On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is the work you do inside the page itself, from the title to the text on your photos, so readers and search engines both understand it.

Also known as on-site SEO page optimisation content SEO

Definition

On-page SEO is everything on a page that you write yourself, arranged so a reader and a search engine both understand it. That makes it the opposite of the work you cannot control, like who decides to link to you. Because all of it sits inside your own website, it is the cheapest part of search to improve, starting with the title.

The title is the blue line a person reads in the search results, so it is the strongest signal you own. Write the words a customer would type, and keep it under about sixty characters so nothing gets cut off. Make it different on every page. Below the title sits the description, and although it does not change your position, it decides whether anyone clicks, which comes to the same thing.

Inside the page, the main heading should say plainly what you offer, and smaller headings break the text into parts a reader can scan. Keep them in order, and never use one just to make words bigger. Every photo also needs a short line describing it, because a screen reader speaks it aloud and search engines read it as text. The easiest way is to describe the picture as you would to someone on the phone.

The rule that saves the most work is one page, one subject. A page selling dental cleaning and dental implants at once ranks for neither, because nothing on it answers either search completely. So split it in two, and both halves usually climb. The same mistake sits behind most thin websites, where five services are crammed onto one page because the brochure looked that way.

Write for the person first, and read the page aloud when you think it is done. Any sentence that exists only to hold a phrase you want to rank for sounds wrong, and Google has been pushing that writing down for years. Answer the questions a reader asks next instead. Those are usually the price, how long the work takes, and what happens if they change their mind.

One thing owners rarely check is the address of the page itself. A short address made of words beats a string of numbers, and it should stay the same once other sites link to it. That is why Linkysoft settles those addresses at the start of a website design and development project. The rest is ordinary work that never finishes, so Linkysoft runs it inside digital marketing as a monthly habit, not a one-off job.

Questions about On-Page SEO

How long should a page title be?
Aim for about fifty to sixty characters. Longer titles get cut off in the search results, and the words at the end are the ones that disappear. Put the important words first and give every page its own title.
Does the meta description change my ranking?
Not on its own. It decides how many people click your result, and a result nobody clicks slowly slips down. Write it as an invitation, in one or two plain sentences, and give a reason to choose you.
How many times should my keyword appear on the page?
There is no number, and chasing one makes the writing worse. Use the phrase where it belongs naturally, usually in the title, the first paragraph and one heading. Spend the rest of your effort answering the question fully.
What is alt text and do I really need it?
It is the short line that describes a picture. People who cannot see the screen hear it read aloud, and search engines use it to understand the image. Describe what is in the photo in a few plain words, and leave it empty for decorative shapes.
Can one page rank for two different subjects?
Rarely, and usually badly. Two subjects on one page means neither is answered fully, so both lose to a page that covers only one. Splitting the page in two is the cheapest improvement most sites can make.

Still not sure how this applies to your project?

Tell us what you are building and we will answer in plain language.