Onpage SEO: What is it and Why is it Important?

Search engine optimization encompasses a broad variety of tactics that can be divided into two groups. On-page SEO (what happens off your site that you can’t control) and off-page SEO (what happens on your site that you can control).

When people talk about improving their SEO, they almost always say on-page SEO. Let’s go over the definition of on-page SEO and why it’s so relevant in modern web marketing.

What is on-page SEO?

So, what exactly is on-page optimization in the context of SEO? On-page SEO is the process of optimising web pages in order to increase organic traffic and boost a website’s SERP rankings (search engine results pages). This entails improving a page’s HTML, internal links, and meta data (meta title, meta description, and keyword density), as well as uploading high-quality, relevant content and photos. Because of on-page SEO, when you combine all of these facets of a webpage, you end up with a better webpage.

Similarly, there are search engine ranking variables that are outside the control of the site owner; this is referred to as off-page SEO. Backlinks from other websites, social media, brand mentions, and shares may all have a direct or indirect impact on a site’s SERP rankings.

On-page SEO is based on the page’s content, which means that everything on the page will affect SEO, including text, meta data, multi-media content, HTML code, CSS, JavaScript, and more. In general, this is referred to as “content,” though advertisers often use the term “content” to refer to the page’s main text.

In any case, this is the primary focus of search engines, so it should also be the primary focus of any SEO marketing campaign.

Why is on-page SEO important?

On-page SEO aids search engines in analysing your website and its associated content in order to determine if a searcher’s question is important to your site. Google’s algorithm is continuously being updated in order to better interpret a searcher’s purpose and produce search results that are relevant to that user’s needs. Your website should evolve in tandem with Google’s algorithm.

It’s critical that your website and its content, including what’s visible to users (media, content, images) and what’s visible to search engines (meta data, HTML), are configured according to the current Google and Bing practises. Search engines will be able to understand your site and how to rate it as a result of this.

It is critical to optimise a website’s on-page SEO whether you have a large or small company. SEO is one of the most widely used digital marketing techniques, and it continues to be successful due to its consistent return on investment. On-page SEO, in reality, provides the best return on investment (ROI) of virtually any digital marketing strategy, thanks to its low cost and long-term benefits that can help websites develop and carry in passive traffic for years.

Since search engines like Google and Bing account for nearly half of all website traffic, search traffic also accounts for nearly 40% of online sales. Here’s another thing to consider: The top 1st Google result receives more than 32% of keyword traffic, and the first page of search results receives up to 91.5 percent.

On-page SEO is crucial for this purpose. Without it, your site might be losing out on important opportunities to rank for search queries related to your industry. Competitors can drive your site down search results if you don’t have an SEO strategy in place. Since the search marketing industry has risen to $79 billion in size, this is a major reason why many businesses employ an SEO firm.

What are the most important on-page SEO elements?

Aside from the previously listed on-page SEO tactics, there are a number of other elements that are critical to a site’s success. Maintaining an on-page strategy requires optimising these. Meta info, content writing, and internal linking are the three key ways to accomplish this.

Meta data

Your meta data will be included in the HTML code of each page and will contain your page’s title-tag and meta summary, which are used to list your pages in search engine results. The meta title and meta summary are all found in the connection the page when you use a search engine to look up a question. Users and search engines will be able to understand what your website has to offer if your meta data is optimised with good keywords and comprehensive material.

On-Page Content

The words on your site are linked to the keywords in your meta data by well-written text. Quality writing combined with proper keyword placement would satisfy both search engine queries and user needs. Other types of marketing may benefit from content marketing.

Google has provided guidelines for websites and companies to follow when creating EAT-friendly content for Google results. That means expert, authoritative, and trustworthy material. On-page SEO does not use EAT as a rating signal, but content does. Make sure the content is high-quality and based on the purpose and context of the keywords you’re targeting. Google’s Webmaster Guidelines outline the following types of content:

• percentages s Create a useful, information-rich website, and write pages that explain your content clearly and accurately.
• Consider the terms that users will use to find your pages, and make sure that your site contains those words.
• Enable all site assets that would significantly affect page rendering to be crawled, such as CSS and JavaScript files that affect page understanding, to help Google completely understand your site’s contents.
• Create pages with users in mind, not search engines.
• Don’t mislead your users.
• Consider what makes your website unique, important, or interesting. Make your website stand out from the competition in your industry. 

Internal Linking and Site Structure

A search engine’s ability to accurately crawl your site is dependent on its layout. Engines would be able to connect a user to a page related to their query if they have easy-to-use navigation bars, footers, and anchor links. If you have a site that is difficult to navigate, the search engine will have trouble identifying your site’s pages.

In this case, Google’s Webmaster Guidelines stress the importance of having a “simple conceptual page hierarchy” and relevant links that are easily crawlable for Googlebot indexing.

What on-page SEO strategies can you use to improve your rankings?

To improve your page rankings in the SERP, you must make your site as search friendly as possible. You’ll want to know what the most critical on-page SEO elements are to better understand on-page SEO best practises. Then you’ll want to take care of them.

Focusing on your visitors and their individual needs is a successful SEO rule of thumb. The primary motivation for starting your SEO should be user intent and needs. In reality, Google has begun to emphasise user interface and search engine optimization as increasingly important components of its ranking algorithm.

User intent

When a user types a question into a search engine, this is their primary target. The aim of understanding user content is to be able to fit your keywords to the content on that particular page. Are you trying to adopt a Golden Retriever or only learn more about them if you browse for “Golden Retrievers”?

It’s important to be specific in your meta data in this case.

When you’re starting your keyword research and making on-page SEO changes, keep user purpose in mind. A competent SEO team or organisation will assist you with keyword analysis and integration to help you achieve the best results possible.

As you create your meta data and site content, keep in mind that your goal should be to provide customers with what they want as much as it is to improve SEO.

Mobile friendliness

Mobile SEO is extremely important, particularly in today’s world. When creating a website, you want to make sure it looks nice on all devices, including phones and desktops, and isn’t just built for one. This would show up higher in search engine results if a user searches for a question on their tablet, since your mobile-friendly website would appear higher than those that aren’t.

Mobile friendliness is a broad and complex subject. It’s too difficult to get into here because there are too many aspects that characterise mobile friendliness. However, you’ll do better if your mobile site is user-friendly, easy to access, use, and load quickly, with content that largely matches that of your main site.

Securing your site

At this stage, site protection (as with an HTTPs protocol) is a no-brainer. Many websites, however, continue to operate without the necessary protections. Since 2014, Google’s ranking algorithm has used security as a signal to drive the web toward more secure sites, and it has since become one of its most significant components.

Improving UX

SEO signals include things like site layout, intuitive navigation, site speed, and architecture. There are on-page elements that web designers should pay attention to if they want to improve their site. Consider how you can improve your web design so that users have a better experience with the key content of each website.

Learn More For more information on why on-page SEO is relevant or for SEM agency resources, contact Stridec. Our team will help you develop the most critical on-page SEO elements to help your business expand.