On-page SEO Strategies for Better Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a frequently used term among online marketing professionals and often goes hand in hand with off-page optimization. Both terms describe search engine optimization for your own website. The goal of targeted SEO optimization is to help your website rank better on search engines, generate more traffic, and ultimately lead to more conversions or leads. Generally, however, marketing managers are only familiar with a fraction of the measures that can actually be implemented.

In this article, we'll explain what on-page SEO is all about and share some initial practical implementation tips. You'll likely come across various spellings online, but they all mean the same thing. Common variations include: Onpage SEO, onpage optimization, on-page optimization, SEO onpage, SEO optimization, or onsite optimization.

On-Page Analysis – The First Step in On-Page SEO

To kick things off, you should conduct an onsite audit of your entire website. First, analyze the technical SEO to identify potential technical pitfalls that might hinder search engines from crawling the site. Next, review your website's content to carry out content optimization.

Once you've examined both areas, you can develop a prioritized action plan to implement step by step.

To track your website's SEO progress, you can use Google Search Console. It serves as an interface between website owners and Google, showing which URLs are ranking well, which keywords your domain is being found for, and where issues exist on the site. It also provides visual graphs showing how often individual pages appear in Google's search results.

Technical SEO – The Foundation of On-Page Optimization

Before you start optimizing your content, your technical SEO needs to be running smoothly. This is the only way to ensure that search engines can easily crawl your website and that all content is properly read and processed. If technical SEO isn't set up correctly, content optimizations might not have the desired impact simply because search engines can't access the content in the first place. That's why technical SEO forms the bedrock of any on-page optimization strategy.

Crawling – Can Search Engines Reach Your Website?

Crawling refers solely to accessing content and has nothing to do with indexing. Search engines like Google frequently crawl pages without indexing them. This can happen for a wide variety of reasons, including poor search engine optimization.

To improve the relevance of your content, you should only allow search engines to crawl pages that truly need to be processed. Low-value pages—such as internal search result pages or legal notices—should be excluded from crawling. This is known as optimizing your "crawl budget," which determines how many pages on a site can be crawled and is set individually by search engines for each domain.

In this context, there's an important distinction to keep in mind:

Crawling is not the same as indexing!

To manage crawling, use the "robots" meta tag and the "robots.txt" file. Keep in mind, however, that instructions in the robots.txt file are merely recommendations for search engines and can definitely be ignored. Furthermore, search engines can still discover excluded pages through other paths, such as backlinks. Using the "Disallow" directive is therefore not a foolproof way to keep pages from being crawled. In fact, if robots.txt is used incorrectly, it can cause major issues in search results, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Web pages indexed by Google where no descriptions can be displayed because they are blocked from crawling in robots.txt.

In May 2019, Google updated its proprietary crawler to Chromium version 74. This was a significant milestone, as its predecessor was outdated and supported very few modern web technologies. The updated crawler can now recognize modern SEO optimizations and perform much better on-page analyses.

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URL Structure, Internal Linking, and sitemap.xml are Key On-Page SEO Factors

Next, you'll want to review your website's URL structure. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Is it readable and clear to everyday users?

• Can users tell where they are on the website just by looking at it?

• Is it reasonably concise?

Your URL structure should not exceed 5 hierarchy levels. This also ties directly into your overall website structure. Modern on-page SEO isn't about optimizing for search engines—it's about optimizing for users. That means content needs to be quickly and easily accessible. Deeply nested page structures are not recommended, as they simply create unnecessary layers of hierarchy.

John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, noted during a Webmaster Hangout on May 3, 2019, that internal linking carries even more weight than URL structure. Visible URLs are primarily relevant to user experience. In contrast, internal links must be contextually relevant to achieve solid on-page optimization—a concept often referred to as siloing. For effective internal linking, make sure you link primarily within the same topic cluster (silo). For instance, all articles on web analytics should link to one another, rather than pointing to articles about SEO. You should always develop a clear linking strategy and, especially for links powered by JavaScript, verify that crawlers can actually find and follow them.

If you have similar content across pages, be sure to use canonical tags. Imagine you run an online store selling a T-shirt available in five colors, with a separate page and unique URL for each color option. In this scenario, you'd end up with duplicate content, as all pages would have identical text aside from the color variation. By using a canonical tag, you can signal to search engines which of the five URLs is truly relevant for search and which ones exist purely for user convenience.

Additionally, you should provide search engines with a sitemap.xml file listing all URLs that should be indexed. Make sure this file doesn't include any URLs marked with "noindex" or otherwise blocked from crawling or indexing.

