On-Page SEO Checklist: SEO Best Practices

1. Title tags

This is one of the most significant on-page SEO variables, assuming you’ve already done your keyword research. If you haven’t already, here’s a step-by-step guide to keyword research.

The title tag informs search engines about the topic of the page and whether or not the page on your website is relevant for that keyword or keyword phrase. Every page’s title tag should be unique. If a user searches for certain terms, search engines will highlight your keyword phrases in the results. This boosts visibility and click-through rates.

Assuming you’re attempting to rank for “Chicago Web Design,” your title tag would look something like this:

Stridec.com specializes in Chicago web design and development.

Best practices:

• Your title tag should look like this: Brand Name – Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword
• Put a dash between your keyword phrases and a pipe before your brand name.
• Avoid using multiple title tags.
• Title tags should be no more than 55 characters long, including spaces. If you want to understand more about the new title tag standards, check out Dr. Pete’s piece.

2. Meta descriptions

While not as crucial in search engine rankings, meta descriptions are highly vital in encouraging users to click through from the search engine results page (SERP) to your website. Meta descriptions should employ keywords carefully, but they should also include a fascinating explanation that a user will want to click on.

The SERPs will highlight keywords that the user searched for, similar to title tags, boosting the likelihood of the user clicking through to your website.

Best practices:

• Create captivating meta descriptions.
• The suggested length is 150 to 160 characters.
• Avoid using the same meta description twice.
• Use no quotations or non-alpha characters (Google, cuts them out of the meta description)

3. Content with targeted keyword phrases

Your website’s content is its meat and potatoes. With all of the Google Panda adjustments, it is critical that your content be both distinctive and relevant. If you have many pages with the same material (or if your content is on other people’s websites), you risk being penalized by Google and having your search rankings fall.

Keep your material distinctive if we want to keep Google happy.

Best practices:

• Make material that is highly related to the keyword phrase.
• Use your keyword term four times in your article (but don’t overdo it).
• Include links back to this page from other sites on your website (see internal linking)
• Create original content for each channel (press releases, blogs, guest blog pieces, etc…). If you send out a press release, don’t just copy and paste it onto your website. If it is picked up by several publications, search engines will detect duplicate content and penalise you.

4. Header tags and keyword phrases

A header tag, commonly known as an H1 tag, is similar to your web page’s subject line. In the H1 element, you should only utilize your keyword phrase once. This should be placed on a page to which you are attempting to direct unique traffic. If there are numerous sections, you can also use H2 tags (second header).

Best Practices:

• In your H1 tag, only use your keyword phrase once.
• Use H1 tags on pages where you want to drive unique visitors (SEO page)
• If there are several sections, use H2 tags.

5. Internal page linking with anchor text

A link on a page that connects to another page on the same website is referred to as internal linking. Internal linking is significant because it helps to strengthen those keywords internally for those pages, it allows visitors (and search engine robots) to traverse the website, and it informs search engines that the page is relevant for that keyword phrase.

Best practices:

• Select good anchor text (keywords) to use in the actual link when linking to another page on the same site from within content, and do it frequently. For example, instead of saying, “Click here for our services,” say, “We offer a wide selection of web design services.”
• In the preceding example, instead of linking “click here,” you would link “web design services” to your web design services website.

6. Image ALT tags and filenames

An alt tag is essentially the image’s name. Alt tags should be used for all photos. Not only are alt tags beneficial to search engines, but they are also beneficial to accessibility. Anyone who uses a screen reader will be able to hear what that image is.

If feasible, attempt to incorporate your keyword phrase in the name of your image, but don’t go overboard. Image filenames should be SEO-friendly as well. Image search is significantly more popular than previously thought, thus traffic from there is also valuable.

Best practices:

• All of your photographs should be named in a way that describes what they are.
• Use dashes instead of underscores between words (for example, purple-hat.jpg instead of purple hat.jpg).
• Non-alpha characters (such as percent, &, $, etc…) should not be used in picture or file names.

7. Make content easy to read

This isn’t a significant impact in search engine results, but it will help your users scan your content and locate the keywords they’re looking for. Use bolding and bullet points to separate words in the text, which shows search engines what is significant on the page. Don’t go overboard or you’ll wind up cluttering your page and irritating the user.

Best practices:

• The length of a paragraph should be about three sentences. Extremely long sentences will lose the attention of the readers.
• To break up long blocks of text, use bullet points and bolding. Users frequently scan information for keywords.
• Use of bullets and bolding should be limited.

8. Meta keywords

Back in the day, meta keywords were prominent. However, since Google (or any other search engine for that matter) no longer gives meta keywords any weight, you may skip this step.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section if I missed anything or if you have anything to contribute!