30 On-Page SEO Checklist in 2023- An Ultimate Guide

The Complete On-Page SEO Checklist

On-page SEO (or on-site SEO) is the practice of optimizing web pages for specific keywords in order to improve search visibility and traffic. In on-page SEO you optimize your content for both search engines and users. In this 30 on-page SEO checklist blog, you learn all the aspects of on-site optimization to get high ranking and traffic. This post also covers what is on-page search engine optimization, what are on-page SEO factors and techniques, and how to improve site’s on-page SEO score step by step. 

So, let’s dive into the complete on-page SEO checklist with the best strategies and tips. 

On-page SEO is an on-site activity that improves user experience, bounce rate, dwell time, search intent, page load speed, and click-through rate. In-toto, on-page SEO is responsible for your website’s overall SEO efficiency.

Some people do spend a huge marketing budget and efforts on building links and off-page SEO. But if you are ignoring On-Page SEO, your site will be ZOMBIE-LAND where users will land in the marshland.  

Here, The Blue Oceans Group created a complete On-Page SEO Checklist with all 30 ranking factors, that will help your site to rank on the first page of SERPs.

On-Page SEO Checklist Part- 1- Optimize of Users

To improve readability and user experience, you should first optimize your web pages for the audience, then for search engines. Here are the 10 things to make your content more human while performing on-page SEO

#1 Content-Length

The length of your blog post has a direct correlation with the search engine ranking. Because the content length also defines the engagement rate, bounce rate, session time along with other critical factors.

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Of course, the length of the blog post varies from industry to industry. marketing and advertising educational websites like The Blue Oceans Group need a comprehensive post of at least 2000+ words. Whereas industries like news, technology, healthcare, fashion, and food need 1200+ words of content. 

Similarly manufacturing, sales, retail, and real industries require 1500+ words to get better ranking and engagement. 

The various studies from research companies like Statista,  HubSpot, eMarketer show that the blog length of more than 2000-3000 words gets maximum engagement, backlinks, social shares, and higher ranking on search engines. 

So, whenever you write content for your audience, it should follow 2 fundamental things; the content must be 100% original; cover topics in-depth that can add value to readers. 

Click to know, how to write the best SEO Content for your Site

#2 Flesch Reading and Text Visibility

If the text copy on your web page is difficult and you are using very sophisticated words to make your content embellish, then it can not be reader-friendly. There are higher chances of getting less session time, high bounce rate, and least retention rate. 

So, here you need to focus on 2 things, first choose the font size that is easy to read, and second use the words that are easy to understand. 

#3 Do not use Passive Voice

Always try to keep sentences in Active voice. If you are using passive voice sentences and it is more than 10%, then SEO plugins like Rank Math and Yoast will ask you to convert sentences from passive to active voice.

The reason is quite simple. If the sentences are in the active voice, it sounds more articulate and conveys a clear, and strong message.  

The passive voice is subtler and weaker. People find it a bit fancy to use passive voice sentences. But do not replicate your verbal communication in your blog posts. It can heart user experience.

#4 Sentence Length

To make reading easier, use short sentences. The sentences that contain more than 20 words are hard to read, connect and understand. Let’s take an example from LAURENCE STERNE’s book, “THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY” where 1 sentence is 107 words long. I quote that sentence for you, 

“The French are certainly misunderstood: — but whether the fault is theirs, in not sufficiently explaining themselves, or speaking with that exact limitation and precision which one would expect on a point of such importance, and which, moreover, is so likely to be contested by us — or whether the fault may not be altogether on our side, in not understanding their language always so critically as to know “what they would be at” — I shall not decide; but ‘tis evident to me, when they affirm, “That they who have seen Paris, have seen everything,” they must mean to speak of those who have seen it by day-light.” 

So, you see, it is not very easy to understand, because the sentence is so long. If you use long sentences quite often in your blogs, then readers will find it very difficult to understand and they may not visit your website again. 

So, keep the length of your sentence in 1 or 2 lines. Google only recommends a maximum of 25% of your sentences, which can go beyond 20 words.

