18 On page SEO Positioning factors you should know and use

The optimization of a web page is not only important for the positioning of results in search engines like Google, but it is also vital to improve the general user experience of your website, thus making it easier for you to stay for a longer time. Search engine optimization can be approached from two main areas: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Although both are equally important to the success of our website. In this article, we are going to specifically analyze what on-page SEO is and what are the relevant on-page SEO positioning factors to rank your website higher!

What is SEO on page positioning?

On page SEO involves optimizing key elements (content) on each page of a website in order to classify them as relevant keywords in the top positions of search engines (SERPS). On page SEO deals with both technical content (i.e. HTML tags) and web page content. The ultimate goal of on page SEO is to make the page content of your website easy to read and crawl (indexed) by search engines. So here are the On page SEO factors that you must optimize to get the highest position possible and thus more targeted traffic!

1. Relevant and quality content

The content is, without a doubt, the most determining of all the SEO positioning factors on page. Regularly updated and quality content not only makes users always come back to your site looking for more, but also makes search engines return to your website to track the new content you have created (either by updates as by including newly created posts). The more quality content you have on your website, the better your chances of ranking high on the keyword list.

2. Elimination of duplicate content

As important as having quality content it is also essential to not have duplicate content (that is, blocks of information that totally coincide with others within the same website or across multiple domains) because Google penalizes it . There are online tools that you can use to check if you have them on your website.

3. Structure and layout of the contents

In order for search engines to be able to process and classify content properly, it needs to be structured and formatted correctly using the appropriate headings -titles and subtitles-. Headings also help the reader navigate the content of the page more easily and facilitate readability. For the page to position correctly, they must contain the keywords (in their proper measure) and follow a logical hierarchical order: H1 (Title of content) . Summarize the content of the article and there should only be one per page H2 (Subtitle). There will be as many as sections the content has H3 (Subsection within the subtitle) . There may be one, more than one, or none within each H2 to facilitate information organization.

4. Page title

The title is one of the most important SEO positioning factors on page. The five things to keep in mind when optimizing page titles are: Must be no more than 60 characters It must contain the keywords that the article focuses on You can never have spelling mistakes or typos It must be unique for each URL and not be repeated It has to be original, eye-catching and catch the readers’ attention: no generic titles.

5. Keywords

Keywords are one of the most important on-page and off-page SEO positioning factors. They are those that users enter in their searches on Google and other search engines, and for which the websites try to position their pages. Generally, they will be words related to the sector in which they operate or the services they offer, and in order for them to position in Google they must be carefully chosen and have a specific density throughout the text – high enough for Google to recognize the content as relevant, but not so relevant that it penalizes. The keywords or keywords can be head tail (generic single words with a high volume of search and competition) or long tail, phrases of 4 or 5 much more specific words that better define the content and services offered on the page and that they have less competition. As they are less competitive, they also have a higher ROI, so it is more effective to position for these types of words.

6. Meta description

Although according to Google, the meta description is not an on-page SEO positioning factor per se , it ends up being relevant for the positioning strategy anyway since it is an important element for the user experience. When done well, it has a significant impact on SEO positioning because it increases CTR and web traffic . The meta description is nothing more than the small extract of content on our page that is shown in the search engines. To be well done , it must contain the keywords of the article, not present misprints and have a persuasive language that calls the reader to action and invites the click.

7. Semantic markup

Semantic markup is one of the latest evolutions of SEO that allows the Google search engine not only to recognize the word you are looking for, but also the information that is semantically related, which allows you to refine both the search and the positioning much more. Therefore, in order for Google and other search engines to recognize your content as relevant for a certain type of search, you must indicate what the semantic markup of it is . You can use tools such as Schema.org , which allow you to structure and highlight the content of your pages that best reflects the theme of your website.

8. Short and SEO-friendly URLs

Your website’s URL structure largely determines SERP performance. A good URL is short and easy to read: it should never contain more than 75 characters (even if it is readable) and it should always have good readability. It must contain the keywords, but without using more than two or three , and it is better that they do not present strange characters such as accents , question marks. They also have to be descriptive of the content of the page and unique so that Google does not penalize for duplicate content.

9. Canonical URL

We have already mentioned previously that there is nothing that kills the SEO efforts on page faster than having duplicate content or pages with very similar content within your website. Luckily, to solve this problem there is the canonical URL, a tag that is added to the link in HTML that directs the content to help inform search engines of which is the preferred page in case there are two similar ones (and, therefore, it protects you from penalties).

10. Internal and external links

The optimization of internal links simply consists of linking to other resources within your own website to ensure that the user spends more time within it browsing the different related content. The external links , meanwhile, are important for SEO because when made to pages of authority, much better positioning .

11. Image optimization

Image optimization involves adding appropriate and descriptive text to images on the web. While all image tags are important, the three factors to consider when optimizing images are: The size of the image, since large sizes slow down the loading, so the ideal is to reduce the images . The alternative text or ALT, which must correctly describe the content of the image and include the keywords. Linkbuilding by linking images : The more links the images receive, the more relevance and position Google will give them. It can be done using platforms like Flickr.

12. Loading speed

Page loading speed is the time it takes to load your web page when a user accesses its content and it is another of the most relevant SEO positioning factors on page, since it is decisive for a user to stay or not on the page . The most common factors that determine the loading speed of a website are: Videos, images and animations – If they are heavy they will slow down your website loading speed . JS and CSS files : also very heavy, they must be compressed to increase the loading speed of the website. Hosting – Poor hosting can also lead to very slow loading speed .

13. Navigability

The navigability of the website largely determines the position a website would occupy on the search engine results page. Poor web browsing build will lead to increased bounce rate , which in turn will have a negative impact on the web’s rank in search engines. Therefore, it is essential to consider website users throughout the development phase of any website so that you have a positive experience and do not get lost when searching for content on the page. Breadcrumb trails or breadcrumbs contribute a lot to this , a navigation element generally located at the top of the content of a page made up of links with which the user can go back in their navigation or scroll to more or less generic categories within the hierarchy of contents. On the other hand, having a search bar on your website will help with user navigation and decrease the bounce rate.

14. Responsive design

Responsive design is one of the most important on-page SEO positioning factors today, as users tend to access content from different devices. Responsive design is nothing more than adapting our website so that it is compatible when viewed both on the computer screen and on those of smartphones , tablets or iPads. Therefore, in addition to using a theme that is optimized for SEO in the design of our website , it must be adaptable to other devices. Responsive design – especially for mobile devices – is now a determining ranking factor, as Google gives more weight to well-responsive websites on different devices. You can use Google’s mobile checker to check if your website is responsive enough or not.

15. Site map

Sitemaps are an XML file that lists all the URLs available on a website for indexing by search engines, helping them to be crawled more quickly. This is good for SEO as sitemaps are usually uploaded or linked to a search engine’s webmaster tool.

16. 404 Error Pages

We’ve all stumbled upon a 404 Error page at one point or another, and while they are generally bad for SEO, it is very difficult to have a website without any error pages. Therefore, it is important that, if there are any, they are optimized and easy to use for the user, apologizing for the error and linking to another page, usually the main page of the website.

17. Security certificate

In addition to being one of the SEO on page ranking factors that rank in search engines, HTTPS also adds credibility to your website. The top ranked websites for any keyword have an SSL security certificate linked to their domain.

18. Social reaction buttons

Called social signals in English, these elements -likes, stars, pins, votes, comments, buttons to share through social networks- are interesting user interactions with our content, they filter the various search engines and can improve our positioning. , so it is important that your pages have them.