SEO Guidelines — What is On Page (Or On Site) SEO?
By: Data Dum Dum
Tags: Online Marketing, SEO, Marketing, Digital Marketing

When we talk about SEO or Search Engine Optimization, we generally divide it into two major categories. These two categories are:

On-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO

Just to be clear, SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process in which you use different techniques to improve your website’s search engine rankings. These techniques are either on-page or off-page.

In this post, we discuss what is on-page SEO? Moreover, there are different basic concepts and techniques that most webmasters use in the on-page SEO methods. This article also explains all these on-page SEO methods.

So let’s start with the basic definition of on-page SEO, and then we move on to discuss some useful techniques and methods that you can use to improve your website’s on-page SEO structure.

What is on-Page SEO?

Search engine optimization techniques that directly involve the front-end of your website and webpages are known as on-page SEO methods. Remember that onsite SEO has a great impact on your search engine ranking, and to achieve higher rankings, on-page optimization is imperative.

It is important to understand that off-page SEO is equally important for long-term and sustainable success. However, off-page SEO cannot work independently, as it requires you on-page SEO, too, to complement it.

Most webmasters fail to create a balance between on-page and off-page SEO, which often leads to a failure. The tip is to first learn about on-page SEO and apply it to your webpages. In the meanwhile, you keep improving and optimizing the back-end of your website, i.e. the off-page SEO. Only then, you can really improve your website’s search engine rankings.

So, in short, on-page SEO is what you do on the front-end of your webpages. There are various techniques to optimize your webpages and following are some of the most important ones:

1. Page Titles

Page title is one of the most important key factors of on-page SEO. Every webpage has a unique title. Ideally, that title should contain the primary keyword that your webpage is all about. It is one of the most basic and effective on-page SEO techniques, i.e. to include your primary keyword in the title of your webpage.

Let’s suppose you are a writing a blog post about different tips and techniques for getting rid of lizards. Most users would search for the topic with keywords like “getting rid of lizards” and “how to get rid of lizards”. Therefore, it is wise to name your webpage as one of such keywords, e.g. “How to Get Rid of Lizards?”

In short, the idea is to include the keyword (that you are trying to optimize your webpage for) in your page’s main title.

2. Meta Description

The Meta description is one of the most neglected aspects. It does not only help the actual human readers to find what the post is all about, but it equally helps the search engines as well.

Most of time people don’t add Meta description. Do not make the same mistake. Moreover, a common on-page SEO practice is to include your keywords in that Meta description. Search engines love it!

3. URL Structure

Most webmasters believe that apart from the title of the page, the URL of a website/webpage is the second most important part to add keywords. The search engine crawlers find it easier to read keywords from the webpage’s URL structure. Therefore, most SEO specialists prefer using the main keywords in it.

Tip: If you are using WordPress, adding keywords to your webpage’s URL is fairly simple and easy. You can do it via the post editor. Moreover, you do not have to use include all the “articles” and “prepositions” in the URL structure. Just try adding all your primary keywords in it.

4. H1 and H2 Tags

Just like you add your keywords in the main title and URL of your page, it is equally important that you do the same with your H1 and H2 tags.

H1 and H2 tags are commonly referred to as “heading tags”. Most webmasters and SEO experts believe that search engine crawlers find it easier to evaluate a webpage if its heading tags contain important keywords.

The H1 refers to the main heading of your page. The H2 refers to the sub-headings. Try adding your important keywords to both the main-heading and the sub-headings for better results.

5. Keyword Density

Keyword density is another important factor of on-page search engine optimization. Many people confuse it and end up with unnecessary “keyword stuffing”. Do remember that Google penalizes the websites that unnecessarily use keywords in their webpages.

Although there is no ideal percentage of keyword inclusion, most SEO experts believe that 3%-5% inclusion is considered fair — as long as it seems natural to add those keywords. Moreover, some SEO experts that belong with the modern school of thought believe that “once is enough” and that you should consider writing the posts for the humans, rather than the search engines. Both the theories seem correct in different scenarios. The bottom line is just not to stuff keywords unnecessarily.

6. Image Optimization

Not many people enough attention to images, but you can optimize your website through this source as well. It is important to understand that search engines cannot read and comprehend images. So in order to use them for your website’s search engine optimization, use the Alt Text option. It is the text that goes along with your image, and shows up when the image can’t. Search engines can read that text to identify what the image is all about, and your website can then rank for the same.

In Conclusion:

If you want to properly optimize your website for higher search engine rankings, then you simply cannot neglect the on-page SEO. It is the most basic aspect of search engine optimization, and the one that does not require much time and efforts — especially when compared with the off-page SEO.

In the next post, we will be exploring the second segment, i.e. the off-page SEO techniques. Stay tuned.