8 On-page Factors for SEO (New Ones for 2025)

On-page optimizations are the act of optimizing a single page for the relevance (using an understanding of the BERT system created by Google) of potentially matching search engine queries and User expectations. The concept being on-page optimizations is that it will assist in search engines finding pages more relevant to target keywords and rank pages higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages). On-page optimization is considered to be an "SEO task," whereby an SEO specialist is looking at missing components of a page that might help it rank higher for search engines.

Key Takeaways

• Some of the top on-page ranking factors include optimizing your page title, H1, meta description, opening paragraph, semantic usage of keywords, usage of entities, and usage of information gain or unique insights.
• As of 2024 and going into 2025, on-page factors for SEO have changed dramatically. And things like optimizing image alt tags and other meta tags are no longer as useful when performing on-page optimizations.
• Entity SEO, similarity scoring, and information gain are key concepts to understand when performing on-page optimizations as these on-page factors are weighted much more heavily in modern Google systems.

8 Most Important On-Page Factors That Create Rank

If you’re reading other articles on this topic, it feels like the same old, same old. However, I’m about to share some on-page factors that I don’t think you know about. All of which help us to rank pages at 5X greater chances of hitting our target keywords.

However, make sure to read this article entirely as Google’s modern systems (using helpful content processors) make it more complex to optimize pages for keywords.

1. Information gain - very important

I’ve put information gain at the top of the list because it truly is the most powerful way to optimize your page. And is a very powerful concept in Google’s systems. Information gain is exactly what it sounds like. You need to bring unique insights to the table (meaning, the internet).

Here’s what you can do to search your page for information gain opportunities:

1. Search the keyword that you want to rank for
2. Read the top 5 articles or pages that exist on those SERPs
3. Write a list down of insights that all of those pages didn’t discuss
4. Make sure your list only includes semantically relevant topics (i.e., topics that are very closely related to your subject-matter, nothing irrelevant)
5. Read through your own page or post
6. Fill the missing gaps in the market (meaning in the SERPs)

Sometimes, it can be helpful to look at the “people also ask” ideas that exist or to look for keywords that appear in the autocomplete bar on Google to get an idea of what Users are looking for. Google rewards pages that help address User questions.

In addition, by doing this, you’re essentially building topical authority for both your page and domain as a whole.

If you’re curious, here is the Google patent that explains how this works. However, as of 2024 and going into 2025, thanks to the helpful content processor, this is now weighted extremely heavily.

2. Similarity scoring - very important

Somewhat of the reverse of the above, you need to make sure that you don’t have any missing pieces of information on your page that are considered to be “the basics.” However, when you’re looking for this, you don’t want to look for keywords. You want to look for semantic references. That’s the key now.

As of 2024 and going into 2025, on-page optimization tools really struggle to work very well. This is because they encourage you to basically rewrite what’s already been written. Tools like SurferSEO were amazing, and they worked! However, they struggle now!

Let’s take an example sentence:

Search engine optimization is the act of improving websites for their position in SERPs (search engine results pages) using on-page, off-page, and other search engine optimization tactics.

All we need to do is highlight the entities in that sentence:

Search engine optimization is the act of improving websites for their position in SERPs (search engine results pages) using on-page, off-page, and other search engine optimization tactics.

In bold are the “keywords,” however, they are not really keywords, they are simply references to entities (think nouns: people, places, things) that Google has knowledge of in its systems. You’ll want to scan the top 5 pages that rank for your target keyword and figure out what you might be missing (in terms of references).

3. Page title or meta title - very important

This one is really interesting because it’s still so heavily weighted as an on-page factor. I’ve seen pages nail the information gain and similarity scoring of a given page and miss having the primary keyword they’re going after in the page title. Or, potentially being too “exact match” of a keyword.

You’ll want your page title to look friendly, clickable, and contain your keyword.

Here’s an example. Let’s say we’re targeting the keyword “on-page factors,” in many cases, someone might make the mistake of making a page title like this:

On-Page Ranking Factors That Get You Traffic | SERPdojo

Ok, so let’s highlight what went wrong here. We missed the real keyword. Sure, it’s close. However, it’s really not helping the machine understand what we’re going after. We have to remember that while Google’s machines are very smart, we still have to help them.

Related: SaaS SEO Guide

Here’s what it should really look like:

Top On-Page Factors to Get Traffic (2025) | SERPdojo

As you can see, it is much more friendly. And I’ve highlighted the term match of the keyword.

Here would be another mistake:

On-Page Factors (2025) | SERPdojo

Unfortunately, that’s just too “exact match” to our target keyword and that might send off some signals to Google’s SPAM processors that we’re trying to manipulate their machines.

4. Page intent and your page intent type - medium importance

This is another opportunity that often plagues websites from being able to rank. Google has a concept of “page intent types.” This is truly just an extension of both the Hummingbird processor and BERT, which aims at helping connect Users queries (or searches) with proper pages.

As a result, we have a few page intent types that you should understand:

• Informational – Users seek information or answers (e.g., "how to care for succulents").
• Navigational – Users want a specific website or page (e.g., "Facebook login").
• Transactional – Users aim to make a purchase or complete an action (e.g., "buy Nike shoes").
• Commercial Investigation – Users research products or services before deciding (e.g., "best laptops for gaming").
• Local – Users search for nearby businesses or services (e.g., "coffee shops near me").

