Top 10 On-Page SEO Techniques for Higher Rankings

Top 10 On-Page SEO Techniques for Higher Rankings
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On-page SEO comprises a set of techniques that focus on optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more traffic. In this blog post, we’ll explore the top 10 on-page SEO techniques that will help you achieve higher rankings.

10 SEO Techniques for More Traffic

If you’re looking to increase traffic to your website from organic search, there are three primary methods to achieve this goal. You can work to rank higher for existing keywords, rank for more keywords, and get more clicks. To achieve these objectives, you’ll need to utilize various SEO techniques.

On-page SEO Techniques
On-page SEO Techniques

Learn from your competitors

Although competitors make things more difficult, they may also provide useful inspiration. Using the Top pages report in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, you may discover the most popular sites of your competition. If we input one of our competitors, we discover that their guide to Magento SEO receives a respectable quantity of search traffic.

Top pages report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explore
Top pages report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explore

It seems worth covering, but we haven’t yet. Site Explorer’s Content Gap analysis might reveal terms your rivals rank for that you don’t. The process:

  • Enter your domain into Site Explorer.
  • Visit Content Gap.
  • Enter a number of competition
Content Gap report, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Content Gap report, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

Because we haven’t explored “seo content strategies,” SEJ, SEL, and Moz rank in the top 10. So we should add it to our content schedule.

Content Gap report results showing data on "seo content strategies"
Content Gap report results showing data on “seo content strategies”

Prioritize low-difficulty topics

If your site is young, you may struggle to rank for competitive themes, thus choose low-difficulty topics. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer can locate these. Search for keyword suggestions and filter for low Keyword Difficulty (KD).

Matching terms report results, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer
Matching terms report results, via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer

Update old content

Because rankings don’t remain forever, particularly if you’re targeting time-sensitive issues, old information should be updated on a regular basis. Here’s an example of expected organic traffic to our top Google queries over time:

Line graph showing organic traffic dips and spikes of an Ahrefs article
Line graph showing organic traffic dips and spikes of an Ahrefs article

When content stale, it dropped. Our top Google searches list was outdated, but searchers wanted it. Rankings plummeted. Content updates spiked.

Site Explorer helps identify pages that need updating. Plug in your site, go to the Top pages report, select the comparison mode to “Previous year,” sort the data by traffic change from low to high, and search for freshness issues.

Top pages report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Top pages report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

The Ahrefs SEO plugin for WordPress lets you do a free content audit to detect underperforming pages.

List of no longer well-performing pages, via Ahrefs' SEO plugin
List of no longer well-performing pages, via Ahrefs’ SEO plugin

Fill content gaps

In our analysis, a website that ranks #1 for a keyword ranks for roughly 1,000 additional keywords in the top 10. Many of these terms will be synonyms. Some will likely be subtopics from your material.

Organic keywords report result, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Organic keywords report result, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

Our “submit url to google” instruction is in the top 10. This is because we discussed this subtopic throughout the article.

Table of contents of an Ahrefs article
Table of contents of an Ahrefs article

However, there are several postings that probably surely overlook crucial subtopics. If we can locate them and fill the holes, our page will most likely rank for relevant keywords and get more visitors.

Here’s a quick approach to identify content gaps:

  • In Site Explorer, enter the URL of one of your pages.
  • Navigate to the Content Gap report.
  • Enter a few high-ranking URLs for your core keyword.
  • Examine the keywords for any content gaps.
  • HubSpot and Neil Patel, for example, score in the top ten for “what are guest posts,” yet we do not.
Content Gap report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Content Gap report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

Our guest blogging guide did not include that subtopic, but theirs did. Covering the issue in greater detail might help us rank for more long-tail keywords and provide users with better information.

Create content hubs

Content hubs are groups of information about a topic that are linked together. Our beginner’s guide to SEO, for example, is a content center.

It features an SEO pillar page that connects to and from subpages regarding how search engines function, SEO fundamentals, keyword research, and other topics. Content hubs gain from internal connections transferring link equity across sites.

Pillar page of our beginner's guide to SEO
Pillar page of our beginner’s guide to SEO

Thus, if one subpage receives many backlinks, they all benefit and may rank better. Reorganizing linked pages around a new “hub” page is the quickest approach to construct a content hub from existing material.

Flowchart showing how existing content can be reorganized
Flowchart showing how existing content can be reorganized

The best subfolders of your rivals might help you choose subjects for a new content hub. Plug DietDoctor into Site Explorer and see the Site structure report. 30 pages in the /low-carb/keto/recipes subdirectory get 143K monthly search views.

Site structure report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Site structure report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

Clicking the number of pages displays all pages under that URL structure with their projected traffic and top keyword. Content hubs may use several of these subjects.

