On-page SEO
One page, one job: be the most useful answer to a specific search. This is the work that decides that — intent, structure, depth, links and markup — in the order you should do it.
What on-page SEO actually is
On-page SEO is everything on the page you control that helps it satisfy a search: the intent it targets, the title and headings, the accuracy and depth of the content, the internal links, the media, and the structured data that describes it to machines.
It is downstream of one decision: which search this page is for. Pages that try to serve three different intents at once lose to three pages that each serve one.
Start with intent, not keywords
Search the target query and read the results already ranking. The format Google rewards tells you what searchers accepted, and it is often not the format you planned.
| Intent | Query shape | Page that wins |
|---|---|---|
| Informational | what is, how to, why | Clear explainer with a direct answer up front |
| Comparative | best, vs, alternatives | Honest comparison table with criteria stated |
| Transactional | buy, pricing, near me | Product, pricing or location page with the detail visible |
| Navigational | brand + feature | The specific brand page, not a blog post |
Title, description and headings
- One H1 that states the subject in plain language, matching what the page delivers.
- A title tag written for the result page: distinguishing words first, brand last, within the pixel budget.
- A meta description that sells the click with a specific promise rather than a summary of the summary.
- H2s that read as questions or steps a person would actually ask, so each section stands alone as a quotable passage.
- No heading used purely for styling; structure and appearance are separate concerns.
The snippet is the advert. Check where it truncates on both devices before publishing with the free SERP snippet preview.
Content depth without padding
Cover the subject the way someone who has done the work would explain it: the direct answer first, then the caveats, then the specifics that only experience provides. Original data, worked examples, screenshots and named trade-offs are what separate a page from the summarised versions of itself.
- Answer the headline question in the first two sentences of the relevant section.
- Use concrete numbers, examples and edge cases rather than adjectives.
- State who the advice is not for. Honest scope reads as expertise and reduces bounce.
- Cite sources for factual claims and link to them; this is also how AI answer systems verify you.
- Keep sentences short enough to read on a phone, and break dense passages into tables or lists.
Internal links and media
- Link out to the deeper pages a reader will need next, using descriptive anchor text.
- Link back up to the hub page for the topic so the cluster reinforces itself.
- Give images real alt text describing content, not a keyword list, and set explicit dimensions.
- Name image files meaningfully and serve them at display size in a modern format.
Structured data
Structured data does not raise rankings by itself. It makes a page eligible for rich results and makes facts easy for AI answer systems to lift accurately, which is increasingly where the click is won or lost. Mark up only what a visitor can see, and validate after any template change.
Pre-publish checklist
- One intent, one primary query, one H1.
- Title and description fit the pixel budget on mobile.
- Direct answer visible without scrolling on a phone.
- At least two internal links out and one link in from an existing page.
- Structured data matching the visible content, validated.
- Canonical set, page indexable, image dimensions declared.
Frequently asked questions
What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO is everything you control on the page itself that helps it satisfy a search: the intent it targets, the title and headings, the depth and accuracy of the content, the internal links, the media, and the structured data describing it.
How many times should a keyword appear?
There is no target density. Use the phrase where it reads naturally — the title, one heading, the opening lines — and then cover the subject properly. Repetition beyond that adds nothing and reads badly to both people and language models.
Do headings affect rankings?
Indirectly. Headings structure the page for readers and give engines and AI systems clean passage boundaries to quote from. A single descriptive H1 and logical H2s help more than any keyword stuffing inside them.
How long should a page be?
As long as it takes to answer the query completely and no longer. Length correlates with rankings only because thorough answers tend to be longer; padding a thin page does not make it thorough.