The No-BS On-Page SEO Checklist for 2026: What Actually Works Now

What’s Actually Working in On-Page SEO Right Now (2026)

Hey, Jeff Lenney here. If you’re looking for another “10 on-page SEO tips” listicle, this isn’t it. I’m going to tell you what’s actually working in 2026 based on campaigns I’m running right now, not what some SEO tool blog says you should be doing.

Quick story first. Back when I worked with Timothy Sykes, his site was buried on page 5 for ‘penny stocks’. Hugely competitive term. We got him to page 1, position #10, using purely on-page optimization. No backlinks. No sketchy tactics. Just solid on-page work.

Then we added backlinks and he shot up to the top half of page 1. But here’s the thing: the on-page work got us 80% of the way there. That’s what most people miss. They’re out there chasing backlinks when their on-page is a mess.

The AI Content Situation (Let’s Just Be Honest)

Everyone’s using AI content now. You are, I am, your competitors definitely are. Google knows this. They’re not stupid.

But here’s what I’m seeing in actual campaigns: Google doesn’t care if AI wrote your content. They care if it’s useful and if it has something unique that other sites don’t have.

I had a real estate client last month, luxury agent in Newport Beach. Her content was all AI-generated, and it was ranking terribly. Not because it was AI, but because every paragraph could have been on any other real estate site. Zero personality. Zero unique insights. Just generic “contact me to find your dream home” garbage.

We fixed it by injecting her actual experience. She’d sold 38 homes in a specific neighborhood last year, so we added that. She knew the HOA drama in certain communities, so we wrote about that. Suddenly Google started paying attention because the content had information you couldn’t get anywhere else.

That’s the key with AI content in 2026: use it as a starting point, then layer in the stuff only you know. Your actual client stories. Your failures (yeah, talk about those too). Your observations about what’s changing in your market.

When I write about SEO for real estate agents, I mention specific Irvine neighborhoods I’ve worked in. I talk about agents I’ve worked with. I drop in actual numbers from campaigns. That’s what makes the difference.

E-E-A-T Is Still King (And Most People Are Doing It Wrong)

Google added that extra ‘E’ for Experience a while back, and they’re getting way better at detecting whether you actually know what you’re talking about or you’re just another content farm.

I looked at about 50 real estate agent sites last month. Want to know what 47 of them said in their bio? Some variation of “I love helping families find their dream home.”

Google doesn’t care about your passion. They want proof you know what you’re doing.

Here’s what actually works:

• Specific numbers. Not “I’m a top producer” but “I sold 38 homes in Turtle Rock last year with an average sale price 7% above list.” Link to something that verifies it if you can.
• Real awards that are specific. “Top 1% of agents in Orange County, 2025” is good. “Top Producer” is meaningless because everyone claims that.
• Client testimonials with actual outcomes. “Jeff helped us rank #3 for ‘Irvine luxury homes’ in 4 months” is useful. “Jeff was great to work with!” tells Google nothing.

With the Timothy Sykes site, we didn’t just say he was a penny stock expert. We showed his actual trading results. We highlighted his appearances on CNN and Fox. We featured student success stories with real, verifiable results. We added video content showing actual trades.

Google started treating him like a legitimate authority instead of just another financial blog, and the rankings followed.

How I Think About Site Structure (Not What the Guides Tell You)

This is where I see people screw up constantly. Someone sends me their site, and it’s just a random collection of blog posts. “5 Tips for Sellers,” “Why I Love Orange County,” “How to Stage Your Home.” No structure. No strategy.

You’re not keeping a diary. You’re building a resource that shows Google you’re the authority on a topic.

Here’s how I think about it: every site needs pillar content. Big, comprehensive guides that cover a topic completely. For a real estate agent, that might be “Complete Guide to Buying in Irvine” or “Everything About Orange County School Districts.”

Then you build supporting content around it. Detailed posts about specific neighborhoods. Articles about individual schools. Posts about HOAs in certain communities. All of it linking back to your main guide.

The mistake people make is writing 50 random blog posts and hoping Google figures out what they’re about. You need to show Google the relationships between your content.

I’m not saying you need some fancy topic cluster map. Just think about it like organizing a library. All the Irvine neighborhood posts should link to your main Irvine guide. All the school posts should link to your school district guide. Make it obvious.

The Technical Stuff That Actually Matters

Core Web Vitals. Everyone talks about them. Most people obsess over them way too much.

Here’s my take after running hundreds of campaigns: if your site is fast enough that users don’t complain, you’re probably fine. Yeah, optimize your images. Yeah, don’t have a 5-second load time. But I’ve seen sites with “poor” Core Web Vitals scores outrank sites with perfect scores because the content was better.

That said, there are three metrics Google actually cares about:

1. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Get it under 2.5 seconds. Ideally under 2.0. This is basically “how fast does the main content show up.”
2. INP (Interaction to Next Paint): This replaced FID in 2024. Keep it under 200ms. It’s measuring how responsive your site feels when people interact with it.
3. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Under 0.1 is the target. This is that annoying thing where you’re about to click something and the page shifts and you click the wrong thing. Pre-define your image sizes and ad spaces so stuff doesn’t jump around.

If those three are in decent shape, you’re fine. Don’t let some SEO tool tell you that you need to shave another 0.2 seconds off your load time. Focus on content.

Schema Markup (And Why Most People Overcomplicate It)

Schema is one of those things that sounds way more complicated than it is. Basic Article schema is table stakes now. Everyone should have that.

