What are the basic on-page SEO things I must get right?

The short answer

Put your target keyword in the title tag, H1, URL, and naturally in the content; write a compelling meta description; make the page fast and mobile-friendly. Match the search intent, give people what they actually came for. Nail these fundamentals before worrying about anything advanced.

Go deeper, your way

2 hand-picked resources, 2 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.

📄 Article

✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it Ahrefs' official, regularly-updated SEO fundamentals guide, a canonical primary source, not blogspam, covering the five things that actually matter.

SEO Basics: Beginner's Guide to SEO Success

From Ahrefs by Joshua Hardwick (Ahrefs) 30 min read

The five pillars: keyword research, content, on-page, links, technical
Set up site structure, URLs and Search Console early
Track organic traffic and rankings to know what's working

Open ahrefs.com →

📄 Article

✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it The definitive beginner walkthrough of finding and prioritising keywords, from the tool most SEOs actually use, authoritative and practical.

Keyword Research: The Beginner's Guide by Ahrefs

From Ahrefs by Sam Oh (Ahrefs) 25 min read

Start from customer problems, then find real search terms
Prioritise low-competition, high-intent keywords first
Match search intent, give searchers what they came for

Open ahrefs.com →

Terms in this answer

Search Engine Optimization

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