If you’ve invested clip and effort penning an epic portion of content, don’t hide astir on-page SEO. It helps google to recognize what your leafage is astir and amusement it to arsenic galore radical arsenic imaginable successful the hunt results.

Even better, galore on-page improvements are ace speedy and casual to do.

Follow this checklist for cleanable on-page SEO every time:

If you’re looking for a reusable interactive checklist to usage clip and clip again, present are a fewer different formats

• Google Sheets
• Microsoft Excel
• Google Docs
• Microsoft Word
• PDF

Let’s tally done everything real quick.

Google says it’s champion to usage words that are applicable to your contented successful leafage URLs, truthful you don’t privation random gobbledygook urls similar domain.com/734/834753956756 if you tin debar it. It’s amended to usage thing abbreviated and descriptive similar domain.com/mens/shirts.

It lone takes a fewer seconds to alteration this successful astir contented absorption systems:

If you’re not definite what words oregon phrases to use, the main keyword you’re targeting is usually a bully bet. That’s what we bash connected the Ahrefs blog 90% of the time.

For example, our people keyword for this station is “on leafage SEO checklist,” truthful that’s what the post’s URL is:

Few champion practices to support in mind:

• Avoid repeating words. If your leafage is astir mens shirts and it’s nested successful the /mens/ subfolder, you don’t request to repetition the connection “mens.” domain.com/mens/shirts/ is amended than domain.com/mens/mens-shirts/
• Avoid dates. If a searcher comes crossed domain.com/blog/2020/fashion-tips/ successful 2024, they’re going to presume it’s out-of-date adjacent if you updated the contented yesterday. So domain.com/blog/fashion-tips/ would beryllium better.
• Avoid being excessively specific. If your URL is domain.com/blog/20-best-fashion-tips/, it’s going to look weird if you adhd much tips to your station aboriginal on. Using the little circumstantial domain.com/blog/best-fashion-tips/ gives you much aboriginal freedom.

Google says that rubric tags are often the main portion of accusation searchers usage to determine which effect to click on. If yours is boring and dull, you’re astir apt not going to get arsenic galore clicks arsenic you could—even if you rank.

It’s the aforesaid communicative for meta descriptions, which Google often uses for the descriptive snippet.

There’s nary one-size-fits-all attack for rubric tags, but the ABC look is simply a decent starting constituent for blog posts:

For your meta description, my champion proposal is to effort to grow connected your rubric tag to springiness searchers much item and context.

If you’re struggling oregon conscionable privation a accelerated solution, springiness our escaped AI rubric tag generator and meta statement generator a shot. Tell the tools what your leafage is astir and your desired penning code and they’ll make a fewer options.

Remember to support them some abbreviated and swee, too. If they’re excessively long, they’ll get cut-off successful search. This looks unusual and makes them little compelling. You tin usage a escaped instrumentality similar this 1 to cheque for truncation earlier publishing, oregon Ahrefs’ Site Audit to find each the issues connected your site.

Google recommends utilizing 1 H1 tag per page. It makes consciousness to usage this for your leafage rubric arsenic H1 is the highest level heading there is.

Most contented absorption systems bash this automatically, but you tin double-check your rubric is so a H1 for escaped utilizing Ahrefs SEO toolbar. Just click the Content tab:

If the transcript you’d expect to beryllium wrapped successful a H1 tag isn’t, deed up your developer!

People privation what you promised them successful your rubric and meta description, truthful don’t footwear things disconnected with a load of fluff. Get consecutive to the constituent and springiness the scholar what they came for successful the archetypal sentence.

There’s nary one-size-fits-all mode to bash this. It each depends connected what searchers are looking for.

For example, erstwhile radical hunt for “toxic backlinks,” they’re overwhelmingly looking for a explanation supra each else. That’s wherefore I made the precise archetypal paragraph of my nonfiction the definition:

But erstwhile radical hunt for “best snowfall blower,” they conscionable privation a recommendation—so that’s what Wirecutter gives them successful the archetypal paragraph:

Google’s John Mueller said that the hunt elephantine uses headings to assistance amended recognize the contented connected a page. This is wherefore you request to marque definite they’re wide and descriptive.

It’s casual to miss the people here. We’ve adjacent been blameworthy of it ourselves.

For example, look astatine these 2 subheadings from our database of blogging tips:

Do you person immoderate thought what those mean astatine archetypal glance?

Me neither. And galore of the different subheadings successful our station were besides unclear.

If you fishy the aforesaid mightiness beryllium existent for your subheadings, effort this: inquire ChatGPT to rewrite them for clarity.

This is precisely what Sam did for our post, and it made them overmuch clearer successful seconds.

For example, “Create a ‘Do 100’ project” became “Start a ‘write 100 blog posts’ project”:

Make definite your subheadings person due hierarchy, too. It helps Google to recognize the operation and makes it easier to skim for readers.

Search intent is the crushed down the search. Unless your leafage aligns with intent and gives searchers what they’re looking for, your chances of ranking precocious are slim to none.

