Being well positioned on the internet is one of the main objectives pursued by any business that has a website. To achieve this, we have two ways: to work on SEO and / or SEM. The organic search part would be achieved with an SEO strategy, while the paid ads part would correspond to the SEM. Well, today we want to focus on SEO, specifically on page SEO.

What is on page SEO and what is it for?

As a reminder, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When we talk about SEO on page we refer to all those optimizations that can be done internally on our website to improve search engine positioning. That is, all those actions that depend on us 100%.

Although it is true that SEO on page is the most common way of calling it, it is possible that on some occasion you will also see it reflected as internal SEO or SEO within the page. 

Working on internal SEO is useful in two ways: 

  • We help Google understand our website so that it is easier to crawl and index.
  • We offer the user a good experience and respond to their search intentions.

As you can see, it is essential to work on SEO on page. If you want to know how to do it, throughout this post we will talk about the key points you have to work on to optimize your website internally.

Differences between SEO on page and SEO off page

Before continuing to talk about SEO on page it is necessary to talk about the differences between SEO on page and SEO off page. The first thing to keep in mind is that they are not exclusive, rather the opposite. If you really want to climb positions in search engines, you should work both parts.

The SEO off page is one who works out of our website. By reinforcing it, we look for other websites or social networks to add links to our page to help us position ourselves better. Meanwhile, with on-page SEO we want to be able to be easily indexed and for the user to have a good experience within our site.

What on page SEO factors does Google take into account?

Having seen the importance of working on SEO on page, we are going to go into the factors that Google takes into account to evaluate our website.

The goal you should keep in mind is that the robots that crawl our website can easily find us and can correctly read the information on our site. Google, the most used search engine in the world, is the one that marks the relevant elements and aspects that we must take into account to achieve a better organic positioning.

The first thing we will have to do is check that our site is correctly indexed. When we talk about indexed websites, we refer to websites that can be found on the internet through a search.

It is important not to confuse “indexed” with “public” . We speak of a public website when it is open and users can access it only through direct access.

Faced with this, how can you know if your website is indexed ? A simple way is to do a Google search with your business name and URL, since it is the minimum for which you should rank. If your website does not appear among the results, it is that it is not correctly indexed. It is important to review this, because if the crawling robots or “bots” cannot find our website or cannot index it, it will not appear in Google results and all our work will be in vain.

If by doing this little check your web page appears in Google, congratulations, you have already completed the first step. If, on the other hand, your website does not appear, we will explain in this post how to carry out the indexing of a website .

Once the indexing has been verified, you have to continue advancing in the elements of on-page SEO that you must work on and that we will explain one by one below.

1. Quality content that responds to search intent

We will start by talking about the content . The phrase “content is king” is a present and future reality. Google highly values ​​the content on web pages, as long as it is relevant and really helps users, so writing for the sake of writing is not worth it.

Analyze well all the pages of your site and see if they have content and that it follows the following guidelines:

  • We must respond to the user’s search intent . It is essential that the content is focused on satisfying the user’s search needs. If Google considers that our content helps users and they stay longer on our site, it will help us to position ourselves better.
  • Base our content on a keyword . All content must be focused on working on a keyword or keyword. This keyword must be spread throughout the text, in the titles and subtitles. Of course, it is important that it be treated in a natural way, since the naturalness in the texts is increasingly valued. To enrich the user experience, and therefore Google’s, we recommend using synonyms for your keyword throughout the writing.
  • A more complete and long content usually positioned higher in Google rankings.

But it is not only necessary to take into account the good practices to position the content in Google. On many occasions, due to ignorance, we fall into certain errors that Google can penalize. Some of them are:

  • Duplicate content . Check that you do not have the same content on more than one page. Forget about copying and pasting from other web pages and, of course, don’t do it with texts within your site either. Thinking that putting the same thing on several pages of your website does not penalize is a mistake. Make an effort to create original content in each of the sections.
  • Cannibalization . The concept of cannibalization refers to the use of the same keyword on multiple pages. With this, what we do is that each of these pages compete with each other to position in Google.
  • Keyword density and prominence . One of the most common mistakes is the excessive repetition of keywords, which is known as “keyword stuffing”. This repetition of keywords is penalized by Google, so we recommend that you do not over-optimize the posts. To avoid falling into this error, follow the advice we have given you previously: use synonyms and related terms.

2. Web architecture

The structure of the web page is also a key point for on page SEO.

Google must know what is the most important information on our website and what it has to index. To achieve this, it is necessary to correctly inform what is the structure of the web page and the different levels of navigation that exist in it.

How can we carry out the content hierarchy? Well, the first thing is to be clear about the key sections as follows: home, categories, subcategories, product sheets and posts. Define a pyramid structure to be able to group pages based on common content. When you create the subcategories, make sure that they all have more or less the same volume to help the user navigate well. In the post ” Web structure: what is it, why is it important, tips ” we talk more in depth about the subject of web architecture.

It is recommended that you invest some time in analyzing if your web structure is clear. Check if the user can reach all the pages easily and without making a large number of clicks.

With these actions, in addition to helping the user to navigate in an easy and intuitive way, you will be sending a message to Google that your page is well structured and that users find the information easily in it, this being a positive point to favor your positioning.

3. “title” and “description” tags

One of the key factors to optimize within on-page SEO are the title and description tags . These tags in English can be found on all our pages, from the home page to a blog post, and it is important to optimize it, since it is the content that the Google SERPs show. That is, it is the content that is displayed on Google when the user performs a search.

Think that both the title and the description will be the first impression that the user has of you when conducting a search, so they must be clear and concise. To make it easier to understand, below you have the image of a snippet, the fragment that, as we have mentioned, Google shows users when they perform a search.

