On-Page SEO Guide: How To Optimise A Web Page in 2025

SEO and digital marketing is undergoing a major shift at the moment. With the rise of AI, frequent algorithm updates, and new innovative technologies that are influencing user behaviour massively, it can feel more challenging than ever to stay on top of the best practices for online success.

Thankfully, amidst the chaos, there’s one area of search marketing that has consistently remained the foundation of organic search performance: on-page SEO. 

In this guide, we’re going to break down everything you need to master the art of on-page SEO in 2025; whether you’re a beginner just finding your feet or an experienced SEO veteran with the results to prove it.

Packed with all the fundamentals as well as the latest tips, tricks and strategies, this guide is the only on-page SEO resource you’ll need to dominate your competitors in the SERPs.

Presented in this clear, easy-to-follow on-page SEO guide, you’ll learn how to:

• Craft high-value, impactful content that satisfies search intent.
• Write keyword-optimised metadata to reach your target audience and drive clicks.
• Structure your content optimally for both the user and search engines.
• How to place keywords correctly to boost rankings.
• Leverage your experience and expertise within your content.

Let’s get started!

On-Page SEO: Key Takeaways

• Google prioritises content that is original, helpful, and satisfies search intent. To excel, your content should be people-first, authoritative, and well-structured for an optimal user experience.

• Optimising meta titles is one of the most impactful on-page SEO tactics you can use. Make sure they are keyword targeted and a suitable length (55-60 characters).

• Structure your website using descriptive URLs organised into subfolders. This improves clarity for both users and search engines, helping them understand your content and its place within the site hierarchy.

• As a rule, target keyword mentions should be strategically placed within the H1, the introductory section of your content, and within supplementary headings (H2s, H3s, H4s…).

Page speed and Core Web Vitals reports aren’t everything. If your site feels fast, is responsive, easy to navigate, and free of content shift issues, it’s better to focus your efforts elsewhere – even if there’s still room for improvement in your PageSpeed Insights report.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is the process of optimising ‘on-site’ elements of your website for both search engines and users.

By focussing on key ranking signals, the practice of on-page SEO makes it easier for Google to recognise how great your website is at helping users reach their end goal. This goal could be to make a purchase, learn about a new topic, or to simply scroll through an endless archive of cute cat photos.

Ultimately, webpages that help users achieve their goals are what search engines prioritise when assessing content quality.

The more straightforward it is for search engines to recognise how relevant and useful your content is for users based on their search query, the better your pages will rank and the more traffic they will drive. 

We achieve this by carrying out on-page SEO.

On-page SEO elements include:

• Meeting search intent
• Content quality and relevance
• Meta titles and descriptions
• Header tags
• URL structure
• Internal/external links

And much more.

Why is On-Page SEO Important?

By considering on-page SEO factors, you can create website content that is compliant and follows Google’s guidelines to the letter, whilst also offering a great user experience.

This way, your pages meet the expectations of both search engines and the user, creating the perfect recipe for organic success.

On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO

On-page SEO is opposed to off-page SEO, which focusses on ‘off-site’ factors such as backlinks and other influences from external sources with the aim of improving keyword rankings. 

Both are integral to any comprehensive SEO strategy. However, on-page SEO is often the starting point given that it’s easier to control and generally delivers more immediate, tangible results.

11 Effective On-Page SEO Techniques and Best Practices for your Website in 2025

Now that we know what on-page SEO is and why it’s so important, we’re ready to jump into the good stuff.

Here are 11 of the most important on-page SEO techniques to remember and follow in your pursuit of position #1 rankings.

1) Helpful Content is Still King

If you’re in any way familiar with SEO, chances are you’ve heard the term ‘helpful content’ thrown around quite a lot over the past few years – and for good reason.

It might seem obvious, but every piece of content you create should focus on delivering genuine value to the person on the other side of the screen. The goal is to satisfy their search intent while guiding them toward achieving their end goal as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

This has been the focal point of a number of Google’s recent core algorithm updates, starting with the aptly named Helpful Content Update released in 2022.
The core idea is that all content should be helpful, reliable, and people-first, designed to serve the reader and not just to gain search engine rankings. Pages should also offer a positive user experience, taking navigation, page speed, and Core Web Vitals metrics into account.

How can you assess how helpful your content is?

Before looking at any of the more complex aspects of on-page SEO, you need to decide if your content is strong enough to rank in the first place. 

