SEO is constantly changing, which means we need to adapt fast.

But the basics are still the same!

Keyword research needs to be done thoughtfully, Off-page SEO will make your website more authoritative, AND on-page will make sure your website content is optimized for readers, search engines, and generative Ai!

That’s why in this article; we will cover Google Free on-page SEO best practices.

Let’s dive in!

SEO Techniques to rank higher:

1. Heading hierarchy
2. Site hierarchy
3. Keyword optimization
4. Title tag
5. meta description
6. internal and external linking
7. Valuable and unique content
8. Visual and Multimedia Optimization
9. ِِCreate topic clusters and pillars pages
10. ِِMake website responsive
11. Optimize for page speed

1. Heading hierarchy

The heading in all your pages must follow an organized hierarchy.

Start from H1 (page Title) the most important heading, then subsequent headers H2, H3, H4 in logical order.
This is important as it improve user experience.

The image below shows a real example from SEMrush on how to structure headers.

2. Site hierarchy

Organizing a site hierarchy makes it easier for Google search engines to crawl and index the pages on your site.

Crawling is the process of finding new or updated pages.

An organized site hierarchy also ensures that:

• URLs are simple and readable
• Makes it easier for customers to find what they want on your site
• Enhances SEO

Let’s go through the best practices for site hierarchy

Planning your site hierarchy

Your website should follow a structure that goes from General (Home page) to specific (like a product page).

First the home page, it is the first page and most general one in your website. Your home page should link to categories or services, then your categories link to sub-categories.

For example, if you are selling books, your website should follow this structure:

1. Home page: Offer banner, what you provide, testimonials, popular categories.
2. categories: fiction, mystery, action …
3. sub-categories: fiction books, mystery books, action books …

The more user clicks, the more specific information appears.

Nevertheless, don’t embed important pages like product page too deep,
as it signals to search engine that the page is not important.

It is recommended to keep your website between 3 to 5 layers deep.

Using breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are the links you use to navigate to previous pages.

Adding breadcrumbs inside your website improve user experience and increase their session duration.

As a result, this will help your website rank better and also help the user in navigation.

Using descriptive URLs

The URL must be simple and describe the content of the page. It should help users understand what they’ll find when visiting your webpage. In addition, simple and descriptive URLs improve your Google on-page SEO: helping search engine understand what your page is about.

Here’s the best practices for writing URLs:

Keep URLs as short as possible

• Make it easier for users to share a link to your page

• URLs that are too long can confuse visitors

Make it easy to understand

Visitors should be able to tell where the link will take them when they click on the URL. For example, if you create a URL for a sub-category page for mystery books you might use and URL like this: www.booksgalore.com/fiction/mystery. The user will know they are visiting a website about books. They will also know that link will take them to a website about books.

URLs should include words instead of cryptic numbers that don’t mean anything to the visitor.

You’ll also want to avoid using generic words like “page1” or excessive keywords like “books-fiction-books-fictionbooks” in your URL.

Keep in mind that URLs are visible in search engine results, which is why it’s important to make sure your URLs are user-friendly.

Keep URLs updated

A broken link may occur if a webpage is deleted, or if the content is moved to a different location. Always check if your URLs are working fine.

Broken links are links that lead to webpages that no longer exist. 

Keyword optimization

Keywords are still important. they signal to Google if the page is relevant to user query or not. Conducting keyword research and place those keyowrds strategically is considered as SEO Fundamentals.

Keywords should be placed in:

• Title tag
• Meta description ( not direct ranking factor but it the user)
• URL
• H1: the title of the page should have the keyword
• in the first 100 words

Those are essential for Google to know your page relevant to whom. And avoid keyword stuffing, place your keyword naturally in your page.
furthermore, HubSpot recommends using one keyword for a page or post

4. How to create a great Title tag

Title tags are the links that you click on the search results.
It helps Search engines like Google Understand what the page is about

Best practices for writing title tag:

• Keep it short (no more than 60 characters): if you don’t compy with this condition, then part of your title will not be displayed
• Accurately describe each page’s content in your title elements. 
• Write descriptive but concise titles.
• Make sure your titles read naturally. 
• Create unique titles for each page.
• Give each page’s main headline greater visual weight and prominence.

