10 On-Page SEO Strategies to Improve Search Engine Rankings

Every brand that wants to improve its online presence, organic web traffic, and conversions must develop an effective on-page SEO strategy. By optimizing your site and content for the search engine results pages (SERPs), you could jump ahead of your rivals in Google and drive more quality leads to your site.

There is no question a strong off-page strategy is crucial when marketing your business online, but it would be foolish to overlook on-page tactics. After all, it informs search engines and their users about who you are, what you do, and the value you can provide.

If you’re unsure how to start, here are 10 on-page SEO strategies for better search engine rankings.

1. Keyword ResearchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here.

KeywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. research is the backbone of a successful On Page SEO strategy. Without it, you cannot produce and publish valuable, relevant content that will reach and engage your target audience.

Get started by identifying the most popular queries and long-tail keywords your demographic often types into search engines. Your findings will then shape your content strategy, as you can produce copy that answers your target audience’s questions, triggers an interest, or helps them find a solution to a problem.

Discover top keywords associated with your niche by:

• Using a free keyword plannerThe Google Keyword Planner Tool helps you find new keywords and synonyms based on the ones you already rank for.
• Turning to Google autocomplete for relevant search terms
• Doing your research to create a list of powerful keywords
• Exploring social media groups and forums to learn about your target audience

We strongly advise you to consider search volume and keyword difficulty during the process. It’s wise to avoid keywords with a difficulty score of 70 or above, as you can expect much online competition.

Of course, you should choose keywords with a moderately high search volume to help your content reach its desired audience. As soon as you have created a solid list of high-quality, relevant keywords, you can start incorporating them into various types of content, such as blogs, on-page copy, videos, infographics, case studies, and more.

2. Highlight Your Experience

Expertise matters when creating content. Google values first-hand experience when publishing content, as it will use it to judge the quality of each piece. Help your content stand out online by sharing stories or insights, describing locations, uploading personal photos, or demonstrating your skills. You can then develop an engaging off-page SEO strategy to promote your expertise.

3. Smarter Internal Linking

A logical internal linking structure will help Google and other search engines quickly crawl and index your site. Prevent orphan pages by embedding an internal linkInternal links are links that connect different pages on your website. They help users navigate your site and make it easier to find information, into every page, as it will allow your customers to navigate your website without hassle.

In addition to supporting indexing and navigation, internal linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. could help your business generate leads and improve your site’s dwell time. However, you must ensure your internal links are relevant to the topic to maintain engagement and support SEO optimization.

4. More External Linking

External linking is commonly overlooked when developing an on-page SEO strategy, but it will shape your site’s visibility in the SERPs. Google will look at more than your internal link structure, as it will review and measure your chosen outbound links for quality, quantity, and relevancy and compare them to the pages you’ve placed them on.

If you didn’t know, Google was founded on the concept of ranking sites based on the quality of their inbound and outbound links, which is why you mustn’t overlook them. Link back to trustworthy, high-quality sites to boost your credibility with search engines.

5. Image Optimization

According to Search Engine Journal, blogs with images will generate 94% more views. High-quality images will engage users while breaking up large chunks of text, encouraging them to read on. For this reason, you should use an attention-grabbing, relevant image every few subheadings to encourage your target audience to reach the bottom of your content.

Don’t forget to add alt text (brief image descriptions) and attempt to include a target keyword to support SEO. Also, create custom titles for each image to make it easier for Google to crawl and compress them to protect your site’s speed.

6. Content Auditing and Optimization

Despite taking the time to produce well-written, interesting content, it might fail to reach the top of the SERPs and generate much traffic. For this reason, we recommend routinely performing content audits to boost your site’s rankings.

For instance, you might need to target new keywords, as your current ones might have decreased in popularity. Also, you might need to fix broken links or tweak existing content to match Google’s evolving algorithms. Also, ensure your primary keywords appear in the URL, the first 100 words of your content, the meta title and description, the H1 tag, and the image alt text.

7. Engaging Titles

Never underestimate the power of a relevant, engaging title. It is key to encouraging your target audience to click on your content and helping Google identify what it is about and how they should rank it.

As mentioned, place your target keyword in the H1 header and use subheadings to help Google understand the content and encourage skimmers to read the whole post. Create standout content by creating listicles, adding the current year into a headline, or asking a question that you’ll answer in the body.

8. URL Structure Optimization

Are you guilty of using default URL settings? It’s an issue we often discover when performing an SEO Audit, as many people don’t realize it can affect their on-page SEO strategy. Right this wrong by incorporating a primary target keyword into each URL.

Some CMS platforms will generate a dynamic URL automatically, such as WordPress. However, we recommend creating custom, SEO-optimized URLs to ensure you remain in full control of the URL structure.

9. Improved Web Speed

Speed matters for on-page SEO. According to Think with Google, 53% of visits are often abandoned if a mobile site takes more than three seconds to load. If your site has oversized videos and images, a bad host, endless adverts, or excessive JavaScriptJavascript is one of the web’s key programming languages but coding it incorrectly can cost you in technical SEO terms. In order to avoid common mistakes, and understand how Java operates, here’s a quick guide to coding Java the right way., it likely has a slow load time and a high bounce rateBounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website who visit only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your website.. Use Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool to identify if your site passes its Core Web Vitals test. If it doesn’t, you’ll receive helpful advice on how to improve it.

10. A Mobile-Friendly Website

Google uses mobile-first indexingGoogle's Mobile-First Indexing is a change to the search engine's indexing system, where sites are ranked higher in search results if they're easier to navigate on mobile devices., which is why your site must be faultless on all devices, including smartphones, desktops, tablets, and more. For this reason, you must introduce a responsive design to your website if you haven’t already done so. It will automatically alter the site’s dimensions to match a user’s device.

Do you need help developing an on-page or off-page SEO strategy? Schedule a no-obligation consultation with our friendly team at Click Intelligence. We provide comprehensive SEO Services to complement your needs, from SEO Management and SEO Consultancy to Enterprise SEO and White Label SEO.