On-Page SEO Checklist for Houston Business Websites: What Actually Matters

On-page SEO is everything you can do on your own website to help it rank better. Unlike building backlinks or improving domain authority, these are factors you control completely.

The challenge is knowing what actually matters. There’s a lot of outdated advice floating around. Keyword density calculations. Meta keywords. Exact match anchor text.

Here’s a checklist focused on current best practices, without the noise.

The Priority Framework

Not all on-page factors are equal. Before diving into the checklist, understand this hierarchy:

Critical - Get these wrong and you’ll struggle to rank Important - Noticeable impact on rankings Nice to Have - Small improvements, do after the essentials

Critical: Content Quality

Everything else in SEO is built on content. If your content doesn’t serve users, no amount of optimization will save you.

Does Your Content Satisfy Search Intent?

When someone searches your target keyword, what do they actually want? There are four types of intent:

Informational: They want to learn something
Navigational: They’re looking for a specific site or page
Commercial: They’re researching before making a decision
Transactional: They’re ready to buy or take action

Match your content to the intent. If people search “how to choose an HVAC contractor,” they want a guide, not a sales pitch.

Check: Search your target keyword and look at what’s ranking. That tells you what Google thinks users want.

Is Your Content Comprehensive?

Thin content rarely ranks. That doesn’t mean you need 5,000 words on every page, but you need enough depth to fully answer the user’s question.

Ask yourself:

Does this page answer the main question completely?
Are there related questions I should address?
Would someone need to leave and search again after reading this?

Is It Better Than What’s Ranking?

Look at the top 3-5 results for your target keyword. To rank, you typically need to be better in some meaningful way:

More comprehensive
More up-to-date
Better organized
Includes elements they don’t (examples, visuals, tools)

Critical: Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

These show up in search results. They affect both rankings and click-through rates.

Title Tag Checklist

Contains primary keyword (preferably near the beginning)
Under 60 characters (longer gets truncated)
Compelling to click (not just keyword stuffing)
Unique for every page
Includes location for local businesses when relevant

Good example: “AC Repair Houston | Same-Day Service | ABC Heating & Air”

Bad example: “Home - ABC Company”

Meta Description Checklist

150-160 characters
Contains primary keyword (bolded in results when matched)
Includes a call to action
Accurately describes page content
Unique for every page

Good example: “24/7 AC repair in Houston with same-day service. Licensed technicians, upfront pricing, no overtime charges. Call for a free diagnosis.”

Bad example: “Welcome to our website. We offer many services. Contact us for more information about what we do.”

Critical: Headings Structure

Headings (H1, H2, H3) organize your content and help Google understand what’s important.

H1 Tag Checklist

One H1 per page only
Contains primary keyword or close variation
Accurately describes page content
Different from title tag (related but not identical)

Heading Hierarchy Checklist

Logical hierarchy (H2 under H1, H3 under H2)
Headings describe content that follows
Important topics have their own headings
Keywords included naturally (not forced)

Good structure:

H1: AC Repair Services in Houston
  H2: Common AC Problems We Fix
    H3: AC Not Cooling
    H3: Strange Noises
    H3: High Electric Bills
  H2: Our Repair Process
  H2: Service Areas
  H2: Pricing

Important: URL Structure

Clean URLs help both users and search engines understand your pages.

URL Checklist

Contains primary keyword
Short and descriptive
Uses hyphens between words (not underscores)
Lowercase letters only
No special characters or unnecessary parameters

Good: /ac-repair-houston/ Bad: /services.php?id=123&category=hvac

Important: Internal Linking

Internal links help Google discover and understand your site structure, and they pass authority between pages.

Internal Linking Checklist

Every page is linked from at least one other page
Important pages have the most internal links
Related content links to each other
Link text (anchor text) is descriptive, not “click here”
Links are contextually relevant

Good: “Learn more about our AC maintenance services to prevent future breakdowns.” Bad: “Click here for more.”

Important: Image Optimization

Images affect page speed and provide additional ranking opportunities.

Image Checklist

File size optimized (compressed without quality loss)
Descriptive file names (ac-repair-technician.jpg, not IMG_1234.jpg)
Alt text describes the image
Alt text includes keywords where natural
Proper dimensions (not oversized images scaled down by CSS)
Modern formats used (WebP where supported)

Alt Text Examples

Good: “HVAC technician repairing an air conditioning unit in a Houston home” Bad: “image” or “photo” or “HVAC Houston AC repair service best company”

Important: Mobile Optimization

Most searches happen on mobile devices. Google uses mobile-first indexing.

Mobile Checklist

Site is responsive (adapts to screen size)
Text readable without zooming
Buttons and links easy to tap
No horizontal scrolling required
Pop-ups don’t block content on mobile

Test: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool

Important: Page Speed

Slow pages hurt both rankings and user experience.

Speed Checklist

Page loads in under 3 seconds
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds
Images optimized and lazy-loaded
CSS and JavaScript minimized
Browser caching enabled
Content Delivery Network (CDN) used if needed

Test: Use Google PageSpeed Insights

Nice to Have: Schema Markup

Structured data helps Google understand your content and can enable rich results.

Schema Checklist for Local Businesses

LocalBusiness schema on homepage
Organization schema
Service schema on service pages
FAQ schema on FAQ pages
Review schema (if you have reviews on-site)

Schema won’t directly boost rankings, but it can improve how your results appear in search.

Nice to Have: Additional Technical Elements

Security

SSL certificate installed (HTTPS)
No mixed content (HTTP resources on HTTPS pages)

Crawlability

XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console
Robots.txt allows important pages
No broken internal links
Canonical tags on pages with similar content

The Complete Page Checklist

Use this before publishing any important page:

Content

Meta Elements

Title tag optimized (under 60 chars, includes keyword)
Meta description written (150-160 chars, includes CTA)
URL is clean and descriptive

Structure

One H1 containing keyword or variation
Logical heading hierarchy (H2, H3)
Important sections have headings

Media

Images optimized and compressed
All images have alt text
Descriptive file names

Technical

Mobile-friendly
Loads quickly
No broken elements

Prioritizing Your Efforts

If you’re just getting started with on-page SEO, here’s the order to tackle things:

First: Fix any major content issues (thin content, wrong intent)
Second: Optimize title tags and meta descriptions
Third: Improve headings structure
Fourth: Fix internal linking gaps
Fifth: Optimize images
Sixth: Address speed issues
Seventh: Add schema markup

Don’t try to do everything at once. Start with your most important pages (homepage, main service pages) and work your way through the site.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Keyword stuffing: Using your keyword unnaturally hurts more than it helps
Ignoring search intent: Optimizing perfectly for the wrong content type won’t work
Duplicate content: Having similar content on multiple pages confuses Google
Orphan pages: Pages with no internal links pointing to them struggle to rank
Over-optimizing: Aggressive optimization looks spammy

Need help optimizing your Houston business website? Our SEO services include comprehensive on-page optimization along with technical SEO and content strategy. We also ensure your website is built with SEO in mind from the start. Let’s discuss your website.