Don’t

• Use text in your title elements that has no relation to the content on the page
• Use default or vague text in your titles, like “Home,” “Untitled,” or “New Page 1.”
• Use a single title in all title elements across your site’s pages
• Make your titles too lengthy or wordy
• Stuff unneeded or excessive keywords into your titles

5. How to create an effective Meta description

Meta description is the short summary under the title tag in search results.
Be aware, meta description is not a direct ranking factor!
But it helps users understand your page which can reduce bounce rate and attract the right traffic.

Best practices for writing meta descriptions:

• Include your keyword: if you are targeting the keyword “Large spoon” make sure you write it in your meta description.
  in the example above, Search Engine Land is targeting the keyword “on-page SEO”, that why you will see it inside both title tag and meta description.
• Keep it between 150 and 160 characters.
• Set expectation right: provide a summary in what the page about.
• Create a unique description for each page.
• Make sure it is truly descriptive. see below an example from Google Search Central

6. internal and external linking

How internal linking works

Internal links are hyperlinks that points to pages in the same domain. Internal links has many benefits like:

• Help search engine crawl website
• Create topic clusters (linking pages together means that they are related and it increases topic authority)
• They send link juice (authority) to linked page.

here’s a screenshot from BACKLINKO that shows the importance of internal linking.

Let’s dive into best practices for internal linking:

Write good anchor text

Anchor text are the words that place a link over.

Google recommends being descriptive with your anchor text.

Link to AND From Your Important Pages

avoid using the same words for two different pages; this can confuse search engines.

Don’t Use The Same Anchor Text For Two Different Pages

Avoid using the same words for two different pages; this can confuse Google search engine.

Audit Your Internal Links Regularly

Google search console has a feature that shows all internal links inside your website. Just go to your:

1. Google search console dashboard

2. Click the link in the bottom left

AND that’s it. You will find your link rapport.

Use “Dofollow” Links

This a great way to pass authority to other pages. Dofollow links means that the crawler will use the link and your page will send link juice to the linked page. You want all your internal links to be Dofollow to pass page authority (specially to your pillar page).

How external links linking works

External links are links to other pages outside your website. This practice shows Google search engine that you based your information on credible and trustworthy sources. on this article, I linked back to Google documentation and tools mentioned to say to search engine that I provide credible information and this instead will help me rank better.

7. Create valuable and unique content

Content is king when it comes to SEO. If you mess this step up, then you will not get the rank that you hope to achieve.
So, We will cover how to create unique content that is valuable and satisfy user intent

• Unique: Dont duplicate the same stuff that’s already out there. Instead, create fresh content that brings something new to the table. That something new can be:
  • A new strategy
  • Downloadable resources (checklist, e-book)
  • An easy to follow step-by-step process
• Super valuable: To make your content valuable consider those:
  • Be specific: Images, screenshots, and clear steps dive into the details and be practical
  • Copywriting: Strong copy will increase your audience dwell time and engagement
  • Use up-to-date material: Brand new strategies, steps that work today, and fresh examples go a long way
  • Consult expert authors: An article written by an expert in a subject is more valuable than any writer.
    A great way to make this happen is to invite an expert to edit or take a look on the article than offer to mention them in your article.
• Optimized for search intent: User intent is identifying why the user conduct the search. To know the intent of user, just type your keyword in search and observe what people are looking for.
  For example, if you are targeting the keyword “off-page SEO for e-commerce” , go type it into Google

and you will see why people are searching for that keyword. In our example, people are looking for off-page strategies and tactics for e-commerce and that’s the SEARCH INTENT!

Hey, be careful, sometimes you want to match the intent of your target audience, and the keyword can lead to grab the wrong traffic. Let’s say you want to target small business owners who are looking for budget friendly tools and you want to drive traffic to your website audit tool.
If you target the keyword “website audit tool” you will bring all kinds of people: bloggers, marketers, SEO specialist. But if you target “budget friendly website audit tool “ than you will likely bring the right traffic. The essence is to make sure to target the search intent of your target audience

8. Visual and Multimedia Optimization

the images, videos, or files you upload to your website must be also optimized for SEO. Let’s find out how to optimize your images.

