On-site SEO (also known as on-page SEO) is the practice of optimizing elements on a website (as opposed to links elsewhere on the Internet and other external signals collectively known as "off-site SEO") in order to improve search engine ranking and visibility. This can involve optimizing both the content and HTML source code of pages on a site.
This page is your home base for on-site SEO resources designed for learners of all skill levels.
The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet
Share with your dev team to make SEO changes easier to understand and implement.
With brand-new updates for 2020, the Web Dev's SEO Cheat Sheet is a core resource for SEOs, web devs, software engineers, and anyone else needing to understand technical SEO standards for a website. Download the free PDF and share with your team!
The One-Hour Guide to SEO
Can you learn SEO in an hour? Surprisingly, the answer is yes, at least when it comes to the fundamentals! From SEO expert Rand Fishkin, we present you a six-part series of roughly ten-minute-long videos designed to deliver core SEO concepts.
On-Page SEO Bootcamp
Live Online Workshop
Are my pages optimized for SEO? Which pages should I optimize first? Answer these questions and more in this easy to understand 2-hour class. Learn how to prioritize SEO optimization tasks and the best practices professionals use to get the most out of each page.
When and How to Use Domain Authority, Page Authority, and Link Count Metrics
How can you effectively apply link metrics like Domain Authority and Page Authority alongside your other SEO metrics? Where and when does it make sense to take them into account, and what exactly do they mean? In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand answers these questions and more.
How to Target Multiple Keywords with One Page
In this post we'll show you an easy workflow for targeting multiple keywords with a single page. Read on and level up!
Should SEOs Care About Internal Links?
Learn how to analyze, optimize, and structure your internal links (and put the kibosh on out-of-date tactics) in this Whiteboard Friday.
Faster Sites: Beyond PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights can be useful, but a perfect score doesn't guarantee a fast site. There are smarter ways to assess and improve site speed. Learn about them in this blog post!
Launching a New Website:
Your SEO Checklist
There may be SEO considerations you haven't accounted for yet. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers five big boxes you need to check off before finally setting that site live.
Exact Match Keywords
Learn about exact- versus partial-match keywords and their uses in this article.
The Wonderful World of SEO Meta Tags [Refreshed for 2017]
Which meta tags are absolutely necessary, which are dependent on your situation, and which should you absolutely ignore or remove? Kate Morris refreshes her original 2010 post on the subject of meta tags, sharing a few new tips and reiterating what's remained the same over the past 7 years.
Backlinks
Learn what a backlink is and why they matter for SEO. Read on in this article!
What are Keywords?
What are keywords, and why do they matter for SEO? What are long-tail keywords? How should you use keywords in content, and how do they inform a content strategy? Learn in this article.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is a core SEO task that involves identifying popular words and phrases people enter into search engines in an attempt to figure out what to rank for. Learn the basics of what's involved in keyword research, how often to do it, and where to learn more about it in this article.
How to Do a Content Audit
[Updated for 2017]
This guide provides instructions on how to do a content audit using examples and screenshots from Screaming Frog, URL Profiler, Google Analytics (GA), and Excel, as those seem to be the most widely used and versatile tools for performing content audits.
Aren't 301s, 302s, and Canonicals All Basically the Same?
The answer is unequivocally no. In this Whiteboard Friday, Dr. Pete explains how bots and humans experience pages differently depending on which solution you use, why it matters, and how each choice is treated by Google.
Domain Authority
What is Moz's Domain Authority score, and how does it work? Learn in this article.
What is SEO?
What is SEO all about, and why do things like keywords, on-site optimization, and links matter when it comes to improving a site's search engine visibility and ranking? Learn the basics in this article.
Internal Links
Internal Links are hyperlinks that point at (target) the same domain as the domain that the link exists on (source). Why do these links matter for SEO, and what are the best practices for internal link structure? Learn in this article.
Anchor Text
What is anchor text, how is it used, and how can it be optimized for SEO efforts? Learn more here.
I've Optimized My Site, But I'm Still Not Ranking—Help!
When all your hard work seems to be going nowhere, there might be a reason. This post walks you through a list of things to check and accomplish to make sure your site can start ranking ASAP.
