On Page SEO is an integral part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) activities. Before answering the question "What Is On Page SEO?" it is useful to look at some of the factors that are considered by the search engines when deciding how to rank a page or post.

These are:

Off Page Factors - This grouping relates to backlinks to a site and carries the highest weighting in determining ranking. Factors evaluated include how many backlinks exist, the authority of the linking sites, the anchor text of the links and how relevant the linking content is. This is other sites voting for your page and telling the search engines that your page is relevant to the searched keyword.

Other factors - These are various factors most of which are not directly under the control of the webmaster. Included are things like how busy the site is (traffic), how old the domain is and how fast the page loads.

On Page Factors - Search engines regularly send their "spiders" to index pages on the web. As part of this process they log the terms to which each page is relevant. Of course these "spiders" cannot actually understand the content so it is vital that the page is laid out in such a way that there is no confusion. If the search engines are unclear as to the relevancy of a page it will be very difficult to get a high ranking. The answer to "What is On Page SEO?" is that it is the means by which the webmaster ensures that the search engines are clear as to the relevancy of the page.

It is important to remember that although on page SEO may be allocated a lower weighting than the other two groups in deciding ranking, it is still a vital part of overall SEO activities. If it is not done properly a high ranking will be very hard to achieve even with many backlinks.

As On page SEO is fully under the webmaster's control it is the easiest part to get right and there is really no excuse for not doing so.

On Page SEO is essentially structuring the site in way that is search engine friendly. Each page or post should be built around a keyword so that it is clear to the search engines that it is highly relevant to that keyword. At the same time it is essential that the content should still be good for human visitors.

What this means is that you have get used to writing a way that is SEO friendly. This has been described as writing for an adult audience but so that a 6 year old could at least understand the subject. This takes some practice and you really need to go through a detailed checklist before publishing to make sure your on page SEO is correct.

If you are using WordPress you can install a plugin to do this for you.