Advanced On-Page SEO: What It Is and How to Do It

1. Advanced On-Page SEO Tactics

Once you’ve got the on site SEO basics down, you can try out some more advanced SEO page optimization techniques.

Let’s start with an important on-page SEO factor—page speed.

Optimize for Page Speed

We may never know every Google ranking factor. But we do know that page speed is a confirmed ranking factor.

So it’s more important than ever to optimize for page speed.

You can use Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool to get an overall performance score for both mobile and desktop, in addition to actionable suggestions for improvement.

This tool assesses Google’s Core Web Vitals, which are factors that impact page experience.

The Core Web Vitals are:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): amount of time it takes for the main piece of content to load
First Input Delay (FID): amount of time it takes for your website to respond to the first interaction from a user (like a click on a link)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): amount your webpage shifts (or “moves down”) as more content (e.g., banners, images) loads

To get started, enter your URL and click the “Analyze” button:

Here’s what the report looks like:

And here’s the full list of errors that might slow your site down:

There’s also an “Opportunities” report that gives suggestions for improvement:

For more in-depth information on technical errors, you can use Site Audit.

Target Featured Snippets

Because featured snippets appear in “position zero” above other organic results, they can help boost your click-through rate (CTR).

A featured snippet on Google SERP for "benefits of pizza" query

There are different forms of featured snippets, including:

Definitions
Tables
Lists
Videos

To check if a keyword has a current featured snippet, go to Keyword Overview. We’ll use the example “can dogs eat watermelon.”

Enter your keyword and click “Search.”

“can dogs eat watermelon" entered into the Keyword Overview tool

You’ll see information about search volume, keyword difficulty, and more.

Scroll down to the “SERP Analysis” section of the page.

To the right of this graph, you’ll see a link that says “View SERP.” Click it to view what the SERP looks like for that keyword when it’s not influenced by location, user behavior, etc.

Google SERP preview for "can dogs eat watermelon"

Now we can see that “can dogs eat watermelon” does indeed have a featured snippet. And which pages are ranking underneath that.

A featured snippet for “can dogs eat watermelon” query

If you want to take the top spot, update (or create) your own page following on-page SEO best practices.

Some ways to target a featured snippet include:

Answering the query in a concise, user-friendly way
Understanding (and catering directly to) the user’s search intent
Formatting the answer accordingly—could be a quick one- or two-sentence answer, a table, a video, etc.

Add Schema Markup

Schema markup allows search engines to better understand information on your website.

It adds code to a page that better communicates the page topic. So you can convey to search engines that your page is about an event, contains a recipe, etc. And the SERP result can reflect that.

Using schema can provide rich snippets in the SERP. They look like this:

A rich snippet for a recipe including cook time, level and rating

In addition to taking up more valuable space on the SERP, schema markup also can improve your page’s organic CTR.

The above example uses recipe schema markup. But you can add many different types to your pages.

Common types of schema include:

Reviews
Products
Events
People
Local businesses

And more.

You can find information on every type at Schema.org.

Let’s look at an example of schema markup in action. Say you type “new york events near me” into Google.

The top of the SERP looks something like this:

Events results for “new york events near me” query

To better your chances of showing up above the normal search results like this, you can use “Event” schema markup.

Which communicates the event date, address, and location to Google.

Google may then feature these events above other results because they’re more useful.

Here’s Google’s resource on adding Event structured data. And here’s what the Event schema might look like in your page’s code:

You can use Site Audit to check if you’ve implemented structured data correctly.

You’ll see a report labeled “Markup” under “Thematic Reports.”

Click the “View details” button.

Site Audit will score any pages that have schema markup, break down pages by schema type, and alert you of any existing issues.

If Site Audit does flag any issues with your markup, we recommend running those individual pages through Schema.org’s markup validator. It’ll let you know if you’ve implemented the markup properly.

Further reading: What Is Schema Markup & How to Implement Structured Data

2. Implement Proven On-Page SEO Techniques

Now that you know what on-page SEO is, it’s time for you to take action.

Execute on the techniques mentioned earlier, and you’ll be on your way to better rankings and traffic.

Start by signing up for a free Semrush account (no credit card needed).

You’ll get access to On Page SEO Checker. But you’ll also be able to:

Do keyword research
Analyze your competitors
Track your keyword rankings
Run a site audit

And more.