On-page SEO refers to everything on your actual website pages that you can control: titles, headings, content, images, and internal links. Get these right and Google has everything it needs to understand and rank your pages. Get them wrong and even good backlinks won’t save you.
Here’s what to check and fix, in priority order.
1. Page titles and meta descriptions
Every page should have a unique title tag (50 to 60 characters) and a meta description (120 to 155 characters) that includes your target keyword. In WordPress, the Yoast SEO panel below each page lets you fill in the SEO title and meta description fields directly.
If you leave these blank, Google generates them automatically from your content, which is rarely ideal.
2. H1 heading: one per page, keyword included
Each page should have exactly one H1 heading, and it should include your primary keyword naturally. In Elementor, the heading widget has a ‘Tag’ setting. Set your main page heading to H1. Use H2 for section headings, H3 for sub-sections.
3. Your target keyword in the right places
Your primary keyword should appear in: the URL slug, the H1, the first paragraph, at least one H2, and naturally throughout the content. It should not appear in every sentence. Google is good at detecting over-optimisation.
4. Image alt text
Every image should have an alt text attribute describing what it shows. For images that contain your primary subject, include the keyword naturally. In WordPress, add alt text when uploading an image in the media library, or by clicking an existing image in the editor.
5. Internal links
Link between your own pages deliberately. When you mention a service or topic you’ve written about elsewhere, link to it. This is one of the clearest signals you can give Google about how it should understand your site’s structure and which pages are authoritative. Most small business sites are under-linked internally.
6. URL slugs
Short, keyword-rich URL slugs beat long auto-generated ones. ‘tigerandtype.com/services/web-design’ beats ‘tigerandtype.com/?p=42.’ Edit slugs in the URL section of the page editor, or in Yoast.
7. Page speed
A page that loads slowly on mobile will rank lower, full stop. Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) and action the highest-impact recommendations. Common culprits: uncompressed images, too many plugins, no caching.
8. Mobile usability
Check your site on an actual phone, not just a browser with a smaller window. Google indexes the mobile version of your site first. If your mobile experience is broken, your rankings will reflect that.
Read next
Once your on-page basics are solid, read about how Google uses these signals to rank pages. And if you’re wondering whether it’s worth the effort, our honest take on how long SEO takes to work answers that.
Need a hand?
We do SEO audits and page-by-page optimisation for small business sites. Have a look at our SEO services or get in touch.
