On-Page SEO for Beginners: Optimize Your Website Course

Lesson 1 • How Search Engines Work

Covers crawling, indexing, and ranking as the three-stage search engine process. Connects engine mechanics to why on-page signals directly influence visibility.

Lesson 2 • Setting Up Your SEO Toolkit

Introduces free and low-cost tools used throughout the course for auditing and optimising pages. Students configure their workspace before applying any technique.

Lesson 3 • Understanding Search Intent

Introduces the four intent types—informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional—as the foundation for all content decisions. Matching intent is the primary goal of on-page optimisation.

Lesson 1 • Evaluating and Prioritising Keywords

Applies a scoring framework that weighs volume, difficulty, and business relevance to rank keyword candidates. Students leave with a prioritised, actionable keyword list.

Lesson 2 • Mapping Keywords to Pages

Teaches one-keyword-per-page focus and the concept of keyword cannibalisation. Students assign primary and secondary keywords to existing or planned pages.

Lesson 3 • Keyword Research Fundamentals

Explains search volume, keyword difficulty, and click-through potential as the three core metrics. These metrics guide every keyword selection decision in later sections.

Lesson 1 • Auditing and Fixing Existing Metadata

Uses Search Console and crawl tools to identify missing, duplicate, or truncated metadata at scale. Students apply fixes systematically across a real or sample site.

Lesson 2 • Writing High-CTR Title Tags

Introduces persuasive writing techniques—numbers, power words, and emotional triggers—applied to title tags. Higher CTR signals relevance and can improve ranking position.

Lesson 3 • Meta Description Best Practices

Explains the role of meta descriptions as ad copy that influences clicks, not rankings directly. Students write compelling summaries within the recommended character limit.

Lesson 1 • Auditing and Restructuring Page Headings

Applies a heading audit process to identify skipped levels, missing H1s, and keyword gaps. Students rewrite heading structures for a sample page using audit findings.

Lesson 2 • The Role of Heading Tags

Explains how heading tags communicate document structure to crawlers and improve user readability. Proper heading use is a foundational on-page signal covered in this chapter.

Lesson 3 • Structuring H2 and H3 Subheadings

Teaches how to use H2s as major section dividers and H3s as supporting detail headers. Logical subheading structure helps search engines understand content depth.

Lesson 1 • Creating an Optimised Content Brief

Combines keyword research, intent analysis, and competitor benchmarks into a structured content brief. The brief serves as the production document for any optimised page.

Lesson 2 • Content Quality Signals

Defines expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness as the quality framework search engines use to evaluate content. These signals determine whether content ranks or is suppressed.

Lesson 3 • Formatting for Readability and SEO

Teaches use of bullet points, numbered lists, bold text, and short paragraphs to improve engagement metrics. Better readability reduces bounce rate and increases dwell time.

Lesson 4 • Keyword Placement in Body Content

Covers strategic keyword placement in the opening paragraph, body, and conclusion without over-optimisation. Natural keyword density supports relevance without triggering spam filters.

Lesson 1 • Anchor Text Optimisation

Covers exact-match, partial-match, and branded anchor text strategies for internal links. Varied, descriptive anchor text signals topical context without over-optimisation.

Lesson 2 • Auditing and Improving Internal Links

Uses crawl tools to find broken links, orphan pages, and under-linked priority pages. Students produce an internal link improvement plan from audit findings.

Lesson 3 • SEO-Friendly URL Structure

Defines the characteristics of clean, descriptive URLs that include target keywords and avoid unnecessary parameters. URL structure is a minor but consistent ranking signal.

Lesson 4 • URL Hierarchy and Site Architecture

Explains how folder depth and URL hierarchy reflect site structure and affect crawl efficiency. Shallow, logical hierarchies help search engines discover and prioritise pages.

Lesson 1 • Writing Effective Alt Text

Teaches the dual purpose of alt text—accessibility for screen readers and keyword context for crawlers. Students write alt text that is descriptive, concise, and naturally keyword-inclusive.

Lesson 2 • Image Compression and File Formats

Compares JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF formats for quality-to-size trade-offs affecting page speed. Faster-loading images directly improve Core Web Vitals scores.

Lesson 3 • Video and Embedded Media Optimisation

Covers transcript inclusion, video schema markup, and thumbnail optimisation for embedded video content. Optimised video embeds can earn rich results and increase dwell time.

Lesson 1 • Key On-Page SEO Metrics

Defines organic click-through rate, average position, impressions, and engagement metrics as the core measurement set. These metrics reveal whether on-page changes are producing results.

Lesson 2 • Running On-Page SEO Tests

Introduces controlled before-and-after testing for title tags, headings, and content changes. Structured testing isolates which changes drive measurable ranking or CTR improvements.

Lesson 3 • Reporting On-Page SEO Progress

Teaches how to present SEO results to stakeholders using clear metrics, trend charts, and business impact framing. Effective reporting secures ongoing support for SEO work.

Lesson 4 • Building a Recurring SEO Audit Process

Creates a monthly and quarterly audit schedule covering metadata, content freshness, and internal links. A recurring process prevents optimisation decay and captures new opportunities.