How to start the onpage SEO?
On-page SEO (also called on-site SEO) is the practice of optimizing web pages to rank higher in search engines. It includes optimizations to visible content and the HTML source code.
Why is on-page SEO important?
Google looks at your page’s content to determine whether it’s a relevant result for the search query. Part of this process involves looking for keywords.
Screenshot from Google’s ‘How Search Works’ page.
But there’s more to on-page SEO than including keywords in your content—a lot more.
Google is ultimately looking for the most relevant search result for a query, so their algorithms also look for other relevant content on the page. If your page is about dogs and you don’t mention different breeds, Google knows there are probably more relevant results out there. Relevance is such a big part of on-page SEO that unless you crack it, you’re unlikely to rank.
How to create SEO content?
Before you even think about making ‘technical’ optimizations like placing keywords here or there, you need to create content that Google wants to rank. For that, you need the main target keyword in mind. Read our keyword research guide if that’s not the case.
Otherwise, here are the four things you need to master:
Be relevant
Be thorough
Be unique
Be clear
1. Be relevant
Relevance is arguably the most crucial part of on-page SEO, which means aligning your content with search intent. Fail to give searchers what they want, and your chances of ranking are slim to none.
Because nobody understands search intent better than Google, the best starting point is to analyze the current top-ranking results for the three Cs of search intent:
We already briefly covered this concept in our keyword research guide. But we’ll go a bit deeper here, as again, aligning your content with intent is critical.
1. Content type
Content types usually fall into one of five buckets: blog posts, product, category, landing pages, or videos. For example, all the top-ranking pages for “black maxi dress” are eCommerce category pages from well-known stores.
US rankings for “maxi dress” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
If you want to rank for this keyword, it’s unlikely to happen with a blog post. Searchers are in buying mode, not learning mode.
For some keywords, however, things aren’t clear-cut.
If we look at the top-ranking results for “plants,” you’ll see a mix of eCommerce pages and blog posts.
US rankings for “plants” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
If this happens, use your best judgment. In this case, although there’s a roughly 50/50 split between blog posts and eCommerce pages in the results, the top three are eCommerce pages. That tells us that most searchers are looking to shop, not learn, so you’d probably stand the best chance at ranking for this keyword with an eCommerce page.
2. Content format
Content format applies mostly to blog posts, as they’re usually either how-tos, listicles, news articles, opinion pieces, or reviews.
For example, every result for “force restart iPad” are how-to guides, besides those from apple.com.
US rankings for “force restart ipad” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
For the keyword “marketing ideas,” they’re all listicles.
US rankings for “marketing ideas” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
To stand the best chance at ranking for either of these keywords, you should follow suit. Trying to rank a listicle when searchers want a how-to guide will be an uphill battle.
However, as with content type, the SERP isn’t always as clear-cut as in the examples above.
Just take a look at the top-ranking pages for “how to get more subscribers on youtube.” There’s a pretty even mix of blog posts in how-to and listicle formats.
US rankings for “how to get more subscribers on youtube” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
In this case, because “how-to” is in the target keyword, that would probably be the best way to go. But it’s worth noting that there isn’t exactly a definitive answer. Everyone sees things differently, and you could go either way. We chose the listicle format for our post about getting more YouTube subscribers because it seemed like a better match for the tips we wanted to share.
Our page ranking in position #9 for “how to get more youtube subscribers.”
3. Content angle
The content angle refers to the main ‘selling point’ of the content. For example, those searching for “how to make latte” seem to want to know how to make it at home—without specialist equipment.
US rankings for “how to make latte” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
For “best MacBook,” people are clearly looking for fresh results.
US rankings for “best MacBook” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
Just in case you didn’t get the gist by now, the content angle isn’t always this clear-cut. If you look at the top results for “fried rice recipe,” there are multiple angles: best, easy, restaurant-style, etc.
US rankings for “fried rice recipe” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
In this case, the perfect content angle is anyone’s guess. Just go for the angle you think would be most appealing and useful for someone searching for “how to make fried rice.”
PRO-TIP
While it’s important to align your content with what searchers expect, you might not always want to follow the herd. If you’re confident that you can get searchers’ attention with a different content type, format, or angle, feel free to give it a shot.
. Be thorough
Having content that broadly aligns with search intent is a good start, but it’s rarely enough. To be deserving of a place on the first page of Google, it needs to deliver on its promise. And that means covering all the things searchers expect and want to see.