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to judge if your content is likely to meet Google’s expectations on helpfulness:

Originality and Value

• Does your content provide original insights, research, or substantial additional value beyond existing sources?
• Does your content cover the topic thoroughly with insightful analysis and comprehensive detail?

Expertise, Trust, and Accuracy

• Is your content written or reviewed by a knowledgeable expert, with clear factual accuracy sourcing where appropriate?
• Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge?
• If someone researched your site, would they find it well-trusted or recognised as an authority on the topic discussed?

Quality

• Is your content well-written, free of errors, and produced with care rather than mass-produced or automated?

User Experience and Satisfaction

• Does your content leave the reader feeling informed and satisfied without needing to search further?
• Would the reader want to bookmark, share, or recommend this content to others?
• Is your content responsive and easy to read across all different browsers and devices?

Relevance and Purpose

• Is your content aligned with the site’s audience and purpose, rather than created mainly for search rankings?
• Are you writing about trending topics just for traffic rather than genuine audience value?

Transparency and Ethical Practices

• Does your content avoid misleading tactics, such as clickbait headlines or artificial freshness updates?
• Are your sources and authorship clearly disclosed, supporting your content’s credibility?

For more information on helpful content criteria and guidelines, check out Google’s documentation on helpful, people-first content

2) Keyword-Optimised Metadata is the META

Optimised metadata is one of the most fundamental elements of any successful SEO strategy.

Think of metadata as the ‘shop window’ to your site. It’s often the user’s first impression of your page, its content, and sometimes even your brand as a whole. 

Your metadata can make or break whether a user decides to click-through to your site or not, so it’s vital to write it manually with your target audience in mind.

Metadata isn’t only important for users and boosting click-through rates (CTR), it’s also one of the first on-page elements search engines look at to understand and rank your page. This makes target keyword mentions super important.

Meta Titles

Meta titles are a direct ranking factor, meaning search engines use them to determine where your page should rank. Therefore, the primary keyword for your page should be included within the meta title to help improve organic visibility for that term.

For the best results, meta titles should be between 50-60 characters in length. This length maximises your piece of SERP real estate, whilst also avoiding truncation which can make titles appear cut off and less engaging.

Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are not a direct ranking factor so they don’t impact page ranking. However, they give readers a preview into what your page is about and what you can offer them. Make sure they’re still high-quality!

In terms of length, meta descriptions should be between 155-160 characters in length, again to make the most of the space available to you whilst avoiding any truncation.

Using Google SERP preview tools can help with writing meta titles and descriptions.

To summarise, meta titles and descriptions should be written to entice the user to click-through to your page by clearly conveying value. To improve rankings, target keywords should be integrated into meta titles to tell search engines what your content is about. 
For more detailed guidance and tips for optimising meta tags for SEO, read our guide on the topic.

3) Clean, Descriptive and User-Friendly URLs

Google makes a point of emphasising the importance of using descriptive URLs on your site. But, what is exactly meant by the term ‘descriptive’?

What is a Descriptive URL?

A descriptive URL is a link that provides users with the proper information and context they need to understand where the link will take them on the website.

This means that they will be absent from random characters and identifiers which have no meaning to a user.

Descriptive URL Examples

“https://www.bestonlineshop.com/electronics/wireless-earphones”

“https://www.jbsgolfemporium.com/blog/expert-golf-putting-guide”

Non-descriptive URL Examples

“https://www.bestonlineshop.com/electronics/?p=98765&ref=cat1”

“https://www.jbsgolfemporium.com/blog/category1/page5678”

As a rule, your website pages should be logically categorised using subfolders by using URLs that create a hierarchical structure.

This signals to users and search engines how your pages are related to each other and the rest of the site, making it easier for Google to match your content with related searches and for users to navigate your pages.

4) Strategic Keyword Placement Within Content

So, you’ve chosen target keywords, now what? How do you make sure you’ve mentioned them enough in your content?

There are 3 main areas within your content where you should place target keywords for maximum impact. These are:

1. The H1
2. The introduction (usually your first paragraph)
3. Supplementary headers (H2s, H3s, H4s etc.) and copy

By doing this, you’re clearly signaling to Google what your content is about while making it easy for users to scan and decide if it matches their search intent. 

But that’s not all.

How does Google Assess Keyword Density Within Content?

Okay, things are about to get a little nerdy.

Search engines don’t read your content like humans do. In fact, they can’t read at all. They’re robots!

