On-Page SEO: What Still Matters, and What Was Always Folklore

On-page SEO advice tends to arrive as a checklist with precise-sounding rules: titles under 60 characters, exactly one H1, alt text under 125 characters, a keyword in the first paragraph. Some of these are sound. Some describe how search engines worked a decade ago. A few were never true. The underlying goal hasn't changed, though: make it unambiguous what a page is about and whom it serves, and make the page easy to use once someone arrives.

Titles: the strongest signal you control

The <title> element is still one of the clearest statements you can make about a page. Google's documentation is explicit that it doesn't always use it, however. It generates the clickable "title link" in results from several sources, including the title element, the main visible headline, other headings, and links pointing to the page. It's most likely to replace your title when it's vague, stuffed with keywords, duplicated across pages, or doesn't match the content.

• Write a unique, accurate title for every page. Boilerplate titles repeated across a site are a common reason for rewrites.
• Put the distinguishing words first. Truncation in results is based on pixel width, not a character count, so the familiar "60 characters" is only an approximation. Front-loading the important words matters more than hitting a number.
• Match the visible headline. When the title and the page's main heading agree, Google has less reason to improvise.

Meta descriptions: write them, but expect substitutions

Meta descriptions don't affect rankings, and Google frequently substitutes text from the page that better matches a particular query. An Ahrefs study published in 2020 found Google showed a different snippet from the supplied description in roughly 63% of the cases it examined, more often for long-tail queries. The behavior has likely changed since, but the direction is clear.

They're still worth writing. A good description is used often enough to matter, and social platforms and messaging apps frequently fall back on it when a link is shared. Write it as a plain summary of what the reader will get, not as a keyword list.

Headings: structure for people first

Headings help both readers and search engines understand a page's structure. The "only one H1" rule, however, is a convention, not a requirement: Google representatives have said repeatedly that multiple H1s don't cause problems. What matters is that the hierarchy is logical, so a reader skimming the headings (or a screen-reader user jumping between them) gets an accurate outline of the page. Use headings to describe sections, not as a styling tool and not as a place to repeat keywords.

URLs: short, readable, and stable

Descriptive, hyphenated URLs are easier to read, share, and trust. Their direct ranking effect is small. The larger risk is changing them: every URL change needs a permanent (301) redirect from the old address, or you lose the links and history the old page accumulated. For existing pages, a stable imperfect URL is usually better than a new perfect one.

Alt text: an accessibility feature that also helps search

Alt text exists so that people who can't see an image still get its meaning. Write it for them: describe what the image shows and why it's there, in the context of the page. Purely decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them. Done this way, alt text also helps image search. Keyword stuffing alt attributes helps neither audience.

Page experience: necessary, rarely decisive

Google's Core Web Vitals measure loading (Largest Contentful Paint), responsiveness (Interaction to Next Paint, which replaced First Input Delay in March 2024), and visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift). Google's "good" thresholds are an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less, an INP of 200 milliseconds or less, and a CLS of 0.1 or less.

These are real ranking signals, but modest ones; a fast page that doesn't answer the query won't outrank a slower page that does. They matter more for what they say about the visitor's experience. The common fixes on small sites are unglamorous:

• Resize and compress images before uploading them, and serve modern formats where the platform supports it.
• Remove scripts and embeds the page doesn't need, especially third-party widgets.
• Reserve space for images and embeds so content doesn't jump while loading.

Mobile: there is no separate desktop index

Google now indexes the web using mobile crawling. If content, links, or structured data exist only in your desktop layout, Google may not see them. Check that the mobile version of each page carries the same substance as the desktop version.

Internal links and structured data

Internal links tell search engines which pages matter and how they relate. Descriptive anchor text ("our guide to keyword research") beats "click here." Structured data (schema.org markup) makes pages eligible for rich results such as reviews, events, or FAQs. It doesn't directly raise rankings, so add it where a rich result would actually help someone choose your page.

Where small sites should spend effort

For a small business or personal site with limited time, the order of operations is usually:

1. Match intent. Make sure each important page is the best answer to a specific need. See keyword research as intent research.
2. Fix titles and headlines so every page states its purpose plainly.
3. For local businesses, complete and maintain your Google Business Profile. For many local searches it matters more than anything on the website.
4. Earn a few relevant links from organizations you actually work with: partners, associations, local press. A handful of genuine links outweighs any number of directory or paid ones.
5. Measure with Google Search Console. It shows which queries you appear for, where you rank, and which pages have indexing problems, all for free.

Search results now often include AI-generated summaries above the links, which can reduce clicks for simple informational questions. The pages those systems draw on tend to be the same ones this guide describes: clearly structured, specific, and plainly the best answer to a question. Good on-page work serves both.