6 Essential On-Page SEO Techniques for Ranking on the First Page of Google
Optimizing your web pages for searchers and search engines is known as on-page SEO. On-page SEO’s main objectives are better user experiences for website visitors and improved rankings. On the other hand, off-page SEO refers to page elements outside your website and are used to improve a page’s ranking in the SERPs, such as backlinks from link building and social media advertising.
As a component of your entire strategy for SEO, on-page analysis can assist you in achieving better outcomes. Here, I’ve provided you with an SEO on-page checklist outlining six measures you can use to enhance your rankings.
Essential On-Page SEO Techniques
1. Website Speed
A website must have a fast loading time to rank on the first page of Google. To test the speed of your website, you can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool. This tool breaks down your website’s speed into different categories. It also prioritizes these factors. You can also use the tool to measure your website’s speed on mobile devices.
According to Google’s latest page speed report, most sites perform below the ideal speed. Generally, the faster a page loads, the higher its PageSpeed score will be during SEO on-page analysis. It has been shown that pages that take longer than five seconds have a 90% bounce rate. This figure increases exponentially with each second a visitor spends on the page.
2. Engaging Content
For search engines to rank your page, it is essential to optimize your on-page elements to ensure relevance to your target audience. Google looks at a few factors, but relevance is perhaps the most important. If your content is irrelevant to your target audience, you will likely not rank on the first page. On the other hand, relevant content will encourage your target audience to click through to your page, boosting your ranking.
Publishing user-friendly content is an essential item on this SEO on-page checklist. While many companies write content based on their website’s intended audience, search engines rank websites based on their content’s engagement. Therefore, by using best practices for content creation, you can ensure your content is informative and engaging to your target audience.
3. Keywords & Tags
The content of your website plays an important role in ranking highly on Google. People will find your website more easily if the content is well structured. Make sure you include the right keywords and headings in your page content. You can also use the structured data markup, rich snippets, and subdomains for SEO to provide additional information to search engines.
Include keywords in title tags, URLs, and page titles. Using keywords correctly is a good way to rank well in Google’s search results. So include keywords in title tags, URLs, and page titles. Place them prominently and use them with high keyword density. Also, please include them in the title tag, your page’s first line of code. The title tag shows the page’s title in the browser window, which is essential for SEO.
4. Meta Descriptions
Optimizing your website’s titles and meta descriptions is one of the most important items on the SEO on-page checklist to improve your website’s ranking. Meta descriptions should be informative and include your target keywords. In addition, meta descriptions should be unique and should read naturally. They’re not designed for search engine bots, but people are reading your content.
Meta descriptions are displayed on the search engine results page, so it is critical to optimize them well. They should be at least 150 to 300 characters long and accurately describe the page’s content. If your meta description is longer than this, Google will likely truncate it.
5. Featured Snippets
Getting your content to appear in featured snippets is important. It can help your website rank for more popular terms by showing an expanded description to searchers. The most effective way to achieve this is to write content that closely resembles the type of description a searcher would see on the first page of Google. For example, if a searcher is looking for “dog food,” make sure that the description is of dog food similar in style to what Google shows.
These featured snippets are displayed at the top of the SERPs. Using them will increase your website’s visibility and your site’s click-through rate. The best part about this technique is that you don’t need a subdomain for SEO or a high-ranking website to rank for it. Even a low-DA/DR domain can get a featured snippet on the first page of Google.
6. Schema
Schema is a common but underused item on any SEO on-page checklist that can give your content context. This type of data is helpful to both search engines and human visitors. It is useful for both business websites and blog articles. The more structured information you provide, the more Google understands what you’re trying to say.
Using schema markup will give Google an idea of your website, including content, publication date, reviews, ratings, and more. It can also increase the clickability of your website. Remember, though, that schema markup should not be used for every page, only for pages that provide extra useful information.
Conclusion
Optimizing your website’s content is one of the most important SEO on-page analysis techniques. Of course, the content should be readable, and it should be easy to understand. But this does not mean your content needs to be dumbed down or overly complex. Instead, it should be written in plain, simple language. Instead of using big words to impress search engines, choose words that make sense and don’t sound too complex.
AUTHOR BIO
Aaron Hanson is a digital marketer with e Intelligence, a digital marketing company with offices in the UK and India. He works passionately to find innovative solutions for digital marketing pain points and loves to share his expertise with anyone who needs it.
