Clients ask us what are the most important factors in top SEO rankings. The truth is there are over 200 or so SEO factors. They run the gamut from most important (keyword use in title tag) to least important (keyword use in meta description/keywords).

Here are the top on-page SEO factors to improve your rankings. That is, the things you can do on each and every page now for top SEO rankings. Your SEO strategy should include other SEO factors such as link popularity, but these are the SEO factors that you need to be doing now without question. These SEO factors are listed in order of importance/weight and based on consensus of some of the top SEO professionals.

1. Keyword Use in Title Tag - Placing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag of the web page's HTML header
2. Keyword Use in Body Text - Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page
3. Keyword Use in H1 Tag - Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase
4. Keyword Use in Domain Name - Including the targeted term/phrase in the registered domain name, i.e. keyword.com
5. Keyword Use in Page URL - Including target terms in the webpage URL, i.e. sherpawebstudios.com/keyword-phrase

But we don't believe what others say just because they posted it on some blog. We did our own on-page SEO factors test. We targeted some niche keyphrases, applied the suggested SEO factors to a new blog with few links or popularity, and let things marinate for a year.

Small Tortoise

There are about 475k results for this broad search phrase small tortoise, 21k for the exact search "small tortoise". We currently rank 5 for the the broad search phrase, and 3 for the exact search after adding more photos. Within one year, we had 4,521 search engine referrals. A pet store could have easily driven that many people to their website just by following these top five on page SEO factors.

Indiana Jones Movie Falls

There are about 1.7M results for this broad search phrase indiana jones movie falls. We currently rank 1 following the google news results section after posting a mere 3 months prior. During that time, we have had 750 search engine referrals. A tourist company could have attracted this many people to their website just by following these top five on page SEO factors.

Conclusion on top on-page SEO factors

There is no secret sauce to top SEO rankings, just a lot of time, experience, and ongoing testing and research. However, simply picking any key-phrase will not work. We researched key-phrases to figure out which ones had a lot of results but whose listings were weak in their use of on page SEO factors. Finding these niche key-phrases is where a search engine marketing professional can help you.