#5 Consecutive Sentences

Use a variety of sentences while writing content by which readers should not feel bored. In many blog posts, you must come across sentences like- “It was a nice place. It consists of trees and mountains. It is like a paradise where anyone can spend their whole life.”

Here, the word “IT” is appearing again and again, which makes your readers frustrated.

#6 Bold Important Pieces of Text

On November 12, 2021, Google’s John Mueller confirmed that bolding important pieces of text in a paragraph can improve a webpage’s SEO and make the content easier for Google to understand. So, you should try to highlight the important pieces of text. Bold text also draws readers’ attention.

#7 Subheading Distribution

Your blog posts can have great visibility and user experience if you are using subheadings after 300 words. 

If you will keep writing without using subheadings, your content will clutter in one place with no breathing space. For subheadings, you can use H-2, H3, or H-4 subheadings.

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#8 Paragraph Length 

The length of any paragraph should not exceed more than 300 words. Try to use H2, H3 heading tags after every 200-250 words.

#9 Sub-Paragraph Length 

The ideal sub-paragraph length should not exceed more than 150 words. This will provide proper breathing space and enhance the user experience.

#10 Transition Words

The examples of transition words are ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘so’, ‘because’, furthermore, and so on. When you use these transition words in your content, it connects phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs. Readers can easily understand the whole content by establishing a relationship with their thoughts and ideas. 

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On-Page SEO Checklist Part- 2- Optimize for Search Engine

Now, it’s time to impress search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing. Let’s see what are the 20 on-page SEO factors that you always should take care of before publishing your content on the web.

#11 Keyphrase or Keyword Length

Keyword length is a very crucial part of on-page SEO. The length of the keyword can be from 1 word to 5 words. Do not exceed with more than 5 words else you will have a large Title and Slug that may also result in a very large URL.

To get the best keyword research and analysis, you can use SEO tools like Semrush, Serpstat, Ahrefs, Moz, Uber Suggest, and the like. 

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#12 Keyphrase Density (Keyword Optimization) 

The key phrase density, also known as  Keyword Optimization tells us- how many times you embedded your focus keyword within the blog. The number of focus keywords varies as per the length of the blog. 

Generally, if your blog post is about 1000 words, include your focus keyword at least 5-6 times to optimize your content. If the length of the blog is more than 2000 words, try to include your focus keywords at least 8 times.

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By doing so, you optimize your web page with the main keyword. With keyword optimization, Google crawlers understand your web pages very well. When Google finds your page relevant, it starts ranking on SERPs. This is one of the core parts of on-Page SEO that no one can ignore. 

#13 Sprinkle LSI Keywords

LSI stands for Latent Semantic Indexing. Generally, LSI keywords are terms and phrases that are similar or related to a webpage’s main keyword. Their purpose is to help search engines better understand the content of the page by adding context and connecting the copy to the target keyword.  Only a few bloggers are doing it.

Using LSI keywords in the blog pages is a part of advanced on-page SEO. To find the exact LSI keywords for your focus keyword, you can use tools like LSIGraph and Answer The Public. It gives you the most relevant LSI keywords just in 1 click.

#14 Optimize Web Pages with Main Keywords in The Title

The blog title is the most appropriate place for embedding your focus keywords. Try to front-load the blog titles with the main keywords.

Suppose, the main keyword for your blog is Alaska Tourism, then your title for that blog should be;

Alaska Tourism: Top 10 Thrilling Places for Travellers

#15 The Length of the URLs and The Blog Posts Title

Most of the pages on search engines generally prefer less than 60 characters, as it is the visible length on search pages. Do not use more than 60 characters either in your title or in your URL. It hurts user experience and search engine ranking as well.

#16 Include Keyword or Keyphrase in the Blog URL

If you include focus keywords in the URL, it is a positive signal to Google and an important aspect of on-page SEO. 

So, optimize your URLs with the main keywords.