Image ALT text

Use ALT text: image ALT text help people with visual impairment to understand what the image about through screen-readers. Google values accessibility that’s why this on-page SEO practice is considered important to increase ranking. Make sure your ALT text is descriptive (describe the image as it is).

Image compression

Compression is making an image lower in size. Google doesn’t mention strict limit. Although, experts suggest that your image should be under 70KB and maintain, at the same time, high quality.

A wonderful free tool that I personally use is Image Resizer as it can resize many images at the time (as long as their size doesn’t pass 10MB).

just upload your images inside the tool and that’s it. The magic will happen.

Descriptive File Names:

when you upload any file to your website whether it is an image, video or pdf, give it a title. if you upload an image with a “IMG_001” name, turn it into for example “on-page-seo-checklist”.

Rename IMG_001.jpg to on-page-seo-checklist.jpg.

9. Create pillar pages and topic clusters

These terms introduced by HubSpot initially and turned into SEO best practices. A pillar page is a page that covers a topic in depth. if your chosen topic is content marketing then you should create an article that covers in-depth content marketing.

As for topic clusters, they are sub-topic related to your main topic. So, your topic is content marketing and you wrote a pillar page covering it, after that you should create articles about video marketing, content strategy, content promotion …. Those sub-topics must be linked to your pillar pages in order for the technique to work. Those links are called hyperlinks. They are designed to link from page to page in the same website.

Now you understand what a pillar page and topic clusters are. Let’s talk about their importance, they:

• Increase your authority in the chosen topic which increase Your website EEAT.
• Build trust with users: covering every angle in a topic for a long period of time conveys to your audience that you are an expert
• Help search engines crawl and index your content: all the pages are linked which make it easy for crawlers to navigate the website.

Step by step on how to create this model:

1. Choose topic that you want to be known for (choose between 2 and 3)
2. Create pillar pages for those topics
3. Create topic clusters (subtopics) for each pillar pages and link them through hyperlinks.

If you follow those steps than you are good to go to start being more topic-focused rather than keyword-focused.

10. Make your website responisve

Responsive website is a website that works on all devices no matter what screen you put the website in. Although, the main 3 types of devices we usually use are: desktop, tablet, phone. This step is important because Google does prioritize mobile-first indexing. In other words, if Google doesn’t index your website than there is no goal for writing that content, it will be a waste of time.

How to check if your website responsive:

1. open your website (if your use WordPress, open your website in Ingenito mode)
2. Press CTRL + SHIFT + I: this will open the dev tools
3. Press CTRL + SHIFT + M to toggle device emulation
4. Now go to dimensions at the bar in the top left and begin testing your website on different devices

If you are using CMS tool like WordPress than don’t worry. the majority of themes are responsive.

11. Optimize for Page Speed

Google values quick loading pages and considered as important signals. If you and your competitor perform the same on other signals but you have a better loading speed your website will rank higher. Those are the words of Google in their key search signals.

You can use PageSpeed Insights Tool free tool to check your performance on core web vitals (signals of page experience) both on mobile and desktop. After you type your URL, you will find a score from 0 to 100. if you have a score less than 90 then you need to follow instructions or use this WordPress plugin “Seraphinite accelerator” it helped me go from 70 (score that needs improvement) to 100 on mobile instantly. if you comfortable with web development, just follow rapport instruction and you will be good on your way.

Other practices to increase page speed are:

• Remove cache: there is plugin called site cacher check it out
• Upload images that doesn’t pass 70 Kb (100KB MAX!)
• Use themes that provide elegant look and speed
• make sure your pages doesn’t pass 3 mb (optional)

Finally, we covered literally the whole free on-page SEO techniques. Your next step is to try to apply what you’re learning inside your own website. Remember, the basics of SEO are still the same, although you need to adapt to LLMs (GEO) in order to get a citation from Generative Ai tools like ChatGPT.

If you have any question or you want my help to optimize your website, just contact me here and i will be happy to help.