Two articles can target the same keyword, cover the same ground, and publish the same week. Yet one ranks on page one, and the other never breaks the top 50.
The difference usually isn’t the writing. It’s on-page SEO — the structural details that tell search engines exactly what a page is about.
We’ve audited enough WordPress sites to recognize the pattern: solid content held back by a thin meta description, an unoptimized URL, or headings that never mention the target keyword. These are small, fixable details with an outsized effect on rankings.
In this guide, we’ll walk through every on-page SEO element that matters for a WordPress site, and show you the plugin that makes fixing them straightforward.
In This Article:
What Is On-page SEO?
On-page SEO is a set of SEO strategies and tactics you use to optimize your website pages and posts so they rank in search engines and bring in more relevant traffic.
In my experience, this is the first checklist worth running when a page isn’t ranking the way it should.
On-Page SEO Elements:
- An optimized URL that includes your main keyword
- A focused, keyword-rich meta title
- A focused, keyword-rich meta description
- Keywords in article headings and throughout the content
- Internal links to your other pages
- Optimized images
- Schema (if applicable)
Let’s take a closer look at each one of these.
URL
Let’s say you’re publishing an article on how to do on-page SEO in WordPress. Your main keyword, or keyphrase, is on-page SEO in WordPress.
An optimized URL for this keyword looks like this: www.yoursite.com/how-to-do-onpage-seo-wordpress
An unoptimized URL looks like this: www.yoursite.com/onpage-seo
Or like this: www.yoursite.com/?p=56
You want your URL to include your main keyword or keyphrase — all of it, if possible.
Meta Title and Meta Description
Think of your meta title and meta description as an ad for your content. You want them to be concise, keyword-rich, and compelling because they’re what will make someone want to click on your result in search.
The title should contain your keyword phrase and exactly describe the content of the page. It should be 60 characters or less. The meta description should also contain your keyword phrase and should be 160 characters or less.
One important thing to note about meta descriptions is that Google often changes the description from the one you’ve written to closely match the searcher’s query. It’ll pull content from your page instead of showing the description you wrote. Still, it’s worth writing a strong one for the times it doesn’t.
Keyword Distribution
Your focus keyphrase should show up naturally throughout your content — in headings, in your opening paragraph, and a few times in the body copy. Keep it natural and avoid keyword stuffing. Rather than chasing a fixed word-count formula, aim for placement in your title, an early paragraph, at least one subheading, and your conclusion. Modern search engines reward relevance over repetition, not raw frequency.
Internal Links
Adding links to other pages on your site is helpful for multiple reasons. First, it gives your visitors a natural flow through your site. If they see a link to something they want to know more about and click it, you’re bringing them deeper into your site, and they’re interacting with your content.
Next, internal links help you distribute “link juice” on your site. For instance, let’s say you have a blog post about on-page SEO that’s doing really well in search. It’s ranking high in search results and bringing in a good number of visitors. If you link from that post to another post that’s not doing as well yet, it helps bring a little more authority to that post to help it rank.
For more on internal links, read How to Add WordPress Internal Links to Improve Your SEO.
Worth Knowing
No single on-page element carries a page to the top of search results by itself. A sharp title tag paired with a thin meta description, or strong internal links with no schema, still leaves ranking potential on the table. It’s the combination — title, description, headings, links, images, and schema working together — that consistently moves the needle.
Optimized Images
Yep, you can even optimize your images by making sure each image has an alt tag. Alt tags are there for accessibility because you want screen readers to be able to tell the visitor what’s in the image.
Because it’s descriptive text, Google crawlers also use it to understand what’s in the image. So, you can use keywords in it, where they make sense. This can help you rank in image searches, and bolster the keywords on the page.
For more on optimizing images, read Image SEO: How To Best Optimize Your Images In WordPress (17 Tips).
Schema
Have you ever seen a search result with some “extra” stuff in it? Maybe it had a star rating, recipe ingredients, or product details like size and price. If you want your content to have these extras, you need to use schema to tell Google what’s on your page.
Schema is an extra bit of special code that you put on your page that tells Google about whatever it is your page is about. So if you’ve got a recipe, for example, you can tell Google what the ingredients are, how long it takes to make, and what the directions are.
I’ve seen sites earn rich snippets within days just by adding FAQ schema to an existing post — it’s one of the fastest wins in on-page SEO.
Then, your recipe could appear in search like this:
Pro Tip: Test your schema with Google’s Rich Results Test before you publish — it catches formatting errors that would otherwise block the rich snippet entirely.
The best way to add Schema to your pages is with a schema plugin.
How to Do On-page SEO in WordPress
WordPress users need to handle SEO just like any other website owner. Fortunately, on-page SEO in WordPress is easy to learn.
To get the best results with on-page SEO, you’ll want the right on-page SEO plugin. Let’s take a look at the one we recommend.
The Best On-Page SEO Plugin for WordPress: AIOSEO
With the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) WordPress plugin, you can easily accomplish all of the on-page SEO best practices we just went over.
Not only can you accomplish them, but AIOSEO guides you with extremely clear instructions that tell you how to optimize your content as much as possible. This is what makes it the best on-page SEO plugin for WordPress, in our opinion.
How To Do On-Page SEO With the AIOSEO Plugin
Let’s take a look at our list of on-page SEO factors again:
- Optimized URL
- Focused, keyword-rich meta title and description
- Keywords in article headings and throughout the content
- Internal links
- Optimized images
- Schema (if applicable)
Now, let’s say we’re using WordPress to write an article on how to reduce shopping cart abandonment.
