On-page SEO ranking factors can have a huge impact on your website’s search engine rankings. How you optimize your web pages affects your site’s ability to rank better in the search results. 

SEO experts suggest you should always focus on on-page SEO since it is an integral part of SEO as a whole. Moreover, the SEO landscape is evolving and so it is crucial that your knowledge of on-site optimization is up to date.

Here are 8 essential on-site SEO factors that affect your site’s ranking.

1. Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT)

EAT is the foundation that raters from Google use to evaluate content creators, websites, and webpages as a whole. 

EAT was created to ensure that websites with low-quality content get less visibility in the search results. And websites with high-quality content are rewarded with higher rankings. 

EAT is vital especially if the content of your website covers YMYL or “Your Money Or Your Life” topics. 

Be sure to:

  • Be legit. Have values. Do what real companies would do. Care about your customers. Hire experts if you can.
  • Work so you can show Google about your brand’s expertise and value.

2. Content Audit

Most content creators focus on creating fresh content while neglecting to check their existing ones. 

According to a survey by SEMRUSH, the most effective methods used to improve content performance are:

  • SEO or Search Engine Optimization (67%)
  • Repurposing or updating existing content (51%)
  • Making use of user-generated content (11%)

You should do content audits on a regular basis as this can give a boost to your SEO strategy.

Content audits help you:

  • Assess your existing content if it is gaining ROI and achieving its goals.
  • Identify the types of content that are currently working for your website.
  • Determine if your content’s information needs an update or not.

3. A Properly Optimized Web Page

For a web page to be considered ideal, it should:

  • Be relevant to a specific topic whether a single object or a product. The subject should be specified across the content. The subject should be included in the title tag, URL, and in the image alt text.
  • Provide content that is unique for a given subject.
  • Link back to the homepage. 
  • Link back to the category page.

4. User engagement

Optimizing a web page is only half the battle. The other half is about ensuring your visitors stay on your website longer. They should be interacting with your pages and keep coming back for more.

To keep visitors who are already engaged to your site might be somewhat difficult to do but it is doable.

To increase user engagement, you should focus on:

  • Content optimization
  • Site speed
  • User experience
  • Responsiveness and 
  • Mobile-friendliness

5. SEO Writing

SEO writing or “writing for SEO” is the process of creating articles with both search engines and users in mind. It is vital for your digital marketing strategy since amazing content is still king. 

To put it this way, SEO writing is the combination of your amazing content and a solid on-page SEO. 

A great way to connect with your potential customers is by finding all the questions they ask online. And then create content that has the answers to those questions.

Don’t create content for the sake of having one for your site. Keep in mind that you’re writing content for your target audience. Whatever content you create, it should be:

  • High-quality
  • Valuable and
  • Relevant

6. Page Content That Brings Traffic

The quality of a page’s content is what makes it worthy of its position on the search results page. The content itself is what internet users come to see. This is crucial to search engines, especially Google.

Information is a bit like the world’s markets, it is also affected by demand and supply. To supply demand and being linkable are two attributes of good page content. Supplying the largest demand is what makes a page content to be the best. 

But, being the best doesn’t matter if the page content is not linkable. If people can’t link to that page, Google will unlikely rank it. 

If a page is not visible in the search results, then the content failed to drive traffic to the site. 

Content that is not linkable is the same as the content that doesn’t supply a demand. It is not good for internet users and in the eyes of search engines as well. 

7. Meta Tags

Meta tags are HMTL elements found on a webpage’s source code, they don’t appear on the page itself. Nonetheless, they help search engines understand what your page is all about. 

Meta tags are no longer a huge ranking factor as they were years ago. However, inserting your keywords in the meta tags is one of the best practices of on-page SEO. 

Title Tags

Title tags state precisely the title of your or document or webpage. They are featured in search results pages and in your browser’s window. Title tags should be catchy enough for internet users to click through.

Your webpage might show up in the search results when someone uses the search phrase or keywords relevant to your page. However, whether internet users click on your meta title or not depends on how catchy they are.

Remember, there’s no point in creating amazing content when no one clicks on your title tags.

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions define what your page is all about. Google and other search engines need to understand what’s on your page so they can serve them to the exact audience. 

Meta descriptions should be written in a way that piques the interest of internet users and makes them want to click through. 

Header Tags

Compelling header tags or headlines and subheadings help your page perform well on search. 

Great headlines can mean the difference between an impression and a click-through. This is why it is important to write them strategically. 

Just like your meta title, your headline should spark the interest of internet users. This would make them click through and read your content in its entirety. 

8. Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword Cannibalization happens when your site has articles that rank for a similar search query on Google. Either the articles on separate web pages are optimized for the same search phrase (keywords) or because they cover similar topics.

This is bad for your site’s on-page SEO because the pages on your site are competing with the same keyword. As a result, Google won’t be able to distinguish which page should rank higher. There’s a higher chance Google will both rank those pages lower instead. 

This is called Keyword Cannibalization since your pages are ‘eating’ away each other’s chances to rank higher. 

Read more: How To Find Keywords For Travel And Tourism Websites 

Final Thoughts

On-page SEO is vital since it helps Google and other search engines understand what the content of your web page is about. This will ensure your pages are served to your target audience for relevant searches.

It is also important that you are always updated with the changes in SEO as search algorithms are becoming more sophisticated as years go by.

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Alex is a writer and content marketing specialist. He is currently working for Breakline, a UK based SEO Agency.