On-Page SEO Checklist for 2025 (With Live Examples)
If you want to rank content, a page, or a website on Google, you need to ensure that it satisfies on page SEO checklist. Otherwise, you are gonna face a lot of problems later on. But stop worrying, as I (Reshaeel Sarwar) will be explaining each and every step you need to follow while involved in SEO on page activities. Whether you are working on a Shopify store, a blog, a local business, or any affiliate site, this guide covers all the On page SEO factors you could need. What Is On Page SEO? It is a practice of optimizing webpages for higher traffic potential and improved user experience. Doing a proper onsite SEO can help Google identify your website and rank for better performance. Now that we understand the ‘what,’ let’s dive into the ‘how’ with the complete 2025 on-page SEO checklist, which covers every essential element. Complete On Page SEO Checklist for 2025 You can use multiple tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, or Screaming Frog), but I will be showing you examples using Semrush. The steps include: Step 01: Identify Target Keywords Keywords (or queries) are words or questions that users search on search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, etc. So this forms the base for your On page SEO. Before I begin, let it be sure you know the following checks about keywords: Volume: Shows monthly users Keyword Difficulty: How hard is it to rank for the keyword in the top 10 Google SERP results? Intention: Indicates the interest of the user Let’s learn to identify keywords with a quick example! Suppose you run a “Mega Shoe Store” in the United States and definitely “office shoes” might be a good keyword to start with. You need to look the review of the keyword, as follows: This keyword has a good volume and has a Search Volume of 5.4K and KD of 34, as shown in the following picture. It means you have to put in so much effort to rank your website page for this keyword. Now when we search directly on Google, we get links to official stores, which are selling office shoes in the United States. Which indicates that you can rank your product page for this keyword, as the user’s intention for the keyword is also either ‘Navigational’ or ‘Transactional’. Let’s Find its Supporting Keywords! These are also known as Latent Semantic Index (LSI), Child Keywords, or Secondary Keywords. Steps are simple: Go to the Keyword Magic Tool Type your keyword “Office Shoes” Select the location i.e., United States Click ‘Search’ After that, choose the intent of keywords i.e., Navigational & Transactional and you will get a detailed list of keywords targeting the same intent that “Office Shoes” is targeting. This is how you find the right primary and secondary keywords to write perfect content for your “Office Shoes Sales Page” Step 02: Optimize the Title Tag Meta Title or Title Tags tells users what the specific page is about. For example, you search “Office Shoes” and the following title tags appear on screen. Its html source title will be: <title>Shoes, Boots & Footwear | Shop Shoes Online | OFFICE</title> To optimize a title tag, you should ensure the following SEO tactics: Try to include your main keyword early in the title Use clear and accurate wording that reflects what the content is about Add related secondary keywords where they fit naturally without forcing them in Keep your title under 60 characters or around 600 pixels wide so it does not get cut off in search results You can also use On Page SEO Checker Tool in the Semrush to check whether your generated title tags are optimized or not. Just for example, we search any random domain and click “Get Ideas” After that, you just need to check if the content has targeted keywords or not. Step 03: Write a Meta Description That Increases Click Through Rate (CTR) A meta description is a short summary of a web page’s content. It appears in search engine results just below the page title and URL. And its html code is: <meta name=”description” content=”Meta description here.”> Always remember that meta description helps to increase click through rate, and it is not a direct ranking factor. Plus, not every line appearing under the Meta Title in SERPs is a meta description. It might be any other line that the crawler found more relevant to the query. But still, it plays a key role in website SEO. Steps to Optimize Meta Description Keep it under 160 characters so it doesn’t get cut off Summarize the page content clearly and naturally Include your primary keyword to align with search intent Use action words (like “learn,” “discover,” “find out“) to draw attention You can also use the on page SEO checker to see if your meta description contains necessary keywords or not. Bonus ABC Formula Not the same format fits for every description. This is why I recommend using the ABC formula to create an engaging, compelling, and funnel description for the user. Plus, I also recommend SEO content writers to write meta descriptions as an elaborated version of the Meta title. Step 04: Check the URL Slug for SEO-Friendliness You have to focus on creating URL Slug that are SEO friendly and help Google and users understand what the page is about. This is because it is a unique portion of a page which describes the page before any click is made. For example, I have shown one of the URL Slugs of an article written by me, as shown below. Steps to Optimize URL Slug Keep URLs short and clean. A simple URL like how to find keyword cannibalization is easier to read and remember than something long like a complete step by step keyword cannibalization guide for 2025. Use your main keyword in the URL. In this case, keyword cannibalization is the focus, and it fits naturally in how to find keyword cannibalization. Make the URL clear and