Given that you’ve identified the three Cs of search intent, you probably already have a rough idea of what searchers might want to see. For example, if you’re writing about how to buy Bitcoin and the top-ranking pages are for beginners, it probably wouldn’t be wise to explain the blockchain in intricate detail.
However, analyzing the three Cs only gives you a high-level view of intent. To better understand what your content should cover, you need to dig deeper by further analyzing relevant top-ranking pages.
The keyword here is “relevant.” If you’re targeting the keyword “best golf club sets” and plan to write a post about the best sets, then there’s no point analyzing and taking inspiration from top-ranking ecommerce pages or posts about individual clubs. You want to analyze similar pages to yours.
Let’s look at how to do that.
Look for common subheadings
Most pages break a topic down into subtopics with subheadings. These offer quick insights into what searchers are looking for, especially if you notice the same or similar subheadings across multiple pages.
For example, if we check the subheadings for other on-page SEO guides, we see that each page features a definition.
Definition from the #1 page for “on page seo.”
Definition from the #2 page for “on page seo.”
Definition from the #3 page for “on page seo.”
Given that all relevant top-ranking pages include this, it’s reasonable to conclude that it’s something searchers want to know. Google probably knows that pages covering these things lead to higher user satisfaction than those that don’t—and chooses to rank them higher.
If you’re writing a listicle, you can also look to subheadings for insights into specific products, services, or tips you might want to include.
For example, if we use the free on-page report in Ahrefs SEO toolbar, you’ll see that the top-ranking pages for “best golf club sets” mention some of the same sets.
Subheadings on the #1 page for “best golf club sets” via Ahrefs SEO toolbar.
Subheadings on the #2 page for “best golf club sets” via Ahrefs SEO toolbar.
Just remember to take this approach with a pinch of salt. If your keyword is ‘best golf club sets’ and all the top-ranking pages mention a set that you know is terrible, you shouldn’t include it just because everyone else did.
Look for subtopics among keyword rankings
According to our study of three million search queries, the average top-ranking page ranks for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords in the top 10.
Many of these keywords will be other ways of searching for the same thing. For example, if we plug the top-ranking page for ‘best golf club sets’ into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and check the Organic Keywords report, we see that it also ranks for keywords like:
best set of golf clubs
best golf club sets 2020
good set of golf clubs
best complete golf sets
best golf set
Screenshot from Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.
But some keywords will represent subtopics that fall under the broader topic.
For example, that same page also ranks in the top 10 for:
mens golf club sets
best budget golf clubs
best golf club brands
golf club set with bag
best amateur golf clubs
Screenshot from Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.
Looking for subtopics among keywords of relevant top-ranking pages is an excellent way to find things you might want to cover in your content.
Another way to do this is to look for keyword intersections between multiple pages. To do that, plug a few relevant page URLs into Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool, then play around with the number of intersections until you have a meaningful set of results.
Enter relevant top-ranking pages into Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool…
… then adjust the “intersect” toggle until you see keywords that represent subtopics.
Look at the pages manually
Finding common subheadings and keywords is the fastest way to get some insight into what to cover. But you can’t learn everything that way. There’s no substitute for manually analyzing the pages to get a better sense of the topic.
If we open the top three pages about the best golf club sets, we notice that most of the featured sets are beginner sets under $300. None are listing the actual “best” sets because those cost thousands and thousands. This tells us that it’s mostly beginners searching for this keyword, so there’s no point reviewing high-end products because searchers won’t find that useful.
Beyond that, we see that most top pages list pros and cons for each set.
The #1 page for “best golf club sets” lists pros and cons…
…and so does the #2 page.
That gives us clues about how we should structure our post for searchers and the product attributes they care about the most. For instance, it looks like the bag’s durability is a selling point for those in the market for a set of clubs.
Look at SERP features
Beyond analyzing competing pages, there’s also something to learn by checking SERP features like featured snippets and ‘People also ask’ (PAA) boxes.
For example, while there’s no featured snippet for ‘best golf clubs,’ there is a PAA box. And these questions offer insights into other things searchers might want to know.
The ‘People Also Ask’ box for “best golf club sets.”
That second-to-last question tells us that searchers are probably quite price-conscious and want a quality set of clubs for a fair price. This confirms what we thought after manually analyzing the top-ranking pages. Most searchers are almost certainly beginners and aren’t looking for the absolute top of the line clubs.
