11 Best On-Page SEO Techniques for First Page Ranking In Google

On-page SEO is one of the most important parts of SEO. On-Page SEO Techniques are used not only for achieving higher rankings in SERPs but also for running successful Internet marketing campaigns. If you do not follow On-Page SEO rules or guide lines then your result will not be the same you expected.

In the past Off-Page Optimization was enough for higher ranking in Google. But now Google wants Search Engine Optimization more organized and Gives emphasize on On-Page SEO Techniques. So at present, it is a very important ranking factor and my advice to you is, keep an eye on every page of your site whether On-Page SEO Methods are properly implemented or not.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-Page SEO refers to all the procedures that you can apply on your website to help your website rank higher, such as page titles, internal linking, Meta tags & descriptions, etc. With the help of On-Page SEO, we can optimize both content and HTML source code of a page.

The ultimate goal of on-page SEO is to speak the ‘Search Engines Language’ and help crawlers understand the meaning and context of your pages. By doing so it will help the Google and other Search Engines to index the content or pages according to our targeted Keywords.

11 Best On-Page SEO Techniques

Here I will discuss 11 best On-Page SEO Techniques that will help you to optimize your website according to Google rules and improve your SERPs ranking. They are:

1. Page Title / Title Tag
2. URL / Permalinks / Web Address
3. Meta Descriptions
4. Meta Tags
5. Content Optimization
6. Heading Tags
7. Internal Linking
8. External Linking
9. Image Optimization
10. Website’s Speed
11. Mobile Friendliness

Page Title / Title Tag

Page Title or Title Tag is the most important on-page SEO factor. Because in SERPs, visitors only see the title of a content. So the more attractive and optimized your title is the more people will click. And your website will get higher ranking in Google. Some characteristics of an SEO friendly Page Title are:

• The Page Title / Title Tag must be 100% unique, relevant and meaningful.
• We must use H1 tags for the Page Title.
• Title Tags should be a maximum of 70 characters long, including spaces. But the best practice is 50 – 55 characters.
• Page Title should be no longer than 512 pixels in wide. But the best practice is under 460 pixels.
• Title Tag must have the main keywords. Place main keywords as close to the beginning as possible; the closer a word to the start of the Title Tag, the more influence it exerts.
• Use pipes | to separate important keyword or phrases (no commas, underscores, dashes or any other punctuation)

URL / Permalinks / Web Address

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and it is a reference or address to a resource on the Internet. Including search engine friendly URLs for each page on a website is a very important On-Page SEO Techniques and Google likes it. Some characteristics of an SEO friendly URL / Permalinks / Web Address are:

• URL must be short because shorter URLs perform better in search engine results and bring better crawling.
• URL must contain main Keywords because Google gives preference to it.
• Use dashes (-) to separate the strings in your URL structure. Avoid using special characters, symbols, brackets, commas, etc. within the actual URL.
• Avoid using stop words in URLs.

Meta Descriptions

The Meta Description is a tag in HTML that summarizes a page’s content. So the main purpose of Meta Description is to get the visitor from Google through Organic Search. Although there is no direct ranking benefit from the Meta Description, but it is a good SEO practice and Google likes it. Some characteristics of an SEO friendly Meta Description are:

• Meta Description should be around 300 to 320 characters.
• It should contain the main keyword.
• Meta Description should be the summary of Article because it gives the visitors an overview of the page.
• Including a “call-to-action” in Meta Description is a good practice. For example “Find out more!”, “Learn more” “Get it now”, “Try for free” etc.

Meta Tags

Meta Tags don’t appear on the page’s content; it only appears in the page’s code. For every page of your website, you can include a set of keywords in the form of Meta Tags. It helps search engines to understand what your page is all about and index them accordingly.

There was a time when Meta Tags were one of the most valuable On-Page SEO Techniques until people started abusing its use in getting on top of the SERPs. After that, Google removes Meta Tags from the ranking factors. But it is better to have some knowledge about it than nothing.

Content Optimization 

Content is the king of SEO and Google gives more ranking value for a unique, informative and well-optimized content. So Content Optimization is the most important On-Page SEO Techniques. A well-researched article charms the readers and helps your website to get higher ranking in SERPs. Some characteristics of a Good Content Optimization are:

• An eye catching and informative title is a must for Content.
• Content must be original. Using copies or rewrites of existing articles will harm your website and in a worse case, Google can remove your site from the search engine index completely.
• The minimum word for per content is 1000. Article containing more than 1500 words get more shares, more links and better rankings.
• Content should have an Introduction and conclusion part with around 100 words.
• Each Content must have a Featured Image.
• Using info graph, video, podcast in content is a very good Content Optimization practice and it increases the user engagement time.
• Correct grammar and punctuation makes an Article user-friendly to the readers and is very important for making good impressions and authority.
• Using relevant keywords in content is important but we have to aware about Keyword Density. The best practice is to keep your Keyword Density around 1.5%.
• Sub Headings (H2, H3, and H4) help reader to understand what the paragraph is about. Moreover using LSI keyword in Sub Headings help Google and other search engines identify what your page is all about.
• Using Bullet Point / Numbering in content is a good Content Optimization practice.

Heading Tags

Heading Tags are used for highlighting various headings, sub-headings, and important points. There are 6 kinds of Heading Tags. They are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5 and H6. When we are writing our article, we should break up our content into smaller sections and paragraphs to make it easier for people to read. Moreover Content with different Heading Tags tends to get higher ranking in SERPs.

