Struggling with the on-page SEO of your blog posts?
We’ve all been there.
When it comes to a blog, on-page search engine optimization boils down to creating and presenting your content in a way that delivers a positive experience.
At the end of the day, you create content for humans—not search engines.
Besides the technical aspects, you also have to familiarize yourself with the anatomy of a badass blog post, one that’s created with user intent (what the searchers expects to find) in mind, if you want to nail on-page SEO.
In this ultimate guide, we’ll cover:
Let’s get started.
Chapter One What is On-Page SEO?
Chapter Two The Essential Tools You’ll Need to Optimize Your Blog Posts
Chapter Three The Anatomy of a “Search Engine Optimized” Blog Post
Chapter Four The Content Side of On-Page SEO
Chapter Five The Technical Side of On-Page SEO
Chapter Six Some More On-Page SEO Elements
On-page SEO refers to the practices applied to improve the pages of a website, with the end-goal of increasing their chances of showing higher up in the SERPs (search engine results pages) for relevant search queries. The focus is to improve the user experience by creating content centered around intent, inter-linking relevant pages, and correcting the source codes to achieve optimum performance.
In contrast, off-page SEO refers to all of the efforts focused on external ranking signals (with the most common one being backlinks, acquired through link building strategies). But let’s not go down that rabbit hole just yet.
This infographic (taken from the Alexa blog), briefly shows the difference between the two:
As far as on-page SEO is concerned, there are a ton of factors, including, but not limited to:
Think of them as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Once you piece them all together, take a step back, and take a look—everything seems coherent and beautiful.
The reason why on-page SEO is important is because it encompasses the bare minimum, i.e. the things that you have to do, regardless of your strategy.
Here are some eye-opening stats that shed light on this matter:
And this barely scratches the surface.
The point is: on-page optimization, when done right, is the first of many steps towards achieving your SEO goals.
Before you begin drafting and publishing your content, there are a few essential SEO tools you should familiarize yourself with.
I’ve classified them into three groups:
Let’s look at it in detail.
Effective keyword/topic research is the cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy.
I mean, there’s no point in writing content that no one’s searching for, right?
This infographic breaks down the entire keyword research process into 3 stages (and explains why each stage is important):
via HubSpot
Targeting the right keywords and creating high quality content around interesting topics (ideally, ones that many people are searching for, but not a lot of people are talking about) is the way to go.
Aside from SEMRush and Ahrefs (since you’re more than likely using one or both), here are some tools to help you with that:
While conducting your keyword research, there are two metrics that you’ll come across the most—search volume and difficulty.
Here’s a quick recap, for those who are a little rusty:
In a perfect world, you should only target keywords with high search volumes and low difficulty scores (these are usually long-tail keywords i.e. complete phrases instead of 1 or 2 words).
However, that’s easier said than done, as it’s very rare to come across such instances.
A sure-fire way to increase the visibility of your website in the SERPs and increase organic traffic, is to create high-level content on relevant keywords with low to mid search volumes, and low difficulty scores.
Eventually, you’ll start to rank for these keywords, and with consistent efforts, you’ll improve your online standing. This, in turn, will increase your chances of ranking for more competitive keywords in the future.
If you’re on a tight budget, try running a KOB (Keyword Opposition to Benefit) analysis.
It’s basically a cost-benefit analysis, that determines the “profitability” or the “revenue potential” of a keyword, helping you narrow down your focus and target those phrases that can not only bring in serious traffic, but also make the folks in the boardroom happy.
Running a KOB analysis is a little tricky. And since the topic is a little out of the scope of this post, that’s all I can discuss.
You can read about it in one of Siege Media’s posts here.
Once you have a list of keywords and topics for your blog, it’s time to bring them to life.
Writing the perfect blog post, one that provides value and compels users to keep on reading, can be difficult.
From creating the perfect headline, to covering all relevant angles on a subject matter and answering all questions, to ensuring that the content is optimized for search engines—there are a boatload of things to consider.
The following tools can help with all of that, and more:
When everything’s good to go, it’s time to publish and promote your blog posts.
As far as SEO is concerned, you can never be too careful.