How to Build a Killer Content to Keyword Map for SEO
In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand illustrates the process of creating your own content-to-keyword map to discover where to optimize, what content to build, and how to intelligently target keywords when you're auditing a site.
Practical A/B Test Statistics: How to Run Better Tests and Get Cleaner Data
"Everyone should A/B test." Sounds like great advice, but if you're not careful, A/B testing can do your online business more harm than good! In this webinar, we break down the myths and misunderstandings surrounding A/B testing, focusing on 5 specific things you need to do to prepare for any split test.
8 Rules for How to Choose a Domain Name
One decision you'll have to live with for a long time is the domain name of your website. You may have some ideas, but what should you keep in mind when you sit down to register one? What will resonate most on the web? What should you avoid? Learn more in this Whiteboard Friday.
How many keywords per web page?
Can you optimize a web page for more than one keyword? If so, how? This Q&A post dives into recommendations from the SEO community.
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Try Moz SEO Bootcamps: Live online training with an instructor.
How to Optimize for Competitors' Branded Keywords
In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand explains some strategic and smart ways to optimize for competitors' keywords — from determining their worthiness, to properly targeting your funnel, to using third-party hosted content for maximum amplification.
Can SEOs Stop Worrying About Keywords and Just Focus on Topics?
Should you ditch keyword targeting entirely? In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses old-school keyword targeting and new-school concept targeting, outlining a plan of action you can follow to get the best of both worlds.
Controlling Search Engine Crawlers for Better Indexation and Rankings
Robots.txt, meta robots, and the nofollow tag are all ways to tell search engines how to crawl and index your site. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers four common use cases of these tools, offering guidance on when you should use one over another.
Should I Use Relative or Absolute URLs?
It was once commonplace for developers to code relative URLs into a site. There are a number of reasons why that might not be the best idea for SEO, and in this Whiteboard Friday, Ruth Burr Reedy is here to tell you all about why.
The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 3.0
Use this SEO cheat sheet to easily reference technical SEO standards.
15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs
Looking for some rules of the road when it comes to structuring URLs? This post provides some helpful guidelines.
SEO Basics: The Fundamental Signals Used to Rank Our Content Higher
This webinar dives into the SEO ranking signals we pay attention to when optimizing a piece of content here at Moz. From the overlooked to the obvious, this webinar walks through how a few basic principals improve almost any piece of content and help boost SEO success.
Subdomains or. Subfolders, Rel Canonical vs. 301, and How to Structure Links for SEO
Subfolders or subdomains? 301 redirect or rel canonical? What about optimal link structures for SEO? Some of the basic questions are the ones that crop up the most frequently, and Rand tackles them in this Whiteboard Friday.
8 Simple Steps Towards a Super Fast Website
In this webinar, we'll show you eight simple tricks to use to make a major speed difference for your page load times. The basics and tricks covered here require little or no coding experience.
The Big List of SEO Tips and Tricks for Using HTTPS on Your Website
This post covers the ins and outs of getting the most value from using HTTPS on your site.
Internal Linking: A Scientific, Scalable Approach
Everybody recommends internal linking, but there's been little proof of actual effects on rankings, traffic, and conversions. In this webinar, you'll learn how to identify large-scale internal linking opportunities, point more authoritative links to target pages, and identify top keywords.
Best Practices for Error Pages
Learn about the best practices for handling HTTP status code errors and error pages on websites in this Moz Academy video.
Ultimate Guide to Google Penalty Removal
Hit by a manual penalty? Learn how to remove it and get back on track in this post.
A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Site SEO
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to steer you in the right direction.
Website Architecture and Internal Links
In this Moz Academy video you'll learn about the role website architecture and internal links play in SEO.
On-Page Optimization for Content and UX
This video covers on-page optimization in the context of content and user experience - factors that are important both people visiting your site and how a search engines sees your pages.
Rel=Confused? Answers to Your Rel=Canonical Questions
This post tackles some of the most common (and confounding!) questions about rel=canonical. What is it? How should you use it? Why does it matter? Read on to learn more.
