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With over 75% of website traffic coming from search engines, on-page SEO is key for higher rankings in 2024. On-page optimization is the process of making individual web pages more visible in search results by improving their content, code, structure, and other aspects.
In this blog post, we will learn what is on-page SEO along with an actionable checklist to analyse and boost your web pages for better search rankings. By following the checklist, you can improve the topic relevance of pages for target keywords by following an on-page SEO checklist. This drives more qualified organic traffic to your site. Let’s get started.
On-page SEO is really important because it helps your website show up better when people search for things online. When you do on-page SEO well, more people can find your website, which means more visitors and potential customers.
It’s like making your shop look attractive, so more people want to come inside and see what you have. Google will trust your pages more when you get on-page SEO right. With regular Google algorithm updates, on-page SEO stays very important for SEO success.
Here are key steps to implement on-page SEO best practices:
1. Conduct keyword research to identify terms and phrases that are relevant for each page based on your business and target audience. Focus on long-tail, low-competition keywords.
2. Optimize page titles and meta descriptions using primary and secondary keywords so they accurately summarize page content. Ensure titles are less than 60 characters and meta descriptions are under 160 characters.
3. Include keywords naturally in the headline and opening paragraph of content. Also, use them in image file names and ALT tags. Ensure 0.5%-2% keyword density.
4. Format content well with bulleted lists, bolded subheadings (H2, H3 tags), short paragraphs, enough white space, etc. Make it scannable for users.
5. Simplify site architecture by eliminating any duplicate or thin content pages, having a responsive design, and a clear plan for how your website is organized. Update site maps and internal links.
6. Optimize multimedia by providing transcripts for audio/video and using concise but descriptive ALT text for images.
7. Improve page speed through minification, compression, caching, optimizing images, and reducing redirects to deliver faster page loads.
Here is a comprehensive on-page SEO checklist covering all key elements you should optimize on every page:
Content
i. Use the primary keyword in the title tag
ii. Include secondary keywords in the title tag
iii. Title tag should be less than 60 characters
iv. Primary keyword must be included in the meta description
v. Meta description should be 160-320 characters
vi. Headings and subheadings should use keywords appropriately
vii. Keyword density between 0.5%-2%
viii. Outbound links must be relevant and keyword-rich
ix. Use original images with descriptive alt text
x. Media content like video/audio should have transcripts
HTML Code
i. Use a brief, hyphen-separated URL with the primary keyword
ii. Include keywords in file names of images, videos, documents
iii. Optimize page speed insights score to 90+
iv) Meta robots tags used as needed (no index, no follow)
v. Use text rather than images for headlines, buttons, etc.
vi. Mobile responsive across devices
Site Architecture
i. Simple IA (Information Architecture) and site navigation, with keyword-rich categories.
ii. Internal links optimized using anchor text and redirects
iii. Eliminate duplicate content across pages
iv. Create an XML sitemap and submit it in the Search Console
v. No broken links – fix 404 errors
vi. Set up 301 redirects for changed or removed pages
Technical
i. Follow W3C validation standards for HTML markup
ii. Use structured data markup schema where applicable
iii. Optimize page load speed with caching, CDN (Content Delivery Network), etc.
iv. Compress images and media files
v. Enable HTTPS protocol and security certificates
vi. Implement proper robots.txt directives
Search Engine Integration
i. Submit XML sitemap in Google Search Console
ii. Add GSC (Google Search Console) meta tag on all pages
iii. Ensure pages can be crawled, not blocked by no-index.
iv. Fetch and render pages as Googlebot
v. Fix any indexing errors shown in the GSC (Google Search Console) report
vi. Monitor impressions, and CTR (Click Through Rate) in GSC (Google Search Console) to identify issues
This complete SEO checklist includes all the important parts of making your website better for search engines. It covers things like content, code, how the site is built, technical stuff, and how it works with search engines. Spending time in the beginning to do these things well will bring big benefits later on.
As time goes on, on-page SEO will change along with improvements in search engine rules. Search engines are getting smarter, so it’s important to keep up with these changes. But if we focus on making websites easy for people to use and understand for both visitors and search engines, we can handle these changes well. The most important thing is to find a balance between what people like and what search engines need to keep doing well in the digital world that’s always changing.
In Conclusion, On-page SEO is very important for getting your website seen on the internet. If you use these tips and follow the checklist, more people will notice your website and come to visit. Keep learning and changing things, and you’ll be doing great in 2024 and in the future.
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