Different Ways to Fix Keyword Cannibalization
In the following article, I (Reshaeel Sarwar) will be teaching how you can fix keyword cannibalization issues in SEO using simple and practical steps. If you have ever seen multiple pages from your website showing up in search results for the same keyword but none of them are ranking well, you might be facing a keywords cannibalization problem. Let me explain what this means in a simple way! Keyword cannibalization happens when two or more pages on your website are targeting the same keyword. Instead of helping your SEO, this creates confusion for Google. The search engine does not know which page to rank for that keyword. As a result, it may choose the wrong page or not rank any of them high enough. Why Keyword Cannibalization Hurts SEO? SEO keyword cannibalization weakens your overall search visibility. Instead of competing against other websites, your content is competing with itself. It gives rise to many problems, such that: 🠞 Google Splits Your Authority Instead of one strong page getting all the attention, Google divides value between similar pages. As a result, none of them perform well. 🠞 Click-Through Rate (Ctr) Drops When the wrong page ranks for a keyword, users may not click. Or, if two of your pages appear together, users might skip both if they do not look helpful. 🠞 Backlinks Are Spread Thin If other websites link to different pages for the same topic, those backlinks lose power. One solid page would get more authority if they were combined. 🠞 It Wastes Crawl Budget Google uses time and resources to crawl your pages. When several pages are similar, it may waste time crawling the wrong ones and miss the ones you want to prioritize. 🠞 It Lowers Your Chances of Ranking High Your main page does not get a chance to rank properly if a weaker or outdated one takes its place in search results. Alarming though! Definitely! But do not worry, as the following steps will help you remove the cannibalization problem easily. How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization? So once you find keyword cannibalization, you can fix it by following the right steps, which I have covered for you in the following guide. Each of the following methods addresses a specific type of cannibalization issue. Depending on your situation, you may need to use just one or a combination of these fixes. Using Ahrefs Tools The first step you need to keep in mind is, “Which page to keep and which one to be redirected or merged?” For this purpose, you need to check which page has the highest ranking in Google SERPs for a keyword. After that you have to look down to those pages that might be ranking at lower positions for the same keyword. PIC Once done, you can either redirect the low-ranking pages to the one with solid information and ranking at high position. Remember that it will be a 301 redirection. Else, you can also merge content from low-ranking pages with the one ranking higher. Let’s learn it! Merge Competing Pages One of the most common solutions is to combine similar content into a single and stronger page. When To Do This? If you have two or more articles or pages that are ranking for the same keyword and have overlapping content, it is better to merge them. For example, if you wrote one blog post about “SEO tools for beginners” and another on “top free SEO tools,” they are likely competing for the same terms. How To Merge Them? Choose the page that has the most traffic or backlinks as your main page Copy over any useful content from the other page into the main one Edit the content so it flows naturally and does not repeat itself Remove the weaker or duplicate page Add a 301 redirect from the old page to the new combined one What Is a 301 Redirect? It is a permanent redirect that tells search engines and visitors the content has moved to a new URL. You can set it up using your CMS (like WordPress) or via your site’s .htaccess file or SEO plugin (like Rank Math or Yoast). This step ensures that any SEO value (like backlinks) from the old page is passed on to the new one. Differentiate Search Intent Sometimes, your pages are competing not because they are duplicates, but because they are too similar in purpose. When To Do This? If two pages target the same keyword but serve different types of users (for example, an informational blog post vs. a product page), you need to adjust their focus. How To Do It? Identify the main intent behind each page. Check if it is to inform, sell, or compare? Update the content and headings so that each page clearly satisfies a different user intent Use more specific or long-tail keywords for each page to reduce overlap Example Instead of two pages targeting “best protein powder,” you can revise one to target “best protein powder for weight loss” and the other for “how to choose the right protein powder.” This helps Google understand that your pages are unique and meant for different types of searches. Use Canonical Tags If you want to keep both pages live but still avoid cannibalization, canonical tags can help. When To Do This? Use a canonical tag when: You have similar versions of the same content You need both pages for users, but only want one to rank How To Apply It? Go to the HTML <head> section of the page you do not want to rank. Add a canonical tag pointing to the main page’s URL: <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.yoursite.com/main-page-url/” /> If you use WordPress, most SEO plugins like Rank Math or Yoast allow you to set canonical URLs easily from the page editor. This tells Google, “This page exists, but please give SEO credit to the other one.” Noindex Low-Value Pages If a page is outdated, thin, or does not bring value anymore, you