15 Tips to Speed Up Your Website
Page load time has become an increasingly strong ranking factor. While on the older side, this post walks through 15 basic must-knows for making your website as speedy as possible.
Achieving an SEO-Friendly Domain Migration - The Infographic
Domain migrations are one of those activities that even if in the long-term can represent a benefit for an SEO process (especially if the new domain is more relevant, already has a high authority, or otherwise) can represent a risk for SEO. This infographic covers how to get it right.
Duplicate Content in a Post-Panda World
Google's Panda algorithm upped the ante when it comes to duplicate content. This post explores how Panda impacts the world of SEO in terms of duplicate content.
An SEO's Guide to HTTP Status Codes
To create this post, we took the most useful HTTP status codes, from an SEO perspective, and illustrated how they work. It's a half cheat sheet, half infographic look at what SEOs need to know about status codes.
What is a SERP feature?
What are SERP features? How do they impact your search visibility, and how can you earn them? Learn in this article.
SEO Today: Strategies to Earn Trust, Rank High, & Stand Out
Rand Fishkin on Skillshare
Rand is back with a second course on Skillshare! In 11 videos, he covers what drives real impact for your site in today's fast-changing world of SEO.
Introduction to SEO: Tactics and Strategy for Entrepreneurs
Rand Fishkin on Skillshare
Join founder and “Wizard of Moz” Rand Fishkin for a Skillshare class on optimizing your content and organically raising the web presence of your business and brand!
7 ‹Title Tag› Hacks for Increased Rankings + Traffic
Title tags can have a huge impact on your click-through rates when optimized correctly. In this Whiteboard Friday, we'll share how to use dates, questions, top referring keywords, and more to boost your CTR, traffic, and rankings.
How to Generate and Insert Rel Canonical with Google Tag Manager
This article covers how to create the rel=canonical URL tag using Google Tag Manager, and how to insert it in every page of our website so that the correct canonical is automatically generated in each URL.
Optimizing for Accessibility + SEO: Images, Video and Non-Text Elements
This post explores accessibility and SEO overlaps when coding for media and other non-text elements on a webpage.
Optimizing for Accessibility + SEO: Formatting & Link Overlaps
If you're optimizing for search engines, you're also affecting how people using screen readers and assistive technologies are experiencing your site. This post digs into on-page aspects that include formatting text, colors, links, and content that we can't see see but machines can.
Optimizing for Accessibility + SEO: Site & Page Structure Overlaps
While mastering web accessibility is no small feat, some of the tasks of optimizing for web accessibility overlap with the things we look at for SEO. In this post we’ll look at some simple structure and SEO overlaps.
What You Should Know About Accessibility + SEO, Part I: An Intro
If you optimize for SEO, does that mean you have accessibility covered? What about the other way around? This Part 1 of 2 post looks at high-level overlaps & recommends a11y blogs, resources, & fun tools to start you thinking about accessibility and SEO optimization.
The Top Myths about International SEO
In this webinar we'll discuss some of the persistent myths surrounding international SEO and cover how best to build and execute a solid international SEO strategy, including the importance of choosing the right site structure for your business, localization as it relates to ranking, which language tags you need to use.
Through The Looking Glass: Overcoming Organizational Perspectives
Traditionally, UX has viewed SEO as being disruptive to design and communication, and SEO believe UX overlooks searchability. In this webinar, we'll walk through how designers think and what they value, understanding contrasting and differing language and tools in SEO and UX communities, and how to better integrate and add value to design workflows as an SEO.
9 Things You Need to Know About Google's Mobile-Friendly Update
How did Google's upcoming mobile-friendly update impact their algorithm? How does the update impact websites and ranking, and what does this mean for mobile sites moving forward? Learn in this post.
Responsive, Dynamic Serving, and Mobile – Which Site is Right for Me?
From responsive, dynamic serving and mobile, there are many different types of sites to choose from. In this webinar we'll walk you through what a responsive site is and explain the pros and cons of programming your responsive site.
Targeting Multiple Keywords on a Single Page
Learn the in's and out's of using one webpage to simultaneously target multiple keywords.