List of pages with corresponding data on traffic, value, keywords, top keyword, etc
List of pages with corresponding data on traffic, value, keywords, top keyword, etc

Get more backlinks

Google’s top ranking criteria is backlinks, but gaining good ones is hard. It’s probably SEO’s hardest component.

Before building extra backlinks to a page, examine whether it would help. Site Explorer shows 57 referring domains (websites) linking to our SEO analytics guide:

Overview of Ahrefs' guide to SEO analytics, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Overview of Ahrefs’ guide to SEO analytics, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

This page currently ranks second for its main keyword target.

Our guide to SEO analytics ranks #2 for "seo analytics"
Our guide to SEO analytics ranks #2 for “seo analytics”

However, if you examine the top-ranking pages for that keyword in Keywords Explorer, you will notice that the page that outranks us has a significantly smaller number of referring domains.

Top-ranking pages for "seo analytics," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer
Top-ranking pages for “seo analytics,” via Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer

Because these figures do not take into account backlink quality, it is possible that the top-ranking website outranks us because it has more high-quality backlinks. However, it does not seem that a lack of backlinks is the problem.

On the other hand, if you look at the SERP for “what is seo,” you’ll see that our page has many less backlinks than others that rank higher. Probably the best thing to do here is to build more backlinks.

SERP overview for "what is seo"
SERP overview for “what is seo”

Optimize internal links

Internal links connect website pages. They transfer “link equity” between pages like backlinks. Internal links on your website are within your control, unlike backlinks.

Thus, directing additional internal links to underperforming sites is a common SEO strategy. Site Explorer’s Organic keywords analysis will reveal these pages.

Organic keywords report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Organic keywords report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

Then, you can search this report for your primary target keywords. For instance, we are ranked number seven for “off-page SEO.”

Ahrefs blog ranks #7 for "off page seo"
Ahrefs blog ranks #7 for “off page seo”

Add this page to the target page filter in Ahrefs’ Site Audit’s Link opportunities report to uncover relevant and contextual internal link possibilities. The research suggests internally linking a contextual reference of “off-page seo” in our on-page SEO guide.

Link opportunities report results, via Ahrefs' Site Audit
Link opportunities report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Audit

Fix broken links

Broken backlinks are prevalent because individuals remove or relocate pages. Backlinks to these sites will go nowhere until you redirect them to their new URLs.

Find broken pages with backlinks on your site:

  • Paste your domain into Site Explorer
  • Best by links report
  • Filter “404 not found”
  • Sort by referring domains.
  • 57 sites link to our SEO Toolbar’s previous URL.
Data shows 57 backlinks pointing to old URL
Data shows 57 backlinks pointing to old URL

Get more clicks

Google rankings are only the beginning. You must persuade searchers to click on your result.

Two ways:

  • Write engaging title tags and meta descriptions.
  • Schema markup qualifies rich snippets.
  • Title tags and meta descriptions appear in Google search results, so make them engaging without being clickbait.
Example of title tag and meta description on a Google SERP
Example of title tag and meta description on a Google SERP

Some suggestions:

  • Search intent
  • Avoid truncation (use this free SERP snippet optimizer).
  • Engage the searcher.
  • Your primary keyword
  • Schema markup may enable rich snippets. Google displays review ratings and FAQs underneath the search snippet.
Example of rich snippet on a Google SERP
Example of rich snippet on a Google SERP

Prioritize sites with high search traffic as these improvements take time. Google Search Console or Ahrefs’ Site Explorer’s Top Pages report may estimate these.

Top pages report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Top pages report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

Optimize for featured snippets

Featured snippets are brief search results. Google takes them from a top page.

Organic keywords report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Organic keywords report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

Featured snippets may help you top Google. First, discover the finest chances. Here’s what you should do:

  • Enter your domain into Site Explorer
  • Go to the Organic keywords report
  • Filter for top 10 rankings
  • Filter highlighted snippet SERPs where you don’t rank.

You should now see all your keywords in the top 10, where Google provides a highlighted snippet from another result.

Organic keywords report results, via Ahrefs' Site Explorer
Organic keywords report results, via Ahrefs’ Site Explorer

We rank #2 for “google operators,” however Google uses a highlighted snippet from another website.

SERP overview showing Google pulls the featured snippet from a competitor
SERP overview showing Google pulls the featured snippet from a competitor

Getting featured snippets isn’t easy, but your website has to include the information Google wants. Our page lacks a concise definition, which Google desires. Adding one to our website increases our chances of being selected by Google for the highlighted snippet.

Google SERP for search term "google operators"; notably, featured snippet shows a succinct definition
Google SERP for search term “google operators”; notably, featured snippet shows a succinct definition

Conclusion

SEO mastery is a complicated process. This article’s tactics will help you outrank competition and succeed online. Keep up with the ever-changing SEO world, modify your techniques, and emphasize high-quality, user-focused content. Good luck with SEO!

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