Instead, Google uses what is known as the TF*IDF algorithm, as part of their wider page rank algorithm. TF*IDF sounds complicated and the technical details aren’t super important here, but think of it like this…

Google is trying to understand what your page is really about by looking at the words you’ve used and how often you’ve used them compared to the rest of the internet. It does this using maths, not language.

TF (Term Frequency)

As the phrase suggests, this part of the formula checks how many times you’ve used a certain keyword or phrase.

As an example, imagine you’re at a party and someone says the word “pizza” 20 times in a single conversation. You’d probably assume that pizza is pretty important to whatever they’re talking about, right? 

That’s essentially what Google does with TF – it checks how many times each word appears on your page to understand what’s being discussed.

IDF (Inverse Document Frequency)

The IDF side of the formula is there to calculate if the keyword Google has recognised is special, or whether it’s just like any other word.

Going back to the previous example, if everyone else at the party is also saying “pizza” 20 times in their conversations, it’s not as unique or special anymore – it’s just a common topic of the night.

IDF helps Google figure out if a word is rare and meaningful, or just something everyone else is using, like “the”, “and”, or any other filler word.

So, what does this mean?

To put TF*IDF together, Google combines these two ideas to find words that:

• Show up a lot on your page (TF).
• Aren’t super common compared to the rest of the internet (IDF).

So, if your page talks a lot about “sourdough pizza crust” and that phrase isn’t everywhere else, Google can assume that your page is likely about sourdough pizza crust!

How do you Optimise for Keyword Density?

If there’s a formula for working out keyword density, then there must be a way to get the perfect ratio of keyword mentions across your content, right?

Well, maybe. SEO content writing tools like Surfer SEO use the TF*IDF algorithm and Natural Language Processing (NLP) principles when assessing how ‘optimised’ a piece of content is within their software. 

A lot of content writers believe in using tools like this to ensure their content is as keyword-optimised as possible for SEO rankings because the software calculates how many times other well-ranked pieces of content use certain key phrases.

Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it – tools like this might work well for you, especially in competitive niches where any advantage you can get is valuable. However, when it comes to on-page SEO, it’s never essential to make everything ‘go green’ within a content optimisation tool. If anything, this can encourage unnatural keyword stuffing.

In reality, TF*IDF is just a small part of Google’s algorithm for deciding page rankings.

Whilst it’s cool to know about TF*IDF and pull back the curtain, it’s best to go back to the golden rule: prioritise that your content is people-first, offers value to the reader and satisfies their search intent.

Focus on placing targeted keyword mentions naturally throughout your content e.g. your H1, introduction, as well as other supplementary headings/copy and you’ll be just fine.

5) Hierarchical Heading Structures

A well-optimised heading structure can transform reading a piece of content from a long and tedious slog into a smooth and engaging experience. 

The majority of web content nowadays is written to be easily scanned by the reader. This way, the content is accessible to a wide range of audiences. 

Headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.) allow you to split your content up into digestible sections, helping the user to find the information they need in as little effort as possible.

Headings also give search engines context and clues into what your content is about. Google uses this information to decide whether your page should be ranked for relevant search queries.

Heading Hierarchy tips for On-Page SEO

Your heading structure should have a clear hierarchy to it, representing content importance and flow. Here’s how it works:

• H1: Serves as your page title and should summarise what your content is about. The H1 is one of the most important on-page ranking factors, should only be used once per page, and must include your target keyword.

• H2s: Used to break your content up into key sections to improve readability and provide additional content to search engines. These headers should contain primary and secondary keyword mentions to build relevance with the key topic.

• H3s: Used for breaking sections up into subtopics to go into more detail.

• H4s (and deeper headings): Used for splitting subtopics up into sub-subtopics.

Jumplinks

It’s also good practice to use headings to set up jumplinks, especially with long-form content. Jumplinks help users to easily ‘leap’ to specific sections of your content and get to their end goal faster. 

Jumplinks are often included as built-in features of blog post templates, like ‘Tables of Contents’. However, in some cases, you’ll need to create them manually by adding ID attributes to each heading in the HTML and setting up anchor links.

6) Internal Linking

Internal links are hyperlinks on your website that point from one page to another. 

Effective internal linking is essential for helping users to navigate through your pages, as well as ensuring search engine bots can easily crawl and discover your content.

Not only this, internal links are also needed to pass link equity from the most important, high authority pages throughout your site structure to deeper pages, making your entire site appear stronger in the eyes of search engines.

Why are Internal Links Important for On-Page SEO?

• Acting as signposts, they help users to navigate your website. This could be via the menu, buttons, or in-text anchor links.

