The OnPage Trap: This is where most SEOs fail! (2021)

You feel like…

…your OnPage measures don’t bring any new improvements?
…you’d be overlooking a significant factor?
…you’re close to the finish line, but you’re driving with the handbrake on?

If you answered yes to any of these three questions, you should stay tuned now – it’s worth it😉

You need a foundation

Search engine optimization can become very complex in detail. But if you look at the whole thing from a distance, you can see a relatively simple basic structure. Roughly speaking, search engine optimization can be divided into two main areas:

Roughly speaking, we distinguish between OnPage and OffPage measures. While the list of OnPage optimizations can be almost endless, it looks quite different when it comes to OffPage:

If you want to optimize your website for search engines, you (almost) always start with OnPage optimization. It’s definitely a sensible place to start – you need a solid foundation for your plans, after all.

So you first improve the content and texts, then your loading times and much, much more. The more you get into it, the bigger your OnPage ToDo list will get. And this is the crux of the matter!

OnPage until the doctor comes

Many webmasters get so involved in optimizing their website that the off-page factor is completely neglected. Only when the first “wave of success” in the form of increasing visibility flattens out and further OnPage measures do not bring any new successes, the previous working method is questioned.

Unfortunately, the OnPage optimizations of the last months are then often questioned. Reactions vary widely: while some start over-optimizing in a panic, others simply stop because they believe they can’t do SEO.

Often this OnPage focus is based on thought processes like:

“First I need to get my website perfect, then I’ll do OffPage!”

or

“OnPage is much more important, you don’t even need backlinks these days!”

The fact is: OnPage optimization is, as you might have guessed, a never ending story. There is always potential for optimization on your website. So start at the same time with OffPage measures and take care of good backlinks. Your rankings will rise faster and more permanently!

Fire the OffPage rocket now!

If you currently find yourself in this situation, it’s high time to start link building now. Especially in competitive niches you are almost without a chance without backlinks. I assure you: if your OnPage foundation is in place, then good backlinks will have a huge impact on your rankings.

You don’t know how to start? Use our backlink guide to gain comprehensive knowledge and great techniques in link building. After that, you’ll have a clear roadmap to stick to.

Before you start…

Before you start with the OffPage optimization you should definitely take a close look at your link profile. The reason for this is bad “spam” links. These appear over time and every webmaster is confronted with them sooner or later. The first thing to do is to eliminate these harmful links with the help of a disavow tool. To keep a permanent overview of your backlinks, it is best to create an Excel list or use a tool such as ahrefs.