To amusement conscionable however important this is, look astatine this graph:

This shows our ranking presumption for the keyword “backlink checker” implicit time. You tin spot that successful precocious 2018, we abruptly went from struggling to fertile higher than presumption #5 to consistently ranking #1.

How? By optimizing our leafage for hunt intent.

Here’s what the leafage looked similar before:

Here’s what it looks like now:

Minor plan tweaks aside, there’s 1 important difference: there’s present a escaped backlink checker embedded. Before it conscionable asked visitors to commencement a proceedings of our SEO software.

By catering to what searchers really wanted, we improved the page’s rankings and its estimated hunt postulation from ~18K to ~215K monthly visits. That’s a 12X improvement!

But however did we cognize what searchers wanted?

Back then, we had to bash a manual investigation of the apical hunt results. While you tin inactive bash that, it’s overmuch easier conscionable to click the “Identify intents” fastener successful Keywords Explorer:

This uses the powerfulness of AI to analyse the apical hunt results and archer you what searchers are looking for.

Broadly aligning your contented with hunt intent isn’t enough. It should besides screen the taxable successful afloat to archer searchers everything they privation to know. This tin assistance it fertile for much keywords and bring much postulation arsenic a result, too.

To find what searchers are looking for, look for communal subtopics among top-ranking pages.

There are a fewer ways you tin do this.

Manually cheque the top-ranking pages

Search for your people keyword successful Google, unfastened a fewer top-ranking pages, and eyeball them for commonalities.

For example, galore apical results for “best moving shoes for level feet” springiness a fund option:

Check the keyword rankings of top-ranking pages

Pages often fertile for keywords related to the subtopics they cover. If you spot galore apical pages ranking for these keywords, it’s astir apt an important subtopic to cover.

Here’s however to find these keywords:

1. Go to the Competitive Analysis instrumentality successful Ahrefs
2. Enter your page’s URL successful the “This people doesn’t fertile for” field. (If you haven’t published your leafage yet, participate the URL you program to use.)
3. Enter the URLs of a fewer akin top-ranking pages successful the “But these competitors do” fields
4. Look for keywords that correspond subtopics

For example, the apical 3 results for “best moving shoes for level feet” besides fertile successful the apical 10 for galore keywords related to men and women’s shoes:

This tells you that the champion picks for men and women is an important subtopic to include.

Find subtopics with the assistance of AI

It’s presently successful beta, but the caller AI Content Grader successful Ahrefs finds “missing” subtopics. It does this by comparing the contented of the 3 top-ranking pages for your people keyword to your content.

To usage it, conscionable participate your people keyword and your page’s URL. (If you haven’t published your leafage yet, participate the URL you program to use).

For example, here’s 1 of its suggestions for the keyword “best moving shoes for flat feet”:

Information summation is simply a measurement of however unsocial your contented is. Google describes a mechanics for scoring this successful a patent granted successful June 2022.

Two months later, successful August 2022, Google launched the helpful contented update, which they described arsenic “part of a broader effort to guarantee radical spot much original, adjuvant contented written by people, for people, successful hunt results.”

Are these 2 things related? Nobody knows. But what we bash cognize is that Google cares astir the originality of your content, and astir surely has mechanisms successful spot for identifying it. 

This means that covering what different top-ranking pages screen isn’t capable for a well-optimized page. It besides needs to bring thing caller and invaluable to the table.

For example, my workfellow Chris collected information connected however folks woody with low-quality backlinks for his station connected removing backlinks:

Ryan interviewed 3 B2B marketers for unsocial insights for his station connected B2B contented marketing:

And I worked with Patrick Stox to make an interactive workflow and template for my contented audit guide:

None of these posts are wholly unique. They incorporate plentifulness of accusation that you tin astir apt find elsewhere—and that’s fine. What matters is that we’re bringing astatine slightest something caller to the table.

Google’s algorithms are designed to aboveground contented that demonstrates E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust.

If you’re an adept successful your tract oregon crafted your contented from idiosyncratic experience, your leafage already has E-E-A-T. But searchers aren’t going to cognize that without speechmaking it, truthful you should effort to showcase it arsenic evidently arsenic you tin connected the page. Let’s look astatine 2 ways to do this.

Flash your credentials

Healthline does this highly well. The precise archetypal happening you spot connected their leafage astir rheumatoid arthritis is that the contented was reviewed by a rheumatologist:

Put your uniqueness beforehand and center

If you’ve enactment clip and effort into adding “information gain” to your content, don’t hide it. Make definite searchers spot it close distant truthful they cognize they tin trust you.

For example, to curate our database of the champion Facebook groups for SEOs, we asked the 12K+ members of our customer-only radical to ballot for their favorites. Instead of burying this information heavy successful the post, we highlighted it successful the precise archetypal paragraph.

For a leafage to gain backlinks (which are a beardown ranking factor) and shares, radical person to really devour the content. This isn’t going to hap if the transcript is hard to read.

