There is no point spending £1000s on a fancy website if the visitors you target are not finding you on search engines! Here are 10 quick on-page SEO basics that every website owner should check to ensure their site is optimised for search engines and provides a great user experience:
1. Title Tags
Title tags are a description of the page hidden in the code and not a part of the visible page. They are important because search engines read it and often use it as your title in the results.
- What to Do: Ensure every page has a unique, keyword-rich title tag.
- Best Practices: Limit to 50–60 characters; include primary keywords and keep it compelling to improve click-through rates.
2. Meta Descriptions
Similar to title tags, these are a longer description of your page that is not visible on the actual page itself.
- What to Do: Write clear and concise meta descriptions for each page.
- Best Practices: Keep it under 160 characters; use actionable language and include keywords naturally.
3. Header Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)
These are the main headings and subheadings visible on your page. The H1 tag is particularly important as it is the main title of your page and should contain your most important keywords.
- What to Do: Use header tags to structure content logically.
- Best Practices: Include the primary keyword in the H1 tag and use H2/H3 tags to organise subtopics.
4. Keywords
Having the right keywords in your text is essential. But do not include the same ones too many times. Software such as Yoast can tell you if your content is ‘over-optimised’.
- What to Do: Incorporate target keywords naturally into the content.
- Best Practices: Avoid keyword stuffing; focus on variations and related terms (semantic SEO).
5. URL Structure
The URL is the page address at the top of your browser.
- What to Do: Create clean, descriptive, and keyword-rich URLs by naming the page ‘slug’ with keywords.
- Best Practices: Keep URLs short. Do not put too many folders inside folders, as it makes URLs too long. Also, avoid special characters, and use hyphens to separate words (e.g., /log-cabins-Norfolk).
6. Internal Linking
This is about hyperlinking specific words on a page to other relevant pages within your site. This keeps people on your site longer and increases the number of pages they see.
- What to Do: Link to other relevant pages within your site.
- Best Practices: Use descriptive anchor text and ensure all internal links work.
7. Content Quality
- What to Do: Create high-quality, valuable, and original content. Use SEO tools, such as Yoast, to ensure your copy is easy to read, long enough, but not too long!”
- Best Practices: Address user intent, keep it well-structured, and aim for readability (use bullet points, short paragraphs, etc.).
8. Image Optimisation
Often people include images on a website that may look small but have a huge file size. Compressing them makes them load faster, reduces the demand on your server and improves the user experience.
- What to Do: Use optimized images with descriptive file names and alt text. There is plenty of free software to do this but I prefer to use Photoshop.
- Best Practices: Compress images to improve page speed and include target keywords in the alt attributes naturally. Image alt tags are a description of the image for users who may be blind or if the image is not displayed for any reason.
9. Mobile-Friendliness
Most developers will design a website on a desktop computer. It is easier. However, most visitors these days see your website from a mobile phone.
- What to Do: Ensure your website is fully responsive and mobile-friendly.
- Best Practices: Test on different devices and fix usability issues using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.
10. Page Speed
This is all about how fast your web page loads. Too slow and you will be penalised in search engine rankings, as well as, annoying potential customers.
- What to Do: Optimise your site’s loading speed. There are many factors involved but also plenty of free online tools to check, help and advise you.
- Best Practices: Minimise code, compress images, use a content delivery network (CDN), and leverage browser caching.
Bonus Tips:
- Schema Markup: Use structured data to enhance search engine understanding and gain rich snippets.
- User Experience (UX): Ensure intuitive navigation, clear CTAs, and no intrusive pop-ups.
By regularly auditing and improving these basics, you can significantly boost your site’s search engine visibility and user satisfaction. Would you like detailed steps or tools for any of these