What Is On Page SEO? Why On-Page SEO Is Essential?

On-page SEO is a stepping stone for any successful SEO marketing campaign. Understand on-page SEO and its major benefits.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an activity to optimize your website to meet the best practices and standards set by search engines like Google on which you want to rank your website. There are two types of SEO activities:

• On-page SEO and
• Off-page SEO

In this blog post, we will focus to understand on-page SEO aka on-page optimization of a website. It is also known as website optimization.

What Is On-Page SEO?

Search engines like Google has a predefined set of ranking factors. On-page SEO is used to optimize your website to meet these standards. Major aims of on-page SEO are:

1. To make your website search engine friendly, so search engines can crawl (aka read) the page, index (aka puts the page in its database), and rank pages to show in the search results.
2. To make your website user friendly, so visitors of your websites can easily locate the information they are looking for and take the desired action without any hassle.

Why On-Page SEO Is Mandatory?

Regardless of the fact, you are willing to invest in website SEO services on an ongoing basis or not, you must invest in on-page SEO services and that also from an experienced SEO expert or a trustworthy SEO company.  Why? Let’s see.

1. To have a website as per search engine standards

Search engines like Google have their own predefined website structure standards that all websites have to follow to get ranked and to get visitors and inquiries. For example, recently Google has announced two algorithm updates:

1. Web vitals are must (Read more on web vitals)
2. User experience will affect ranking (Read more on user experience)

If we talk about Google only, there are more than 200 ranking signals from which more than 70% of signals are related to on-page SEO. If your website is not optimized according to these standards, and you are investing thousands of bucks in website SEO services, then you will not get the expected returns.

2. To make sure website is not negatively affected

If your website is not optimized with on-page SEO, then it is for sure that it will not rank on the top position. The worst part is your website might get pushed out of search results and rank nowhere until you fix the site to meet Google standards. In some cases, Google also penalizes poor sites with some predefined Google Algorithms which would result in negative consequences such as getting removed from search results for a certain time, manual action, etc.

3. To save time for SEO marketing when you are ready

If you take website SEO services from a trustworthy SEO company or an SEO specialist, the first task considered is on-page optimization of the website. If your website is already optimized, there will be some minor jobs to take care of to meet the latest standards. Your SEO marketing campaigns can get started quickly. This can help with not only speeding up SEO marketing operations, but also helps in speeding up getting results from SEO marketing and receiving better results by getting on-page SEO at the earliest possible.

4. To gain significant benefits

On-page optimization might not start ranking your website on the top positions for targeted keywords. However, it will definitely help in gaining significant results such as:

• Increase indexed pages. It means your all or major pages are indexed in search engines
• Rank for some of the keywords on the search engines at some positions
• Increase CTR (Click Through Ratio) aka clicks on your website
• And more

5. To engage visitors to become leads

As mentioned earlier, on-page SEO is performed for both, search engines and users. Imagine getting too many visitors to your website, but none of them visits more than one page and hardly anyone raises an inquiry or comes back. Thus, making a website user friendly is essential. On-page SEO and some of the standards set by search engines rely upon the user experience. There are multiple activities in on-page SEO that helps increasing engagement and let you leverage many other benefits such as:

• Increased new and returning website visitors
• Increased average duration of visitors
• Reduced bounce rate
• Increased engagement
• Increased lead generation
• And more

6. To justify investment in website development

As you have already decided to have a website with content, images, and other media, you have already invested in digitization. Along with website development and content writing cost, you will also need to invest in ongoing hosting and domain retention. While you are making a significant investment, your website must match at least users’ expectations. Thus, when you give the website URL to anyone and they visit the website, they must not feel lost. On-page SEO helps in achieving this and leveraging many other advantages as mentioned in the aforementioned points.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to invest in on-page SEO on a recurring basis?

No.

It is usually a one-time activity. Once you reach a point where all factors are optimized, then you do not need on-page optimization. However, some changes may require changes in some on-page factors. For example, if you add additional pages, you will need to re-optimize sitemap.xml. Furthermore, if search engine changes major rules related to on-page, then on-page SEO needs to be tweaked to match those standards. However, there are fewer cases of major changes. Usually, for years it stays the same and less often needs major changes.

Will I start ranking for targeted keywords after on-page SEO?

No.

There are more than 200 ranking signals to rank sites on the top. On-page SEO only makes the website ready to get marketed to get ranked. Yes, some of the keywords may start getting ranked on certain positions, but not all keywords can start ranking or secure the top positions.

Will I start getting inquiries after on-page SEO?

Not really.

As mentioned earlier, on-page SEO is just a stepping stone to full-fledged SEO marketing. To receive all benefits related to SEO including lead generation, you need to invest in the best SEO services.

What aspects are covered in professional on-page SEO services?

All major aspects related to:

• Website structure
• Website meta data and other on-page standard
• Content
• Media such as video, images, etc.
• Ranking signals
• And more

Do I need to invest in SEO marketing after completion of on-page SEO?

That is subjective.

If you have invested in website development to achieve some business goals such as better brand presence, increase inquiries, etc. and you are ready to invest in a better future, then you should invest in the best website SEO services. However, if you are getting enough business and have a website just to have a digital presence or if you are not completely ready to invest in SEO marketing, then you can skip using ongoing SEO marketing services.

Is On-page only performs title and meta description optimization?

No.

There are multiple factors that are optimized during on-page SEO by the SEO expert. This is the reason you must take service from an experienced SEO expert or company to get a better ROI.

Read the complete guide on on-page SEO aka website optimization to know more about elements optimized during on-page SEO.

Concluding notes:

Speaking in simpler language, website optimization helps you match the global standard and let you leverage significant benefits. It is just a one-time investment and worth it for sure.

Want to discuss on-page SEO for your website? Contact us.