12 Things That Will Kill Your Blog Post Every time
What makes a blog post work? This post walks through 12 things that can stop a successful blog post in its tracks.
Improve Your SEO by Mastering These Core Principles
Presented by Lindsay Wassell at MozCon 2014
Discover how SEO tactics that win in the long run complement web-friendly business practices and core principles, and how to incorporate this approach into optimization strategies for changes in search results.
Win Through Optimization and Testing
Presented by Kyle Rush at MozCon 2013
Kyle shares his knowledge from the frontlines of the most intense web campaign to date: the 2012 US presidential election. His team won big for Obama with a data-driven approach. Kyle will explore tactics like how they increased donations by 49% and help you implement these wins for your site.
The Mobile Content Mandate
Presented by Karen McGrane at MozCon 2013
Do you think "no one will ever want to do that on mobile"? Chances are, someone already wants to. Karen will discuss why you need to deliver content wherever your customer wants to consume it - and the risks of ignoring mobile users. She'll also explain how to start your mobile content strategy, define what you want to publish, construct the relationship between your mobile and desktop site, and evolve your editorial workflow and content management tools.
Web Spam Research: Good Robots vs Bad Robots
Presented by Matt Peters at MozCon 2012
Matt goes on a wild ride to find the interesting features necessary to algorithmically classify a site as spam or non-spam. Will the good robots finally win?
Design that Drives Action
Presented by Bryan Zmijewski at MozCon 2011
Bryan's experience with dozens of the world's most transformative startups has given him unique insight into how users behave on the web and what drives lifecycles of customer success. In this talk, he'll dive deep into the psychology of web users and show powerful examples to help illustrate how marketers can think beyond a single landing page and earn powerful bumps in sales through conversion actions.
MozCon Video Bundle
Did you miss this year's MozCon? Now is your chance to experience what everyone has been talking about! We have over 19 hours of actionable inbound marketing knowledge.
Winning Value Propositions for Crawlers and Consumers
Presented by Dawn Anderson at MozCon 2017
In an evolving mobile-first web, we can utilize pre-empting solutions to create winning value propositions, which are designed to attract and satisfy search engine crawlers and keep consumers happy. I'll outline a strategy and share tactics that help ensure increased organic reach, in addition to highlighting smart ways to view data, intent, consumer choice theory and crawl optimization.
5 Secrets: How to Execute Lean SEO to Increase Qualified Leads
Presented by Britney Muller at MozCon 2017
I invite you to steal some of the ideas I've gleaned from managing SEO for the behemoth bad-ass Moz.com. Learn what it takes to move the needle on qualified leads, execute quick wins, and keep your head above water. I will go over my biggest Moz.com successes, failures, tests, and lessons.
The Truth About Mobile-First Indexing
Presented by Cindy Krum at MozCon 2017
Mobile-first design has been a best practice for a while, and Google is finally about to support it with mobile-first indexing. Learn how mobile-first indexing will give digital marketers their first real swing at influencing Google’s new AI (Artificial Intelligence) landscape. Marketers who embrace an accurate understanding of mobile-first indexing could see a huge first-mover advantage, similar to the early days of the web, and we all need to be prepared.
Facing the Future: 5 Simple Tactics for 5 Scary Changes
Presented by Dr. Pete Meyers at MozCon 2017
We've seen big changes to SEO recently, from an explosion in SERP features to RankBrain to voice search. These fundamental changes to organic search marketing can be daunting, and it's hard to know where to get started. Dr. Pete will walk you through five big changes and five tactics for coping with those changes today.
Up and to the Right: Growing Traffic, Conversions & Revenue
Presented by Matthew Barby at MozCon 2017
So many of the case studies that document how a company has grown from 0 to X forget to mention that solutions that they found are applicable to their specific scenario and won't work for everyone. Instead of building up a list of other companies' tactics, marketers need to understand how to diagnose and solve problems across their entire funnel. Illustrated with real-world examples, I'll be talking you through the process that I take to come up with ideas that none of my competitors are thinking of.