There are only 2 things to consider while creating an SEO-friendly URL. The first one is- make it short and the second is to include the main keyword in the URL. That’s it. 

Most of the people did blunder while creating a URL. They include the date, year, and other unnecessary factors in their URL. It is a pathetic way and search engines hate it.

The Recommended URL Structures are;

https://www.example.com/topic, or 

https://www.example.com/keyword

Examples of Good URLs are;

https://www.theblueoceansgroup.com/seo-checklist/
https://www.theblueoceansgroup.com/best-wordpress-hosting/
https://www.theblueoceansgroup.com/email-marketing/

Examples of Pathetic URLs are;
https://xyzblog.com/2019/09/04/industry-experts-perspective-on-how-will-healthcare-players-maintain-viability-and-attract-investments-amidst-turbulent-reforms/

#17 Keyword in Meta Description 

The meta description shows on Google search and it is a short summary of your web page and when it is rightly done, it enhances web page appearance in Google’s eyes and increases CTR. 

Google fetches it easily and ranks the page better. Hence, meta description always comes at the top of the on-page SEO checklist.

#18 Meta Description Length

Google also recommends the ideal length of 160 characters. Most of the search pages on Google follow the same advice and write meta descriptions in less than 160 characters only.  

#19 Main Keyphrase/Keyword in H-1

Google highly prefers H-1 Heading considers it as a mini title tag. H-1 headings help Google to understand the content on your web page. 

If you have done the proper coding and setting then most of the platforms like WordPress automatically consider  title as H-1 heading.

Pro Tip– Never use 2 H-1 headings, otherwise, it will severely affect your ranking on SERPs. 

#20 Keyphrase in Introduction

Google crawlers move from top to bottom and from left to right. So, while optimizing the web page, include the focus keyword in the first 100-150 words of the blog.

It is the most suitable place to embed the main keyword to let Google know about your content. It is one of the best on-page SEO strategies you should go with.

#21 Keyphrase in Subheadings

Using the main keyword or LSI keywords in H-2, and H-3 subheading is an on-page SEO technique.

Since you are using subheadings in every 250-300 words, hence these are some of the most appropriate places where you can optimize your content by including these keywords.

#22 Keyphrase in Conclusion

Finally, when you conclude your blog post, use the focus keyword there. It will establish the connection and tell your readers and search engine what your content was all about. Including the main keyword in the blog post can grab the psychological attention of readers.

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Pro Tip— Never do keyword stuffing. When you overoptimize your content, Google considers it as spam and an act of black hat SEO technique. Hence try not to play smart with Google as it has the best AI in the world. Google’s most sophisticated algorithm Hummingbird will hunt your site down and devalue web pages on the SERPs.

#23 Keyword Cannibalization

When you try to rank your multiple web pages with the same keyword, then you become a victim of keyword cannibalization. 

Keyword cannibalization severely affects your website. It leads to a drastic fall in organic traffic, keyword ranking.

Therefore,  do not use the same key phrase or keyword that you used before, as it confuses search engines.

To avoid keyword and content cannibalization, conduct regular website audits.

#24 Image SEO Marketing (Alt and other Attribute)

Google has a dedicated section of “IMAGE” in its search bar. Therefore Images have a lot of relevancy and weightage in SEO Marketing.  

When you upload an image on your blog post or any form of content, it is completely unknown to Google. As it does not read images. 

To tell Google about your image content, write an introduction about what your image is all about in the alt attribute. To do proper SEO of that image you should also include a Title, Captions, and a short description of fewer than 160 characters.

Use visuals in your content properly like images, videos, GIFs, polls, charts, screenshots, infographics. This helps users engage with your content, gives better insights about content and thus, reduces bounce rate and increases your session time.

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Image Alt texts not only help the search engines understand what your webpage is about but also tell you that you might have better, richer content than just a plain text webpage.

#25 Inbound Link or Internal Link

An inbound link is a technique to connect your pages with each other. Inbound links are those internal links that refer to the pages having the same domain. 

