9 On-Page SEO Hacks to Skyrocket Your Website Ranking

On Page SEO optimization is probably the best way to improve your search rankings. It also helps you to improve the overall reading experience of your regulaer readers, thus ensuring they spend more time reading your blog. Needless to say, a satisfied visitor is more likely to return to your blog for more information.

Page SEO Optimization —
Feeling frustrated by low website traffic? On-page SEO optimization is the key to unlocking your website's full potential.

This comprehensive guide equips you with powerful strategies to fine-tune your website content and improve search engine ranking.

By implementing these on-page SEO tactics, you'll create a search engine-friendly website that attracts organic traffic, engages users, and drives results.

For beginners, who do not know what On Page SEO Optimization is and why is it so important, you can check out my previous article about basics Of SEO.

In this post am going to share with you, latest on page SEO hacks that you must use if you want to improve your search ranking fast.

9 Brilliant On-Page Optimization Tips for Higher Rankings

Unlock the secrets of on-page SEO! This guide unveils brilliant strategies to optimize your website content for search engines, from keyword targeting to technical SEO. Attract more organic traffic, improve user experience, and watch your ranking fly!

9 On-Page Optimization Tips You Can Implement Today:

1. Content Is The King

We all know the importance of writing quality content to rank higher at Search Engines.

I have already discussed how to write high-quality content for blogs from a writer’s point of view. However for a better ranking, you should also ensure your content is SEO friendly.

So what exactly can be classified as quality content?

Listed below are the most important factors you must consider for writing a good content from SEO’s point of view.

1.1. Use Appropriate Keywords

Using appropriate keywords is the most important factor of on page SEO optimization.

If you want to get more traffic to your blog, you must use appropriate keywords in your article.

1.2. Short Tail Keywords & Long Tail Keywords

You must use a combination of short tail keywords (primary keyword) and long tail keywords. The short tail keyword should ideally have a density of 0.4% to 1.5%.

But do not be obsessed with these figures as keyword density carries very less weightage in Google algorithm.

Also, for a 1000 word article, you must target 4-5 different long tail keywords which have decent volume and low competition.

Ideally, you should place your primary keyword in the first 100 words and towards the end of the of the post. Posts which follow this rule are set to rank higher.

Highlighting your keywords with bold and italics is also considered a good practice.

Having said that, you must make sure that you use your keywords in a natural way, without affecting the reading experience of your blog visitors. Your ultimate aim is not getting traffic. Rather your aim is to generate income.

Remember,

Google loves you, when everyone else loves you first.

I usually write my article first, without thinking about keywords.

Before publishing, if my keyword density is too low, I try to alter my sentences to put in some keywords.

1.3. Be Original And Unique

Your content must be original and unique. Even if you consider Matt Cutts’ statement that duplicate content does not negatively affect the ranking of a website, there are chances that the search engines may completely ignore it.

For those who do not know Matt Cutts, he is the former head of Google Webspam Team and is a very popular figure among the Bloggers. Here’s what Matt Cutts has to say about duplicate content (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-wkEeOKxM)

Also, if you just make small tweaks to an already popular article and use it on your blog, there are chances that your visitors may already have read it, making them leave your blog immediately, increasing your bounce rate and thus affecting your search ranking.

You must know 8 Reasons Why Visitors Bounce From Your Business Blog

1.4. Write Detailed Articles

Longer articles can keep your reader engaged for a longer time and thus send a positive signal to the search engines about the quality of your blog’s content. According to

According to Pro Bloggers, the average length of the top 10 articles in Google’s search results is more than 2000 words.

1.5. Write Well-Researched Articles

Before writing articles, do enough research about the topic. This will help you write more detailed articles covering all the topics which your competitor left out. Such articles are more likely to be useful to the people and so more likely to be shared. Besides, images can also help you to improve your social media presence. And with Instagram and Pinterest becoming huge traffic drivers, it only makes sense to use quality images within your Blog.

According to Hubspot, a Facebook post with an image can get you 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more clicks. With images, you can also get considerable traffic from Google image search.

2. Using SEO Friendly Meta Tags

Meta tags are another very important factors of On Page SEO.

Like I said earlier, search engines cannot read through the content. They need to be spoon fed with content. Meta Tags just helps us to do that by providing the search engine spiders with the required information about the content.

Let us discuss in detail various Meta Tags and their importance.

2.1 Page Title Tags

Your page title tag is the main title of your web page or post. It is used to give information about your post to your readers at your blog as well as in search results.

A page title is also displayed in your browser Tab.

It is the most important place to put your keywords. Google gives more weightage to pages containing keywords in title.

Also, the position of the Keyword in the page title is important. Pages with the keyword at the beginning of page title will rank higher than pages, which use the keyword in the middle or towards the end.