A Site Migration: Redirects, Resources & Reflection
Presented by Jayna Grassel at MozCon 2017
Site. Migration. No two words elicit more fear, joy, or excitement to a digital marketer. When the idea was shared three years ago, the company was excited. They dreamed of new features and efficiency. But as SEOs we knew better. We knew there would be midnight strategy sessions with IT. More UAT environments than we could track. Deadlines, requirements, and compromises forged through hallway chats. ... The result was a stable transition with minimal dips in traffic. What we didn't know, however, was the amount of cross-functional coordination that was required to pull it off. Learn more in this video!
Reverse-Engineer Google's Research to Serve Up the Best, Most Relevant Content for Your Audience
Presented by Rob Bucci at MozCon 2017
The SERP is the front-end to Google's multi-billion dollar consumer research machine. They know what searchers want. In this data-heavy talk, Rob will teach you how to uncover what Google already knows about what web searchers are looking for. Using this knowledge, you can deliver the right content to the right searchers at the right time, every time.
Data-Driven Design
Presented by Oli Gardner at MozCon 2017
Data-Driven Design (3D) is an actionable, evidence-based framework for creating websites and landing pages that will increase your leads, sales, and customers. In this session you’ll learn how to use the latest industry conversion data to inform copywriting and design decisions that impact conversions.
The Mobile SEO Stack: Tools to Develop a Mobile-First SEO Process
As mobile SEO becomes less of a novelty and more an essential part of every search marketer's job, it becomes increasingly important to have quality mobile SEO tools at your fingertips. This post walks through what you should include in your mobile SEO stack.
How to Rank in Google Image Search
When a third of all searches performed in Google are for images and 12.5% of SERPs show Image Pack results, you know it's not a facet of SEO to be trifled with. This episode of Whiteboard Friday is densely packed with all the image SEO tips you could ever want, from the bare basics to ranking factors to important next steps.
Advanced Keyword Research Use Cases
This post takes a look at how modern keyword tools (in this case, Keyword Explorer) can be used to accomplish far more than page-level keyword targeting. Dive in and learn more!
Pop-Ups, Overlays, Modals, Interstitials, and How They Interact with SEO
In this edition of Whiteboard Friday, we're chatting about pop-ups, overlays, modals, interstitials and their interactions with SEO. In addition to Google's guidelines around them, they also change how people interact with your site.
XML Sitemaps: The Most Misunderstood Tool in the SEO's Toolbox
XML sitemaps are a powerful tool for SEOs, but are often misunderstood and misused. Michael Cottam explains how to leverage XML sitemaps to identify and resolve indexation problems.
A Guide to JSON-LD for Beginners
JSON-LD stands for JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data, which consists of multi-dimensional arrays (think: list of attribute-value pairs). This post dives into what it does on a website and how to implement it for yourself.
Which Page Markup + Tags Still Matter for SEO?
Should you focus on H1s and H2s, or should schema.org demand all your on-page attention? In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand expounds upon what still works for on-page SEO and what's out of date.
Linking Internally & Externally from Your Site: Opportunities, Risk and Reward
Navigating linking practices can be a treacherous process. Sometimes it feels like a penalty is lurking around every corner. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about the ins and outs of linking internally and externally, identifying pitfalls and opportunities both.
SEO Split-Testing: How to A/B Test Changes for Google
When testing things for Google, traditional A/B testing doesn't always work. This post dives into detail on how SEOs can run kick-butt A/B tests AND stay on Google's good side.
How will changing my title, meta tags, and URL impact rankings?
Will changing page title tags and other metadata have a negative impact on search ranking and visibility? Learn more in this Q&A post.
How Much Keyword Repetition is Optimal?
If you're targeting a particular keyword, where and how often should you use that in the front and back ends of my page? In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand puts his recommendations into the context of today's SERPs.
Is syndicated (duplicate) content considered fresh content?
Is syndicated duplicate content (i.e., identical content that's been published across multiple distinct domains) considered fresh content on an individual domain? This Q&A post explores hypotheses and SEO implications.
Onsite SEO in 2015: An Elegant Weapon for a More Civilized Marketer
Presented by Rand Fishkin at Mozcon 2015
SEO has come full circle as on-page SEO has returned to the forefront. Rand will share how and why on-site SEO is so important and show off uncommon tactics with powerful potential.
