Exclusive On-page SEO checklist 2019 (updated): With Bonus

Looking for Complete and exclusive On-page SEO checklist? Here you are. Read till last, you’ll get bonus tips on SEO On-page optimization checklist.

Every business loves to be in the top of the Search engine results, once the targeted keyword is searched. Here Targeted means that product or service that they’re providing. To ensure the top position in SERP, SEO is important. Both On page SEO and Off page SEO is needed, combined together they’ll bring an impact on the results.

What is On-Page SEO?

According to Moz

“On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and relevant traffic from Search traffic”

In other words, With the help of On-Page SEO, your website pages can rank higher for multiple keywords. Even though SEO includes both Off-page and On-page Optimization, On-page Optimization is quite important and effective than Off-page signals.

SEO On-page Checklist 2019

These are the complete checklist

1. Title Tag (Always use Keywords & Make it as H1 Tag)
2. Perfect Meta Description
3. SEO friendly URL
4. Content: make it simple and easy to read
5. Content-Length & Content Quality
6. Page Load Speed for better On-page SEO
7. Internal Links
8. Outbound Links
9. Optimize & compress Images before uploading
10. Use Schema / structured data markup
11. Use Social Share buttons
12. Responsive Design & Mobile Friendly
13. Keyword Research
14. Keyword in the first and Last Paragraph
15. Assign Categories and Tags (if it is a blog)

1. Title Tag (Always use Keywords & Make it as H1 Tag)

Title Tag will show Google what type of content is inside. It makes easier for Google to identify the nature of the content and can able to crawl it easily. Make sure the Title Tag is exact Keyword match and make it as H1 Tag. Most Themes in WordPress itself makes the Title as H1 Tag. So we don’t need to worry about that now. And also keep Subheadings as H2 Tag & keyword rich too.

Tips

• Use Exact Keyword at the Beginning of the Title.
• Make Title Tag as H1 & Subheadings as H2 and H3.
• Use Secondary and LSI keywords in H2 and H3 at least once.
• Use Modifiers like “Top”, “Best”, “Exclusive”, “Complete” and “2019” in the Title, it’ll help to increase CTR.

2. Perfect Meta Description

Meta Description is not directly a Ranking signal for Google. Visitors read the meta description of the results, if they find it as worthy & attractive, they’ll click it. Thus the Click through rate (CTR) will increase. Then Google finds this result as appropriate for the user, and it’ll rank the website in the top of the SERP.

We can use 160 characters in the meta description. We need to make sure that content is clickable. Should use proper Call to Action, mentioning offers & discounts if is a product. Use main keywords and LSI naturally throughout description once.

Tips

• Utilize 150 words of Meta Description & make sure include focus key phrase there.
• Provide a proper Call To Action text.
• Show Unique Value Proposition
• Use LSI keyword once.

3. SEO friendly URL

You need to make sure that the URL is SEO friendly and Keyword rich. It’ll help Search Engine to crawl better and also helps the user by having a better user experience.

For eg, Take for another blog post
https://letsdodigitalmarketing.net/conversion-rate-optimization-guide/

Here “conversion-rate-optimization-guide” is the URL slug. See it is keyword rich and SEO friendly. So you need to create URL accordingly.

Tips

• Use keyword rich, SEO friendly URL
• Keep the URL within 3-4 words.
• Don’t use modifiers on URL.

4. SEO Optimized Content: make it simple and easy to read

When you are writing, keep your targeted audience in your mind. Write content only for them. Make the content very simple and easy for them to read.

Write the content like you write it for a 15 year old kid. It’ll help them to understand better and also easily crawlable by Google.

Tips

• Use natural and simple language to communicate.
• Make the primary keyword naturally spread throughout the content.
• Use Latent Semantic Keywords(LSI) throughout the content at least once or twice.

5. Content-Length & Content Quality

When it comes to content length, it is always advised to write maximum lengthy content as possible. If you write more content, it’ll help you in throwing Primary keyword and LSI keywords more naturally. We can able to provide in-depth information about that particular topic if the article is lengthy.

Which in turns help the users to understand the info better & also it helps in better ranking on search results.

In a recent research, it is evident that high ranking results always have more content. i.e more than 1200+ words.

You may think that only content length can lead into higher rankings. That’s wrong, a well written content (in terms of quality) & good content length makes a great pair. Yes.

“Content is King and Consistency is Queen”

Provide more quality article or a web page. Google doesn’t know good quality content at first. It’ll identify it by analyzing the time spent by the users on site, revisits to the site, bookmarks and social shares.

In some cases, a well written fresh & quality content can beat well SEO optimized content. So keep in mind that quality is must & primary.

Tips

• Write content with words more than 1200 words.
• For every 1000 words, include primary keyword 3-4 times & LSI keywords 2-3 times.
• Focus on quality content, which makes users stay more time.