Generally, Google displays first 50-60 characters of a page title depending upon display size. If you can limit page title to 55 characters, your complete title will be visible on 90% devices.

If you are a WordPress user, you can easily use a different page title for your blog and for search results using WordPress SEO by Yoast Plugin, which also takes care of most of your other On Page SEO factors.

2.2 Meta Description Tags

Meta description is a summary of your page/post which is displayed in your search results. It helps people to make out what the content is actually about. Therefore, a well-written meta description can increase your click-through rate.

According to a survey, 44.2% people click on a particular search result by reading meta description. A not-so-well-known website with a better Meta Description can rank above Wikihow.

You must always use your keyword in your meta description. Keyword in meta description will get more priority compared to keywords in your content.

If no meta description is provided Google automatically uses the first few characters from your content, which may or may not present a clear picture about the contents of your page in search results thus affecting your click-through rate.

Check out; SEO HTML Meta Tags: Use Meta Keywords To Improves Search Ranking

2.3 Meta Keywords Tags

Keywords meta tags are purely optional, and its use may vary from person to person. Matt Cutts has already confirmed that Google does not consider meta keywords for search rankings. However, Bing still uses meta keywords for search rankings.

You also need to read; 10 Lessons Learned from Past Year (That Will Boost Your Traffic & Sales)

So why do people avoid using meta keywords even when it improves Bing Search Rankings?

It’s simply because meta keywords are easily accessible by anyone. You may not want to show your competitors what keywords you are targeting.

So it all comes down to what is more important for you, hiding your keywords from competitors or improving Bing search Results. People in some Asian countries where Yahoo search is very popular may consider using meta keywords. However, if you wish to include meta keywords, make sure to only include the ones relevant to your content.

Use Online META Tags Generator Free SEO Tool

3. Using SEO Friendly Permalinks

Permalinks are the unique URLs of your blog post. It is another critical On Page SEO factor for improving search rankings as most Search engines look out for keywords in permalinks. Your permalink should define what your post is about.

For this post, I would surely not want to have this URL

www.problogbooster.com/9rfhs2/Adph/cbnfg=hdyev3yruwfwo/

A better option would be

www.problogbooster.com/seo-tips

But what describes my post the best and what am using is

www.problogbooster.com/on-page-seo-optimization-tips

There are various formats you can use for an SEO friendly URL. Most experts recommend using the format

www.problogbooster.com/your-post-title

OR

www.problogbooster.com/category-name/your-post-title

However if you are using multiple categories for a single post, you should better stick to the first option as the second option will create two different URL’s pointing to the same content. For example,

www.problogbooster.com/blogging/benefits-of-seo-for-bloggers

www.problogbooster.com/seo/benefits-of-seo-for-bloggers

Both of the above-mentioned URLs will direct you to the same post “Benefits of SEO for Bloggers.” However, Google treats each of them as separate URLs, thus diluting SEO value of your post.

4. Formatting Your Post With Header Tags

There are in all six header tags one may use within a blog post, named from H1 through H6.

H1 is the main header tag and is considered to be the most important place to put your keyword in your Post. H1 tag is normally used as the Post Title by most themes, and it should be the only one you use on the page. It is not recommended to use more than one H1 tag within a blog post as it will be treated as spam by Google

The next in the line up are H2 and H3 Tags, which must be used for any major titles and Subtitles respectively, within your blog post.

H2 and H3 are perfect places to put your long tail keywords, with keywords in H2 getting more weightage than those in H3. However, one must avoid overuse of the same Keyword within H2 and H3 tags as it may be treated as spam.

However, one must avoid overuse of the same keyword within H2 and H3 tags. This may lead to a Google penalty for over-optimization of keywords.

Apart from SEO Value, if used correctly, header tags greatly improve the readability of your content by grouping up relevant points.

H4-H6 are used only if your blog post is very long, to improve readability.

8 Tips for Formatting Your Blog Writing to Boost Reader Engagement

5. Optimize Your Image

We have already discussed how important it is to add images to your content for achieving better On Page SEO Optimization. However, it is also important to optimize your blog image for search engines.

Following are the essential parameters you should consider for optimizing your image.

5.1 ALT Tag

This is the most important parameter for optimizing your image. Like humans, search engine spider cannot see Images; it rather uses the ALT tag to determine what the image is about.

Also, if, for some reason, an image does not load or the user has turned off images, an Alt tag will be displayed in place of the image giving your reader information about the image. So you must always add Alt tag to your Image.

5.2 File Name

A lot of people think adding Alt Tag is enough, however, adding an SEO friendly file name is equally important for getting your Images indexed.

Even Google in its Article has stressed upon the same. A file name “on-page-seo-tips.jpg” should be used instead on “DSC0012.jpg”.