As you can see, this snippet is made up of three parts: the title, the URL and the description, so the three parts are essential to attract visitors.

How can you get the optimization of these tags? Here are some tips:

  • Try to include the keyword at the beginning, but without forcing it.
  • The title should be up to 60 characters long and the description about 140–150 characters. If you use more characters, the title and description will appear cut off in the SERPs, which can lead to a bad user experience.
  • The title should be short, clear and concise. In the description we can highlight a benefit that the user will receive and end with a CTA for the user to click.

With these tips you will be able to increase the CTR, so that Google will recognize you as a relevant result and will improve your positioning.

4. URL syntax

We have seen in the previous section that the URL appears in the results offered by Google, hence it is also an element to work on if you want to improve your positioning. What tips can you follow to optimize the syntax of your URLs?

  • It must be descriptive of what the user will find.
  • Create short and friendly URLs.
  • Eliminate prepositions or conjunctions such as en, el, la ,  and … They do not add SEO value and thus reduce the number of characters.
  • Include the keyword at the beginning. You only need to include it once.
  • Avoid symbols such as accents, ces cedilla, eñes, etc. They make reading difficult.
  • Avoid underscores. Preferably use normal hyphens or means like this: -. Additionally, underscores can cause problems with certain servers.
  • We recommend that you always use lowercase letters.

5. Headings or “H” tags

The header tags , headers we use on websites, may also be a factor positioning. If you do not know what we are talking about, do not worry, because we will explain it to you right now.

Headings are what we know as titles and subtitles , and their use is the same as when you are writing an article: structure the information clearly and visually. Well, this same can be extrapolated to web pages. In order to structure and order the content, the headers of the static pages of our website must be used correctly.

In addition to making the information appear clearer to the user, we were able to tell Google the importance of each title, which is known as the “information hierarchy” .

The most common is to delve into 3 or 4 levels (H1, H2, H3 and H4), but there can be up to 6 levels. Here are some tips on how to optimize your use of headings.

  • H1 or main header
    • You should only use one per page. It is important not to confuse it with the title that appears in the SERPs.
    • It has to be concise and summarize what content is going to be found on the web. It is the summary of the article and identifies the page.
    • Try to be as high as possible on the page and that its font size is larger than the lower headings so that the user can easily identify it.
  • Secondary headers (H2, H3…)
    • They help structure the content. Its use is ideal for establishing sections and sections within articles.
    • Our recommendation is that you do not abuse the keywords in them so as not to fall into the keyword stuffing that we have discussed previously. Take the opportunity to include secondary keywords.

6. Image optimization

We are talking about content all the time, but the truth is that we cannot forget about the images . Surely in each of your pages and your posts you use one or more images to illustrate the text and get a page with a more elaborate aesthetic. Well, all those images are also considered as one of the on page SEO elements that you can work on.

The main thing you should know is that Google cannot read the images, so we must help you and inform you about that image. How? Thanks, mainly, to the HTML tags and to include captions in each of the images on our website. But this is not all, as it is important to consider the following factors of web images:

File name

It is essential to upload the images with a descriptive file name. This is one of the aspects that we tend to forget, a very common mistake with which the opportunity to give more information to Google is lost. That is why you must take into account that all images have an appropriate and descriptive name, and in all of them it is valuable to add the keyword that is going to work and for which we want to position.

ALT tag

The “ALT” tag, or alternative text, is the title attribute that is used to describe the image and position it. It is an essential element, since without them Google cannot read the image.

Our recommendation is to put the main keyword, but, as in the texts, you can use secondary keywords and long tails to enrich the searches.

Image title

The title of the image, also known as “universal attribute”, helps us to identify it. It is a short description that shows the information about the image when the user moves the cursor over it (mouseover). Its objective is to improve the usability of the user and, as a recommendation, it is also important that you include the keyword.

Legend

The caption is useful to provide more information to the user and is easily recognized, as it is the text that is displayed under the photos. So that it is also a factor that helps us to position, add the keyword.

Image format

Take care of the format in which you upload the images. Mainly, Google values ​​the following 3 formats: JPG, PNG and GIF.

Image weight

The less the images weigh, the better, since it will help us to have a higher loading speed. So, before uploading them to your website, remember to compress the images so that they weigh as little as possible. There are many free compressors on the internet that will help you do this.

7. Loading speed

Loading speed, Web Performance Optimization or WPO, is the loading time of a web page and is considered a factor that both Google and users value, so you have to optimize it. For this reason, it is important that our site loads quickly, both for the robot and for the user to have a good experience. How can you reduce the loading time? Following these tips:

  • Optimize and compress images.
  • Review the amount of widgets and plugins you use.
  • Clean up the code.

8. Internal linking

Finally, working on internal linking will also be very helpful if you want to improve your positioning. A good internal linking strategy helps spiders to index our page and, in addition, directs users to content of interest, so that they continue browsing and spend time on our website. How can you create a good internal link structure for good on page optimization?

  • Interlinking or internal linking works. This will help you to distribute the authority correctly within your website and favor the navigation and user experience, since they transfer authority to the landing page.
  • Keep in mind that Google considers a page important if it receives traffic from other pages, so you should think carefully about which page you want to send traffic to.
  • You must be careful with 404 pages and redirects, as Google penalizes them.

Conclusions.

As you can see, there are several elements that you can work on to improve the positioning of your website. All the factors that we have mentioned are relevant, so you should optimize them to achieve better results. Remember that there is no magic formula for your website to rank, so do a good previous study of keywords and start applying it in your SEO on page.

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