SEO On Page Optimization Explained

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the technique of obtaining visitors via unpaid, editorial, organic, or natural search results in search engines like Google. It seeks to raise the position of your website in search results.

There are two SEO practices - On-page and Off-page. Activities or modifications made on a single page of a website are called on-page optimization (on-site optimization when the whole website is modified).

On page SEO Off page SEO

On-page optimization

In this blog, we are discussing on-page optimization.  On-page optimization includes improving the title, meta tag, content, anchor text, image, etc.  Before we get deep into on-page optimisation, we need to first understand what a snippet is? A website's snippet is a small summary that displays in search results. A standard snippet shows URL, SEO title, meta description when browsing through a desktop or laptop. A feature called 'favicon' (a miniature form of the website's icon) is also displayed when browsing through mobile phone. Some websites also display advanced snippets, which shows links to inner pages, events, star ratings, thumbnail, etc to get maximum impressions and site visits. 

What is an SEO snippet


SEO Title Optimization 

On-page SEO occurs in the head and body sections of the web page. The process starts with modification in the SEO title, which is crucial for any website. The title plays the role of an identity card for the website and it helps Google to get a hint about the website during crawling. 

Example of title tag
The highlighted code is an example of title tag


SEO Title Specifications 

In order to get better visibility during searches, Google recommends some best practices. Here it goes.
  • When optimizing the title, the best and most effective practice is to create a meaningful title featuring the focusing keyword. 
  • Google has set a maximum pixel width (character limit) of 512 for SEO titles. To stay within the pixel limit, it is advised not to use capital and small letters throughout the title.
  • SEO title should be error-free. Be the best with spelling and grammar.
  • SEO title should not be less than three words. One or two-word SEO titles need not be helpful for Google to understand the nature of the website when it crawls.
  • Avoid title duplication. SEO title should be unique for each webpage. The SEO title of a page should not be used in the same way for another page. Google terms the situation as 'keyword cannibalism'. 
  • 55 to 60 characters are allowed in SEO titles. This includes letters and spaces between the words.

Notes About Site Links 

Site links are links to the subpages of a website. It can be seen as a dropdown when a search result pops up. These links take a visitor to the inner pages of the website directly from the search page. Those pages which have got more internal links (An internal link is a hyperlink that allows navigation from one page in a website to another) have higher chances of showing as site links.

H1, H2 Optimiziation 

Google may use H1 or H2 in the body portion of the pages for identifying the character of the web page. An SEO analyst must pay attention to SEO title optimization as it boosts chances for Google Rankings. Also, understand that if SEO title is not given, or the given title is not optimized, then Google considers H1 as SEO title. In the case H1 is missing, then H2 is taken as SEO title.

Meta Description Optimization 

A brief description of the website shown in the snippet is called a meta description. As mentioned above, the basic snippet includes a URL, meta description, and title. An impressive meta description is a must for Google ranking. 155-160 characters are considered ideal for a meta description. Meta description must be unique and it should be included on that page. If the meta description is omitted, then Google considers the content of the page as a meta description. 

A Robots meta tag, also known as robots tags, is a piece of HTML code that's placed in the <head></head> section of a web page and is used to control how search engines crawl and index the URL.

Optimizing The Body Part of A Web Page 

H1 tags

H1 tags are the most visible thing on a body part of a web page. H1 tag should

  • include focus keyword
  • be error-free 
  • relevant to the website
  • not be too lengthy
Google underlines to use single H1 tag. If a website uses one or more H1 tags, which are contrary to each other, then Google's crawling bots will be confused and those pages will be added to a temporary database called 'Sandbox'.


H2 tag

H2 tag comes after H1 tag as its supporting content or a subheading to H1.  An H2 tag has a larger size than the rest of your main body text, much like an H1 tag does. SEO experts recommend using a single H2. Be mindful to provide complementing content below every headline. Contradictions will push pages into the sandbox. At the same time, multiple H3 and H4 can be used.

Content optimization 

  • Content descriptions should be simple and easily understandable. 
  • Create content that would give the best possible user experience
  • Avoid using lengthy sentences. Do not exceed 20 words in a sentence
  • Use the focusing keyword in the first sentence and twice in the body portion  
  • Arrange keywords in the visible area of the body portion
  • Use legible fonts, colors, and size
  • Device friendly


I have also published a beginner's blog on the History and Evolution of SEO. Click here to read. 


 






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