6. Page Load Speed for better On-page SEO

Page Load speed is an important factor, which determines your search rankings. Yes, the optimal Page load speed should be 2-3 seconds. If it is more than that, users will leave the page, which increases the bounce rate. Google finds it unwanted content for users, thus it’ll result in lower rankings.

You should identify your competitors and compare your website speed with theirs.

You can use tools like GTmetrix & Pingdom to find the page loading speed of your website and related insights.

In a recent survey, it is found that 1 second delay in the page load time will leads to 7% loss in conversions. So stay focused to reduce page load speed.

Tips

• Keep your website page load speed under 3 seconds
• Switch to a high-speed hosting service like Siteground.
• Minify CSS, HTML & compress images

7. Internal Links

One of the most important factors in the On-page SEO checklist is providing Internal Links in your content. Yes, while writing content, link it to other related articles on your website. Which makes the google to crawl both written and linked content.

While giving Internal links, you should use Anchor text. Use keywords in the Anchor text, cause google always read the anchor text that you’re using. You can also use Call to Action like Signup and click here as Anchor text. For Lead generation purposes, providing Call to Action will work effectively.

Tips

• Use Keywords & CTA in the Anchor Text.
• For every 1000 words, use 3-4 Internal Links.
• Double check the URL you provide in the Anchor Text.

8. Outbound Links

Outbound Links A.K.A External Links is the links that are pointing to an external web page from your web page using Anchor Text. While writing content, link it to the related content which is great, you can also link to related product or services. Which will make you credible in front of Google’s eyes.

Most importantly, it creates additional value to your readers, gives them access to other useful and information-rich resources out there. You can link to other expert sites in your niche. Will will help both the users and Search engine rankings.

Tips

• When clicking the Anchor link text, make sure it’ll open in a new window.
• Link to experts in your niche.
• Link to other information-rich articles & resources out there.
• Use Keywords as Anchor Text.
• For Ever 1000 words use 3-4 Outbound Links.

9. Optimize & compress Images before uploading

When it comes to page load speed, the primary factor which reduces the speed is images. Without optimizing and compressing it properly, it increases the page size thus making it slow to load. You can find the percentage of images, HTML, CSS and other in your entire website using an On-page SEO audit Tool called Screaming Frog SEO spider.

More the image size, it’ll take more time to load, so we need to compress the images before uploading. Use relevant images only.

Using Infographic, you can make the website visitors stay more time, provide them valuable insights and make them engaged. So here, reduce the number of images and create one infographic instead.

The Best website for image compression is Compressedjpeg.

The Best website for creating info graphic is Canva.

After compression, before uploading into the web page, rename it. For better results, rename it into primary & LSI keywords alternatively.

Then write Image Alt text as a line or two including key phrases. Google isn’t able to identify the image just by seeing it. It’ll only identify the image by the Title and Alt text provide for the images. So make sure the image name, Title and Alt text is Keyword rich.

Tips

• Use only relevant images and infographics
• Compress and rename the image before uploading.
• Make Image name, title and ALT text as Keyword rich.

10. Use Schema / structured data markup

Structured data markup/ Schema markup provides additional information to Google. It’ll help google to know what’s inside & it is useful for users too. It will increase the overall performance( increases CTR). Schema markup is in the form of rating,price & reviews if it is a product, rating,time & reviews if it is a recipe and time if it is a song album.

Schema markup can’t be used for every type of content. To outrank your competitors, schema markup definitely help you. It’ll boost your search rankings and increase CTR.

In the above image, you can see that the result with Rich snippet ranks in the top than others( right next to the official page). It’ll definitely drive lot of traffic & have more CTR

Tips

• Use Rich snippet if it is a product, service, music or recipe.
• Provide ratings for 5, ratings counts and reviews count in the snippet, which looks more credible in front of Google eyes and user’s eyes.

11. Use Social Share buttons

Always use social media share buttons either in the start or in the corners, put it in more visible places. It’ll increase your social shares & which in turns tells Google that visitor is enjoying the content. Thus it’ll rank higher in the search results. Don’t restrict into one platform, provide options to share into multiple platforms.

Social share buttons will help in brand recognition, brand reach and brand awareness across multiple major platforms Thus it leads to more traffic to your website.

You can either include it with number counts or you can either put it it as blank.

Tips

• Must include social media share buttons.
• Use almost every primary platform share button.

12. Responsive Design & Mobile Friendly for On-page SEO

Do you know? More than 80% of website visitors are mobile users. if the website is not mobile friendly. They’ll immediately leave your page. It increases the bounce rate thus reduce search rankings.

Responsive Design means looking great and provide good user experience in every device & in every Operating system. So make sure your website is Responsive and mobile friendly. Many websites are out there to show the level of mobile-friendliness. Grab the insights and make changes accordingly.

