{"id":143143,"date":"2021-03-11T09:03:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T09:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=143143"},"modified":"2021-04-07T17:37:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T17:37:53","slug":"on-page-seo-a-handy-checklist-to-tick-off-in-2021-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/03\/11\/on-page-seo-a-handy-checklist-to-tick-off-in-2021-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"On-page SEO: a handy checklist to tick off in 2021 and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your web pages and content for search engine crawlers<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It involves a lot of moving parts, so it\u2019s easy to forget some elements or tweak them incorrectly<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This quick checklist will help you keep all the various on-page SEO elements on track<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On-page SEO is basically a set of techniques and best practices for your web pages to make them more search-engine friendly and thus, boost your rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, as you know, keywords are at the heart of nearly everything on-page SEO. But on-page optimization involves a lot of elements \u2014 not just keywords \u2014 so it\u2019s easy to overlook some of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To make it easy for you to ensure all your pages are correctly optimized for the best possible rankings, here\u2019s a handy checklist to tick off.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>URLs<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Review the URLs of all pages on your site to ensure they\u2019re concise rather than long and complex. Shorter URLs tend to have better click-through rates and are more easily understood by search engine crawlers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Include your page\u2019s primary keyword in the URL, remove filler (aka stop) words like \u201cthe\u201d, \u201cfor\u201d, and \u201cto\u201d, and keep it under 60 characters.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Images<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your website is likely brimming with images, and that\u2019s a good thing as images contribute significantly to improving both user experience and rankings. They make your content more easy-to-consume, engaging, and memorable, and when optimized correctly, help you drive more traffic to your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/05\/31\/image-optimization-for-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">optimize your images for on-page SEO<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, here are a couple of things to ensure:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Image filename and alt text<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google bots can\u2019t \u201csee\u201d images like humans. They need accompanying text to understand what the image is about. So, write a descriptive filename (\u201cblue-running-shoes.jpg\u201d instead of \u201c82596173.jpg\u201d) and alt text (which helps in case the image fails to load for some reason) for every image on your site, including keywords in both.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alt text also helps make your website more accessible, as screen readers use the alt text to describe images to visually-challenged users. In fact, it\u2019s prudent to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/accessibe.com\/blog\/knowledgebase\/diy-the-full-guide-to-testing-your-websites-accessibility-wcag-and-ada-compliance-level\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">test your website\u2019s accessibility<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to ensure you don\u2019t ever have to cough up big bucks for ADA lawsuit settlements.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Image file size<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2018\/01\/using-page-speed-in-mobile-search.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Page speed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a major ranking signal for both desktop and mobile searches, and bulky images slow down your site\u2019s load speed. So make sure to compress all images to reduce their size \u2014 ideally under 70 kb.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Titles and meta descriptions<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">See to it that you\u2019ve included your main keywords in the front of the title tags of all pages. Ensure the length of your title tags is under 60-65 characters and no longer than 70 characters, otherwise, it may get truncated in the SERPs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, the title should be the only element wrapped in the H1 heading tag. In other words, only one H1 tag per page that\u2019s reserved for the title.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For meta descriptions, just ensure you have written a keyword-rich and inviting meta description that is relevant to your user&#8217;s search intent. Keep it under 160 characters for all your pages. If you don\u2019t, Google will pick some relevant text from the page and display it as the meta description in the SERP, which isn\u2019t ideal for SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Page load speed<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speed is a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/web\/updates\/2018\/07\/search-ads-speed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">major ranking factor<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you just can\u2019t afford to overlook. If your pages take anything over two to three seconds to load, your visitors will bounce to a competitor, and achieving first page rankings will remain a dream.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thus, verify that:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Code is optimized with minified CSS and JS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are no unnecessary redirects<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You have compressed all images<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ve enabled file compression and browser caching<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Server response time is optimal<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regularly review your site speed using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/speed\/pagespeed\/insights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PageSpeed Insights<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to find out the exact areas that can be improved.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Links &#8211; internal and external<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure you have a proper <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/09\/29\/internal-linking-for-seo-examples-and-best-practices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">linking strategy<\/a> that you always follow. Both internal and external links play a role in your on-page SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>External links<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Citing external sources and having outbound links is crucial for building credibility in the eyes of both Google crawlers and human visitors. However, make sure that you\u2019re only linking back to high-quality websites and reliable sources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plus, ensure there are no broken (\u201c404 not found\u201d) links, as they hurt SEO and user experience. In case you may have a lot of site pages, it is best advised to create an engaging and easy-to-navigate <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/09\/24\/guide-to-using-interactive-404s-to-boost-your-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">404 error page<\/a>. This will help you retain site visitors and help them find relevant content\/actions.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Internal links<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure to strategically interlink pages and content on your website. This helps crawlers to better understand and rank your content for the right keywords.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Internal linking also helps to guide visitors to relevant pages and keep them engaged.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Content<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All your blog posts and website copy play a pivotal role in on-page optimization. Besides ensuring your target keywords are sprinkled judiciously and naturally throughout your content title, URL, subheadings, and paras. Here are a couple of things to get right.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Structure and readability<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Verify the structure of content on all pages. Make sure you\u2019ve used keyword-optimized headings and subheadings &#8211; H1, H2, H3, and so on, to build a logical hierarchy, which improves the readability and crawlability of your content.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Comprehensiveness<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Studies suggest that longer, in-depth posts perform better than shorter ones when it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/01\/04\/google-page-experience-update-is-all-set-to-launch-in-may-2021-webmasters-hang-in-there\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google rankings<\/a>. So, strive to have a word count of 2,000+ words in every piece of content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Comprehensive, long-form content will also serve your audience better as it likely answers all their questions about the topic so they don\u2019t have to look for more reading resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Over to you<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With each <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/09\/16\/google-ranking-factors-2021-core-web-vitals-e-a-t-or-amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new update to its core algorithm<\/a>, Google is fast shifting its focus on rewarding websites with the best user experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But nailing your on-page optimization which ties closely with UX will continue to help you achieve top rankings and stay there. And so, keep this checklist handy as you work on your SEO in 2021 and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gaurav Belani is a senior SEO and content marketing analyst at<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/growfusely.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Growfusely<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a content marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO. He can be found on Twitter<\/span> <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/belanigaurav\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>@belanigaurav.<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google\u2019s ranking algorithm is continually evolving, how do you get it right with your on-page SEO strategy? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":143144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[75,37,482,756,331,510,27405,22,32,27413],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-143143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","tag-content-2","tag-google","tag-google-updates","tag-image-optimization","tag-on-page-seo","tag-page-speed","tag-page-speed-optimization","tag-seo","tag-serps","tag-website-optimization"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/A-handy-on-page-SEO-checklist-to-tick-off-in-2021-and-beyond.png","category":"SEO","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143143"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=143143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}