On-Page SEO. A Complete Guide

4. Headings

If you want Google to interpret the page structure correctly, headings are the best way to achieve that. On each page, you should introduce an appropriate heading structure, which will divide your content into more or less important sections. Headings will also instruct users and, besides, they are eye-catching  – after all, none of us likes to read a long text that is not divided in any way: it’s not scannable and readable at all.

Now that you know how important the headings on each page are, it’s time to find out how to structure them properly.

How to optimize headings?

• H1 heading: it is the most important structural element of the page, it should inform what the page is about, that’s why it is recommended to include only one H1 heading on every page;
• H2 headings: each page should have at least several H2 headings which will divide the content into coherent sections and briefly describe what the user can find in a given paragraph;
• H3-H6 headings: they divide each section into additional sub-sections;
• include keywords in your headings: not necessarily every heading must contain keywords, however, it is recommended that every H1 heading and at least some H2 headings include natural keywords related topically to the page and its content.

If you want to easily understand how to provide the correct heading structure, think of a page as if it were a book. In that case:

Here is an example of the correct heading structure on our blog:

As you can see, this page has only one H1 heading, which is the name of the article and introduces the main topic, several H2 headings, which divide the article into sections, play the role of book chapters and provide sub-topics, and a few H3 headings, which provide more specific information to H2 headings.

5. URLs

To illustrate to you that URLs are super important in SEO and should be user-friendly, I will show you 2 URLs.

Take a look at the URL of this page:

https://www.website.com/blog/662182

And now compare it with this URL:

https://www.website.com/blog/on-page-seo-guide

So which of these URLs told you more about the content you can find on the page? I think that all of you, without any hesitation, will choose the second one. That’s exactly what a URL should be: user-friendly and clearly describing what you can expect from the page.

How to optimize URLs?

• Every page should have a unique URL.
• Provide user-friendly and descriptive URLs that indicate what can be found on the page.
• Make URLs as short as possible: they get way more clicks and are much easier to copy and paste.
• Include keywords in URLs: place them naturally, do not stuff URLs with keywords.
• Avoid using uppercase letters.
• Separate words with hyphens (-): avoid separators such as plus signs (+), spaces (%20) or underscores (_) as they may not be interpreted correctly.
• Exclude special characters: that’s especially important when you run a website in a language that has non-ASCII characters.

6. Internal Linking

Another important aspect of the on-page optimization process is improving the internal linking structure. Internal links are important for several reasons: you make it easier for Google robots to find other pages on your website, you help users to navigate your site, so they spend more time there (which is a signal for Google that you offer high-quality valuable content), and you pass link equity (SEO value) to other pages within your site.

How to optimize internal linking?

• Remove broken links, e.i. internal links to deleted pages that don’t exist anymore, these can be, for example, pages with unavailable products or removed blog posts.
• Use relevant anchor text which contains keywords: it indicates Google crawlers what the page to which the link leads contains.
• Include a reasonable number of internal links on your pages: if the page contains several thousand internal links, it may get a Google penalty.
• Provide correct 301 redirects: if you remove or rename pages, redirects will lead users and Google crawlers to other existing pages.

7. External Links

External links may not be as important for SEO as internal links, but they are a signal for Google and users that your content contains credible and verified information that you have read on other quality sites. So if your content contains information you found on other trustworthy sites, add external links.

How to optimize external links?

• Make sure that every external link has rel=”nofollow” attribute: it informs Google crawlers not to follow the link and, consequently, it will not contribute to rankings and pass link equity.
  This attribute looks like this in HTML code:
  <a href=”https://www.external-link.com” rel=”nofollow”>External link</a>.

8. Alt Text

Alt text is one of the most important elements of web accessibility: its function is to describe the content of images for users using screen readers. What’s more, alternative text is displayed when the page is not fully loaded.

Google robots crawl alternative text to better interpret their content and then display them on the image results page.

In the HTML code, correctly introduced alt text looks like this:

< img src = “file-name.jpg” alt= “a detailed image description”/>

How to optimize alt text?

• Describe the image’s content, be precise.
• Keep the alt text short: screen readers stop reading at about 125 characters.
• Get straight to the point: don’t start describing images with “Image presents…” or “Image of…”.
• Use keywords: include target keywords when they are related to the image, so don’t stuff alt text with keywords.

9. HTML Emphasis Tags

When optimizing your pages, I would recommend using HTML emphasis tags as well. Does this term sound a bit strange to you? I’m sure you are familiar with <strong> or <em> tags. The mystery solved: these are the HTML emphasis tags that you can introduce to your on-page SEO process.

They are a great way to inform users using screen readers as well as Google crawlers that the highlighted content placed in these tags is particularly important and worth paying attention to.

There are 4 main HTML emphasis tags you can use:

1. <strong> – displays content in bold font and tells Google crawlers that the content is important;
2. <b> – displays content in bold font, however, it doesn’t inform Google crawlers that the highlighted content is particularly important;
3. <em> – displays content in italic font and emphasizes particular sections,
4. <i> – displays content in italic font, however, it doesn’t tell Google to pay attention to it.

10. Content

Ok, I’ve shown you all the most important elements of on-page optimization, but you still need content if you want to have something to optimize (sorry for stating the obvious, but that’s actually true). Google simply loves unique, high-quality content that responds to users’ needs and is optimized for search intent.

 So how to create top-notch content for your website?

• Create unique content: every blog post or other piece of content should be unique, not copied from other sites, and bringing something totally different and original.
• Make sure your content is valuable: every day millions of new blog posts are published, so as you can guess the competition is immense, so your content needs to bring some value; you may add expert comments, images, screens, charts, references, etc.
• Provide content that complies with Google’s E-A-T (Expertise; Authority; Trustworthiness) factors.
• Satisfy users’ search intent: develop content that users want, need, and search for.

If you would like to create the perfect content for your website, I’m sure my content marketing guide will be a huge help for you!

Conclusions

Proper on-page optimization together with technical SEO and link building is the direct road to success. Remember that on-page SEO is not just about stuffing your content with keywords – maybe it worked 10 years ago, but today Google wants the web content to correspond to search intent and be, above all, valuable and trustworthy. And always keep that in mind when optimizing your website!

If you are looking for a professional SEO agency that will optimize your website according to the latest Google guidelines, Delante will be a perfect choice. Owing to our data-driven and user-centered approach, our clients achieve tangible results. Contact us – we want to be a part of your success!