Page content & structure

Before you optimize metadata or page settings, it’s important to get the content and structure on the page itself right.

Search engines don’t just look at titles and descriptions — they analyze the actual text, layout, and hierarchy of your page. A well-structured page makes your content easier to understand for both visitors and search systems, and it makes every SEO improvement that follows more effective.

Think of this lesson as learning how to build a search-friendly page. In the next lesson, you’ll learn how to label and describe that page for search engines.

Why on-page structure matters

Search engines don’t just care what you say — they care how you organize it.

Clear on-page structure helps search systems understand your content, helps visitors scan and navigate more easily, and makes it easier for modern AI systems to extract meaning from your page.

A helpful way to think about this is writing a good article. Strong headings, logical sections, and a clear hierarchy guide readers through your ideas — and search engines follow that same structure to understand what each part of the page is about.

The essential building blocks

These are the core elements you’ll use every time you design a page in Webflow.

Semantic HTML: adding meaning to your layout

Semantic HTML tags are elements in HTML that convey the meaning and structure of the content they enclose. In Webflow, you can add various semantic HTML5 tags to your elements from the Element settings panel.

Common tags include:

• <header> — intro section for the entire page
• <nav> — navigation menus
• <main> — the main content of the page
• <section> — grouped content
• <article> — standalone content (e.g., blog posts)
• <footer> — ending section with supplemental info

You don’t need to memorize every tag — just know that semantic structure adds clarity behind the scenes.

Headings: your page’s built-in outline

Headings (H1 through H6) create the outline of your page. They tell search engines and visitors what the page is about and how each section fits into the bigger picture.

Best practices:

• Use one H1 per page (usually the page’s main title)
• Use H2s for major sections within the page
• Use H3–H6 for subsections if needed
• Avoid skipping levels (e.g., H2 → H4 without an H3)
• Don’t use headings just for styling — they carry meaning

Headings aren’t just visual styling — they carry meaning. Using them consistently helps users scan your content and helps search engines understand which ideas are most important.

Alt text: describing your images with purpose

Search engines can’t “see” images, so they rely on alt text to understand what an image represents. 

Best practices:

• Be descriptive but concise. Keep alt text descriptions to a maximum of 125 characters or less.
• Ensure the alt text is relevant to the context of the content. Describe what is important about the image in relation to the surrounding text.
• Avoid filler like “image of” or “photo of”
• Leave alt text empty only if the image is purely decorative

Writing thoughtful alt text improves accessibility and helps search engines better understand your content — a win for both people and SEO.

Readability & content clarity

Search engines reward content that’s easy to read, well organized, and genuinely helpful. Simple choices make a big difference here. 

• Short paragraphs are easier to scan. 
• Clear headings break up ideas. 
• Leading with the most important information helps visitors quickly understand whether they’re in the right place.

Most importantly, your content should actually answer the reader’s question. If someone lands on your page and quickly finds what they’re looking for, that positive experience sends strong signals to search systems.

Clean structure and clear sections also help your content perform better in AI-generated answers. When meaning is easy to extract, your content is more likely to be surfaced — both in traditional search and modern answer-based experiences.

Got it down?

Now that your page is structured clearly, let’s look at the page settings that help search engines understand and display your content.