Having an on page SEO checklist is becoming more and more necessary year in year out. What’s on-page SEO? Well, it’s the optimizing of individual website pages.
This is not the same as on-site SEO, which entails optimizing the whole site altogether. However, these optimization types aren’t mutually exclusive.
For you to rank well, your foundation needs to be all about on-page SEO. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is basically just link building (the process of getting backlinks back to your site).
Many people who have basic SEO knowledge usually think on-page SEO is all about just placing keywords randomly across a web page. Yes, keywords are very important when it comes to on-page optimization, however, there’s a lot more that goes into it than it.
The checklist below will help you know how to fully optimize your web pages and will also help you understand how to build rapport, increase dwell time, and even drive up your conversions. Follow this checklist carefully and you’re certain to achieve perfectly optimized webpages.
Jump ahead to:
Crawling And Indexing
If Google spiders can’t find your page, then you have no hope of ranking. “No Index” tags and robots.txt file are the two major culprits you need to keep an eye out for. Having a webpage that’s “crawlable” is the first step you need to take if you want to rank in Google.
There several online resources that can help you check how crawlable your webpages are. In most cases, all it will take you is to type in your URL and then hitting the submit button.
Also, is your page indexable? If you want to quickly check whether your page is indexed or not, type in your URL into Google and search.
Established webpages will show up. If you don’t find your website, then there are a few other things you need to attend to.
For starters, check whether the page has a “NoIndex” tag. You can do this using a free Google Indexing tool, or contacting a trusted SEO expert to perform an SEO audit for you.
Performance
Have you set up Google Analytics tracking on your pages? You need to know how to measure your page’s SEO performance.
Okay, there are other decent alternatives besides Google Analytics, but truth is, it’s really hard to beat. Anyway, the important thing is that you find something that can help you track conversions and organic search traffic.
Furthermore, are you tracking primary keyword phrases as well? The tracking of individual keywords is nowhere near as straightforward as it once was. This is largely due to personalization, localization and several other factors.
However, that still doesn’t give you an excuse not to track your primary keywords. Just ensure you are on the right path when doing so. Most people like to use Ahrefs for the tracking of the keywords.
Keywords
Make sure you aren’t wasting time targeting the wrong keywords. A lot of people really don’t know how hard it can be to rank well for certain keywords. Go through extensive competitor analysis and keyword qualification procedures to make sure your focus is where it should be.
While SEO professionals often don’t end up agreeing on everything, many will have a very hard time arguing how important it is for the title tag of your page to have your primary keyword included in it. If you take anything from this checklist, let it be putting your primary keyword in the page title.
Since we’re already on the story of the title, make sure you have a click-worthy one at that. Google crawlers use the words in the title tag to help them understand what the page is really all about. Aside from title tags, you also really need to grasp what Click-Through Rates are all about.
Google Search Console is where you can find your site’s SERP CTR performance. All you need to do is get on this platform and click the “Performance” tab.
Content
What you have on your page not only needs to be better, it also needs to be different from what your competitors are offering. Uniqueness now tramps length.
Every page on your site needs to provide the market with something fresh and new if you want it to rank well. Create content that’s different from what already exists but still adds value to the user.
As far as content is concerned, all writing is different. Having 2000 words on your page isn’t always a good thing, especially if the content is of low-quality. Writing is an art and skill, everyone has their own different levels.
You can either spend hundreds of hours coming up with your own content or you can hire someone that already possesses that skill.
Make sure your writing copy on an 8th-grade level and below. Why? Because it’s likely to be more engaging when most people can understand what you’re trying to say.
Yes, there are some target markets that require advanced content and writing, however, those markets are very few.
Content for the online audience should be actionable and easy to understand.
There’s a very big problem when someone can’t implement what you happen to suggest or simply can’t understand what you’re going on about.
Images
These days, you really need to have some images on your page if you want to effectively compete. Having unique images on your page will make it more engaging and interesting.
Ideally, you should strive to have more images than your competitors as this will help your site stand out and make it more appealing to your users.
Using Your Comprehensive On Page SEO Checklist
There’s a lot to think about when it comes to a proper on page SEO checklist, as you can see. Hopefully, what we’ve highlighted for you here will help set you on the right track and allow you to be fully prepared for the days ahead. Now you know what you need to do to optimize your webpages.
So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get to work. Contact us today for more information on how we can help enhance your SEO.
This post was published by Donald Kim at Optimized Webmedia. Optimized Webmedia is a customer centric, 360° Digital Marketing agency, specializing in SEO, Google Ads PPC, Content Writing, Social Media Marketing, and Website Design. To learn how Optimized Webmedia can help optimize your website to attract more visitors, book a free consultation and ask for our free SEO Site Audit.