The following tools can help ensure that your individual blog posts are optimized to perform at optimum levels:
If you’d like to go knee-deep into the technicalities of on-site audit, go through this infographic:
via Visual.ly
With the aforementioned tools at your disposal, you can create highly optimized blog posts and increase your chances of climbing up the SERPs.
Now that we’ve covered all of the basics, let’s take a look at what the perfect blog post is supposed to look like.
To make things easier, I’ve broken down the entire on-page SEO checklist into:
(Note: The above categorization is only for the sake of simplification).
Once you get both of those things right, you’ll be able to deliver a positive user experience, and get on the good sides of search engines.
Here’s what a good blog post should look like (one that checks all of the boxes):
Let’s discuss both sides of on-page SEO, and its elements, along with tips on nailing them.
On-page search engine optimization isn’t something you’re supposed to do in the end (as in, once the content is created and is ready to be published or promoted).
Instead, it’s a part of the process—right from the beginning.
On the other hand, a common, novice mistake is getting so caught up in the technical aspects, that you end up neglecting the blog post itself.
In other words, on-page SEO is supposed to be holistic.
This requires creating content in a way that resonates with the audience, answers their queries, provides value, and is overall optimized to perform well.
Let’s discuss all of the critical elements, along with tips on how to write a good blog post:
First thing’s first: you need to come up with a badass title—also known as an “H1.”
Your goal is to make the title so good, that it deserves to be clicked on.
More importantly, it should be relevant to your topic.
Generally, all titles can be classified into the following:
Your title can also be a combination of the above. For example:
Here are some tips to help you craft the perfect title:
To summarize, a good title helps users find relevant information quickly, and is also compelling enough to attract their attention.
Moving on, the next critical element of a blog post is its featured image.
This image sits right at the top, just below the title (in our case, behind it), and is meant to provide more meaning to the topic and make your post stand out from the rest.
The featured image should be:
You can also use a GIF, instead of a PNG or JPEG.
Once you select or design an appropriate featured image for your blog post, write the alt text for it (we’ll get to that later).
The title made them click and the featured image made them stop in their tracks.
The introduction will help them decide if they want to read the whole thing.
Make it count.
Traditionally, all introductory sections have the following 3 components (in sequence):
When it comes to writing great introductions, Brian Dean is one of the best:
Another approach is to begin by providing a straight answer, like in this post we wrote for Mixpanel:
However, a recent Google update pushed web pages appearing for the featured snippets to the second SERPs. Prior to this, such pages would appear twice on the first SERP—once in the featured snippet and once in the regular results.
Here’s the same post appearing on top of the second SERP:
Considering that, unless you have something truly click-worthy to offer as the featured snippet, be careful.
Keep in mind that these are, in no way, to be considered as ground rules.
They’re merely best practices that most content creators follow (and the ones readers are accustomed to/expect when they open a blog post).
I guess what I’m trying to say is—don’t limit your creativity.
But also, keep your reader in mind.
I know, it’s confusing. Just follow these tips to craft the perfect intro from, both, the creative and strategic point of views:
Additionally, here’s a solid LinkedIn post that sums this section up:
Last, but not least, it’s best to keep your intro between 50 to 100 words.
If you’re writing a short post (say, under 1,000 words), a table of contents isn’t necessary.
However, for a long-form blog post, it’s advised to include a responsive ToC, right after the introduction.
The purpose of a ToC is to help your readers navigate your post.
Depending on the topic, chances are that some people won’t even bother reading the intro. They’ll simply scroll down to the ToC (if you have one) and jump straight to the sections of their interests.
Is it rude? Not really.
Between short bathroom breaks and long to-do lists, most people simply don’t have the time to read every single word that you’ve churned out.
If they don’t find the information they’re looking for right away, they’ll get impatient, bounce, and look at the thousands of other links on the SERPs.
That’s the last thing you want.
Instead of using a traditional list-format, you can also apply a creative approach, like Brian Dean does for his Backlinko guides:
If you’re on WordPress, you can use any of the following plugins to add the ToC with just a few clicks:
To create a responsive ToC manually, click here to get the HTML and CSS codes.