Mobile friendly sites enjoys more CTR than non mobile friendly sites. You can also enable Accelerated Mobile pages (AMP) for better user experience and engagement.

Tips

• Check the level of mobile-friendliness.
• Access to Accelerated Mobile Pages.
• Use WordPress CMS for better responsive design.

13. Keyword Research: First step in On-page SEO checklist

First and foremost step in SEO optimization on-page is Keyword research. Yes. You need to research for keywords that you needs to rank for. Don’t go for Competitive and generic keywords at the start. Instead be smart and go for long tail keywords and rank in the top results.

The search query level for long tail keywords is rapidly improving day by day. so it is best to go and rank for Long tail keywords.

There are lots and lots of keyword research tools are there. Use Ubersuggest for best keyword ideas & you’ll get info like search volume, difficulty level, CPC and top ranking pages for that particular keyword

Tips

• Keep your focus keyword within 3-4 words.
• Fix 2 secondary keywords and 2 LSI keywords before writing content.
• Use Secondary & LSI keywords at least once and use it more naturally

14. Keyword in the first and Last Paragraph

Drop your primary keyword within first 100 words. Because Google will read the first paragraph or first 100 words very cautiously.

Don’t overstretch the introduction parts with history and everything. Keep in mind that you’re writing in order to rank higher in search results. For that you need to drop keywords in the introduction.

You can simply do this by telling the readers that what they’re going to see in this page or post.

In the Last paragraph you can include Keywords for better results. If there’s no opportunity for putting Keyword in the last part, put conclusion and enter keyword. It’ll not only help you in summarizing the things you have said but also helps in to drop Keywords more naturally.

Tips

• Within the first 100 words & first paragraph include focus keyphrase.
• Include secondary or LSI keywords in the conclusion part.
• Keep Keywords ratio consistent with the no of words used.

15. Assign Categories and Tags (if it is a blog)

If you are writing a blog post like me, you can assign categories for the content that you’re writing and also use tags before publishing.

For example, if you’re writing blog posts on food recipes, You can assign categories like Veg, Non-veg, palet, breakfast, dinner, etc. Also providing categories is also helpful in crawling for Google.

Provides internal links to same category posts. Also, provide tags, tags can be keywords go along with modifiers and long tail keyword variation.

Tips

• Create possible categories for your niche.
• Assign categories for relevant blog posts
• Provide tags, it maybe in the form of keywords & modifiers.

Install Yoast SEO Plugin for best SEO On-page Optimization

As the name suggests, for better SEO On-page optimization, install Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO comes with both free and paid versions. The free version of Yoast is more than enough at first.

It’ll help you in optimizing your web page both for users and Search Engine. For users, it has a readability analysis, which helps in providing better reading experience for users. For SEO, there’ll be a checklist. It’ll indicate to you what you should be focusing on, what’s done and what’s not.

For Better On-page SEO optimization, install Yoast SEO plugin

Bonus On-page SEO Checklist

As said in the title, here are the Bonus On-page SEO Checklist. Please keep these also in your checklist.

1. Include Breadcrumbs to improve navigation

Breadcrumbs is used to navigate the content, like where it is located, what category or page it lies under. It’ll help in navigation for both users and Search engine like Google.

For better On-page navigation experience, activate Breadcrumbs from your theme settings.

2. Use SSL certificate to boost ranking

SSL certificates help you to switch from Http to Https. For an Https which indicates that the site is secure. Which creates a positive image for the users even for payments. Using SSL and making your website into Https also helps you in better ranking on Google.

Yes, it is an indirect ranking signal in Google search results. Many hosting companies provides SSL certificate but only at premium packs.

Cloudflare provides free SSL certificate for your website. You just need to change the name servers in your C panel hosting. That’s pretty simple.

3. Check for duplicate content

While writing and once finished always check for duplicate content. You could have either used your own content or some other content on the web. If the percentage of Duplicate content is more than 10%, then Google will spam your website.

So make sure that Content is fresh and not duplicate.

4. Check for broken links

Actually, it may look like an Off-page factor, but it is not. You may have linked to another website, but in some cases, they may have deleted the page or either it is spammed. So it is a broken link.

Double check the link that you enter as Outbound Links. And check periodically those links, whether they’re properly working or not.

5. Check content for spellings and grammatical errors

Google constantly look for providing quality and fresh content to its users. So it checks for content spelling and grammar. If your website has a lot of spelling mistakes and grammar errors, then it’ll affect your rankings on Google.

Conclusion: On-page SEO checklist 2019

In this On-page SEO checklist, you have seen a lot of make sure things before publishing the content. If you follow this SEO On-page optimization checklist, you’ll definitely get top ranking in the Search Engine Results Page(SERP).

Please read the article and post your comments.