinary richness.
I bet to improve my On-Page SEO for quality, naturalness, and content of a fair extension to offer the most complete response possible to my community about their problems or doubts.
So the published on my blog post usually contain more than 1800 words.
Publish articles regularly on the blog
Is it ideal for posting every day? I think not; according to my personal experience in these matters, we are also enough with one post a week, more or less.
When I started with the blog, I published 2 or 3 times a week, but (mainly due to time issues) nowadays, I only write an article weekly.
The truth is that I have not noticed a drop in traffic; quite the opposite, I have been increasing my visits steadily over the years.
I must also be honest with you and point out that I already have more than 500 articles written. And by slowing down my posts, they help me even things out. So, in this case, the best thing is to be patient and work hard and regularly on your blog.
Use bold and italics.
Apparently, Google does not pay much attention to the keywords or phrases placed in italics or bold; However, there is no consensus on that subject; some say yes, and many others say that they do not influence On-Page SEO or content positioning.
But, personally, I think that it is not harmful to use them from time to time to highlight the importance of a word, phrase, or sentence for the user, obviously without harming the straightforward reading of that content.
Improve bounce rate.
The average duration of a visit and the number of pages of your Web domain that those visitors read directly affect the bounce rate and On-Page SEO.
Having a very high percentage negatively influences our organic search rankings.
Use multimedia content.
Videos, photographs, infographics, presentations, etc. They are also positioned in search engines, providing other ways to make your content known.
Moreover, I encourage you to accompany most of the content you create with this type of element, for example:
- The «About me» of your website: you could add a video to your description where you introduce yourself to your user and tell him briefly and in a summarized way what you do and how you can help him
- Include an infographic that summarizes the most relevant points in a guide or tutorial on your blog.
- In the product sheets of your Online store: if we are dealing with a clothing eCommerce, show a video with a model posing with the garment or show a 360º view of the product.
In addition, these contents also serve to make your post, Landing Page, or product file, among others, visually attractive and thus increase the time spent on your website, which will reduce the bounce rate.
In other words, they will also contribute to improving your SEO On the Page.
Categories for your blog or eCommerce
Most Web platforms allow you to add categories to your blog and your Online Store to help organize your articles or products.
Sorting products by category and blog posts by topic and chronologically will make it easier for your visitors to find what they want to see.
With a good and organized category strategy, you will drive more traffic to other articles or related product pages, improving the web’s bounce rate.
You should always index the categories of your eCommerce. But, if you don’t have a lot of content on a blog or you don’t know very well how to optimize this theme of the categories, here it is best not to index them. By not indexing the types, you avoid duplicate or sparse content in your URLs.
7. Optimize images
It handles files of small size and weight, preferably less than 100 kb (for example, PhotoShop has a function that reduces almost 60% of the resolution without losing quality). However, you can also use any of the tools to compress photos that you can find online.
This will also help us with the load times of the URL that the browser must load on the device of the user who visits you.
And in turn, also optimizing the URL of the image itself will help you have a better SEO On the Page. For example:
Title and Alt tags on images
Correctly complementing the Title and ALT tag in our images is undoubtedly an On-Page SEO technique that improves results. They allow search engines to understand what those photos are about.
If you don’t, it defaults to the filename.
Imagine that we have an online store for sports shoes and, due to lack of knowledge, you have not fully optimized the text of that product’s file.
However, the images of your product (the shoes) are very well positioned and in the first place of Google. If the user does a search “by images,” you will appear in privileged positions; perhaps the URL of that file did not even reach the 3rd page of Google.
You have the importance of optimizing and “labeling” these audiovisual elements well!
8. WPO: The loading speed
The website’s loading speed is an on-page SEO factor that is very important. Therefore, our site must load fast enough to obtain a good score on this factor (See: what is the WPO? ).
Choose quality hosting.
A significant and key factor for improving loading speed will be choosing a good hosting because you have optimized the images and other elements that we have seen so far. Still, your hosting service is of poor quality; everything above won’t do much good.
9. Internal linking
Including internal links that point to other of our posts is another important aspect to consider within the factors that influence On-Page SEO.
In this way, we will be able to bring Web traffic while transmitting greater authority to those other pages to which they link.
Keep in mind that a good use of internal links also decreases the bounce effect of the site in general.
You may also be interested in How to make an internal links strategy?
10. Outgoing Links
Suggesting other relevant external sources of information, which provide a complement or more data on the subject, indirectly improves the quality of our content (added value).
Google recognizes these outgoing links and includes them among the reasons that improve your search ranking.
Advice:
It is best to set these links to ALWAYS open in a new window. Your website will always remain available in the user’s browser. Again, you will be helping to reduce your bounce rate.
11. Depth or Levels of Clicks (Crawl Depth)
Click depth, also called click levels, is the number of clicks a user must make to reach a specific piece of content starting from the most authoritative URL of the website.
Assuming that the HOME is usually level “0”, to get to a URL by navigating the website’s structure, we start counting depth levels according to the clicks we make from the HOME to it.
The ideal is not to have any URL more than 3 clicks away. And to achieve this, we must work very well on the structure of categories, menus, and the site’s internal linking.
12. Control the crawling and indexing of your URLs
When talking about indexing, you have to consider that we may not be interested in letting Google index absolutely all the URLs on our website or eCommerce. On the contrary, we should only give access to those we want to position.
Generally, the content to be indexed is relevant to our business and adds value to users who perform a search on Google.
Any URL that is not important for the business and that at the same time does not respond to a user’s search intent may be considered “not relevant” keep in mind that Google is not interested in having filler content among its results.
So, you must control their status code so as not to index irrelevant content or not waste the search engine’s time following 500, 400 errors or unnecessary 301 redirects.
13.Submit a sitemap of your website to Google
The sitemap (or map of a website) makes it easy for search engines to index your site on the Internet.
It is said that they are not very decisive regarding positioning content. Still, creating and sending that sitemap to Google is advisable to speed up the indexing process.
You can create them yourself using some tool or automate them with plugins and then send them to Google through Search Console.
In a few words, it is a way to offer the search engine a complete map of how you are organizing all your information for more excellent navigability and understanding.
Conclusion
I hope you are not scared by the length of the post; it is that I did not want to stop explaining all the points straightforwardly and straightforwardly that you understand well, adding all the factors that I consider most important.
Indeed, in the medium/long term, a good On-Page SEO strategy can influence a significant improvement in the positioning of your entire Online project, bringing a lot of traffic and increasing the visibility of your content and your brand on the Internet.