Achieving good on page SEO is a vital step towards getting a high search engine ranking. To do this you need to plan your website carefully before you set it up.
Find Some Good Keywords
Of course, you can undertake on page SEO for any keywords but this does not guarantee a high ranking. After deciding on the topic of your site you need to do some keyword research and find keywords with a good search volume whilst not being too competitive. You can then plan your site around these.
Register a Domain Name
Your on page SEO starts with the domain name. This should include your main keyword which should be as near the beginning as possible.
Set-Up Site
As well as content on your topic, your site should include the standard (legal) pages that the search engines like to see. These should be linked to from every page (e.g. in the header or footer). This is an important part of you on page SEO. These pages should include About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, DMCA Policy, Anti-Spam Policy and Terms of Use.
Make sure you have a Site Map for the search engines.
External Links
For on page SEO purposes the best external links are to relevant sites from within the content. Minimise use of site-wide links particularly to irrelevant sites. Under no circumstances should you link to any sites which engage in dubious SEO practices. This can reflect on your site and undo all the good work you have done with your on page SEO.
Optimise Your Content
Write each page around a chosen keyword and:
Produce unique content.
Put the keyword in the URL.
Include the keyword in the title (at the beginning if possible).
Use the headings (h1 - h3) and include the keyword.
Make sure you use the keyword in the first sentence.
Use the keyword throughout the content but don't overdo it. The text must read well for you visitors.
Put instances of the keyword in bold/italics.
Have at least one graphic with the keyword as the Alt text.* Link to other relevant pages on the site.
Write a good meta description including the keyword.
Put the keyword in the meta keywords (although this is less important these days).
Frequent Updates
Search engines like to see active sites so you will do your on page SEO good by regularly adding content as well as updating older content.
If you are new to this you can see that there is a lot to think about. WordPress users can get help by installing the SEOPressor plugin. This checks your on page SEO and makes recommendations for improvements.