What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO is a search engine optimization technique that helps search engine bots understand what your page is all about. By adjusting and optimizing features like meta titles, meta descriptions, title tags, and internal links, you can increase your chances of ranking higher in search engines.
There are two main factors at play when optimizing your website or blog post:
- Page Optimization
- Off-site optimization
Off-site optimization involves the optimization of external signals of your website, such as backlinks .
Today’s post will focus on on-page optimization, and I ’ll share a number of great on-page SEO techniques that you should implement when optimizing your blog posts.
Best On-Page SEO Tools:
There are some popular On-page SEO tools that can help you analyze the top 10 results for your query.
Some of these tools will also compare your page to the top pages and give you data-backed suggestions for improving your on-page SEO.
Here is a list of tools:
These tools provide on-page SEO suggestions for your existing content or for new content you’re writing. They’re easy to use and can be used by you or your team of writers.
This is the method I have been using extensively, and this is how you will find my site in a Google search.
Now, let’s not confuse on-page SEO optimization with on-site SEO optimization.
- Onsite SEO refers to the optimization of your entire website through things like sitemaps and setting up a permalink structure.
- On-page SEO optimizes content for targeted keywords within individual blog posts. This includes using appropriate titles, proper keyword placement, ensuring content quality, and paying attention to many other factors.
Why do you need on-page SEO optimization?
Now, when some SEOs hear the term “SEO optimized articles” they think it’s a bad practice.
But this is not only bad, it is necessary.
Here are some things to think about:
- Why aren’t you ranking on the first page of search results?
Well, there could be many reasons but if you are not paying attention to SEO then this could be the biggest reason.
Therefore, when we SEO optimize a post, we follow a proven method to get it ranked higher on search engines.
Now, Google doesn’t just consider the on-page SEO score when ranking an article . It also considers many other factors like social media signals (shares, likes, tweets, follows, etc.), backlinks , domain authority, and many other off-page metrics.
Our goal for on-page SEO is to optimize articles in a natural but intelligent way so that search engines can easily pick out the target keywords and bring targeted visitors to our website.
Before you read more, I assume you know about keyword research and how to find your target keywords. If not, check out these posts:
- SEO Keyword Research – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners
- SEMRUSH Review: SEM Tool for Researching Competitor Keywords
- Best SEO Keyword Research Tools: 2025 Edition
A lot has changed in the past few years. While off-page SEO is important, on-page SEO should not be neglected.
In particular, the Golden Rule still applies:
- Content is king.
One thing I recommend you start doing is adding videos to your blog posts.
Videos not only increase the media count of your posts but also make your posts more informative and content-rich.
You’ll see an example of what I’m talking about later.
11 On-Page SEO Techniques to Help You Rank Better in 2025
Before I share some specific tips, here are some non-technical things you can do today:
- Improve user experience.
Make sure your website is responsive and the number of broken links is kept to a minimum. - Make sure readers coming from search engines stay on your site for a long time. If they hit the back button too quickly, your ranking will drop quickly.
Make sure your site maintains a professional look.
Use proper copywriting techniques to entice people to stay. - Create good content.
Try to use benefit-driven subheadings to increase appeal.
Don’t write fluff.
Ask for feedback and improve.
So now I will share with you 10 on-page optimization factors that you should keep in mind when optimizing your blog posts.
1. Meta Title
This is the most important on-page SEO factor. The reason is that the more attractive and optimized your title is, the more people will click on it. Generally speaking, the more clicks your post gets, the higher it will rank.
You should try to use your target keyword or keyword phrase at the beginning of the title (H1) tag, but if that’s not possible, make sure it’s at least in the heading.
You also shouldn’t repeat the same keyword multiple times in your title tag because you think it will help your article rank better. This is not the case. It may actually hurt your rankings. Don’t do it.
And keep the title length to 65 characters **or less ** .
2. Post Permalink Structure
Making sure your URLs display correctly is an important on-page metric. Likewise, you should use your target keywords in your URLs and avoid using special characters, symbols, brackets, commas, etc. in the actual URL.
Use dashes to separate strings of characters in the URL structure. These are called "pretty" permalinks and are supported by most web browsers.
Examples of good permalinks:
- https://www.domain.com/post-title-separated-with-dashes
3. Use appropriate title tags
You should use heading tags to highlight various titles, subheadings, and main points.
In WordPress, the title tag is set to H1. You don't actually need to use any other H1 tags anywhere in your article. One is enough. For section breaks, stick to H2 and H3 tags.