What’s actually making a difference in 2026:

• HowTo schema for step-by-step guides. I use this constantly. It gets you those nice rich snippets.
• FAQ schema still works great. Google loves showing those expandable FAQ results.
• Video schema if you have video content. Google’s pushing video hard right now.
• For local businesses, LocalBusiness schema with your actual address, hours, and service area.

What I see people do wrong: they try to implement every schema type they can find. More isn’t better. Correct is better. Pick the ones that actually apply to your content and implement them properly.

What’s Changed Recently (Based on What I’m Seeing)

AI content detection has gotten way more sophisticated. Google’s not looking for “was this written by AI” anymore. They’re looking for “does this have unique value.”

I can write an entire article with AI, inject my personal experience and data, and it ranks fine. I can also write something completely by hand that’s just regurgitating what everyone else says, and it goes nowhere.

The difference is unique insights. Original data. Personal experience. Stuff you can’t find on the first page of Google already.

Visual search is bigger than most people realize. Image optimization isn’t just alt tags anymore:

• Use descriptive filenames (not IMG_1234.jpg)
• Implement WebP or AVIF format
• Use proper srcset for responsive images
• Add context around your images in the actual content

I’m also seeing Google pay way more attention to how users actually interact with sites. Time on page matters. Scroll depth matters. Whether people immediately bounce back to Google matters. Your on-page SEO can be perfect, but if your content sucks and people leave immediately, you’re not ranking.

Keywords in 2026 (Stop Counting Them)

I still get people asking me “how many times should I use my keyword?”

The answer is: I don’t count anymore. Neither should you. Google’s way past that.

What matters is search intent. If someone searches “best real estate agent in Irvine,” what are they actually looking for? Probably a list of top agents with reviews and contact info. Not a 3,000-word essay on what makes a good agent.

I see this mistake constantly. Someone wants to rank for “Irvine homes for sale” so they write this long article about the Irvine housing market. But people searching that term want to see actual listings. Wrong intent, won’t rank.

Figure out what the searcher actually wants, then give them that. Sounds obvious, but most people skip this step.

Entity optimization is something most people completely miss. Google doesn’t just read keywords. They understand concepts and relationships.

If you write about “luxury homes in Orange County” but never mention Irvine, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, specific communities, price ranges, or local market trends, Google thinks your content is shallow. Connect the dots for them.

Local SEO On-Page Stuff

If you’re a local business, you need LocalBusiness schema. Multiple locations? Each one needs its own schema markup with specific address and hours.

But here’s what really matters: unique content for each location. I see multi-location businesses just duplicate their homepage for every city and swap out the city name. Google hates that.

Write about what’s actually different in each location:

• Different neighborhoods served
• Different local market conditions
• Local events and community involvement
• Specific testimonials from customers in that area

This is especially critical for local service businesses. If you are an agent, for instance, using the wrong schema can actually get you penalized, see my full breakdown on real estate schema strategy here.

Tools I Use (And Some I Stopped Paying For)

People always ask me what tools I use. Here’s the honest list:

Ahrefs is my go-to. I use it for keyword research, competitor analysis, backlink checking, pretty much everything. It’s expensive but worth it.

Screaming Frog for technical audits. Been using it for 10+ years. Still the best crawler.

SEMrush I have but honestly I prefer Ahrefs for most things. SEMrush has better competitive analysis features though.

For content optimization, I cancelled my Surfer SEO subscription last year. Got too expensive for what I was using it for. If you’re optimizing a ton of content every month, it’s probably worth it. For most people, it’s overkill.

Frase is “good enough” for most people and costs half what Surfer does. That’s what I’d recommend if you’re on a budget.

MarketMuse is overpriced unless you’re an enterprise. Don’t bother.

For analytics, you’re stuck with GA4 at this point. Universal Analytics is dead. I check Search Console daily. Can’t live without it.

Hotjar is useful to see how people actually use your site, but the free plan is pretty limited. I used to use CrazyEgg but Hotjar does the same thing better.

Mistakes I See Every Week

Keyword stuffing. Yes, people still do this in 2026. I don’t understand it. If your content sounds unnatural because you’re forcing keywords in, stop.

Too many internal links. I’ve seen sites with 50+ internal links on a single page. It looks desperate and spammy. Link to relevant stuff, but don’t go crazy.

The opposite problem: zero internal linking strategy. Most sites I audit have basically no internal links. Help Google understand your site structure.

Thin content. Those 400-word blog posts from 2015 don’t work anymore. You don’t need to write 5,000 words every time, but you need to actually answer the question completely.

Missing schema entirely. You’re giving rich snippets to your competitors for free.

Weak E-E-A-T signals. Prove you know what you’re talking about. Don’t just claim it.

What You Should Actually Do

Look, on-page SEO in 2026 isn’t rocket science. It’s about creating genuinely useful content, structuring your site so Google understands it, and proving you’re an actual authority.

If I had to boil it down to what actually moves the needle:

• Make sure your content has something unique. Personal experience, original data, insights you can’t find elsewhere.
• Structure your site around topics, not random blog posts. Build pillar content and supporting articles that link together.
• Get the technical basics right. Fast load times, mobile-friendly, proper schema. But don’t obsess over perfection.
• Prove you’re an authority. Real numbers, real testimonials, real credentials.

The Timothy Sykes case study I mentioned at the start? We succeeded because we built a complete package. The content demonstrated real expertise. The site structure made sense. The technical implementation was solid.

That’s what works. Not tricks. Not hacks. Just building something genuinely valuable and making sure Google understands its value.

Now go fix your site.

Questions? Drop them in the comments. I actually read these and respond.