Chykalophia Docs

The SEO elements you control directly on each page — and how to get them right without becoming a technical expert.

On-page SEO refers to everything you can optimize directly on a page of your website. Unlike off-page factors (like backlinks from other sites), on-page SEO is almost entirely in your control.

This guide covers what on-page SEO includes, why each element matters, and what "good" looks like.

Quick summary

On-page SEO covers your page title, meta description, headings, body content, images, internal links, and URL. Getting these right helps Google understand what your page is about — and helps your page rank for the right searches. Most of these you can manage directly in WordPress, Webflow, or Squarespace.

The key on-page SEO elements

Here's a quick overview of everything that makes up on-page SEO:

Element	What it is	What it affects
Page title	The title shown in search results and browser tabs	Often the main thing people use to pick a result
Meta description	The summary you write, which Google may show under your title	Clicks, not ranking
H1 heading	The main heading on your page	One of the sources Google uses for your title link
H2/H3 headings	Subheadings that structure your content	How easily readers navigate the page
Body content	The main text of the page	What Google can tell your page is about
Images & alt text	Visual content and its text description	Accessibility, and Google Images
Internal links	Links to other pages on your own site	How Google finds your pages
URL slug	The part of the URL after your domain	Whether a searcher can tell where the link goes

Let's look at the most important ones.

Page title

Your page title (also called the title tag) is the clickable heading shown in Google search results — Google calls it the "title link". It's also what appears in the browser tab when someone has your page open.

A good page title, in Google's words, "is unique to the page, clear and concise, and accurately describes the contents of the page":

Clearly describes what the page is about
Includes your primary keyword, naturally
Puts the important words first. There's no character limit on a title, but Google truncates the title link in search results to fit the device width, so a long title gets cut short. Keeping it under about 60 characters is a common rule of thumb, and Webflow's own docs give the same figure.
Is unique — every page should have its own title

Bad example: "Home | My Business" Good example: "Organic Dog Food Delivery — Fresh Meals for Dogs | Paws & Co."

See the dedicated guide: Page titles & meta descriptions.

Meta description

The meta description is a summary you write for the page. Google builds the snippet shown under your title mainly from the page's own content, and will sometimes use your description instead when it describes the page better. Its job is to earn the click.

A good meta description:

Summarizes what the page offers and why it's worth clicking
Is short — Google describes a meta description as "typically a succinct, one- or two-sentence summary of the page". There's no character limit, but long descriptions get truncated in search results to fit the screen.
Is unique to that one page, and includes its most relevant points
Ends with a subtle call to action if appropriate

Headings (H1, H2, H3)

Give each page one clear main heading — an H1 that describes the page topic and includes your primary keyword. A single H1 is the HTML and accessibility convention rather than a Google rule, but it also helps Google: heading elements are one of the sources it uses to generate your title link, and it says that when several headings look equally prominent it may just take the first one.

H2 and H3 headings break up your content into sections, which helps readers scan the page. Google is relaxed about the order: it says having headings in semantic order is "fantastic for screen readers", but "from Google Search perspective, it doesn't matter if you're using them out of order". Get it right for your readers and screen-reader users, and Search takes care of itself.

A simple rule: use headings the way you'd use them in a document. One main title (H1), then section titles (H2), then sub-sections (H3) if needed.

See: Headings & content structure for SEO.

Body content

Your main content is what Google reads to understand what the page is about and whether it's helpful. Google's own guidance is that its ranking systems are "designed to prioritize helpful, reliable information that's created to benefit people, and not content that's created to manipulate search engine rankings."

Good content for SEO:

Genuinely answers the question or need the keyword represents
Is written clearly for your target reader
Covers the topic properly. Google says "the length of the content alone doesn't matter for ranking purposes (there's no magical word count target, minimum or maximum)" — so write to the topic, not to a word count.
Uses your keyword and related terms naturally throughout
Is unique — Google's advice is "don't copy others' content in part or in its entirety"

See: Writing SEO-friendly content.

Images and alt text

Every image should have alt text — a short description of what's in the image. Google describes it as "a short, but descriptive piece of text that explains the relationship between the image and your content". It helps people using screen readers, and it helps Google understand the image.

Use keywords in alt text only where they belong in that description. Google's line is to write alt text that "uses keywords appropriately and is in context of the content of the page", and to avoid filling the alt attribute with keywords — it calls that keyword stuffing, and says it can make your site look like spam.

See: Image SEO & alt text.

Internal links

Internal links connect your pages to each other. They help visitors navigate your site, and they're how Google finds your pages in the first place: it says it "primarily finds pages through links from other pages it already crawled", and that the vast majority of new pages it finds each day come through links.

So a page nothing links to is a page Google may struggle to find at all.

See: Internal linking explained.

URL slug

The URL slug is the part of your web address that comes after your domain name. For example, in yoursite.com/organic-dog-food, the slug is /organic-dog-food.

Good URL slugs are short and descriptive: Google's advice is to "include words in the URL that may be useful for users", because parts of the URL can show up in search results as breadcrumbs. Don't agonize over getting the exact keyword in — Google adds that its language matching can understand how your page relates to a query even when you haven't used the exact terms.

See: SEO-friendly URLs.

Common questions

Where do I edit these things in WordPress?

If your site uses an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO or Rank Math, its fields sit on the same screen where you edit the page. Yoast SEO puts them in its own sidebar — open Search appearance to set the SEO title and meta description. In Rank Math, open its General tab and click Edit Snippet; in the classic editor, its box sits below the content, so scroll down. Your page editor handles the headings and body content directly.

Do I need to optimize every page?

Focus on your most important pages first — homepage, service pages, and your most popular content. Once those are solid, work through the rest over time.

How long should my page content be?

Long enough to fully cover the topic — no more, no less. Google is explicit that "the length of the content alone doesn't matter for ranking purposes (there's no magical word count target, minimum or maximum)". A simple service page can be short; a detailed how-to guide will be longer. Padding with filler content doesn't help SEO.

Can I have two pages targeting the same keyword?

It's best not to. The industry calls this keyword cannibalization: two of your own pages compete for the same search, and Google picks whichever it thinks fits the query — not necessarily the one you'd have chosen. Give each keyword its own dedicated page.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

On-page SEO explained