Preventing Duplicate Content with On-Page SEO

Duplicate content is one of the main focal points of on-page SEO. Often, identical pages can be reached via multiple URLs. Classic examples include:

• URLs with http vs. https

• URLs with www vs. without www

• URLs with a trailing slash vs. without

• URLs featuring near-identical content

For this reason, it's essential to set up proper redirects and use canonical tags and sitemap.xml to communicate clearly with search engines about which pages should actually be indexed.

Imagine you run an online shop and offer a T-shirt in five colors, creating a dedicated page with an individual URL for each variant. This creates duplicate content on your domain because all pages are textually identical except for the color name. With canonical tags, you can easily indicate across all pages which of the five URLs is actually relevant for search engines and which ones serve simply as an added convenience for shoppers.

With a proper redirect in place, anyone attempting to access an http URL is automatically routed to the https version. This happens so quickly that users rarely even notice.

Page Speed – How Fast Does Your Website Load?

For several years now, Google has seen more traffic from mobile devices than from desktops. Consequently, it's critical to provide a fast-loading website. You can achieve this in several ways:

1. Keep file sizes small and clean up source code. This optimizes the site overall and provides a smooth user experience.

2. Optimize visible content through prioritized code delivery. This ensures users see above-the-fold content well before the entire page has finished loading, greatly improving perceived load times.

3. Switch from standard HTTP to HTTP/2. This protocol is optimized for mobile devices and supports parallel file loading as well as content preloading. We also strongly recommend using HTTPS for solid on-page SEO.

Figure 2 illustrates the Google PageSpeed Insights test, which examines these exact factors:

Figure 2: With Google PageSpeed Insights, you can see which files are too large and which assets are delaying the optimized delivery of above-the-fold content.

Mobile Optimization is More Important Than Ever

Beyond fast load times, it's vital to ensure your website displays properly on mobile devices. This is typically achieved through responsive design, which allows the layout to adapt automatically to any mobile screen size. If you're planning a site relaunch in the near future, responsive design should definitely be a cornerstone of your concept.

Structured Data for Effective Onsite Marketing

Structured data allows you to mark up specific content explicitly for search engines. This can include business details, product specs, recipes, events, or FAQs. While there are countless schema templates available, only a select few are actively supported for enhanced Google search features. The real value is that Google gains a deeper understanding of your content and can showcase it uniquely in search results.

Additional On-Page SEO Optimizations

Technical SEO also encompasses advanced elements like Progressive Web Apps, image schema markup, and multilingual setups. Think of these as the fine-tuning stage of technical SEO optimization, which is why we won't dive too deeply into them here.

Content Optimization – The Second Step in On-Page SEO

Once your website is technically sound, you're ready to focus on optimizing your content. This primarily breaks down into two core areas:

Meta Data: Optimizing Page Titles and Meta Descriptions

In on-page SEO, optimizing your page title and meta description is referred to as meta data optimization. The page title is a particularly crucial ranking factor and should include both your target keyword and your brand name. At the same time, keep it concise so it stays easy to read. You'll always see the page title in your browser tab as well as on Google's search engine results page (SERP).

While the meta description isn't a direct ranking factor, it still plays a huge indirect role in your onsite marketing. Whenever relevant, search engines display this description directly on the SERP. By addressing users directly with a compelling call to action, you can boost your click-through rate, which can lead to better rankings over time.

Figure 3: Search results in Google showing the page title in blue and the meta description in black.

On-Page Content – What Can Users Expect?

Your actual content must meet user expectations; otherwise, you'll see high bounce rates. Remember that with on-page optimization, you're creating content for real people, not search engines. That's why Google places a high value on readability. Additionally, your copy should be well-structured and clearly organized with headings. Encouraging user engagement on the page is another big plus. You can accomplish this with videos, images, image galleries, comments, and interactive elements. Studies consistently show that longer time-on-page correlates with higher conversion rates.

If your content is exceptionally well-crafted, Google might even showcase it as a Featured Snippet. Often called "Position 0," this displays an excerpt that directly answers a user's query right on the results page. Marketers don't have direct control over whether a Featured Snippet appears, making it impossible to predict when one will be shown. Landing your content in a Featured Snippet is widely considered the holy grail of Google content optimization.

Figure 4: Example of a Featured Snippet on a Google search results page.

Google for Jobs – An Exciting Feature

With Google for Jobs, the search giant introduced a feature in Germany in June 2019 that has opened up fresh opportunities for on-page SEO. Whenever users search for a job title, Google presents a curated list of open positions. Clicking a listing takes users straight to the company's page, where they can apply right away. To take advantage of this, website owners need to implement structured data and feature specific job-related content on their site.

How We Can Help

If you're looking to climb the search engine rankings and grow your conversions, we offer comprehensive on-page optimization services. Our on-page SEO strategies are carefully coordinated with your broader online marketing efforts. Feel free to reach out—we look forward to hearing about your project!