On-Page SEO Optimization: Complete Guide For Beginners

7 On-Page SEO Optimization Techniques

Everyone wants to rank their website on the first page of Google. 

But the fact is nobody knows how Google ranks except Google. 

Also, Google regularly updates its algorithm to rank web pages. They make more than 500 changes every year. 

So for you to stand out you need to be updated about their ranking factors. 

After all Google’s mission is to make information organized, accessible, and useful to everyone. 

Let us now get into some of the on-page SEO optimization factors that could possibly affect your ranking.

What is On-page SEO?

As the name suggests, it refers to all the activities you do on the website to rank your blog post on search engines. It includes keyword research, writing good TITLE tags, anchor text, alt tags,  internal linking, creating good content, and much more. 

1. Keyword Research

Step 1 : 

An easy way to bring organic traffic through on-page SEO is to do intensive keyword research. 

You can check our article on how to do keyword research to increase your search engine rankings. 

Step 2 : 

Once you’re done with your keyword research, try to use your keywords in 

• Title Tag
• Meta tag description
• First 100-150 words of your article
• Image Alt Text
• H1 tag
• H2/H3 tag
• Last 100 words of your page

Step 3 :

Make short URLs and try to include your keyword. 

Here high-income skills are the keyword and it has been included in the URL

Step 4 : 

Using modifiers like “best”, “guide”, “checklist”, “fast” and “review” can help you rank for long-tail versions of your target keyword.

Use the keyword in your meta description as well as shown below

Step 5 : 

You have to include LSI keywords in order to make Google understand that it’s a comprehensive article. 

LSI keywords are the keywords that Google suggests at the bottom of the page.

When you have enough keyword count that is at least 5-6 times in an article, it will make Google realize that it’s an authentic article on that particular keyword. 

Also, make sure that you don’t overstuff your article with your primary keyword, In that case, Google will penalize you. 

2. Site speed

Google ranks your website based on your website page load time speed. 

You can check your page speed through Pingdom or GT Metrix. 

Your speed should be below 2 secs for desktop and below 1 sec for mobile phone. 

Factors affecting it could be your page size, image size, and many more.

We have checked our site speed using GT Metrix. We are trying to improve our web speed. 

According to a study by Neil Patel Agency “A delay of a single second in page response time can yield a 7% reduction in conversions”.

3. Domain age and authority

Older websites rank faster than new websites. 

So be consistent with your posts and as time goes by you’ll be able to rank better. 

So the key is to work hard and be patient. 

Domain authority (DA) also matters. Domain authority is a score out of 100 which says how authentic your website is. A score above 40 is a good score.   

Higher DA content is easier to rank than lower DA content. So the more traffic and backlinks you get, your DA improves. 

So take away is that the higher the age and authority of your website, the better. 

4. Mobile friendly

Google has repeatedly stressed on the fact that the page ranking is based on its user experience.

Up to 60% of searches happen on mobile and only 40% happen through the desktop.

So it’s very very important for you to make your site mobile friendly. We can’t stress enough on this.  

Google has their own mobile-friendly test tool, which says “Yes” or “No”(in terms of mobile-friendliness).

Just type the keyword (mobile-friendly test) you can also check through Google search console.

It will also help you to fix the errors in order to make your website mobile-friendly. 

So things to keep in mind is

• Try to use mobile-friendly themes
• Make your content readable and large 
• Try avoiding pop-ups for mobile devices
• Your bounce rate should be as minimum as possible
• Have a good responsive then suitable for mobiles, tablets, etc. 

Yet another on-page SEO optimization factor to win Google preference in the ranking.

5. Linking to improve your on-page SEO score 

Step 1 : 

Link to relevant pages. It will help Google realize its quality content. 

Try to include at least 5-6 links for every 1000 words written. This can serve three purposes. 

One reason is Google will understand that you have done good research and it’s an authoritative article. 

Secondly, your audience will know the reference sources and it will be helpful to learn more about your content. It will make your audience realize that you’re producing value to them and it helps you to build your relationship with them. 

Thirdly, you can take this as an opportunity to mail the people whom you linked and ask them for a backlink in return. 

Having backlinks is one of the important on-page SEO optimization factors often ignored.

Step 2 : 

It is highly difficult for you to rank all the articles from your website. 

It’s obvious that some rank and some don’t. 

Do interlinking from highly performing pages to poor performing pages of your own page.  

So when poor performing pages start getting traffic, it will make Google realize that it’s valuable content and it will rank them above. 

Link building improves the overall health of your site and your Domain Authority. 

Step 3 : 

You need to keep an eye on broken links. Broken links are something that shows an error when clicked on it due to some reason.

There are various tools to check for broken links and Dr. Link Check is one such tool. 

Once we checked our website on this tool, we immediately removed all the broken links. 

So make a habit of checking once every month at least. 

6. Content

Creating compelling content and standing out from your competitors is important when you are doing content marketing. 

Step 1 : 

Ahrefs’ team has recently analyzed rankings across 2 million keywords. They found a strong correlation between the content length and ranking positions. 

The articles which have more than 2000 words try to be on the top page of the search list. 

It’s because people will spend more time on your site to read it. This will indicate Google that your article is good and will rank you higher. 

If a person spends 2 minutes on the first search and 5 minutes on second, Google will understand it as the second article is better than the first. Google will promote to first

Step 2 : 

Using the original image is better than using stock images or using images from other websites and giving credit

It is because Google will understand it as the original.

Use a descriptive filename and alt text for every image on your screen. This will help visually impaired people to read the image. 

Use a filename that includes your keyword.

Image source: backlino.com

Step 3 : 

Try to include quality images and infographics in your article as much as you can. 

One reason is people when they share it, you get a backlink. 

Secondly, people spend more time on images and infographics. This will decrease your bounce rate.  

7. Bounce Rate 

The bounce rate could mean two things. 

One that your website is completely useless and your audience immediately wants to come out of it. 

Second, it could mean that your audience has already found an answer and that they want to come out. 

You should be knowing better than us what could be the reason for the higher bounce rate in your website and you must try to fix it. 

Conclusion : 

The true purpose of Google to update algorithms related to On-page SEO is to guide their users properly when they navigate their site.

Keep this in mind always. If your page is not user-friendly, Google will never respect your website. Therefore on-page SEO optimization is some of the ways you have to make your blog user friendly.

Try to study tools from Google whether it be Google Analytics or Google Search Console and much more similar tools like that.

The basic idea is “the more time people spend on your website, the higher your rank will be”. 

If you have implemented any of these On-page SEO techniques, let us know in the comments below.

Feel free to check our recent article on writing the most engaging content for your blog.

 If you want any assistance, you can always mail us at billionairediscipline@gmail.com