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Module 3: On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is everything you control directly on the page itself — titles, headings, structure, and internal links. It's the highest-leverage work in this course: a few focused hours per important page, and you'll be ahead of most small business sites.

characters max for title tags

160

characters max for meta descriptions

H1 per page — just one

Title tags and meta descriptions that earn clicks

Example

The meta description is the short paragraph under the title in results. Google doesn't use it for ranking, but it decides whether people click — and more clicks at the same position means more traffic. Treat it as a 150–160 character ad for the page: include the keyword naturally, name the benefit, and end with a gentle call to action. Example: "Burst pipe at 2am? Our licensed Maplewood plumbers arrive in under 60 minutes, 24/7. Upfront pricing, no overtime fees. Call now." Write these by hand for every important page — your homepage, service pages, and top blog posts. For the long tail of minor pages, a sensible default template beats leaving them blank. After rewriting titles and descriptions, give it 2–4 weeks, then check Search Console's click-through rate: a jump in clicks without a change in position means your new copy is working.

Why rankings matter

Clicks go to the top

Ranking #1~35%

Positions #2–3~12%

Page 2~3%

Example for illustration — not real results.

Steal this template

Title tag formula — copy and adapt:

[Keyword] — [Benefit or differentiator] | [Brand]

Examples:
Emergency Plumber Marlowe — 60-Minute Response | Smith & Sons
Handmade Sourdough Delivered Friday | Marlowe Bakehouse

Rules: under 60 chars, keyword in first half, no keyword stuffing.

Common mistake

Stuffing keywords into the title tag: "Plumber | Plumbing | Best Plumber Marlowe | Cheap Plumber." Google reads it as spam and humans won't click it. One keyword, written like a human, beats five keywords written like a robot.

Your path

50–60 characters
Keep the title short so it doesn't get cut off in results.
Keyword near the front
Put your primary keyword near the front of the title.
Unique for every page
Never reuse the same title on two pages — duplicates confuse Google.
Brand at the end
Add your brand name at the end of the title.

Build brief

Which single page on your site should be making you money — and if it ranked #1 tomorrow, what would that be worth to you per month?

Headings and page structure

Headings do two jobs: they tell Google what each section is about, and they let busy readers scan the page. Use exactly one H1 per page — it should closely match the page's primary keyword and the promise of the title tag. Then outline the page the way you'd outline an essay: H2s for the main sections, each answering one sub-question the searcher has, and H3s for detail inside those sections. A strong outline for an "emergency plumber" page might be: H1 "Emergency Plumber in Maplewood, NJ"; H2 "What counts as a plumbing emergency"; H2 "Our 60-minute response guarantee"; H2 "Upfront emergency pricing"; H2 "What to do before we arrive"; H2 "Service areas." Notice every H2 maps to something a worried homeowner actually wants to know.

Key takeaway

Work related terms into headings naturally — if your keyword is "sourdough bread," headings mentioning "naturally leavened loaves" and "fermentation schedule" show Google the page covers the topic in depth. But write for humans first: a heading should make sense to someone scanning the page, not read like a keyword list. Two common mistakes to avoid. First, don't use headings for styling — making text big and bold doesn't make it a heading; use the actual heading levels so the page has a real outline. Second, don't skip levels (jumping from H1 to H4) or bury your main points — the most important section of the page usually deserves to be the first H2. Read your headings in order, ignoring everything else: if they tell the story of the page on their own, your structure is right.

Build brief

Outline that same page the way you'd outline an essay: one H1, then the H2s that each answer one sub-question the searcher has.

Internal linking that spreads authority

Every page on your site has some authority — from its own backlinks, its age, its traffic. Internal links let you direct that authority where it matters most. The practice is simple: link from your high-traffic pages to the pages you most want to rank, using descriptive anchor text. If your blog post "5 signs your water heater is dying" gets steady visitors, add a natural link — If yours is showing these signs, see our water heater replacement service in Maplewood page — pointing at the service page. That passes relevance and authority exactly where you want it.

Follow four guidelines. 1. Descriptive anchors: link the words that describe the destination ("water heater replacement service"), never "click here." 2. Three to five internal links per page is a healthy range — enough to connect the site, not so many it looks like a link farm. 3. Keep important pages within three clicks of the homepage: pages buried five levels deep in navigation get crawled less often and rank worse. Audit your menu and footer to make sure service pages are easy to reach. 4. Hunt down orphan pages: use Search Console or a free crawler to find pages with zero internal links pointing at them — they're nearly invisible to Google. Link to each one from at least one relevant page. Internal linking is the only part of link-building entirely under your control, so treat it as a habit: every time you publish a page, add links to and from two or three related pages before you call it done.

Build brief

Which of your higher-traffic pages should link to the page you most want to rank — and what descriptive anchor text would you use for the link?

Every important page has a unique title tag, 50–60 characters, keyword near the front
Every important page has a hand-written meta description (150–160 characters) with a call to action
Exactly one H1 per page, matching the page's primary keyword
H2s form a scannable outline that answers the searcher's sub-questions
Each important page has 3–5 internal links with descriptive anchor text
No orphan pages — every page has at least one internal link pointing to it
Key pages are reachable within 3 clicks of the homepage

In the next 24 hours

Rewrite your homepage title tag right now: under 60 characters, one keyword near the front, and a reason to click. Check it in a SERP preview.

Your cousin the plumber asks you to pick the title tag for his emergency plumbing page in Maplewood. Which one earns the click?