13 Step On-Page SEO Checklist For New Websites — Get More Business
Do you struggle to look for ways to rank your new website higher than others on Google? Using an On-Page SEO Checklist can come to your rescue to boost organic traffic.
More than 5 million Google searches every day. So SEO optimized website for quality traffic & connecting with audiences is non-negotiable.
“Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.” — Phil Frost, Main Street ROI.
Often there is a misconception that you tap into SEO to trick Google to rank your website on the top position. Instead, use SEO techniques to match the searcher’s intent. That way, you give Google a reason to pick your website over others. Based on E-A-T(expertise, authority & trustworthiness).
Ok, so what does this mean to you? And how can you improve your site’s rankings on Google?
In this article, let’s understand what is on-page SEO? How to use SEO to optimize new websites? Also, the constant touch-ups of google ranking factors. Amplifies your site to rank on the first page results of Google.
What is On-Page SEO?
Now SEO consists of two elements: On-Page SEO & Off-page SEO.
Off-page SEO is about using backlinks to build your site authority. It is not in your control & unseen by website visitors.
Yet, on-page SEO is the changes you can make to optimize your website & is visible to your users. It all depends on how you use it to tweak your site or blog.
Well, limiting yourself to creating & publishing content is not enough. Suppose you are new to SEO. It would be best to focus on the searcher’s query ( primary keyword). Also, on the readability of content to skim & share. The key is to make it easy for search engines to find your site. Also, search engine bots understand your content to rank higher on Google search.
Both these elements are part of Google ranking factors. But let’s look at how you can improve your on-page SEO? The bottom line for you is to do it right, which helps to rank & attract organic traffic.
Primary Keyword in First 150 words
First, on your SEO checklist for new websites. When you publish content for your site, blog, or landing page. Check if you’ve identified the primary keyword. And use it within the first 50 or 100 words of the blog introduction.
Best when search engine crawlers find the target keyword sooner. So bots crawl your website content & it stands out on Google search.
Most content creators often forget about it. Later only to include it at the end of their introduction or later in the post. Make sure that this applies to all posts on your website.
LSI Keywords & Synonyms in Content
When creating content, this is an essential step you can’t overlook. Choose five or three LSI ( latent semantic indexing) keywords & synonyms. And are related to the primary keyword to create keyword-rich content. Ensure it matches the search intent of your audience.
Avoid keyword stuffing & use LSI keywords in a natural & organic way. So the quality & length of your content is the greatest. Also, sprinkle LSI keywords & synonyms on H2 & H3 subheadings.
Keyword at the Start of Your Title Tag
There is a lack of asserting the importance of the blog title. It is critical to get your target audience’s attention & increase your site’s CTR. The cue is it corresponds to the searcher’s intent or query. The title & H1 tag must not repeat. Though it is best if both are relatable.
SEO Optimized Keyword Focused URL
One of the standard on-page SEO techniques is to include the keyword in your URL. It is a minor aspect, yet you can’t skip it to rank your site on Google’s #1 spot. Add a primary keyword for every blog post URL.
Avoid using numbers wherever possible. That helps keep your content evergreen. If you change your site’s URL, don’t forget to include a proper redirection & avoid 404 errors.
SEO Meta Description
Meta Description appears below the title & URL of your website in SERP. You’d need to opt to optimize it with the target keyword. A meta description is visible in search engines & that’s within 140–160 characters. Concise meta description as an opportunity to sell your website intended for searchers. So they choose your website over others, which increases the CTR.
SEO Friendly User Experience
There are 3 metrics to consider to measure user experience on your website. When boosted can help improve search engine ranking.
Click-through Rate: The percentage of searchers that click on your site after it appears on the search page.
Bounce Rate: Number of people that visit your website & exit in an instant. Without any interaction on the webpage.
Dwell Time: The amount of time a website visitor spends on your site.
Suppose most people click on your website & leave straight away. Hence this indicates a high bounce rate & tells Google that your content is irrelevant. And it does not meet the searcher’s intent.
Besides, when a user clicks on your site & stays longer on the webpage. Thus, this signals to Google that your content is relevant to the searcher’s query.
All that matters is you have SEO optimized titles, sub-headings & high-quality content. It helps boost your site’s Google ranking. As well as gets you clicks & provides the audience with valuable content.
Internal Links
Yet, when you begin to create content for your site. Then you’ll need to create a web of internal links to another page on the website. Linking to authoritative web pages with cornerstone content is a best practice. So when a visitor clicks on internal links, Google crawls & indexes the other pages to rank higher.