However, keep in mind that you can only do so much with these plugins and basic coding.
If it’s aesthetics you’re after, I recommend creating a custom table of contents (for example, use eye-catching icons to represent the headers, and connect them using the good ol’ HTML anchor tags).
With the title, featured image, intro, and ToC out of the way, you’re now all set to work on the actual meat of your blog post i.e. the main body.
About 90 to 95 percent of your entire post should consist of the main body (an unwritten rule that could help you stay on topic and avoid long intros).
There’s no “magic” template when it comes to writing the body, either.
It completely depends on the topic and how you wish to elaborate upon it.
However, there are a few best practices that you should follow to make your content easier to grasp, improve the user experience, and stand out from other posts on the same topic.
Let’s have a look:
Finally, remember that relevancy matters the most in SEO.
Apart from sprinkling focus and semantically-related keywords throughout the body (more on that later), make sure to keep the overall substance relevant, insightful, and coherent.
And whatever you do—avoid using any fluff or filler (off-topic statements, sentences that add no real value to the subject, or even continuing to cover a point long after you’ve made it).
The way you decide to conclude things can make or break your blog post.
You have to leave a lasting impact, an aftertaste that doesn’t go away for at least a day or two, while wrapping up everything that you’ve talked about.
Give the reader something to think about.
via Giphy
The ideal situation would result in them engaging with you in the comments and sharing your post in their circle.
Some would argue that the concluding section doesn’t matter, because, let’s face it: not every single reader will make it to the end of your blog post.
However, neglecting the conclusion wouldn’t be a smart move.
Here are a few tips to wrap up your blog post:
And there you have it. You just wrote a badass blog post.
However, the work is far from over.
With the content/user experience side out of the way, it’s time to discuss the technical on-page SEO factors.
Search engine optimization is difficult, not because it involves coding mumbo jumbo, but mostly because it’s experimental.
Having programming skills can help (to some extent), but thanks to all of the tools at your disposal, you don’t have to be a programmer to do SEO the right way.
That being said, on-site SEO definitely requires a certain level of tech-savviness.
Don’t worry though, because I’ll take you through everything, one element at a time, and help you optimize your blog post (or any other web page, for that matter).
Here are all of the on-page factors that matter:
Let’s start with the basics—you need to make your website responsive.
Okay, well, it’s not “basic,” per se, but it is one of the first few things that you should do—even before you start blogging.
If your website is already rocking a responsive design, you can skip this section.
The rest of ya’ll—follow my lead.
A responsive web design is one that loads and renders flawlessly, with no issues or errors, across all devices and screen sizes.
Put simply, responsive websites adapt their designs to various screen sizes. For example, a website that loads properly on a desktop would also load just fine on a mobile device (and adjust its layout accordingly).
These websites also adapt to different window sizes. For example, the HubSpot blog looks like this on a full-screen window on desktop:
And here’s what it looks like in a restored down and compressed window:
Remember that both of those screenshots were taken on the same device.
Here are a few ways responsive design can help with SEO:
Most modern websites are based on responsive designs, so chances are, that yours is, too.
If you’re not sure though, just ask the person who developed it, or use this tool to check yourself.
If you’re the sole webmaster and developed the website yourself, check out this extensive guide that explains how to create a responsive website from scratch, as well as, how to make an existing website responsive.
In case you’re on WordPress (and still in the process of creating your website), consider using the following responsive themes:
With that out of the way, the fun part of on-page SEO begins.
Besides the meta title and description, the URL slug (the last part of the URL) can tell a lot about the page.
That is if it’s optimized correctly. No one likes a messy URL structure.
The purpose of a slug is simple: to make it easier to identify and remember the page.
There’s no rocket science behind creating an SEO-friendly URL.
Simply make your focus keyphrase the URL slug.
For example, if the focus keyword of your blog post is “SEO best practices,” the URL should look like this (the highlighted part is the slug):
YourDomain.com/seo-best-practices
If you’re on WordPress, you can change the slug on top while in edit mode:
You can also scroll down to the Yoast plugin and edit the slug directly, like so:
That’s all there is to it.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and assume that you’ve already done your keyword research using SEMRush, Ubersuggest, Answer The Public, and/or any other tool of your choice.
