On-page SEO Strategies for Better Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a term frequently used by online marketing professionals and is often associated with off-page optimization. Both terms describe the search engine optimization of one's own website. Targeted SEO optimization aims to make the website rank better in search engines, generate more traffic, and ultimately lead to more conversions or leads. However, marketing managers usually only know part of the measures that can be carried out.

In this article, we explain what on-page SEO is and provide initial practical implementation tips. On the internet, you will encounter different spellings, but they all mean the same thing. Possible formulations are: on-page SEO, on-page optimization, on-page-optimization, on-page optimization, SEO on-page, SEO optimization, or on-site optimization.

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

At the beginning of your efforts, you should conduct an on-site analysis of the entire website. First, you analyze the technical SEO to identify potential technical pitfalls that could affect the website's crawling. Next, you check the website's content to conduct a content optimization.

After examining both areas, you can derive a prioritized action plan, which you implement step by step.

To track the development of your website in SEO, you can use Google's Search Console. This serves as an interface between website operators and Google, showing which URLs rank well, for which keywords the domain is found, and where there are problems on the website. It also graphically displays how often each page appears on Google's search result page.

Technical SEO – The Foundation of On-page Optimization

Before you can start optimizing your content, your technical SEO must be flawlessly implemented. This is the only way to ensure that the website is seamlessly crawled by search engines and all content is read and processed correctly. If the technical SEO is not implemented correctly, content optimizations, known as content optimization, may not be effective because search engines cannot access the content. Thus, technical SEO forms the foundation of every SEO on-page optimization.

Crawling – Can the Search Engine Reach Your Website?

Crawling solely involves accessing content and has nothing to do with indexing. Search engines like Google do crawl pages but do not index them. This could have various reasons, including poor search engine optimization.

To improve the relevance of the content, only the content that needs to be processed by search engines should be made crawlable. Unimportant pages, such as search result pages or the imprint, should be excluded from crawling. This is referred to as crawl budget optimization. It determines how many pages of a website can be crawled and is set individually by search engines for each domain.

In this context, there is an important distinction:

Crawling is not the same as indexing!

Use the meta tag "robots" and the "robots.txt" file to control crawling. However, note that the instructions contained in "robots.txt" are only a recommendation for search engines and can be demonstrably ignored. Moreover, search engines can also access blocked pages through other means, such as backlinks. The use of the "Disallow" function is therefore not a reliable way to exclude pages from crawling. On the contrary, incorrect use of the robots.txt file can lead to significant problems on search result pages, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Google-indexed webpages for which no descriptions can be displayed because they are excluded from crawling in the robots.txt file.

In May 2019, Google updated its in-house Google Crawler to the current Chromium version 74. This is an important note since the predecessor was outdated and supported only a few modern web technologies. The new crawler can now recognize modern SEO optimization and perform better on-page analyses.

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URL Structure, Internal Linking, and sitemap.xml are Important SEO On-page Factors

Next, you need to check your website's URL structure. Key questions include:

• Is it readable and clearly understandable for humans?

• Can users deduce where they are on the website from it?

• Is it not too long?

The URL structure should not exceed 5 hierarchy levels. This correlates with the website structure. Modern on-page SEO is not about optimizing for search engines but for users. This means that content must be easily and quickly accessible. Therefore, excessive cascading of individual web pages is not advisable as it leads to more hierarchies.

John Müller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, announced on May 3, 2019, via Webmaster Hangout that the internal linking of pages should be weighted more heavily than the URL structure. Visible URLs are primarily relevant for user experience. Internal linking of pages should instead be topic-relevant to achieve good on-page optimization. This process is also referred to as siloing. For good internal linking, ensure that links are made only within a topic (silo). For example, all articles on web analytics should link to each other but not to articles on SEO. For this, always develop a linking concept and, especially for links with JavaScript functionality, verify whether crawlers can find and follow the links.

If you have similar content, you should use the canonical tag. Imagine you operate an online shop and offer a t-shirt in five colors. You create a separate page with a unique URL for each color variant. In this case, you have duplicate content on the domain since all pages are textually identical and differ only in color indication. With the canonical tag, you can specify on all pages which of the five URLs is actually relevant to search engines and which serves merely as an added benefit to the user.

Additionally, provide search engines with the sitemap.xml file to hand over a file that lists all URLs to be indexed. Therefore, this file must not include URLs set to "noindex" or otherwise excluded from crawling or indexing.

