Are you focusing enough on on-page SEO? While link building is crucial, many website owners tend to overlook the on-page aspects that can greatly impact their organic rankings. From accidental errors caused by site updates to blocking essential resources, these issues can go unnoticed and negatively affect your website’s performance. To ensure your on-page SEO is on point, conduct the following 7 essential checks regularly:
1. Identify and Fix Broken Links
Both internal and external broken links can harm your website’s rankings. Use tools like ScreamingFrog SEO Software or the Broken Link Checker plugin for WordPress to easily detect broken links on your site. Additionally, check for “404” and “not found” errors in the Google Search Console under Crawl > Crawl Errors.
2. Evaluate the Quality of Indexed Pages
Regularly review the pages indexed by Google for quality control. Use the command operator “site:sitename.com” to see all pages indexed and ensure they provide value. For instance, eliminate low-value pages like search result pages or multiple versions of the same page that may be cluttering your index.
3. Verify Resource Accessibility
Avoid accidentally blocking important website resources like images, javascript, and CSS. In the Google Search Console under Google Index > Blocked Resources, you can identify and unblock any necessary assets. For example, if you’re blocking the wp-content folder, your images won’t be crawled, impacting your ranking potential and organic traffic.
4. Check HTML Source for Meta Tags and Errors
Inspect your website’s HTML source to ensure that all SEO-based meta tags are present and that there are no errors that need fixing. Focus on key pages such as the homepage, main category pages, and blog posts. Monitoring the HTML source helps maintain meta tag accuracy and identify any issues that require attention.
5. Assess Mobile Usability
Optimizing for mobile is essential to maintain a strong presence in Google’s mobile search results. Even if your site is responsive, regularly check for mobile usability errors in the Google Search Console under Search Traffic > Mobile Usability. You can also use Google’s mobile-friendly test for individual pages.
6. Optimize Page Speed
Keep your page speed in check by using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Identify any render-blocking Javascript files and determine if they are necessary for proper page functionality. Avoid adding unnecessary scripts to every page, as this can slow down load times, negatively impacting your search engine rankings.
7. Monitor Website Uptime
Frequent downtimes not only frustrate visitors but also harm your SEO efforts. To ensure your website is consistently available, use uptime monitoring services like Uptime Robot, Jetpack Monitor, or Pingdom. These services will notify you of any downtime and help you promptly address any hosting issues.
By conducting these on-page SEO checks regularly, you can keep your website optimized and prevent any unnoticed issues from affecting your rankings. Let us know in the comments how you approach on-page SEO audits and share your tips for maintaining excellent on-page optimization.