5.3 Image Size

For better On Page SEO, You must try to keep your image size on the lower side.

A larger image may take a time to load, affecting your overall site load time. If you are a WordPress user, you may consider using WP Smush Plugin to reduce your image size without affecting its quality.

5.4 Image Type

As Google algorithm update says, you must use optimized image formate and type for better SEO. Google recommend to use WEBP formated images in your blog post. You can easily convert any image formate to webp for free.

Use Online WEBP Converter (Compressed, Free, Fast, No Limit & Simple)

6. Improving Readability Of Your Content

Readability of your content is an Important On Page SEO factor too.

Just imagine you have an awesome and well researched 2500 words article, with lots of images and which takes care of each and every On Page SEO optimizing techniques. However for your article, you use a font size of 10, which would be difficult to read for many. What would be the impact of it on your visitors?

Your visitors may probably not care to make some extra efforts for reading the content. There are a plenty of blogs to get information. They may prefer getting information from your competitor’s blog. So you must always make sure, your fonts are clear and easy to read for most.

Also, you should avoid writing your content in long paragraphs and instead try to split a longer paragraph into smaller paragraphs.

Using proper punctuation marks too is very important for improving readability of your page.

7. Mobile Responsiveness

You must also check if your blog is optimized for mobile viewers. In an era of smartphones and phablets, a large number of people are accessing the Internet from mobile phones.

According to Google analytics, 37.36% of my visitors use mobile phones and tablets to access my blog. This number is too large to be ignored.

Moreover, we all know Google has penalized a lot of websites including Ebay, for lacking a mobile-friendly version of their website. So unless you want to rank at the bottom of the search engine, you must make sure to get a responsive theme, if you are not already using one.

Find out 17 Amazing Responsive Blogger Templates 2024 [Professional Mobile-Friendly Themes]

You can use 10 Best Mobile Friendliness Test Tools | Website Testing Sites | Test Mobile Responsive Web Designs to check if your Blog is optimized for Mobile. My Blog just came out clear.

8. Using Internal Linking Wisely

Creating internal links to your other relevant posts is a great way to reduce your bounce rate and make your visitor spend more time at your Blog. It also helps you to pass on the link juice to other posts.

Internal linking also improves the crawlability of your content.

A perfect “Web” of Internal links is loved by search engine “Spiders”. It is much faster and easier for Search Engine spiders to index a new post if you create an internal link to it from an old post.

If your content has no internal links, the search engine will reach what we call “Dead end” and will simply stop crawling your blog. You can then only hope it comes back soon to crawl posts yet to be indexed.

Internal linking also helps to pass on the link juice from your higher authority page to lower authority page.

However, you should not get the search engine spider confused by creating multiple internal links from a Post X to a Post Y. A post should be linked to another post not more than once in an article.

Also, you may not want to fill up your articles with a lot of internal links. However, there is no specific rule for the number of internal links an article should have.

A large article above 3000-4000 can naturally link back to 10 internal posts. But you surely would not want to use 50 internal links in a 1000 word article.

9. Improve Site Load Time

A lot of webmasters often cover up all On Page SEO factors but fail to improve their website loading time.

As against the common belief, site loading time is one of the factors that Google considers while deciding search rankings for both the desktop as well as mobile version.

Google, In fact, has a PageSpeed Insights tool which rates your website speed on the scale of 1-100, with 100 being the best. This rating is more about how well you have optimized your web page to maximize your site speed and has nothing to with overall loading time of you page. This tool also suggests you various ways to improve your website speed.

It is almost Impossible to get a rating of 100. Anything above 85 should be considered a decent rating. I managed to get a score of 99.

In addition, you can also use Pingdom Tools which is often preferred by most bloggers, over the PageSpeed Insights tool by Google as it provides more detailed info including Page Size and Load Time.

My site load time is just above 1.2 seconds which is certainly on the higher side but acceptable considering the thumbnails and AdSense widget I Use which causes a slight delay. Probably I should work on it, to get it down to under 1 seconds

If you are a WordPress user, you should definitely use W3 Total Cache Plugin as it significantly improves your site loading speed. You can check my article to know How To Configure W3 Total Cache for best results.

For more information, you can check my article How Speed Up WordPress Blog.

Update: I managed to reduce my Page Load Time by 82% to just 0.8 seconds.

Bottom Line

Getting to the first page of Google is the dream of most bloggers. With Millions of blogs post added daily to the world-wide-web, it is only getting tougher. However if you can write some quality content which your readers can relate to and follow these On Page SEO Optimization tips, am sure it will be much easier for you to achieve your dream.

Difficult to remember all these points? Do check out the Checklist for managing your On Page SEO.

Do you have any suggestions to improve this article? Or any questions you want to ask? Just drop a comment below.