Avoiding Duplicate Content with SEO On-page

The issue of duplicate content or duplicate content is one of the main focal points in SEO on-page optimization. Frequently, the same pages are accessible via multiple URLs. Classic examples include:

• URL with http and https

• URL with www and without www

• URL with trailing slash and without

• URL with very similar content

For this reason, it is essential to set up redirects and use the canonical tag and sitemap.xml to communicate very clearly to search engines which websites should actually be indexed.

Imagine you run an online shop and offer a t-shirt in five colors. You create a separate page with an individual URL for each color variant. In this case, you have duplicate content on the domain because all pages are textually identical and only differ in color indication. With the canonical tag, you can indicate on all pages which of the five URLs is actually relevant to search engines and which pages serve merely as an added benefit to the user.

With redirection, when a URL with http is accessed, the user is automatically redirected to the https variant. This happens so quickly that they often do not notice it.

Pagespeed – How Fast Does Your Website Load?

For several years, Google has recorded more accesses from mobile devices than from desktop devices. It is therefore important to offer a fast-loading website. You can implement this in several ways:

1. Ensure small file sizes and short source codes. This optimizes the website as a whole and ensures a good user experience.

2. You optimize visible content through prioritized code delivery. With this measure, the user sees the first content in the visible area long before the whole website has loaded. This improves the perceived loading time.

3. You switch the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http) to variant 2 (http/2). This is optimized for mobile devices and allows parallel loading of various files, as well as preloading of content. We also recommend using https for good on-page SEO.

Figure 2 shows the Google Page Speed Test, which examines exactly these topics:

Figure 2: The Google Page Speed Test shows which files are too large and which files delay the optimized delivery of visible content.

Mobile Optimization Becomes Increasingly Important

In addition to loading time, the display of the website on mobile devices must also be ensured. This is often achieved with a responsive design, which ensures that the website automatically adapts to the screen size of mobile devices. If you are planning a relaunch soon, you must absolutely consider this topic in your concept.

Structured Data for Good Onsite Marketing

Structured data provides specific information for search engines. This may include company information, product information, recipes, events, or, more recently, FAQs. Overall, there are many templates for using structured data on a website, but only a relatively few are supported in Google optimization. The advantage lies in Google better understanding the content and presenting it separately on the search result page.

Further SEO On-page Optimizations

The area of technical SEO also includes additional measures such as Progressive Web Apps, image annotations, or multilingualism. These are the "fine-tuning" in technical SEO optimization. Therefore, these detailed topics are not further elaborated here.

Content Optimization – The Second Step in On-page SEO

Once the website has been improved with technical on-page SEO measures, you can start optimizing your content. This is mainly divided into two areas:

Meta Information: Optimizing Page Title and Meta Description

Optimizing the page title and meta description refers to the optimization of meta information in on-page SEO. The page title as an SEO criterion is particularly crucial because it should contain the keyword and the brand. At the same time, it should not be too long to remain readable. You always see the page title in your browser tab and on the Google search results page.

The meta description is not SEO relevant in itself but still has a significant, indirect impact on onsite marketing. The meta description, if contextually appropriate, is displayed on the search engine results pages. By directly addressing users with a call to action, you can improve the click-through rate on your results and thereby achieve a better ranking.

Figure 3: Google search results with the page title in blue and the meta description in black.

Content on the Page Itself – What Can Users Expect?

The actual content must meet user expectations as otherwise it leads to high bounce rates. Note that you create the content during on-page optimization not for search engines but for users. For this reason, Google places great importance on the readability of the content. Furthermore, texts must be well structured and divided with headings. An increase in user interaction with the website is also desirable. This can be achieved through videos, images, image galleries, comments, or similar. It has been proven that a longer dwell time correlates with an increase in conversions.

If the content is very well created, Google might use it as a Featured Snippet. This is position 0 on the search results page, where Google directly answers a user's question on the search results page. Marketers have no influence on the use of a Featured Snippet and therefore cannot predict when a snippet will be displayed and when not. Getting your content into a Featured Snippet is thus considered the pinnacle of Google's content optimization.

Figure 4: Display of a Featured Snippet on Google's search results page.

Google Jobs – A Brand New Feature

With Google Jobs, the search engine giant introduced a brand new feature in Germany in June 2019, which will lead to many on-page SEO optimizations in 2019. As soon as users search for a job title, a list of open job offers is displayed. After clicking on it, they are directly redirected to the company's page, where they can apply next. Website operators must, however, use structured data and very specific content on the website for this purpose.

What We Can Do for You

If you want to improve your rankings and thereby your number of conversions in search engines, we offer you comprehensive support in the area of OnPage Optimization. Our on-page SEO measures are coordinated with other online marketing measures. Just get in touch with us; we look forward to your inquiry.