It works amazingly, especially when you make links from high-authority pages on your site for your new pages. Internal links work as a booster to quickly rank new pages. 

Wikipedia is a great example of the power of inbound links. It ranks on the first page of Google almost for every keyword.   

#26 Outbound Link or External Links

Outbound links, also known as external links are hyperlinked to the pages that exist on other domains.

Having an outbound link from high authority pages tells Google that this blog is very authentic and backed up with highly trusted sources. 

But do not make 100% outbound or external links, as it may increase your bounce rate and decrease the session time of users on your site.

#27 Update Outdated Content

Keep updating and refreshing content on your site, otherwise, you will lose traffic and organic searches. 

Google and other search engines prefer fresh content rather than outdated content. As search engines try to impress their users and they always want updated information.

#28 Delete Zombie Pages

Zombie pages are those dead pages that don’t drive any traffic or revenue for you. Many of the time, these pages neither have internal links nor external links. These pages are simply a dead end. And if any users visit these pages, either they bounce back from that Zombie page or leave your site. 

Always remember, Google prefers 1 comprehensive high-quality blog post over 100 thin content!!

Therefore, do not increase the number of web pages unnecessarily.  

The best way to deal with such severe issues is to delete all the zombie pages. This will boost the overall efficiency of your website.

There was an increase of 88.3% in organic search traffic of  Proven.com when they deleted 40 thousand Zombie Pages from their site.

#29 Find and Fix Orphan Pages

Orphan pages are those web pages on your site that are not reachable to your readers and search engines. These pages do not have any links. 

Orphan pages are not indexed by search engines. They are not even present on your sitemap. That’s why you need to find and fix these pages fast.

If you have indexed the URL in your XML sitemap then Google crawler can find your web page. Also, if you internally link your pages, then also Google crawler can find those pages. In both ways, you can deal with the Orphan Pages. Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz link explorer are some of the best tools, which can help you in finding and fixing Orphan Pages.

#30 Featured Snippet SEO

You can use the featured snippets as the best weapon to maximize Click Through Rate. In the Google Search Results, it appears at position #0. 

It can be in the form of a table, list, steps, and the likes to answer the user’s questions.

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Why is On-Page SEO Important? 

Let’s understand the essentials of On-Page SEO:

1st Importance of On-page SEO

Without on-page SEO you can not rank on any search engine. On-page SEO is one of the major pillars of SEO and Google’s ranking factors. 

2nd 1st Importance of On-page SEO

On-Page SEO is 100% free. Other SEO activities like off-page SEO, technical SEO, or local or international SEO, require a budget to spend. But on-page SEO is the only activity in SEO that you can accomplish without spending a single dollar. 

Moreover, it’s a one-time task. You need not go back again and again to optimize your web pages.

3rd Importance of On-page SEO

On-page SEO is a completely safe and 100% white hat SEO practice.

If you are not spamming titles, content, or keywords, on-page SEO is the best search engine optimization strategy among all other SEO strategies. 

If you are performing on-page SEO in the right way, Google or any other search engines such as Yahoo, Bing can never penalize your website. 

If you want to be 100% safe and grow in the long run, focus 100% on On-Page SEO and high-quality content creation.

Tip: Use Semrush to check if all your On-Page Activities are on track and check if still there’s any scope of improvement area to rank your business on Search Engine. Not only this, Semrush is an all-in-one SEO Tool. Start Search Engine Optimization with the help of Semrush. Try Semrush Pro Free for 14 Days Now! (exclusively for our audience)

Closing Keynote About On-Page SEO Checklist

Do you want to share this infographic on your upcoming or existing blog?

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Pillars of On-Page SEO:

Other strong ranking factors of Search Engine based on this On-Page SEO checklist are:

Resource Pages:

• SEO Checklist: 82 Google Ranking Factors to Rank #1 (2023)
• SEO Content & Copywriting: Ultimate Tips to Rank #1 in 2023
• SEO Strategy & Tips for 2023: 15 Steps Guide to Rank #1
• Best SEO Tools for Keyword and Backlink Analysis [2023]