Should I Rebrand and Redirect My Site? Should I Consolidate Multiple Sites/Brands?
In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand offers some guidance to marketers who are wondering whether a rebrand/redirect is right for them, and also those who are considering consolidating multiple sites under a single brand.
How Google Pulls Structured Snippets from Websites' Tables
There are many pages on the Web that are filled with data in the form of tables. This post examines how Google uses that data to create the featured snippets that appear at the top of many SERPs.
Getting Local Keyword Research and On-page Optimization Right
Presented by Mary Bowling at LocalUp 2015
Local keyword data is often difficult to find, analyze, and prioritize. Get tips, tools, and processes for zeroing in on the best terms to target when optimizing your website and directory listings, and learn how and why to structure your website around them.
Technical Site Audit Checklist: 2015 Edition
This checklist should help you put together a thorough site audit and determine what is holding back the organic performance of your site, so you can then take action to get the most SEO benefit for your efforts.
Illustrated Guide to Advanced On-Page Topic Targeting for SEO
This post provides a simple framework for on-page topic targeting in a way that makes optimizing easy and scalable while producing richer content for your audience.
Why is my redirected page not appearing in Google?
Every time this website owner 301-redirects their site to a new location, traffic disappears almost completely. This Q&A post troubleshoots the cause of these traffic drops and looks at a few potential solutions.
More than Keywords: 7 Concepts of Advanced On-Page SEO
A search engine's job is to figure out what website content is about and how relevant it is to a specific query. This post explores a series of on-page techniques that not only build upon one another, but can be combined in sophisticated ways to help your pages stand out as the most relevant of them all.
The Hidden Power of Nofollow
Obviously, for those of us who are trying to earn links, receiving a nofollow link can feel like a slap in the face. But these links have hidden powers that make them just as important as followed ones. Learn why nofollow links are more powerful than you might think.
How do I noindex duplicate (non-unique) content?
How does "noindexing" a page impact how duplicate content is crawled? This Q&A post explores hypotheses and a few other solutions to preventing content from appearing in Google's search index.
The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read
In this guide, Oli Gardener walks through what it takes to build and optimize landing pages that'll send your conversion rates through the roof.
12 Ways to Increase Traffic From Google Without Building Links
While off-page factors like links typically weigh more heavily than on-page efforts in Google's search results, SEOs today have a number of levers to pull in order to gain increased search traffic without ever building a link. This post explores some of those techniques.
How to implement pagination and other search parameters
Using pagination in conjunction with other URL parameters can be confusing. Check out this Q&A post for a discussion of how to best implement both.
How to Completely Ruin (or Save) Your Website with Redirects
When done right, 301 redirects can have awesome power. When done wrong, the results can be disastrous. Learn how to get the most benefit out of redirects in this post.
Why are my pages cached but not indexed by Google?
Why might Google not be caching pages that they've previously indexed? Explore a few potential reasons in this post from the Moz Community Q&A.
DA/PA fluctuations: how to Interpret, apply, and understand these ML-based scores
Seeing fluctuations in Domain Authority (DA) or Page Authority (PA) scores? This Q&A post from Rand explores how and why these numbers change when a new index is released and what these fluctuations mean for your site.
Blocking blog links from being crawled
Should website owners block blog category and author links from being crawled? Why or why not? Learn more in this Q&A post.
How to block "print" pages from indexing
This Q&A post explores techniques for preventing "print" pages from being indexed by search engines.
Why did a redesign affect my site performance?
Seeing a stark decrease in rankings after a website redesign? This Q&A post explores a few potential reasons why.
Does increasing word count help content rank better?
Does increasing word count automatically help content rank better? Learn what the SEO community thinks in this Q&A post.
Are pages with a canonical tag indexed?
How does using the canonical tag impact indexation and search visibility? This Q&A post explores how search engines interpret the use of this tag on a webpage.
How does a search engine bot navigate past a .PDF link?
Can search engines crawl PDFs? How can website owners get the most SEO value out of linked-to .PDF files? This Q&A post looks at a few hypotheses and solutions.