📌 Missed Part 1? Read about our Technical SEO strategies here
With the technical foundation in place, we turned our attention to on-page SEO—where content quality, user experience, and ranking signals play a crucial role in driving organic growth. While technical fixes improved crawl efficiency, it’s the content and experience that keep users engaged and convert visits into meaningful interactions.
In this section, we’ll explore the key on-page strategies that amplified our search presence, improved engagement, and helped OLX India climb the search rankings.
On Page Seo Improvements
On Page SEO focuses on content, user experience, and on-page optimizations to improve search rankings. It includes keyword optimization, meta tags, internal linking, schema markup, and engagement strategies. The goal is to enhance relevance, usability, and visibility in search results.
1. Meta, H1, and Canonical Fixes
Optimizing the canonical tags, titles, descriptions, and H1 tags by including the high search volume keywords, inventory count etc significantly enhanced content targeting and richness. These changes helped avoid content duplication, ensuring better SEO performance and more accurate indexing by search engines.
2. Dynamic Content Addition
Integrating dynamic content, such as showcasing different car models on the cars page, job types on the jobs page etc, helped keep the content both fresh and relevant. From an SEO perspective, this strategy not only improved user engagement by offering personalized, real-time updates but also enhanced crawlability and indexing. Search engines are better able to recognize the ever-changing content, leading to improved rankings and more targeted traffic
3. FAQ Section Addition
Adding a dedicated FAQ section not only improved user experience by answering common queries directly but also helped with SEO. Search engines value well-structured, relevant content like FAQs, as they provide quick answers to users’ searches. This enhanced visibility in search results, particularly with featured snippets, and contributed to better ranking for long-tail keywords.
4. Pagination on the Listing Page
By introducing pagination on the listing page, the crawlers get exposed to a large number of pages from a single page. Since rel prev/next is no more honoured by search engines. Adding paginated results with pages linking to the individually numbered pages, the inventory pool is exposed to crawlers.
5. Interlinking Addition on Internal Pages
Introducing interlinking on listing and product detail pages greatly improved SEO by helping search engines discover and index related content more effectively. This approach not only strengthened the internal linking structure but also guided users to relevant pages, enhancing navigation and increasing engagement. It ensured better distribution of link equity across the site and supported improved rankings for related search terms.
6. Fix Structure Data for Rich Text Results
100% Reduction in Invalid Rich Text Schema 🏆
For Google Search, rich text snippets often come from structured data (like schema.org) embedded in a webpage’s HTML. This structured data helps Google understand the content and context of the page, enabling it to display additional rich features (e.g., a product price, product make, product images etc). This can lead to higher visibility in search results and improve user engagement.
Rich text in search results helps provide more contextual information upfront, searching results more informative and attractive to users.
At OLX India India we have different PDP pages for cars, jobs, electronics etc. Enhancements and fixes were done to address issues with job and vehicle schema so that they are as per google defined schema.
eg. Example Schema for Vehicle (Car):
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Car",
"name": "2021 Toyota Camry",
"image": "https://example.com/images/toyota-camry.jpg",
"description": "A pre-owned 2021 Toyota Camry in excellent condition with low mileage.",
"brand": {
"@type": "Brand",
"name": "Toyota"
},
"vehicleModel": "Camry",
"vehicleIdentificationNumber": "1HGBH41JXMN109186",
"offers": {
"@type": "Offer",
"priceCurrency": "USD",
"price": "24999.99",
"priceValidUntil": "2025-12-31",
"availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
"url": "https://example.com/toyota-camry-for-sale"
},
"vehicleEngine": {
"@type": "EngineSpecification",
"engineType": "V6",
"fuelType": "Gasoline",
"numberOfDoors": 4
},
"mileageFromOdometer": {
"@type": "QuantitativeValue",
"value": "15000",
"unitCode": "KMT"
},
"color": "Silver",
"vehicleTransmission": "Automatic",
"dateVehicleFirstRegistered": "2021-05-01"
}
</script>7. Schema Addition to Listing and Home Page
Website Schema and Listing Page Schema were added and they played a crucial for improving SEO and enhancing visibility in search results.
Website Schema helps search engines understand the identity and structure of a site by marking up key details like the site’s name, logo, and contact information, which can boost brand recognition and trust. On the other hand, the Listing Page Schema is used for product or service listings, providing detailed information like price, availability, and reviews.
This allowed search engines to display rich snippets in search results, which can improve click-through rates (CTR) and product visibility. Both schemas contribute to better search rankings, increased user engagement, and a more effective SERP presence.
8. Core Web Vitals Improvements
- Improving CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): To address CLS, we’ve implemented a fixed height for the Google Ads container. This prevents layout shifts as ads load, providing a smoother and more stable visual experience for users, and reducing unexpected page movements.
- Boosting LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): To enhance LCP, we’ve focused on webpage caching to ensure quicker retrieval of static assets and reduce JavaScript byte size. By cutting down on unnecessary JavaScript, the critical content on the page loads faster, leading to improved load times and a better user experience.
There is a continued trend of decline in bad URLs and an uplift in good URLs in GSC with respect to core web vitals. These changes significantly enhanced overall page performance, contributing to improved user engagement, faster load times, and better SEO rankings.
By focusing on these technical and on-page SEO improvements, we observed a significant increase in organic traffic, clicks, and impressions both in non branded traffic , overall traffic and category wise uplift.
Talking about some impact numbers 👇
Overall Traffic Improvements
- Clicks and Impressions: Both increased by 30%, reflecting improved visibility and engagement.
- Average Position: Improved significantly by 4, suggesting better search engine rankings.
Non-Branded Traffic Improvements
Generic queries done on search engine without the “olx” keyword
- Impressions and clicks had a clear upward trend, with a remarkable 160% increase in clicks on a daily basis and a 50% rise in impressions daily basis
- The Click-Through Rate (CTR) improved by ~14%, which indicates more users are engaging with the search results due to better optimization (titles, descriptions, etc.).
- The average position of the query has improved by 40%, meaning the site is ranking higher, which likely contributed to the increased visibility and clicks.
Key Takeaways
- Meta & Header Optimization: Improved click-through rates by integrating high-search-volume keywords into titles, descriptions, and H1s.
- Dynamic Content Strategy: Showcasing relevant real-time content (e.g., car models, job types) enhanced engagement and crawlability.
- FAQ Sections for SEO: Added structured FAQs to boost user experience and secure featured snippets for long-tail queries.
- Pagination for Better Indexing: Improved discoverability of deeper pages by refining pagination logic, ensuring better inventory exposure to search engines.
- Internal Linking Boost: Strengthened site architecture by interlinking related listings and category pages, improving navigation and rankings.
- Structured Data Fixes: Resolved schema issues for rich results, increasing visibility in search snippets.
- Core Web Vitals Optimization: Reduced CLS and improved LCP through better ad placements and minimized JS load, enhancing page speed and user experience.
Through these strategic SEO initiatives at OLX India, we achieved a 160% surge in daily clicks, a 50% increase in impressions, and higher search rankings. By resolving technical SEO issues, optimizing on-page elements, and enhancing user experience, we drove sustainable growth across key categories.
SEO success isn’t about quick wins—it’s about consistent, data-driven improvements. For any marketplace looking to scale, a strong foundation in technical SEO and content optimization is key.
Acknowledgment
This success was made possible through the collective efforts of our SEO, Engineering, Product, and Analytics teams at OLX India.
A special thanks to our leadership for their support and vision, and to the entire team for their relentless focus on innovation, execution, and collaboration. 🚀