Finding Keyword Cannibalization with Ahrefs
When your pages compete, your rankings retreat In the following article, I will be teaching how you can fix keyword cannibalization issues in SEO. Let’s get started! What is Keyword Cannibalization? In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), keyword cannibalization is a kind of problem in which multiple pages of a website target the same keyword, which confuse search engines to identify the original page and rank it. In fact, Google misunderstands the URL structure of your website. Example Suppose you run an eCommerce site on which you are selling laptops online. You have two category pages, which are named “Student Laptops” and “Business Laptops”. Now chances are there that both of these pages might rank for a single keyword “Laptop”, which shows a cannibalize problem. How to Find SEO Keyword Cannibalization Issues? The quick step: “Identify pages ranking for similar keywords and fulfilling the same type of intent” Methods to Find Cannibalization In SEO The following are the steps to find pages that cause cannibalize issues” Method 01: Conduct a Content Audit First thing that you must keep in mind is, if your site is not complicated, then conducting a Content Audit can help you notice keyword cannibalization issues easily. On the other hand, if the site structure is complicated enough, then opt for the following steps: Method 02: Check Historic Rankings This works best if you are dealing with keywords only. Let me explain it with an example! I wanted to check how many pages are ranking for the keyword “Keyword Cannibalization” for the domain https://moz.com/ Next, I set country as “United States”, entered my keyword “Keyword Cannibalization SEO”, and clicked on Ranking History Dropdown Icon I noticed that there were 11 URLs that are ranking for this keyword, as shown in the following picture: I checked a couple or one more of URLs only, with the following slugs: https://moz.com/blog/identify-and-tackle-keyword-cannibalisation-in-2019 https://moz.com/blog/keyword-cannibalization https://moz.com/blog/keyword-cannibalization#what-is-keyword-cannibalization? Now by looking at these URLs, I noticed that All of them are blog posts Their intent is almost similar, which is detailed discussion about keyword cannibalization SEO One of the URLs contains 2019, which seems outdated, and this is how cannibalization SEO can be clearly seen for MOZ Now it’s a good option to fix it ASAP so that the original page could rank for the keyword. Method 03: Run a “site:” Search Go to the Google USA and search for the following attribute: site:yourwebsite.com “topic” For example, I will consider the example of the last keyword here, so you can properly understand the process. > site:https://moz.com/ “Keyword Cannibalization SEO” Use this tactic with caution, as Google tends to return any page that loosely matches the query. For instance, in the example above, the search yields 363 results. While it’s possible that Moz is experiencing some keyword cannibalization, not every page in the list is an issue. Many of them likely target entirely different keywords and serve distinct purposes. Method 04: Run a Google Search and Remove Host Clustering This particular method is helpful in deciding which page to keep and which page/s to be redirected to the most relevant page. Let’s search “Keyword Cannibalization SEO” in Google directly. By doing this, we see that once, Moz is mentioned in AI Overview, while there is only one page organically ranking for this keyword (For MOZ) at 8th position, in the first top 20 positions. AI Overview Organic Now by applying the attribute “&filter=0” in the URL, we will get all the URLs ranking in the top 20 positions, such that. So we found that, three URLs are ranking, one on 8th position, while other two on 12th and 13th positions, respectively. It does mean that Moz can rank even higher for this keyword if it redirects its low traffic potential pages to the one ranking at the top most position. In this case, if the URLs at 12th and 13th positions are redirected to the URL at position, chances are there that the URL at 8th position could rank even at a higher position. This is how you can also look for keyword cannibalization and solve this. Method 05: Check For Multiple Ranking URLs This method is also like the previous ones, but it does not work every single time. The reason is that Google never assigns a fixed position to multiple URLs ranking for a keyword for any one website. Anyhow, I will still mention the steps here for your knowledge. Go to the Ahrefs Site Explorer Search for Moz.com Go to the Organic Keywords Enter the targeted keyword Select the filter “Multiple URLs” Related Questions How do I fix keyword cannibalization? There are multiple ways to remove keyword cannibalization in SEO. Among these are: Merge content Redirect duplicate or similar pages (301 redirect) Canonicalize URLs Noindex lower-priority pages Differentiate content focus However, click “How to Fix Keyword Cannibalization In SEO?” and learn the complete process in simple steps. Can keyword cannibalization hurt my rankings? Yes, it can. When multiple pages on your site compete for the same keyword, search engines may get confused about which one to rank, as mentioned above. This often leads to lower rankings, traffic being split across several weak pages, and reduced SEO performance overall. What are the signs of keyword cannibalization in Google Search Console? In Google Search Console (GSC), signs of keyword cannibalization include: Multiple URLs ranking for the same query Fluctuating positions for a keyword across different pages A drop in clicks or impressions when a new page starts ranking You can find these by checking the Performance report > Queries tab, and filtering by a specific keyword to see all associated URLs. Should I remove or combine competing pages? It depends on the content quality and intent: Combine pages if they have similar content and target the same keyword Remove or redirect one if it’s outdated or low-value Always keep the page that performs best, then merge the others into it using 301 redirects Can blog posts cannibalize product or service pages? Yes, they can. If
AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5%
During my SEO and Content Writing career, I have never experienced such a massive drop in click-through rates. Fortunately or unfortunately, the credit goes to the AI Overviews. The trend of AI summaries has increased so much these days. The reason? Well, that’s straightforward! ‘Google AI Overviews answer users’ queries directly on the search page’ Due to this shift, content creators, SEO professionals, and businesses have to put in so much effort to sustain their click-through rates and traffic. You Should Know That Ahrefs News has announced a recent study on about 300,000 keywords that have informational intent. Out of these, about half (150,000) keywords with AI Overviews are likely to lose clicks, as compared to the ones with no AI Overviews. Source: AI Overview Keywords – by Louise Linehan So the question arises, “How to stay in the top positions while competing with such trends?” Let’s discuss this! I am Reshaeel Sarwar, an SEO and Content Writing Expert with 6+ years of experience. In the following blog, I will be sharing my research and methodologies to stay ahead of the curve in the AI Overview competition. Methodology by Ryan Law (Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs) I have carefully read the methodology conducted by Ryan Law and will discuss it here first to clarify your concept. Ryan has researched about 300,000 keywords from the Ahrefs database. As mentioned before, 150,000 out of these keywords are with AI Overviews, while the remaining ones are not included in this list. When he compiled the Google Search Console (GSC) data for each of these keywords, he recorded a significant drop in CTR rates from March 2024 to March 2025. Where Do AI Keywords Appear? I personally use Ahrefs for most of my research and keyword findings. So I will be sharing my findings as per this app, because this is one of the most trusted AI Overview tools so far. To know keywords for which AI Overviews are triggering, you have to use the Ahrefs AI Overview feature. What you need to do includes: ➥ Navigate to Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Feature ➥ Go to the “Organic Keywords” option ➥ Click “Add Filter” & select “AI Overviews” ➥ Click “Filter” Findings It is recorded that in March 2024, the average CTR for position 1 on informational keywords was 0.056. By March 2025, this CTR dropped to 0.031. For searches triggering AI Overviews, the average CTR was 0.073 in March 2024. By March 2025, it fell sharply to 0.026. Indeed, a massive drop in organic clicks, which highlights the growing impact of AI Overviews on search traffic. Based on this data, you can easily predict the CTR for AI Overview keywords if AI Overviews SEO had not been introduced. Considering this, I calculated the click drop AI has brought for informational keywords. Calculation As I mentioned before, the CTR for Position 1 keyword dropped from 0.056 to 0.031. Drop Ratio = 0.031/0.056 After that, I applied the same drop ratio to the original CTR for AI Overview keywords: Original CTR = 0.073 If AI Overviews had not launched yet, I predicted the CTR to be about: Forecasted CTR = 0.073 × (0.031/0.056) Forcasted CTR = 0.040 After this, I compared the forecasted CTR with the actual CTR that I saw for AI Overview keywords, which is 0.026. At last, I calculated the drop impact as follows: CTR Drop = (0.026 – 0.040)/0.040 = -34.5% This means that the presence of AI Overviews is reducing the position #1 CTR by about 34.5%. 👉 Why This Matters? If the click-through rate is low, it means that the keyword ranking in the # 01 position does not guarantee high traffic turnover. This is why, brands and online businesses must think beyond just keyword rankings. 👉 What To Do? You just need to consider a few factors in mind. ➥ Focus on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (EEAT) ➥ Drive more brand search ➥ Try to invest more time in conducting research for content that AI can not summarize easily. ➥ These include case studies, opinion pieces, original research, etc. To put it shortly, you need to make your content a trusted source that users click, even if AI gives them an exact answer. ➥ Want to know exactly “How to rank in AI Overviews, click Here. Let’s Conclude! I have personally witnessed a 21-43% drop in the keyword rankings after the AI Overviews. As per my experience, I have noticed that these overviews act as Featured Snippets, which answer the user’s query directly and in a concise way, which leads to Zero Click Searches. It is interesting that even though Google says that “links in AI Overviews get more clicks than regular search results,” they still do not give us a way to clearly see which clicks and impressions are coming from AI Overviews in Search Console data. And if the situation persists, I predict even more decrease in CTR for informational keywords.