On-page SEO is more important for your business website’s traffic and revenue generating potential than you think.
Did you know that 33% of all search traffic goes to the first search result? The second one only gets 18%, and the numbers become even bleaker from there.
A few small on-page SEO mistakes can easily make your website lose its number one spot in Google search results. Read on to learn the 10 reasons why!
What Is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing web pages in order to rank higher in search engines like Google.
On-page SEO includes both the content of the web page and the website architecture, as opposed to off-page SEO which focuses on external signals like backlinks.
If you’d like a more in-depth overview of on-page vs off-page SEO, check out our guide here.
10 Reasons Why On-Page SEO Is Important
Various aspects of on-page SEO affect your website’s ranking and user experience.
1. Page titles
Google usually displays the first 50-60 characters of a page’s title tag.
If your title tags are not SEO-optimized, they will not be properly displayed to users.
2. Meta descriptions
Search engines use meta descriptions to determine the relevance of your content and, subsequently, your ranking.
3. URLs
Both search engines and users prefer concise URLs that accurately reflect the contents of the page they are viewing.
4. Navigation
Easy, structured navigation is not just important for users; it is important for search engines, too.
It helps search engines crawl and index your site much faster!
5. Keyword optimization
The content on your website should be created for humans, not search engines.
However, without proper keyword optimization, your website may not show up in search results at all.
6. Anchor text
Anchor text with appropriate keywords informs users of the link’s relevance and gets ranked higher by search engines because of it.
7. Image & video optimization
Search engines cannot read images (yet, anyway).
That’s why file names matter, and should always be optimized for your target keywords.
8. Heading tags
A site with properly optimized H1/H2/H3 tags will almost always rank higher than a similar site without the heading tags.
9. Robots.txt
Improper use of the robots.txt can prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your site.
10. Mobile site optimization
On-page SEO also affects how search engines will treat your mobile site.
If a mobile site is not submitted to search engines manually, it may not get indexed accurately.
How Handmade SEO Can Help
On-page SEO has a huge effect on both your search engine ranking and the user experience on your site.
If you are not sure how your website is doing in terms of its on-page SEO, check out our free Digital Marketing Assessment.
It includes a free SEO audit which will tell you exactly what to do to rank higher in search engines – completely free of charge.