What are On-site elements?

When positioning a website, there are various aspects to consider. First of all, it is worthwhile to look at the site from the inside, that is, to analyze On site elements that are subject to optimization. 

What do they include? Which of them most affect a site’s position in a search engine?

What are On-site actions?

On-site elements include all aspects of the site that are within the site. 

These include, but are not limited to, meta data optimization, analysis of keywords and content found on the site, optimization of graphics, analysis of source code and errors found on the site, and internal linking. 

Alongside On site activities, you should also focus on optimizing Off site elements, which are equally important. These mainly include link building activities and analysis of duplicate content occurring outside of the site. 

Outside of the On site activities, you should also focus on optimizing the On site elements.

Elements on site

Meta data

Title and Description are the basic meta tags that describe the content of a given page. It is the content placed in Title and Description that can display in search results and draw users’ attention, so optimizing them is very important. 

It is worth remembering to adjust the length of the text placed in the meta, saturate them with the right amount of key phrases and use unique content. 

More about meta data optimization we wrote in a previous article.

Internal linking

Well done internal linking can greatly improve site scanning and indexing. Placing modules with suggested products or thematically related articles or linking directly in product and category descriptions is a good way to improve site navigation and eliminate orphan pages.

Heading structure and content

Hierarchy and placement of headings is a very important issue. It helps robots and users learn what is on the page. It is worth remembering that the H1 header can appear only once. Headings should accurately indicate the subject matter of the text or section of the page, and include keywords relevant to the subpage in the body. 

Optimize graphic elements

On almost every website there are images or photos. When placing graphic elements on the site, you should make sure that they are well optimized.

Adjusting the size of graphics, using next-generation formats and choosing the right name are the basic elements to pay attention to before publishing images.

Images are also a good place to increase the number of key phrases on a page. Completing the ALT and Title attribute to indicate what is in the image or photo with key phrases in mind increases the chance of the page appearing in search results. 

Site speed

In today’s world, speed of information retrieval is very important. As users, we want websites to provide us with information as quickly as possible and to be ready to use as soon as we open them in the browser. That’s why it’s so important to customize a site for loading speed and interactivity. 

Analysis tools such as PageSpeed Insights allow you to test your pages for, among other things, errors related to Core Web Vitals or page-blocking elements. We wrote more about how to optimize a site well for these issues in an article about Core Web Vitals

Indexing your site

Every well-designed website should have robots.txt file and a site map in xml format 

The map is a list of URLs found on the site and shows its content and hierarchical structure. Properly created, it helps search engine robots to scan and index the site. 

Equally important is the robots.txt file, which, thanks to the directives contained therein, is a kind of instruction telling robots what pages it should index and what it should not.

Optimizing URLs

The URLs of individual pages should be simple and contain key phrases indicating their content. This will help search engine robots identify the pages and positively affect the indexing process.

Content Optimization

Whether you are considering optimizing an online store or a blog, taking care of good content is essential. Publishing valuable, substantive content, properly saturated with keywords supports the SEO process and attracts the attention of users. An additional way to optimize content is to reuse it, i.e. recycling content 

UX and mobile version optimization

For the past few years, customization of a website for user experience is one of the elements that strongly influences the overall rating of a website. A clear interface, intuitive menus, functionality and interactivity of the site are aspects whose optimization improves the experience of the audience using the site. 

Similar is the case with adapting the site for mobile. Today, most users use smartphones for daily browsing and online shopping. Poor optimization of a site for mobile devices can increase rejection rates, discourage users from revisiting the site, and negatively affect a site’s position in search results. 

Optimizing On-site Elements a SEO

Adapting a site for SEO requires optimizing many elements. Both those directly on the site and off site factors are of paramount importance and should be considered in the SEO process.