Ranking higher in search results can seem impossible for small businesses. However, search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and best practices do more than increase your visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). Proper SEO implementation can increase foot traffic to local shops and deliver seamless mobile experiences.

You can do this by making guest posts on high-authority sites or paying someone to do this for you. However, this only works if the content gets categorized as high quality and relevant to your niche. By following the steps I’ve outlined in this On Page SEO checklist, you’ll be able to move the needle of your core landing pages and blog posts too.

While both are crucial in a website’s ranking and visibility, On-Page SEO provides more control over optimizing web pages. When you start typing a query in Google Search, you are presented with a list of possible phrases to use in your search. This means that to make your content more relevant to broad topics, you need to enrich your content with related keywords. This is necessary to determine what search terms users are typing in the search box and create content that satisfies their intent. Before publishing content (text, images, audio, or video), the first step is to do keyword research.

Check Your Site’s Loading Speed (Core Web Vitals)

For instance, if in your article about “how to become a BHS Links freelance writer” but you never use the subheading with your keywords, your post is unlikely to rank. So even if you’ve written an informative post, but haven’t used your subheadings properly, few people will find your article on search engine result pages. The article doesn’t begin with a long thesis about the history of SEO, then eventually circling back to on-page SEO.

Featured snippets are short pieces of text carefully extracted by Google to provide a concise and direct answer to the user search. They’re displayed at the top of organic search results and come in several formats, such as paragraphs, lists, and tables. In this section, I’ll cover the most common advanced on-page SEO factors we run against.

Say you wanted to write about “how to become a freelance writer,” for example. Searching this keyword on Ahrefs keyword explorer would show you how easy (or hard) it would be to rank for it. You’d also see specific questions people are asking about the subject, as well as an estimate of how many people search for the keyword every month. Search engine optimization (SEO) is inextricably linked to digital marketing. So if you’re interested in the field, it pays to understand the basics of SEO. SEO experts broadly categorize it into on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.

Create Linkable Assets

When it comes to on-page SEO, keywords play a critical role in improving your online visibility. On-page SEO (also called on-site SEO) is the practice of optimizing webpages to rank higher on search engines. It includes optimizations to visible content and the HTML source code. If you want to improve your search engine rankings in 2025, you need to get backlinks. On-page SEO is a term that covers numerous strategies applied on a web page to improve its ranking within search engine results.

• Which means most searchers are looking to learn more about flowers—not make a purchase.
• Technology advancements have brought in a whole new suite of machine learning and AI SEO tools.
• Prices for on-page SEO services depend on several factors, including your SEO agency, SEO strategy, and more.
• The title tag of your web pages is one of the first elements that users look at when deciding whether or not to click through to a page from their search.
• They are not showing on your website itself – only on result pages.

SEO CONTENT

We double-checked the importance of all the factors with this great list of SEO success factors by Cyrus Shepard, supported by case studies, expert opinions and statements from Google. Consistently implementing these tactics will considerably improve your chances of ranking well in search results. However, there is evidence they play a role in a site’s initial ranking, and some professionals believe they’re used to group pages. While they shouldn’t be your top SEO priority, you don’t want to ignore them. Optimizing images can also help you to gain more visibility through image search and in the SERP image carousel.

Search results located below the map pack are called localized organic results. NAP (name, address, phone) citations are online mentions of your business that display your business name, address, and phone number. Usually, UX improvements should be applied to the entire website, not just webpages. However, if you want to keep pages with unique layouts, keep in mind that a different design means a different experience. An internal link is a link from another page on the same website. You can view external (outbound) links on any page with Ahrefs’ SEO Toolbar.