On-page SEO is the part of search you control completely. Here is what matters, what does not, and the order to work through it.
On-page SEO is everything you change on the page itself to help it rank. Title tags, headings, body copy, internal links, image handling and structured data all sit inside it. It is the part of search you control completely, which is why it is usually the first thing we fix. Off-page SEO covers the signals you earn elsewhere, mainly links, and we cover that separately.
The elements that carry the most weight
Not every on-page factor matters equally. After a few hundred audits, the same handful keep showing up as the difference between a page that ranks and one that sits on page three.
- Title tag. The strongest single on-page signal. Put the target phrase near the front and keep it under roughly 60 characters so it does not truncate in the results.
- Heading structure. One H1 that matches the page’s job, then H2s that name real sections rather than tease them.
- Depth of the body copy. Cover the subtopics a searcher expects to see. Thin pages lose to pages that also answer the obvious follow-up questions.
- Internal links. Links from related pages, with anchor text that describes the destination, tell Google which page you want ranking for what.
- Images. Descriptive file names, alt text that says what the image shows, and compressed files.
Search intent beats keyword density
Keyword density was a useful idea in 2009. It is not now. What matters is whether the page matches what people want when they type the query. Search your target term and look at the top five results. If they are all comparison tables and you have written a 2,000 word essay, the essay loses however well optimised it is. Match the format first, then worry about wording.
Metadata, markup and the bits people skip
Meta descriptions do not affect rankings directly, but they affect click-through rate, and a page that earns clicks tends to hold its position. Write them like ad copy, not summaries. Canonical tags stop duplicate versions of a page competing with each other. Schema markup helps Google understand what is on the page and can win rich results, which take up more room in the SERP.
Most sites we pick up have the same three problems: duplicated title tags across templated pages, H1s that say the brand name instead of the topic, and orphan pages with nothing linking to them. Fixing those often moves rankings within a month, before any link building starts. If you want someone to find them on your site, our technical SEO team does exactly that.
How to work through a single page
Start with the query the page should win. Check the current top results for format and depth. Rewrite the title, tighten the H1, fill the gaps in the body, add two or three internal links from related pages, then compress the images. Publish and check position three to four weeks later. One page at a time is slow, but it teaches you what your site responds to.
Related reading: our guides to title tags, schema markup, Wix SEO and how to do an SEO audit.
Common questions
How long does on-page SEO take to work?
Usually two to six weeks for a page that is already indexed. Google has to recrawl it and reassess. New pages take longer because they need to earn some trust first. Larger sites that get crawled often see changes faster.
Is on-page SEO more important than off-page SEO?
Neither wins alone. On-page work decides whether you are eligible to rank for a term. Off-page work decides how you place among the pages that are all eligible. In low competition niches, on-page alone often gets you there. In competitive ones it will not.
How many keywords should one page target?
One primary term plus the close variants people actually type. Trying to rank a single page for three unrelated queries usually means it ranks well for none of them. If the terms need different answers, they need different pages.
Do I need to update on-page SEO regularly?
Review your important pages roughly every six months. Intent shifts, competitors publish better answers, and facts go stale. A page that ranked first two years ago can drift to page two without anything technical breaking.
See our glossary entry for on-page SEO for the short definition.