• Similarly, they also help search engine crawlers to move throughout your site, find content and assess it for rankings. Good internal linking improves crawlability and indexability.

• Descriptive anchor text provides context to search engines about what the linked page is about and what keyword it should rank for.

• Internally linking from one page to another signals to Google that these pages are related and the linked page is valuable. This is integral to the process of building SEO topic clusters.

• Your homepage and top-performing pages often hold the most page rank. By internally linking from these high-authority pages to deeper content, you share that authority, helping those pages to rank better too.

For more information on internal linking for SEO, check out our helpful guide on the topic.

7) External Linking

External links, also known as outbound links, are hyperlinks on your website that point to pages on a different site. 

External linking can sometimes seem counterintuitive to SEO efforts. After all, why would you want to divert traffic away from your site?

Well, strategic external linking is actually good for your SEO efforts, particularly when it comes to informational content. When done right, external links add credibility, provide deeper context, and improve how search engines view your content. Yet, they’re often underutilised when it comes to on-page SEO. Here’s why they deserve more attention:

Why are External Links Important for On-Page SEO?

• Linking to authoritative, trustworthy sources helps back up your claims, making your content more informative and reliable. This is especially important if you operate within a Your-Money, Your-Life (YMYL) niche.

• External links can provide additional resources for users looking for more in-depth information. When used thoughtfully, they create a richer, more valuable experience for your audience.

• Quality external linking is a hallmark of well-researched content. Google values pages that offer useful resources, especially for in-depth articles where users expect references and further reading.

When it comes to implementing external links, prioritise well-established, credible websites over lower-quality sources. Anchor text should clearly describe what users can expect from the linked page to offer the best user experience. 

It’s also a good idea to set external links to open in a new tab – this way if users do decide to check out the linked content, your site remains open on their device and they don’t forget about you!

8) Flex your Expertise & Experience

If you have a website that sells products, offers services, and produces content within a particular niche or industry, search engines bank on you being an expert within your space to deliver the best possible experience to its users.

Google’s algorithm is designed to rank pages that demonstrate a high level of knowledge and competence. This keeps search results up to scratch, offering accurate and reliable content that users need to maintain trust in the platform.

Optimising for “E-E-A-T” or Expertise, Experience, Authoratativeness, and Trustworthiness is how we work to meet these expectations. Google’s quality rater guidelines outline criteria for assessing informational quality – by following these guidelines you can position your site as a trusted resource. Here are some tips:

On-Page SEO Tactics for Strengthening E-E-A-T:

• Use Trust Signals: Do you or your team members have a bunch of certifications and qualifications within the industry or field you’re in? Display them proudly across your key pages! The same goes for customer reviews of your products/services.

• Write a Detailed ‘About Us’ Page: Make it easy for users to learn more about you and your business. An ‘About Us’ page is the perfect place for you to tell your story and build trust with potential customers.

• Link to Useful Sources of Information: If you’re writing detailed informational guides about in-depth topics, externally linking to sources and other relevant sites can help to show credibility, authority and trustworthiness.

• Use Expert Quotes: Another great way to strengthen informational content is to directly quote experts within your niche – it’s even better if these are quotes from primary sources within your team. Be sure to outline your expert’s experience within the industry and list any relevant qualifications they hold.

Demonstrate First-Hand Experience: Don’t just tell users about a topic, show them you know what you’re talking about. Include images, videos, screenshots and other forms of media that prove your expertise and experience to users and search engines.

E-E-A-T Resources:

If you’re looking to learn more about E-E-A-T and how to strengthen your website in this area, check out the following resources we’ve put together to help you:

• E-E-A-T at a Glance
• E-E-A-T SEO Checklist

9) Don’t Forget to Optimise Images

Images can help to improve the search visibility of your site in a few ways, from them ranking in Google Images to appearing in search features like image carousels, featured snippets and more.

To make the most of your images, it’s a good idea to follow a few on-page SEO tactics to help search engines understand your images in the context of your content, meaning they work a little harder for the performance of your site.

Alt Text

Alt text, or alternative text, is a short description of an image for both users and search engines that describes exactly what the image is. It’s especially important for accessibility, allowing visually impaired users to understand images through screen readers.

Best Practices for Alt Text

• Be as descriptive as possible but don’t waffle on! Be nice and concise. For example, “A large pepperoni pizza with a stuffed crust” over “pizza”.

Include relevant keyword mentions wherever you can, naturally.

Image File Names

Search engines use image files names to understand images better. Remember to rename your images when you upload them.