Using Heading Tags is a very effective On-Page SEO Techniques because Google likes them a lot. In content, H1 tag is used only for Page Title. But we can use H2, H3, H4 etc. tags for section breaks and paragraphs.

We must put main keywords or LSI Keywords in Heading Tags (Specially H1, H2 and H3). Because search engines use Heading Tags to determine what the content is about and what is important within the content. That is why keyword rich headings are more important for ranking than general ones.

Internal Linking 

Internal linking refers to any links that go from one page of a domain to a different page on the same domain. They are generally used for website navigation but they also spread link juice (ranking power) around websites.

Internal Linking is one of the major On-Page SEO Techniques because with the help of it you can direct traffic to your other pages and posts too. The best practice of Internal linking is to use keywords as anchor text. But we have to make sure that Internal Linking is relevant and necessary.

When search engines crawl our website, Internal Linking that are relevant to the original post show that we are providing extra information beyond what is being displayed in the content. By doing so the ranking of our website effectively improves, as search engines find our content a useful piece of information.

External Linking

External Linking refers to those hyperlinks that point to any domain other than the source domain where the link exists on. So if you are linking out to another website or another website links to your website, both considered as External Linking.

A recent SEO Study by Reboot shows that External Linking is a powerful On-Page SEO Techniques and they do have a positive impact on SEO. When you offer good content with good and relevant External Linking, Google considers your site as a good source of information.

This is what “White Hat SEO Expert Brian Dean” says about External Links and On Page SEO:

Some characteristics of an SEO friendly External Linking are:

• Trustworthiness of the linking domain
• Popularity of the linking page
• Relevancy of the content between the source page and the target page
• Anchor text used in the link
• Number of root domains that link to the targeted page

Image Optimization

Image plays a very important role in SEO and when we use images in our content, it makes our site more visually appealing and breaks up boring chunks of text. But unfortunately, Image Optimization is the most underused On-Page SEO Techniques. So if images are optimized properly then they can bring loads of traffic to our site and improve our website’s ranking in SERPs.

When we are optimizing our images for our website or blog post, we have to fulfil these requirements:

• An image must be 100% unique and topic relevant. If you need to use an existing image from other websites, then you have to reference the source.
• For every blog post, you must use a Featured Image / Cover Image.
• Image size matters, the smaller the size of the image the better.

1. Large Image < 200kb (1920*1080pix)
2. Medium Image < 100kb (1024*780pix)
3. Small Image < 50kb

• Give relevant file names to your images. When renaming the images, you must use a dash (-) as a separator. For example digital-marketing-importance.
• Every image must have an Alt Text and using the main keyword as an Alt Text is a good SEO practice (Where Relevant). Alt Text helps the search engines to understand what the image is about. In WordPress, it is very simple to add Alt Text since the option is given when you upload an image.
• You must set EXIF (Exchangeable Image Format) Data for every image you use on your site. Those are:

1. Title
2. Rating
3. Tags
4. Author – Domain / Website Name
5. Date Taken
6. Copyright – Domain / Website Name

Website’s Speed 

Website’s Speed is a very important On-Page SEO Techniques and Google has officially added website’s speed as one of the ranking factors in their ranking algorithm. Moreover, it is also crucial for user experience.

A recent survey by Kissmetrics showed that 47% of users expect a site to load within 2 seconds and if it takes 3 seconds or more to load they will abandon the site. So it means you have to be precise about your website’s speed and make sure that your website loads as fast as possible. Here are some of the many ways to increase your website’s speed:

• For WordPress sites, you can Use caching plugins like Super Cache, WP-Rocket, W3 Total Cache. They will boost your site’s speed.
• Use optimized and compressed images.
• Using a lightweight and optimized WordPress theme will increase your sites speed.
• If you are using a lot of videos or other media files then it is wise to use CDN (Content Delivery Network).
• Use a fast web hosting server.
• Excessive use of plugins will decrease your website’s speed. So it is better not to use unnecessary plugins.

Mobile Friendliness

At present Mobile Devices play a very significant role in online businesses and bring more traffics than any other sources. About 60% of the searches in Google are now coming from mobile devices. That’s why from April 21, 2015, Google added Mobile-Friendliness as a ranking factor in their search algorithm.

This means if your site is not mobile-friendly then your ranking in SERPs will decrease, more importantly, you will lose more than half of the potential traffic. So it is a very important On-Page SEO Techniques. Here are some ways you can make your website mobile-friendly:

• Build a Mobile-Friendly Site with a responsive web template.
• Use Mobile Plugins on popular CMS (Content Management Systems) platforms like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal.
• Use high-resolution images.
• Create a Mobile Version of Your Current Site using a conversion platform like bMobilized or Duda Mobile (Have Some Drawbacks).

The closure

Well, that’s all for now. I have shared these 11 On-Page SEO Techniques with you guys. Implementing these on-page methods in your site will surely boost your website’s ranking in SERPs. Moreover, it will increase traffic to your site and you will generate more conversions. So, if you want your visitors/customers to knock on your doorstep, then optimize your site according to these On-Page SEO Techniques.

Feel free to share your opinion regarding this article. If I missed out any topics or techniques then please mention it in comments. I’ll be happy to take a look!

Should Read: Off-Page SEO Techniques: The Ultimate Guide for Better Rankings