On-page SEO: a seven-step checklist for Irish businesses

On-page SEO sounds technical, but most of it comes down to a short checklist that any owner can run on one page at a time. It covers the parts of a page that the business controls directly: the title, the description, the headings, the text, the links and the images. Google’s own guides explain how it reads each of these, and getting them right on the few pages that matter most is usually worth more than small changes across the whole site.

How to optimise a page in seven checks#

On-page work is easiest as a fixed routine for each important page. The seven checks below take about an hour per page for most small business websites:

1. Pick one main search for the page. One page should answer one main question, such as bike repairs in a town, not five services at once.
2. Write a clear title. Describe the page in a few words, put the main search near the start and add the business name at the end.
3. Write a description. Summarise what the page offers in one or two sentences a person would want to click.
4. Check the main heading and subheadings. The main heading should say what the page is about, and subheadings should follow the questions customers ask.
5. Make the text answer the question. Prices, areas served, opening hours, how the service works and what makes the business different.
6. Add internal links. Link to the page from related pages using words that describe it, not “click here”.
7. Check the images. Give each image a short descriptive file name and alt text that says what it shows.

The common mistake is to start with the home page and stop there. Customers often land on service or product pages first, so those deserve the checklist too. Owners who would rather have this done for them can look at Baikou’s SEO services in Ireland, where on-page work is part of each month’s plan.

The running example in this guide is a bicycle shop in Thurles that sells, repairs and services bikes. Its owner, Dervla, has one long page listing everything the shop does. She decides to split it into separate pages for repairs, e-bikes and kids’ bikes, and to run the seven checks on each.

Titles and descriptions: what Google actually uses#

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Titles and descriptions are the first thing a searcher sees, so they get the most attention, and the most myths. Google’s guide to title links says every page should have a title that is descriptive, concise and unique, and warns that repeating the same words does not help users and can look spammy.

Google also says it creates the title link automatically. It draws on the page’s title element, the main visible title, headings, other prominent text and the text of links pointing to the page. That is why a clear main heading matters as much as the title tag itself. Changes can take from a few days to a few weeks to show after Google recrawls the page.

For descriptions, Google’s guide to snippets says snippets are mainly created from the page content. Google uses the meta description only when it gives a more accurate summary, and there is no limit on its length, although long text is cut to fit the screen. Each page should have its own description, and lists of keywords are less likely to be shown.

Tip: Write the title and description last. Once the page answers the customer’s question well, summarising it in a title and two sentences is much easier.

Dervla’s repairs page gets the title “Bike repairs and servicing in Thurles” followed by the shop’s name, and a description that mentions same-week repairs and e-bike servicing.

Headings, links and images#

After the title, Google looks at the structure of the page. Google’s SEO Starter Guide says there is no ideal number of headings and that headings out of order do not hurt in Search. Headings are there to help people scan the page, so they should read like the questions a customer would ask.

Links between pages help both visitors and search engines. Google’s guide to crawlable links says good anchor text (The visible, clickable words of a link.) is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both the page it is on and the page it points to. A link that reads “e-bike servicing” tells Google more than “read more”.

Images need a little attention too. Google’s image SEO guide says it uses alt text (A short written description of an image, read by search engines and screen readers.) together with the page content to understand an image. It recommends useful, information-rich alt text without stuffing keywords, and short descriptive file names, such as a name describing the bike, instead of a camera number.

Dervla renames her photos before uploading them and adds a link from her home page to each new service page.

Product pages and location pages#

Product and location pages are where on-page SEO most often goes wrong, because they are easy to copy. Google’s title guidance warns that identical or near-identical titles across many pages make them hard to tell apart.

Location pages carry a bigger risk. Google’s spam policies describe doorway abuse (Pages made mainly to rank for similar searches that all lead visitors to one place.) as pages created to rank for specific, similar searches. One example is pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page.

Watch out: Twenty town pages with the same text and only the place name changed fit Google’s description of doorway abuse. A location page needs something real for that area, such as its own address, opening hours, staff or local work.

For product pages, the same rule applies in a different form. Each page should say what makes that product different: sizes, prices, who it suits and what is included. Dervla writes her e-bike page around the questions customers ask in the shop, such as battery range and servicing, instead of copying the manufacturer’s description.

Page speed and page experience#

Owners often hear that speed is the most important on-page factor. Google’s page on page experience gives a more balanced view. It says there is no single page experience signal and that Core Web Vitals are used by its ranking systems.

The same page says Google always seeks to show the most relevant content, even if the page experience is poor. In practice, a fast page still needs to answer the question, and a slow page that answers it well can still rank. Speed is worth fixing, but after the content and the basics above.

Check each page in Search Console#

The last step is to confirm that Google can see the improved page. Search Console’s URL Inspection tool shows whether a URL is on Google, whether Google could fetch it, and which version Google chose as the main one. A live test checks the current version of the page.

After changes, the owner can request indexing from the same tool. Google notes that a request does not guarantee the page will appear in the index, and that requests are limited each day. For a larger plan of which pages to work on first, the Baikou guide to SEO strategy for Irish businesses sets out the order.

Note: Search Console shows Google’s last indexed version of a page, not the live one. A change made today may not appear in the report until Google crawls the page again.

Dervla inspects each new page once it is live and requests indexing for the three new service pages.

How Baikou helps Irish businesses with on-page SEO#

When Baikou’s team works on on-page SEO for an Irish business, it starts with the pages that bring enquiries and runs the same checklist on each: one main search, title, description, headings, text, links and images. It checks every change in Search Console and avoids copied location pages. The team also runs a free AI visibility check, because customers increasingly ask ChatGPT for recommendations, and the check shows whether the business is named in those answers.

Where to start this month#

Pick the three pages that matter most for enquiries and run the seven checks on each. Give each page its own title and description, link to it from related pages, and fix image names and alt text. Then inspect each page in Search Console and request indexing. Baikou helps Irish businesses with work like this as part of its digital marketing and AI automation work.

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