18-Step On-Page SEO Checklist To Optimize Your Pages

Attracting organic traffic isn’t as easy as you think. Having good content helps, but combining it with proper SEO optimization completes the marketing strategy. If your primary focus is to achieve higher rankings on Google, understanding of on-page vs off-page seo is essential, as well as having a proper on-page seo checklist, is important to get better results. Fortunately, we know what they are and have made a list in this article so that you can implement it in your marketing efforts, let’s get started.

Step by step on-page SEO checklist

Conduct Keyword Research

Well-researched keywords are the backbone of any type of SEO strategy and that’s a fact. But where do you get these keywords from? Start with identifying the target keywords for content optimization using various well-known keyword research tools. When looking for keywords, make sure to choose terms offering a balance between high search volume and low competition.

Create Compelling Title & Descriptions

There’s no need to explain why meta titles and descriptions are an essential on-page seo checklist for a business. These are often the first pieces of information users see on search results. These titles tell users about your content and what to expect so that it generates curiosity. So, if you want users to click on your article, you have to create exceptional content that genuinely meets your users’ needs. It is always better to create titles and descriptions that align with user search intent.

Check the Robots.txt file

In case you don’t know, Robots.txt is the first file on your website if present to be crawled by search engines. It usually consists of information about the web pages that shouldn’t be indexed. If your website has one such file, it is essential to check if there are any incorrect blocked pages. Robots.txt doesn’t usually affect a website’s SEO.

Focus on creating original content

Relevant quality content always generates web traffic and is a must-have on-page seo checklist. This means that overstuffing your web content with keywords won’t work as before. It is high time to invest in creating content that is valuable, informative and engaging. Another thing to consider is to align the content so that it matches user intent and addresses their needs. Also make sure to optimize various factors such as content length, headings, readability, etc.

Improve Page Speed

A mere second delay in loading your website can affect conversions and result in a bad user experience. This is something that you should experience for your website under any circumstance. You can resolve this by using a content delivery network, making technical optimizations to your website and compressing elements such as images, videos, etc.

Optimize Images for SEO

As described in the above point, making optimizations is necessary to enhance user experience and increase page loading speed. Since images are an important part of website aesthetics, making proper optimizations to them can prevent loading issues, broken images, etc. Using descriptive file names, and adding alt text for accessibility are also applicable.

Leverage Header Tags

Creating well-optimized relevant content helps but what you should also do is organize your content using header tags. Header tags are normally displayed as H1, H2, H3, etc. Apart from breaking down the content and structuring it into easily understandable sections for search engines, these tags enhance readability. Incorporating relevant keywords within header tags also helps enhance on-page SEO.

Maintain a High Uptime

There will be cases where your business website may have maintenance issues with the server. This leads to site downtimes. While having downtime for a shorter duration might be okay. However, if it is longer, that isn’t good for your website in the long term. In the event of such a scenario, consider a change of servers or redirect to a new IP.

Implement Internal Linking

Internal linking is one of the important on-page optimization checklists you must implement. Linking a webpage on your website with another page on the same website is internal linking and Google prioritizes such websites. Establishing a link between pages ensures that the pages are connected and related to one another. Not only that, but they also help users navigate to other web pages easily, thereby increasing on-site time.

Optimize For Keyword Density

You can’t even think about on-page SEO activities without including keywords. However, when it comes to keyword placement, placing them naturally is recommended to ensure a good content flow but you should opt to place them strategically in specific areas. Whatever you do, don’t resort to keyword stuffing as it will harm your SEO and readability.

Check for HTML Errors

Out of the various on-page SEO factors, having HTML Errors on your website has no excuse. These errors indicate your website’s poor quality and can be one of the reasons why your rankings drop. Hence, if your site has any sort of errors, it is crucial to fix them as soon as possible. You must also check if your website code is  W3C valid.

Include Clear CTAs

This might seem insignificant compared to the other strategies mentioned here. However, well-placed CTA buttons have the potential to convert and guide potential customers to the next stage of your business. So, if you haven’t given much importance to CTAs, now is the time.

Integrate Social Media

Don’t ever underestimate the power of social media. These are the platforms through which customers interact and engage with your business. This is exactly why social media are important on-page seo services that should be integrated as share buttons and connect buttons on your web content page. Through these links, users can follow your brand and search engines can know how many times your content has been liked or shared on social media.

Ensure Page Indexing

If you want your website to rank for a specific keyword, the webpage has to be indexed, correctly. Some factors might prevent web pages from getting indexed. Using tools such as Google Search Console or any other renowned SEO tools, the problem can be found and fixed.

Monitor Performance with Analytics

How do you know if your on-page SEO activities are performing well or if they need to be changed? Monitoring using tools such as Google Analytics and Search Console. Through these tools, you can track the performance, and check for bounce rates, status of keyword rankings, and other essential data.

Apply Schema Markup

Building a website is crucial for establishing an online presence. However, search engines must also know what your website and its contents are about. This is made possible by applying schema markup or structured data. Choosing the right schema type for your web content can seem difficult at first but with the right resources, it’s manageable.

Focus on User Experience

Your on-page optimization checklist shouldn’t be complete without this factor. Whatever your business website might be, make sure to provide a seamless, intuitive user experience. Not only does it keep your visitors on your site longer, but it also helps reduce bounce rates.

Prioritize Mobile-Friendly Design

These days, the average user browses the Internet through mobile devices. Therefore, ensuring a mobile-optimized and responsive website has become one of the most important on-page SEO strategies. This means that you have to ensure that every element in your site is optimized to fit correctly and is readable on different devices and screen sizes.

Winding Up

The step-by-step on-page SEO checklist described in this blog should suffice for your overall SEO efforts. The key isn’t to try everything at once, rather perform a trial and error method, see which of the strategies work for your business and deliver consistently to achieve long-term results. Looks like we have covered most of the on-page optimization checklist strategies here. If we have missed anything, please do let us know in the comments.