How to On-page SEO
Situated halfway between content and technique, on-page SEO is the collection of optimization techniques applied directly within the content of a page.
The main optimization techniques
Here are six techniques that you absolutely must work on for your pages, especially your most important ones.
1. Title Tags (and Meta Description)
These HTML tags are the first thing that internet users see on search engines.
- The Title tag is the blue link on Google
- The Meta description is the small descriptive text underneath.
In practice, the Title tag is officially recognized by Google, but not the Meta description. This is often changed by search engines to adapt to the user's query (this also happens with the Title tag but less frequently).
The Title tag might be the most crucial optimization in SEO. This element is highly significant as it should describe the content of your page in a few words, while also enticing to click.
The Meta description remains essential as it helps persuade the internet user to click on your site rather than another. Ensure that the meta description does not exceed 105 characters.
Here are some best practices for the Title tag:
- Between 60 and 65 characters
- Main keyword at beginning
- Optional brand name at the end (except for home page)
And here are some examples:
- The 26 best free SEO software in 2024
- Leave and absence management - PayFit
- Plezi - Marketing Automation Software for B2B (home page)
Here’s a valuable tip from an expert in the field: "If you only have 30 minutes to dedicate to SEO, focus on the Title tags of the most important pages on your site."
2. The URL of the page
Your URL should be short and include the main keyword or a very similar term. The goal is for it to be clear to the user.
Here are two quick examples:
3. Hn Tags
Header tags (h1, h2, etc.) are the titles and subtitles visible on your page.
To understand their usefulness, you can revisit the structure of a presentation:
- The title of the presentation will be your h1
- The main parts will be your h2
- Each chapter making up the parts will be your h3, and so on.
These tags must be optimized to include the main keyword and/or the associated semantic field. In this way, search engines will better understand the subject of the page.
4. The internal linking
Pages on the same topic absolutely must be linked together with internal links. And don’t forget to optimize the link text (anchor text in the jargon) with the main keyword of the target page.
Avoid using links such as "to learn more about our SEO training, click here" as much as possible.
Opt for 'to enhance your skills, find our online SEO courses' instead.
The link text is read by search engines and helps strengthen the perception of the main keyword on the page.
5. Optimize the images
Images should be optimized in two ways.
The first is to have a clear name (so not DSC002.jpg).
The second is to have the Alt tag completed to provide a textual description to search engines of what the image represents.
Wait, what’s an alt tag?
The alt tag is a brief textual description that you add to an image on your website.
It serves to explain what the image shows, especially in cases where the image does not display or for users who use screen readers due to visual impairment.
For example, if you have an image of a dog, the alt tag could be "dog playing in the park". This description helps search engines understand what the image represents and how it relates to the content of your page.
Managing alt tags is very easy, especially if you're using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. In most CMS, when you upload an image, there's a specific field to enter the alt tag. All you need to do is fill this field with a suitable description for each image you add to your site.
Example of good image optimization:
- Name: lighthouse-belle-ile.jpg
- Alt tag: Belle-Île lighthouse
That covers the main on-page SEO optimization techniques.
Note that most website editors such as WordPress, Wix, or Webflow allow you to easily optimize these on-page SEO elements, and will even guide you on how to do it.
There are also excellent SEO tools to help you create optimized content. The ones I recommend are Surfer SEO or YourTextGuru.
Focus on Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO lets you analyze the structure and content of your pages in detail, and in comparison to those of your competitors. It’s particularly powerful in identifying optimization opportunities that can have a significant impact on your ranking in search engines.
Key features of Surfer SEO:
Analysis of results pages
The tool compares your content with that of your competitors ranked on the first page of Google. It gives you precise recommendations on content length, keywords to use, and their density.
SEO audit on-page
Surfer SEO performs a comprehensive analysis of your site, identifying technical or content issues that could hinder your SEO performance.
Apply optimizations to the content
Now that we have all we need to write optimized content, let's summarize what we've seen with a final example based on the query "learn a language quickly".
A. Page Setting
| Keyword principal | earn a language quickly |
| Stage of the buying journey | Stimulating interest in the offer |
| Parent theme | Learning a language |
| Search intent | Advice/guide in the form of a blog post |
| Differentiating angle | Soccer players |
| Monthly volume | 210 searches |
| SEO difficulty | 53 (average) |
| Keyword goal | +25% thus 1250 words |
B. On-Page Optimizations
| Title tag | Learning a language quickly
with the soccer players method |
| Meta description tag | Learn to speak another language fluently in record time thanks to the techniques of top professionals (...) |
| Page URL | .../blog/learn-language-quickly-
soccer-players-method |
| H1 title | Learning a language quickly:
t echniques used by soccer players |
| Introduction | Did you know that footballers
were experts in accelerated learning of foreign languages (...) |
| Part 1: H2 title | How to Learn a Language in Less Than 3 Months |
| Part 2: Title h2 | The 5-step plan to learn a language quickly |
| Part 3: Title h2 | The trick Neymar used to learn French so quickly |
| Conclusion | In summary, you can learn a language very quickly by... |
About the first paragraph
Those first opening sentences must contain the main keyword (or similar), and they should also entice the reader to continue reading. Also, avoid including links at this stage so that the user continues to read.
You are now ready to write any content optimized for SEO!
We primarily illustrated this chapter with article-type content. Of course, you can apply the concepts and techniques of on-page SEO to any type of page you wish to rank higher in search engines.