If you have a target keyword you’re going after, let’s say the keyword is “best SEO services.” What you should do is search that keyword in Google and look at what types of pages appear. Is it a list of agencies? Or is it service pages (a page that describes what that company offers, how much it charges, and more)?

Here’s how to fix mismatching page intent types:

1. Google your target keyword.
2. Write down how many pages appear in Page 1 for each given page intent type.
3. Determine what your own page intent type is.
4. Optional: Rework your existing page for the target intent type.
5. Or, our recommendation: Create another, new page, that has the target page intent type.

5. Addressing questions quickly - medium importance

One on-page factor that isn’t discussed often is this: addressing questions quickly. However, more recently, especially in 2024 and we expect into 2025, this will become more widely discussed. If you’re reading this, though, know that we were the pioneers in this concept.

We fundamentally have seen that pages perform better when they address the target question of a query more quickly. And with more precision. Eliminating any “fluff content” that can occur. We often use the example of recipe blogs. These blogs would discuss the animal, the recipe, and the history of the recipe. When all Users really wanted was the recipe itself.

Make sure that you address the question your User has at the top of the page. It sends quality User signals back to Google (meaning there is no bounce rate back to Google itself) and as a result, creates rank.

Here’s how you can use this on-page factor:

1. Rework your existing opening paragraph to address the Users core question quickly
2. Use “Key Takeaway” H2’s on the page to summarize key points of the page
3. Ensure that you don’t use any fluff content like “Read on for… blah blah”

6. Content structure and richness - medium importance

The proper use of headlines and including your target keyword in headlines can be very useful in performing on-page optimizations and are weighted quite heavily in terms of page evaluation from relevancy systems.

If your page is one big block of text and has no headlines (H2, H3, H4 tags), then there’s a good chance that your content richness is lacking. 

You’ll want to look for the opportunity to include the following:

• Headlines: Ensure that all of your headlines are helpful, with some variation of your keyword within them.
• Lists: Include bulleted lists and other ways to simplify the reading experience for your Users and visitors.
• Tables: Tables are a great way to summarize important or complex subjects into simple and digestible ways.
• Imagery and visuals: Including images can be helpful ways to increase engagement on your page.

Note: The use of internal links is certainly a helpful on-page factor to consider. It won't make or break your page rank. But can help in building topical authority, which as a result, can help you rank.

7. Content freshness - medium importance

You’ve seen Google prefer recency in their SERPs (search engine results pages) and probably didn’t even realize it. You can Google the latest baseball game update. Or you can Google recent news. And up comes something for you to look at.

Clearly, Google wants to surface the most helpful insights and the most recent insights. Ensuring that Google can see that you’re updating your content frequently can be highly beneficial.

Here’s what you’ll want to look for:

1. Are you including the updated date in your sitemap?
2. Does your page have an “updated on” and “published at” date on the page?
3. If not, make sure to include both of those.
4. Then, update your page using some of the above on-page tactics.

8. Meta description - medium importance

If you nail the above, most of your meta description optimization won't matter. However, you'll want to make sure your bases are covered. Don't worry about your meta description being 160 characters or anything like that. While that's useful, it's not really an on-page factor that will help you create rank.

However, what will is at least one use of your target keyword. For example, the meta description for thie page is:

What on-page factors actually matter when performing on-page SEO optimizations? Here are the top ones that you should know about. These factors will create rank, period.

Note the important use of the target keyword for this page: on-page factors.

Here's what you should to to optimize your meta description:

1. Ensure that you use your target keyword at least once.
2. Don't include the target keyword more than once.
3. Use the target keyword in a natural way.
4. If you'd like, keep the meta description length to 160 characters.

On-Page Factors That Don’t Matter

There are a number of on-page factors that don’t matter. And many people spend time improving these. While it’s still a good practice to potentially touch these portions of your page, I wouldn’t say it’s going to help you create rank for a given keyword.

1. Optimizing image alt tags

While it’s useful, it’s really not going to improve your rank position. These are not as heavily weighted as they used to be. In fact, the “keyword stuffing” that might go into an image alt tag could actually hurt your rank position more than it could help it.

2. Adding page authors (EEAT)

Contrary to popular belief, EEAT (expertise, experience, authority, and trust) is not created by adding robust author profiles on blog pages. Or by getting backlinks that are relevant. EEAT is created by being a helpful resource against multiple pages and showing Google (through User signals) that you’re bringing new insights to topics and doing so across multiple highly relevant topics.

As a result, one on-page factor is not your author profile or authorship of a page.

3. Optimizing URLs and page permalinks

It used to be an on-page factor that would work. However, it doesn’t any longer. It’s useful to have nice and pretty URLs just for User Experience. However, it’s not a ranking factor that you should go out of your way to improve.

Just make a friendly URL and don’t worry so much about your directory. Or whether the URL is directly up against your domain.com name. These days, you really don’t need to overthink it.

4. Number of times you use the target keyword

If you’re writing helpful content, your keyword should naturally come up. However, sometimes, sure, you can miss opportunities to use your target keyword in paragraphs and headlines (which you should fix). Though, trying to think about “the number of times you use your target keyword” is just not the way it works any longer.

You may actually find yourself wanting to remove irrelevant portions of copy or blocks of text on pages to help focus your page on the Users query. That is a better on-page task and certainly one that would help with rank.