With those carefully-selected target keywords by your side, it’s time to put them to good use.
Keyword usage evolved from stuffing them in every other sentence, to focusing more on context and using synonyms.
Today, search engines are trying to understand the contextual meanings behind queries in order to display the most relevant results.
Considering that, you first need to make sure that your page content is relevant to the topic, and then worry about the proper usage of your keyword(s).
Just write the content naturally.
However, while doing so, make sure to throw in some LSI keywords.
These keywords are semantically-related to your topic, and help search engines build a better contextual understanding of your content.
For instance, if you’re writing about “student loan forgiveness,” include related terms such as “loan discharge” and “student loan assistance.”
However, that’s not to say that you should completely neglect your target keyword.
Here are some best practices for the usage of your primary keyword (these won’t guarantee better rankings, but could improve your chances):
Again, you should focus more on just writing a high-quality blog post focused on user and search intent, and let the keywords spell out naturally on their own.
Links are among the most critical on-page SEO elements.
The purpose of placing internal and outbound links is to enhance the user experience and provide more value to the readers.
Because of that very reason, search engine crawlers (the bots that analyze your web pages to determine their search rankings) love links.
Placing internal links can:
via Pinterest
Here are some tips and best practices for internal linking:
There’s no limit to how many internal links you can place on your blog posts.
As long as they’re relevant to the topic and placed naturally, it doesn’t matter if you place a 100 links.
As for outbound links (i.e. links leading to other domains), they’re also meant to help enhance the user experience.
In turn, you’re also more likely to receive an inbound link, or at least a share, from the people that you linked to (but that shouldn’t be your primary reason for linking out to them).
As mentioned earlier, no one likes to read walls of text.
Sticking with plain old text can make your blog post, well, boring. That’s why you can never go wrong with a little visual storytelling.
To keep your readers engaged, and improve your content, throw in a few visuals to make things interesting.
Apart from the featured image, these could be infographics, screenshots, stock photos, GIFs, memes, or even an animated explainer video.
Visuals provide context and make your blog posts more interesting, which, in turn, can be good for SEO.
Just keep these video and image optimization tips in mind:
Last, but not least, make sure to include high resolution (but compressed) images and videos.
Meta tags are short snippets (which appear on the SERPs) that provide a quick summary or snapshot of what the page is about.
For beginners, here’s what they look like:
They include:
If you’re on WordPress, you can edit these snippets by scrolling down to the Yoast plugin and clicking on “Edit snippet” (under Snippet Preview):
Meta tags can be the deciding factors when it comes to a user choosing a link from the SERPs, so make them count.
We’re still not done.
Here are a few more on-page SEO elements that matter:
The information about the author, though, not a direct ranking factor, is included in Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines, as a way to gauge the overall trustworthiness of the source.
Google’s John Mueller pointed out that the author bio isn’t a part of technical SEO. Instead, it impacts the user experience.
That being said, you should write a decent bio, stating all of your relevant credentials and/or experience to reassure readers, and build trust.
With social share buttons, it’s more convenient for readers to share your posts.
This, in turn, increases the chances of receiving natural links, which can bring in more visitors.
If you’re on WordPress, you can add social share buttons using the “Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons” plugin.
To learn how to manually create social share buttons, check out this resource.
You need a platform to allow your readers to share their thoughts, as well as, to be able to engage with them.
That’s what comments sections are for, so don’t shy away from including them in your blog.
With comments, not only can you increase engagement and (possibly) build brand affinity, but you can also generate new leads.
If you’re on WordPress, you can use the wpDiscuz plugin for that.
Once you’re done creating, optimizing, and publishing your badass blog post, make sure to run it through Google PageSpeed Insights once to look for possible loading speed issues.
That covers just about everything.
At the end of the day, it’s just about providing value, in a way that makes users stick around, while also following the guidelines of search engines.
If you’d like to learn more, read our complete SEO strategy guide for marketers.
