10-Step On-Page SEO Checklist (UPDATE 2018)

 

Being a webmaster you probably want to grow your site, rank higher in

Google and other search engines, increase your traffic and make sales.

Whatever the case may be, there are many things which needed to be taken care of in order to get the desired results.

SEO is one of them.

As you may know, SEO is divided into two parts: On-Page and Off-Page.

On-page is considered as one of the key factors in boosting your website.

By Off-Page SEO it means the methods or steps taken outside your website such as Blog comments, Guest posting, etc.

Today we are going to discuss On-Page SEO.

What is On-Page SEO?

Basically, On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing your individual web pages or post in order to rank higher in the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) and earn more relevant traffic to your site

Benefits Of On-Page SEO:

  • Local Results
  • Inexpensive & Powerful Marketing: It is likewise the cheapest manner to sell our website in Google natural consequences.
  • Increased Traffic: As you rank higher, you will attract more traffic
  • Brand Awareness: If you are on the top rankings, it will automatically attract a decent number of impressions according to the search volume and by having your website in these top positions, it will translate to more exposure for your website and instills trust and much more.

On-Page SEO Factors

You see, Google looks at a number of factors when they rank a web page.

Here’s are some of the on-page SEO insights which are really gonna help you in the long run:

#1 Title tags

Yes, title tags, they are that important.

Make sure you add your focus keyword in the title of your page. Not only that, try to include the keyword in the title tag in the first 5 words because Google gives much importance to it.

The bottom line is that the closer your keyword is to the beginning of the title, the better it is.

Here are some of my Personal recommendations for optimizing your title tags:

  • Watch your title length
  • Don’t overdo SEO keywords
  • Give every page a unique title
  • Put important keywords first
  • Take advantage of your brand

#2 Meta descriptions

Same as Title tags, Make sure that you include your keyword in the page’s meta description.

Try to keep your meta descriptions under 160 characters.

Some tips to write compelling Meta Descriptions that’ll boost your rankings:

  • Stop focusing so much on character count
  • Be unique and interesting
  • Include your keywords
  • Provide Your Value Proposition to the Customer
  • Make It Welcoming and Flawless
  • Incorporate a Call-to-Action or Offer

#3 Use SEO-Friendly URLs

Using a good URL structure is an SEO technique that is often neglected.

Keep your URLs as simple, relevant, compelling, and accurate as possible.

I would recommend you to make your URL around at 3-5 words.

For instance, your URL should never look like this-

www.yourdomain.com/cheapest-laptop-in-2018/pub/post-ID074024303&uq=Laptop

Instead, keep it this way:

www.yourdomain.com/cheapest-laptop-in-2018

#4 Internal Links

Internal linking helps establish site architecture and spread the link juice. it is very much essential to any website.

Link only when relevant though, whenever you publish a new blog post, link to your older posts.

Benefits Of Internal Linking:

  • Internal links make your site more user-friendly – Anchor texts (helps users to easily navigate within your site)
  • Internal links pass the link juice
  • Internal links increase page views
  • Internal links help in increasing PageRank
  • Internal links reduce the bounce rate
  • Better crawling and indexing

#5 Boost Site Speed

Google has recently stated that Starting in July 2018, Google will finally use mobile page speed as a ranking in their mobile search results.
So, that means the least you can do to your SEO is to increase your site load speed.

Benefits of Site Speed:

  • Prevent Conversion Sabotage
  • Protect Paid Search Investment
  • Google Ranking Factor

According to a study from MunchWeb, they found out that 75% of users wouldn’t re-visit a site that took longer than 4 seconds to load.

The bottom line is that it is not an option to increase your website speed, but a mandatory.

Must Read: How to Increase Your Website Speed

#6 Optimize images

Here are some ways to optimize your Images:

  • Add a caption, if appropriate, for easier scanning of the page.
  • Use a relevant image that matches your text.
  • Reduce file size for faster loading.
  • Make sure image dimensions match the image size as displayed.
  • Use srcset if possible.
  • Pick a good file name for your image.
  • Use image alt text

#7 Sprinkle LSI Keywords

In simple terms, LSI keywords (Latent Semantic Indexing) are keywords semantically related to your main keyword.

Sprinkle in between your content.

LSI keywords also prevent your content from being marked spam in the eyes of search engines.

Benefits of using LSI Keywords:

  • Prevents Your Content From Being Labelled as Spam
  • Decrease in Bounce Rates
  • Increase On-Page Time Spent By Visitors
  • Improve Search Engine Rankings
  • Improve Blog Authority

#8 Improve User Dwell Time

According to Google Rankbrain, Dwell time is taken as a ranking factor in Google.

Here are some ways to reduce Bounce Rate:

  • Improve Your Content’s Readability
  • Avoid Popups – Don’t Disrupt the UX
  • Create a Compelling Call-to-Action
  • Improve Your Brand Storytelling
  • Keep Your Blog Fresh With the Right Content
  • Target Keywords With High-Value Traffic

#9 HTTPS

Back in 2014, Google once rolled out an algorithm in favor of websites with SSL Certificate or HTTPS.

Google also again recently announced that having an SSL Certificate is the easiest thing site owners can do to boost SEO ranking.
So, you need to make sure your site is migrated to HTTPS.

Here is an article on how to migrate from HTTP to HTTPS

#10 Long Form Content

Backlinko recently analyzed over 1 million web pages and found out that longer content tends to do better than short content.

So make sure that your content is long.

But that isn’t always the case, there is some exception too.

Benefits of Long Form Content:

  • Higher online visibility
  • More social sharing
  • Better link building
  • Reliable website authority
  • Long-Form Content is Evergreen
  • Lower Costs for Inbound Marketing
  • Greater Value

CONCLUSION

Is this all the On-Page SEO Tactics?

NO WAY! There are many more such as:

  • Sitemap and robots.txt
  • Avoiding Dead links
  • Content optimization as per HTML parameters like Keeping head tag, body tag etc
  • W3 Code validation
  • Optimizing your 404 page
  • Redirection of 301 and 302 pages with .htaccess file
  • Using proper phrases, etc

If I have to list down everything, it would never end because search engines are constantly evolving and changing and along with that change, new method and tactics arise too.

Pick a few and maintain it sincerely.

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