Further, links within the article to other pages tie them together. Makes every page valuable & helps them get found.
Quality Outbound Links
Link to your sources that are relevant to your content & from trustworthy sites in your niche. Increases your site’s credibility & users eyeball valuable high-quality content. When researching content, how do you make high-quality SEO content? Choose citations, quotes & links from authoritative sites.
Also, research studies or case studies related to your topic. This helps search engines take into everything about your site’s value & authority. Plus, make sure to check dofollow & nofollow backlinks for your source.
Optimize Images for SEO
Use compressed images with descriptive text or alt text. It can help your site rank higher in Google Image Search. Providing alt text is helpful for a near-blind audience.
Including images in your articles engages your reader. Things to look at when you optimize images:
- Compress image using Compressor.io
- Save your image with file names that include target keywords or secondary keywords.
- Add keyword to Image Alt text.
- Use descriptive image title & caption
Note a few content management systems allows you to include alt text. At the same time, you’re uploading an image for your article.
Mobile Responsive Website
Research shows estimates of mobile usage to increase by 1.5 Million by 2040.
Sites that are accessible on mobile are in your favor. As well as a leading factor to rank higher on the Google search results page. Now Google’s mobile-first index opts to rank mobile-optimized sites first. And not site optimized for desktops.
So it is vital to choose a website design, theme & content layout that is mobile responsive. Yet you can’t ignore user experience when a user lands on your web page.
If you are unsure if your website is readable or oriented for mobile devices. Use the Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool. So to make sure your site is mobile responsive, you’ll need:
Make your site mobile responsive & that resizes to fit mobile devices.
Website menus are accessible to navigate & search within your site.
Taking action to buy, fill a form, or contact must be quick & easy.
Content is visible to visitors & not hidden with too many ads.
Check your site is mobile-friendly. Otherwise, visitors are 5 times more likely to leave. Since more than half the Google search volume is from mobile devices.
Page Load Speed
Now that you have checked if your website is mobile responsive. The page load speed of your site does measure up as an important Google ranking factor. Besides, you can’t overlook it in the on-page SEO checklist.
Do you know the page load speed of your site can impact ROI & conversion? Check page speed as you could lose almost half the mobile visitors if the page doesn’t load within 3 seconds.
For better user experience, Google ranks sites with fast-loading pages higher. Cut loading time as the user can leave your blog for the delay to load in a fraction of a second. You’d want to consider a few things to improve the page load time.
- Reduce webpage redirects to another server.
- Compress HTML, CSS & image files.
- Content delivery network that delivers content to users whose geographic location is closer.
Besides, you can use Google Search Console to analyze & study page load speed for your site.
Crawlability
Keeping pace with having your site indexed & crawled is the purpose of on-page SEO. All that matters is using the on-page SEO checklist to create SEO-friendly content.
Besides, build it for human eyes & not search engine bots. If search engines can’t access your website content, all your efforts in SEO are in vain. Further searchers will have a difficult time finding you. So you need to watch out for things that can reduce crawlability.
- Orphaned pages are live web pages & not linked to any part of your website.
- Multimedia files such as flash, java programs & audio aren’t indexed.
- Broken links
- No clear site map
Schema & Markup
Finally, you have dealt with the standard on-page SEO best practices.
Are you ready to launch the site?
Take a step further to answer common user queries related to your niche. That helps Google & other search engines to understand your webpage better.
Using Schema Markup can help rank your site higher over others. But, it is not a ranking factor yet. Besides, it offers a featured snippet of your content, a prime real estate that you can’t ignore.
While in some search results, you gain an undue advantage. Meanwhile, no one else is using schema markup for their website content. Notice that contributes to higher CTR, so apply it to relevant pages on your site.
Final Thoughts
On the whole, SEO for some people can be confusing & with constant changes. For businesses, it can be challenging to focus on areas they need to focus on to rank higher. But you are still undecided on SEO & on-page SEO factors. On-page quality content can increase organic traffic by 2000%.
Now that you know, these critical SEO ranking factors are part of the on-page SEO checklist. The question is on most new website owners’ minds. Creating content will rank higher or opt for a better user experience. You shouldn’t compromise one for the other.
Yet, you can only focus on tweaking your site to rank higher for generating more leads.
But you will lose out on your audience or paying customers & get penalized by Goggle as well.
Well, the answer is you need to balance both aspects of SEO. You should have outstanding content that your users will love. At the same time, you also strive to optimize content. So Google can understand why your audience loves your content.
Hope you found this article helpful. Comment below what other key on-page SEO factors you’d add to this checklist.