Also, don’t use too many H2 or H3 tags because Google’s algorithm doesn’t like that.
Learn: Title Tag SEO: Tips for Using Title Tags Properly
If you are using WordPress, you can click on Content Structure at the top to see if you are using the correct title tags.
4. Use a directory
Because it becomes very important to write a detailed article, sometimes the article is more than 5000 words long.
By using a table of contents, you not only help users navigate your long-form articles better, but it also helps you get jump links in Google searches.
5. Keyword density
Maintaining keyword density is debatable in 2025. What you should focus on is a combination of keyword variations. But if you want to maintain, you should keep keyword density around 1.5% and mix in LSI keywords .
My advice is to use semantically related words to help search engines understand your content better.
Use your main keyword once in the first paragraph and again in the last paragraph. And use it in the content where it makes sense.
6. Meta tags
You should add unique and relevant meta descriptions to each of your blog posts.
Again, you should use your target keyword in your meta description. I see a lot of SEOs claiming that meta descriptions are not a ranking factor, which I think is incorrect. I see a strong correlation between optimized meta descriptions and rankings.
While search engines pick up on keywords, it’s also important that users click on your posts. You need to write user-friendly meta descriptions that are meaningful and relevant to your posts.
Regarding meta keywords, Google has made it clear that they don’t care about them. But some search engines like Bing may still care a little.
7. Images with Alt text + meaningful names
Image optimization really helps a lot in attracting image search traffic.
Keywords in your Image Title and Alt Text help make your blog post more targeted and relevant.
Make sure to give your image a meaningful name before uploading it. Also, add alt text after adding the image to your WordPress page or post.
Adding Alt Text for On-Page SEO
Another advantage of using images is that:
Images create engagement.
The more engaged your users are, the more likely they are to stick around, improving your overall rankings.
But there is a very important point to note.
Large images slow down your site, and a slow loading site can lower your Google ranking. Therefore, it is important to:
- Compress the image.
- Use a caching plugin.
- Use a CDN.
For more information on how to speed up your website, check out:
7. Word count per article
Blog posts with less text often do not perform well on search engines. This is because they are often seen as “less informative.”
There are exceptions, of course, but for general informational blogging, writing posts of at least 1,300 words is the new standard.
However, there is a way to find the free word limit for your article, and this video can help you figure it out:
It’s always better to be well-researched and provide too much information than not enough. This is especially important if you’re targeting highly competitive keywords.
Here’s how to find the perfect on-page SEO free word length:
- Go to SEMRush
- Create an account and click on SEO Content Templates (left sidebar)
Enter your target keyword and the location you want to optimize for.
Now, on the next page, you will find the free word limit for your target keyword as shown below:
It also displays other data such as "Semantically Related Words" and "Readability" for the top 10 search results.
This is the best way to find the word limit for the article you want to rank for.
Tip: Analyze your target keywords in other posts and see how many words they have.
You can use the on-page SEO tools mentioned below to analyze the top 10 search results for your target keyword.
While there are no “official” statistics, longer posts tend to rank higher because they usually contain more information. For example, this post is over 2,800 words.
For more information on writing your message, see:
8. Adding Architecture
This is an underutilized on-page SEO technique that you can use to outrank your competitors. By adding Schema (structured data), you help search engines better understand your content.
For example, displaying your phone number and email address in your footer can definitely be valuable to your visitors, but search engines may not understand it.
By leveraging patterns, you provide context for their relevance.
A simple example of this is the star ratings (reviews) you see in search engines. See the example below:
Schema can be used for blog posts as well as business websites.
For WordPress, you can use the WP Review Pro or Schema Pro plugins, which let you quickly add the following schema types:
If you’re not using WordPress, use this tool to generate Schema markup and add it manually to your site’s pages.
FAQ schema is one of the newest schema types which can help you improve your content ranking to a great extent.
9. Internal Links
Reciprocal linking between blog posts will help your blog readers spend more time on your blog and will also help pass page rank to other pages of your website.
When interlinking, try using keywords as anchor text, but * be careful * not to overdo it.
Internal links related to the original post indicate to search engines that you provide additional information beyond what appears in your content.
A good combination of anchor text + internal linking will help pass link juice from one page to another.
There are some popular internal linking plugins for WordPress.
At ShoutMeLoud, I use the Linkwhisper plugin to manage internal links.