If we look at the results for “how to swing a golf club,” we see that the featured snippet is a video from YouTube.
Youtube video in the featured snippet for “how to swing a golf club.”
Even if you were to target this keyword with a blog post, the fact that there’s a video ranking in the snippet tells us that searchers probably want visual aids. For that reason, it’d make sense to include videos or images demonstrating the swing in your post.
3. Be unique
It’s vital to give searchers what they want, but you also need to bring something new to the table. Fail to do this, and your content will be like everyone else’s. And nobody wants to link to another ‘me too’ piece of content.
Everything we’ve covered so far should have provided a winning framework for your content, but there should still be scope for some creativity.
For example, if we look at the SERP for “SEO tips,” the intent is clear. People want a list of tips to improve rankings and boost traffic.
US rankings for “SEO tips” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
That’s what we created, as you can see from the post ranking in spot #2.
But while many of the tips on our list aren’t unique, there are some that you won’t find anywhere else. One is to embed videos in relevant posts to get traffic from Google. If someone comes across our page, finds that tip useful, and decides they want to share it with others, they have no choice but to share or link to our page.
It’s a little harder to do this with other content types, but it’s still possible.
For example, it might seem near impossible to make a unique product or category page, but you can always utilize things like:
Better filters
Better product photography
Unique product descriptions
Reviews
4. Be clear
No matter how well your content aligns with search intent or how thorough it is, nobody will read it if it’s unclear. For example, the page below matches user intent for the keyword “all-grain brewing”—but it’s a wall of tiny text that nobody wants to read.
Great result, but it’s a wall of text!
Follow these simple tips to create clear content that people will want to read:
Use bullets to help skimmers.
Use descriptive subheadings (H2-H6) for hierarchy.
Use images to break up the text.
Use simple words that everyone can understand.
Use short sentences and paragraphs to avoid “walls of text.”
Use a large font to help readers avoid eye strain.
Write as you speak to make things more entertaining and conversational.
It’s about making it as easy as possible for searchers to find what they’re looking for. If you cover everything people want to know on your page, but they can’t find it, they’re going to hit the back button in search of a page that’s clearer and easier to digest.
Besides the advice above, we also recommend putting the ‘need to know’ before the ‘nice to know.” This is known as the inverted pyramid method.
For example, when we were writing our guide to 301 vs. 302 redirects, there was a lot of ground to cover. But we also knew from analyzing the SERP that most searchers just wanted to know the difference between the two types of redirects. So although we wrote a thorough guide explaining the ins and outs of both, we made sure to summarize the key difference in one sentence at the beginning of the post.
If you’re not sure about the ‘nice to know’ and ‘need to know’ for your topic, take another look at the top-ranking pages. If we do this for our’ best golf clubs’ example, we see that they all list the top golf club sets before going into details
about each set, so people probably want the top picks before pros and cons and other information.
Here are some key steps to follow to optimize your website's on-page SEO:
Conduct keyword research: Before creating content, research the keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for. Use a keyword research tool to find relevant keywords, and then incorporate them strategically into your website's content.
Optimize title tags: Each page on your website should have a unique and descriptive title tag that includes the primary keyword for that page. Keep the title tag length to 50-60 characters.
Write compelling meta descriptions: The meta description provides a brief summary of the page's content in search results. It should be concise, compelling, and include the primary keyword.
Optimize header tags: Use header tags (H1, H2, H3) to organize your content and make it more readable. The H1 tag should include the primary keyword and describe the page's content.
Optimize content: Write high-quality, engaging content that includes the primary keyword and is relevant to your target audience. Use natural language and avoid keyword stuffing.
Use internal linking: Link to other relevant pages on your website to provide additional context and help visitors find related content.
Optimize images: Use alt tags to describe your images in a way that makes sense to users and search engines. Optimize image file names and sizes to improve page load times.
Use schema markup: Schema markup is a type of code that helps search engines understand the content of your website. Use schema markup to add additional context to your content, such as product information, reviews, and events.
Ensure your website is mobile-friendly: With more and more users browsing the internet on mobile devices, it's essential that your website is mobile-friendly. Use responsive design and test your website on multiple devices to ensure it looks good and works well on all devices.
By following these on-page SEO best practices, you can optimize your website's content and structure to improve your search engine ranking, drive more targeted traffic to your site, and ultimately, achieve your business goals