You tin usage escaped tools similar Hemingway and Grammarly to fix this.

For example, Hemingway gives my caller usher to toxic backlinks a speechmaking people level of 7:

Given that 54% of Americans deficiency literate proficiency (essentially speechmaking beneath the equivalent of a sixth-grade level), this means we’re alienating astatine slightest 46% of readers. If we could bring the speechmaking people level down, much radical would beryllium capable to read it.

Here are a fewer much tips to amended readability:

• Use abbreviated sentences and paragraphs
• Use bulleted lists
• Use images

Featured snippets springiness searchers a abbreviated reply close successful the hunt results.

But here’s the chill thing: Google pulls the snippet from 1 of the top-ranking pages. This means that if your leafage already ranks successful the apical 10 for keywords wherever Google shows a featured snippet, determination mightiness beryllium an accidental to bargain it without overmuch effort.

This is precisely what I managed to bash a mates of months ago, which led to a ~38.9% leap successful estimated hunt postulation to our page:

Here’s what happened:

In Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, I utilized the Organic Keywords study to find the page’s apical 10 keyword rankings with featured snippets we didn’t own.

Right away, I noticed a trend: galore of the keywords were radical searching for the astir searched happening successful Google (singular) alternatively than a database of apical searches (plural):

After searching for a fewer of these keywords successful Google, I saw that the snippet was beauteous overmuch ever pulled from this precise abbreviated paragraph successful a competing post:

So… I added a akin paragraph to our station (using our data instead):

This speedy large of on-page SEO won our leafage 163 much featured snippets:

Images connected your leafage tin fertile successful Google Images and nonstop you much traffic. There are 3 things you request to bash to optimize them.

Filenames are descriptive

Google says that these springiness clues astir the taxable matter, truthful debar random record names similar IMG_5497.jpg successful favour of thing abbreviated and descriptive similar brown-dog.jpg.

Alt substance is contiguous and descriptive

Google besides says that representation alt substance helps them recognize taxable matter, truthful the aforesaid rules use arsenic filenames: support them abbreviated and descriptive.

Most contented absorption systems person a spot to adhd alt substance successful the UI, truthful there’s nary request to messiness astir with HTML:

Images are compressed

Compressed images are smaller and faster to load. Some platforms similar Shopify claim to bash this automatically, but the results aren’t ever great. It’s mostly amended to employment the assistance of a plugin similar TinyIMG oregon Shortpixel.

Internal links are links from 1 leafage connected your tract to another. They assistance Google recognize what a leafage is astir and boost its authority, which tin pb to higher rankings.

For this reason, erstwhile you people a caller page, it pays to internally nexus from determination to different applicable pages. This won’t assistance the caller page’s rankings, but it mightiness assistance the rankings of the pages you internally link to.

To find applicable opportuntities, usage Ahrefs’ Site Audit:

1. Go to the Internal Link Opportunities tool
2. Enter the URL of your newly-published leafage successful the hunt box
3. Choose “Source page” from the dropdown

Pay attraction to these columns:

• Source page → your newly-published page, wherever you volition adhd the link
• Keyword context → wherever connected the leafage to adhd the link
• Target page → wherever to link to

For example, present the study is suggesting that I nexus from my station connected toxic backlinks to our atrocious links guide:

Citing invaluable resources is adjuvant for readers. Even Google says so.

Does that mean it’s a “ranking factor?” No. But it does amended your content’s credibility with readers, and that tin interaction things that bash substance similar links and shares.

This is thing we regularly bash connected the Ahrefs blog:

If you’re trying to boost the rankings of the leafage you’re optimizing, you’ll privation to adhd interior links to it from different pages connected your site.

To find applicable opportunities, usage Ahrefs’ Site Audit:

1. Go to the Page Explorer tool
2. Enter your people keyword (or portion of it) successful the hunt box
3. Choose “Page text” from the dropdown

This volition find pages connected your tract that notation your people keyword, which whitethorn beryllium bully places to adhd interior links.

For example, it tells america that our usher to removing backlinks mentions the connection “toxic”:

If we hunt that page, this is the mention:

That looks similar the cleanable spot to internally nexus to our usher to toxic backlinks.

Schema markup is codification that helps hunt engines recognize the accusation connected a page. It besides powers galore rich snippets you spot successful Google, which tin pb to much clicks.

If you’re not definite whether schema markup is worthy prioritizing for your page, hunt for your main people keyword successful Google and look astatine the apical results. If each oregon galore are affluent results, it’s astir apt worthy adding it.

If you usage WordPress, you tin easy adhd schema with a plugin similar Yoast oregon RankMath. Alternatively, usage a instrumentality similar Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator to make the JSON-LD codification yourself and adhd it manually.

Keep learning

Check retired adjacent much of our on-page SEO resources:

• Beginner’s Guide to On-Page SEO
• Beginner’s Guide to SEO Content
• How to Optimize for Search Intent