After you type in your article’s Focus Keyphrase (“shopping cart abandonment” in our case), All in One SEO scans the article and tells you how to improve your usage of your keyphrase:
In practice, this Focus Keyphrase analysis catches issues — like a missing keyword in your first paragraph — that most WordPress users would never think to check manually.
Then, you can scroll down further for even more on-page SEO suggestions in the Page Analysis section. Use the tabs on the top to see all of the suggestions:
Have a type of content that you can use Schema for? You can set that up in AIOSEO, too — no code writing required. Just choose the Schema tab under AIOSEO Settings, then choose your type from the dropdown.
All in One SEO will also give each post and page on your site a TruSEO score, so you can see at a glance how optimized everything is. When you have a post or page open to edit, you can click the score to see your recommendations right in your sidebar:
Pro Tip: A perfect TruSEO score isn’t the goal. A score in the green range with your focus keyphrase used naturally throughout is enough — chasing 100 often leads to keyword stuffing that hurts readability instead of helping rankings.
See Your TruSEO Score Change Over Time
AIOSEO’s TruSEO score updates every time you edit a page, but it doesn’t tell you what happens after you hit publish. MonsterInsights, the WordPress analytics plugin, can pull that score into a Custom Dimensions report right in your dashboard, so you can see whether a better score is actually moving your traffic.
Track TruSEO Scores in WordPressPlus, with All in One SEO’s Link Assistant, adding internal links is super easy. By clicking on the Link Assistant tab under AIOSEO Settings, you’ll get a list of relevant linking suggestions that you can apply with 1 click.
Bonus: Check out the Broken Link Checker plugin from AIOSEO. It periodically scans your site, or the content you tell it to, and alerts you to any broken links. Just like Link Assistant, you can easily use inline editing to fix any broken links.
It’ll also exclude any broken links from being crawled, which is a big help for on-page SEO in WordPress.
How To Do On-page SEO in WordPress: A Recap
To put all of this into practice, start by installing the All in One SEO plugin. Open the post or page you want to optimize, scroll down to the AIOSEO settings, and input your Focus Keyphrase.
From there, work through the suggestions in the Focus Keyphrase section, then do the same in the Page Analysis section below it. Set up Schema if it applies to your content, and check your TruSEO score once you’ve addressed the main suggestions. Finish by adding a few internal links to round out the page.
Bonus: Track Your TruSEO Scores with MonsterInsights
Want to keep track of how your SEO optimization efforts are working? So did we! That’s why the MonsterInsights team created an integration with the All in One SEO plugin to track your TruSEO scores in Google Analytics and WordPress.
Here’s how to set it up. Don’t have MonsterInsights installed yet? Follow our installation and setup guide first.
You’ll need a MonsterInsights Pro license for this integration. Once you’re set up, activate the Custom Dimensions addon under Insights » Addons.
Next, create your TruSEO custom dimension — our Beginner’s Guide to Custom Dimensions walks through the exact steps.
That’s it. You’ll now see a report on your TruSEO scores right in your WordPress dashboard, in the Dimensions report. For directions on finding this report, read How to View Custom Dimensions in Google Analytics.
Get Started with MonsterInsights Today!
FAQs About On-Page SEO in WordPress
What is on-page SEO in WordPress?
On-page SEO is everything you optimize directly on a page or post to help it rank — your URL, meta title and description, headings, keyword usage, internal links, images, and schema. It’s different from off-page SEO, which covers factors like backlinks that happen outside your site.
What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?
On-page SEO covers what you control directly on your website: content, titles, headings, and internal links. Off-page SEO covers signals that happen elsewhere, like backlinks from other sites, social shares, and brand mentions. Both matter, but on-page SEO is where every WordPress site owner should start.
What is the best plugin for on-page SEO in WordPress?
We recommend All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It analyzes your Focus Keyphrase, scores your content with TruSEO, suggests internal links through Link Assistant, and handles schema markup without any code. It’s built specifically for WordPress, so setup and ongoing optimization stay simple.
How long should a meta description be?
Aim for 160 characters or less so it doesn’t get cut off in search results. Keep in mind that Google sometimes rewrites your description to match a searcher’s exact query, so write a strong one anyway for the times it displays as-is.
Do I need schema markup for on-page SEO?
It’s not required, but it helps. Schema markup gives search engines extra context about your content, which can earn you rich snippets like star ratings or FAQ dropdowns in search results. Those extras tend to increase click-through rate even without a ranking change.
How often should I use my focus keyword in a post?
There’s no fixed number to hit. I’d focus on natural placement — your title, an early paragraph, at least one subheading, and your conclusion — rather than a word-count formula. Search engines reward relevance, and forcing a keyword in repeatedly usually reads as stuffing.
Can I improve on-page SEO on an existing post?
Yes, and it’s often faster than writing something new. Open the post in AIOSEO, check the Focus Keyphrase and Page Analysis suggestions, tighten the meta title and description, and add a few internal links. Updating older posts this way is one of the highest-ROI SEO tasks available.
That’s it! I hope this article helped you understand on-page SEO in WordPress and how to start optimizing your content today. If you liked this article, check out the following beginner-friendly guides:
- Best Ways to Measure SEO Performance in Google Analytics
- WordPress SEO Optimization Tips to Grow Your Business
- How to Do an SEO Audit on WordPress in 12 Quick Steps
- Best SEO Plugins & Tools for WordPress (Reviewed)
- How to Add FAQ and FAQ Schema in WordPress
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for more Google Analytics tips.