Best Practices for Image File Names

• Include a target keyword mention where you can.
• Be concise and descriptive. For example, “pepperoni-pizza-stuffed-crust.svg”.

Next-Gen Formats & Image Compression

Out with ‘pngs’ and ‘jpgs’ and in with next-gen image formats! These most commonly include WebP, SVG, and AVIF formats, which compress image sizes massively whilst retaining the same high-quality. 

This makes next-gen formats ideal for use on websites as they help to improve page speed by requiring the browser to load less data in comparison to large traditional formats.

To convert images from traditional formats to next-gen formats you can use a wide selection of tools, ranging from online conversion platforms to CMS plugins and content delivery networks (CDNs). 

It’s always best to consult a web developer on the best way for your site to implement next-gen image formats – you never know what dev magic they’ll be able to conjure up for you.

10) Page Speed & Core Web Vitals

Optimising for page speed is a key component of on-page SEO and helps to guarantee a great user experience for visitors to your site, improving engagement and retention. Page speed is also a direct ranking factor, meaning it could make the difference when it comes to outranking the competition. 

Along with optimising images and serving them in next-gen formats, there are plenty of other ways you can speed up your page load times and improve responsiveness by optimising other on-page elements.

PageSpeed Insights is a free tool provided by Google which you can use to audit the speed and performance of each page on your site on both desktop and mobile devices.

On-Page SEO: Speed Considerations

• Reduce unused/unnecessary code: PageSpeed insights will flag any unused JavaScript and CSS that is bloating your page and increasing load times. Removing unnecessary code like this, especially if they are sending separate HTTP requests, is a great way to improve page load speed.

• JavaScript/CSS Minification: Web developers like their code to look pretty and be easy to read, but sometimes this isn’t ideal for page speed. JS/CS minification is the process of removing unnecessary characters and spaces from code to reduce file sizes. 

• Gzip compression: Gzip is a type of data compression that reduces file sizes before they are sent to the user, improving the speed of content delivery.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals (CWVs) are user experience metrics used by Google to judge how well your site performs in terms of interactivity and visual stability. 

Using PageSpeed Insights, you can assess your pages, and Google will provide feedback on whether you’ve passed or failed across each of these metrics, along with recommendations on how to improve.

Whilst CWV scores are ranking factors, Google has emphasised that they are not as important as others.

The general advice is to optimise for page speed and CWVs only if you notice your site is feeling slow or if there are clear issues that could harm the user experience – not just to simply improve PageSpeed Insights scores. 

Put yourself in the shoes of your user and browse your site. If you think that pages are responsive, load quickly and there are no issues with visual stability, then great! The chances are that your performance is more than acceptable and should focus your attention elsewhere.

Page Speed Resources

Improving page speed and Core Web Vitals can sometimes feel like a jargon-filled nightmare. If you’re struggling to get your head around some of the key concepts, check out the following resources from our expert team:

• PageSpeed Insights Helpsheet
• Understanding PageSpeed Insights Metrics

11) Structured Data

Structured data, also known as Schema, is a type of code that provides search engines with additional context about your content. 

Schema helps search engines better understand specific details and information on your pages, allowing them to improve the appearance of your content in results pages by generating rich snippets.

Common Types of Structured Data

• Product Schema
• Article Schema
• Breadcrumb Schema
• FAQ Schema
• Local Business Schema
• Organisation Schema
• Review Schema
• Event Schema
• Video Schema
• Person Schema

Here’s an example of recipe schema at work, enhancing the appearance of these site’s pages in the SERPs:

To quickly assess the structured data on your site, you can use tools like Google Search Console, or website crawlers such as Screaming Frog and Sitebulb. These will give you a snapshot of how well your structured data is set up.

If you’re adding or updating structured data, using a schema markup generator can be a huge time saver. Depending on your CMS, there may even be a plugin that can automatically generate types of schema for you.

Finally, once your structured data is generated and live, be sure to use schema.org’s Schema Validator to see if everything is working properly and compliant.

Your Leading On-Page SEO Service Provider

Now we’ve covered all the most important on-page SEO techniques and tactics for online success, you should feel more confident applying them to your own website.

However, if you’d prefer some help from the experts, look no further than our award-winning team at The SEO Works. With over 15 years of proven success in the industry, we’ve delivered outstanding results for clients across various sectors.

Get in touch with our team today to get a free SEO audit and learn more about how our on-page SEO services can take your website to the very top of page 1!