But make sure your interconnections are relevant and necessary.
read:
- Link Whisper Review: One of the Best Options for Internal Link Building
- Best WordPress Internal Linking Plugins to Improve URL Rating for SEO
10. External links
In addition to linking to your own blog posts, it’s also a good idea to link to external websites. Again, only do this if the information on the external site is relevant to the information in your article.
When linking to external sites, you should only link to trusted sites. If you have doubts about the authority or popularity of your site, you can use the nofollow tag to avoid passing your link juice to potentially bad sites.
You should use dofollow links for trustworthy websites and nofollow links for less trustworthy websites.
But authoritative sites like Wikipedia, CNN, or major players in your field are not only trustworthy, but they are also likely to have relevant content that your readers will enjoy.
This will make your website appear more credible.
Read: How Outbound Links Improve SEO
11. Write engaging content
You should write engaging content. That's it.
If you try to leverage low-quality content and “trick” the search engines, you’re bound to fail.
Your post should be a complete manual for that keyword. You should learn how to appeal to your audience in a way that suits them. Try asking your readers questions and answering them. Understand what they want to read, and then write about it.
If you fail to write engaging content, people won’t spend as much time on your blog, your bounce rate will increase, and your rankings will drop.
For more information on creating great content, check out:
- 9 Steps to Writing a Great Blog Post (That People Actually Want to Read)
- How to write to create a deeper connection with your readers
- 5 Tips for Writing Viral Content
On-page optimization checklist for 2025:
You can use the following checklist to ensure you are doing everything possible to rank higher in the search engines.
Keyword placement tips:
- Keywords in the title.
- Keywords in permalinks.
- Keywords in the first 100 words.
- Keywords in image alt tags.
- Use LSI keywords in the body of your content (use SEMRush to find related keywords).
- Use LSI keywords in H2 or H3.
On-Page SEO Factors in 2025:
- Remove all stop words from permalinks.
- Add multimedia (videos, slideshows, infographics).
- Use the On-Page SEO tools mentioned above to find your free word limit.
- Optimize images (compress and resize) before uploading.
- Optimize page loading speed .
- Create meta titles that are less than 65 characters.
- Create meta descriptions that are less than 158 characters. (This is the new meta description limit in 2025)
- Internal links to related articles.
- Outbound links to relevant, high-quality websites.
- Use Breadcrumbs
- Using FAQ Schema
Other things not mentioned here:
- Be sure to add images suitable for Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Make sure you have social sharing buttons at the end of your post or floating above your post website.
- Add related articles after each post to reduce bounce rate.
Don’ts:
- Don’t put more than one H1 tag (your post title is the H1).
- Don't repeat the same H2 and H3 tags. Read about title tags for SEO .
- Don’t stuff keywords.
Things to watch out for:
- Use your keywords in the post title.
- Use long-tail keywords.
- Content length: This should be based on research. Analyze the word count of the top 10 results for your query and create content that is the same or more than the average of the top 3 results.
- At the end of your blog post, ask users to take action.
How to do the right on-page SEO for your articles
So, these 10 tips will help make your on-page SEO better and more likely to rank on search engines.
But it is important to remember:
You can’t fool the search engines for long.
Recommended reading: How to write SEO-friendly content
The things that rank highest are the most informative, engaging, and useful.
So work hard to create content that your readers will love, and search engines will love you too.
On-Page SEO FAQs
What is On-page or In-page SEO? On-page or In-page SEO refers to fine-tuning a single web page for one or more keywords to make it more visible and rank higher in search engine results. It includes optimizing content (including relevant meta tags) and other on-page SEO elements to make the page search engine friendly.
How to perform an on-page SEO analysis? To perform an on-page SEO analysis:
– Start by researching keywords related to your content.
– Use these keywords to optimize your page titles, meta descriptions, and content.
– Focus on content quality, relevance and user experience.
– Ensure proper URL structure, internal linking, and mobile responsiveness.
– Use on-page SEO optimization tools like Frase , SurferSEO , or Semrush SEO Writing Assistant to effectively analyze and enhance page elements.
What is an example of on-page content? An example of on-page content is a web page or blog post that is optimized for search engines. This type of content contains relevant keywords, structured titles, well-formatted meta tags, data tables, engaging content, internal links, and media elements such as images or videos, all designed to attract organic traffic.
What tips do you have for optimizing blog posts? Please share with me in the comments below!
Like this guide? Don’t forget to share it!
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