Of all the things that affect a website’s search rankings, nothing is more important than what’s on the web pages themselves.
In this post we continue our What is SEO? blog series in which we’re explaining all the aspects of SEO, so that when you’re comparing SEO services (or doing your own SEO) you can make an informed decision about what you want your SEO service to include.
Up to now, all the aspects of SEO we’ve covered have been planning and preparation – all critically important – but this is the first that will actually affect a website’s search rankings.
On-Page Optimization Is…
On-Page optimization is the tweaking of the content of web pages to help search engines better understand what they are about, and therefore rank better in the search results for targeted keywords.
This includes parts of the page that are visible to human visitors:
- H1 header – the largest heading on the page, usually the title of the page
- H2 headers – the second largest headings on the page, usually sub-headings
- Menu text – the words used in the navigation menu
- Page text – the words used in the body of the page
- Footer – words at the bottom of the page
It also includes parts of the page that generally not visible to human visitors and are primarily used by search engines and devices that help visitors with vision disabilities, including:
- Title tag
- Description and Keyword tags
- Alt image tags
- Filenames of the pages
Every professional SEO should include on-page optimization in their service, but it’s still a good idea to make sure.
Thoughts and questions?
What are your thoughts and questions about on-page optimization?
6: Keyword Plan <– What is SEO? –> 8: Creating & Correcting Search Listings
4 Comments
I do have a question Paul. What is/are the tool/s that you use for On-Page Optimization? Please do keep up the great work on your What is SEO? blog series!
Hi Mark, if we are also building the website, we install and use the Yost SEO WordPress plugin. If not, we don't use any tools – just the websites admin/editor or if it's HTML pages a text editor.
Hi Paul Steinbrueck,
Great post indeed!
I am using WordPress SEO by yoast plugin. and I think all these things that you described here are in this plugin and these things are very necessary for on page optimize.
Any way thanks Paul Steinbrueck for sharing such wonderful post with us,
Regards:
Areesha Noor!
Glad you found it heplful, Areesha