Your website might look fine to customers. But search engines do not look at the pretty pictures or the nice colour scheme. They read the text, the structure, and the behind-the-scenes details that most business owners never think about. If those things are missing or poorly set up, Google will show your competitors instead of you.
The on-page SEO score in MarketBase measures how well your website communicates with search engines, and ranks you against other businesses in your local market. The good news: most of the issues that drag this score down are fixable, often without touching your site design at all.
In this article
- 1. What on-page SEO actually means in plain language
- 2. What MarketBase looks at when scoring your pages
- 3. Common problems we see on NZ business websites
- 4. How this score connects to your website foundation score
- 5. A practical plan to start improving this week
What on-page SEO actually means
If your website foundation score is about whether your website exists and works properly, your on-page SEO score is about what is actually on the pages. Think of it like a house. The foundation score checks the building itself. The on-page score checks whether the rooms are labelled, the signs make sense, and visitors can find what they came for.
On-page SEO covers things like the text that appears in search results when someone Googles your business, the headings on your pages, whether your images have descriptions that search engines can read, and how fast your pages load. These are the signals Google uses to figure out what your business does and whether to show you to local searchers.
Most of this happens behind the scenes. You will not see it by looking at your website normally. But search engines see it every time they visit your pages.
Key point
On-page SEO is not about keywords or content marketing. It is about the structure and technical setup of your pages. You do not need to become a writer or an SEO expert. You need your website to be set up properly so Google can understand what you do.
What MarketBase looks at
Your on-page SEO score runs from 0 to 100 and reflects how your website compares to other businesses in your local market and category. An electrician in Hamilton is compared to other Hamilton electricians, not businesses in Auckland or overseas.
We look at several areas that directly affect whether search engines can read and understand your pages:
The text that shows in search results
When your business appears in Google, the blue clickable heading is your title tag. The short description underneath is your meta description. These two things determine whether someone clicks on your listing or scrolls past it. MarketBase checks that both exist, that they are the right length, and that they actually describe what is on the page. A surprising number of NZ business websites have title tags that just say "Home" or meta descriptions left completely blank.
Page structure and content
Search engines read your pages from top to bottom, looking for clues about what the page is about. The main heading tells Google your page topic. The amount of text tells Google whether the page has real substance or is just a placeholder. Even the balance between text and code matters. Pages that are mostly code with very little readable content get treated differently than pages with genuine, useful information.
Speed and technical health
A page that takes too long to load loses visitors and loses rankings. MarketBase checks loading speed, page size, and whether anything is blocking your page from appearing quickly. We also look at basics like whether your site runs on a secure connection and whether your page addresses are clean and readable.
Tip
You can see your own title tag right now. Open your website in a browser and look at the text in the browser tab at the top of the screen. If it says something generic like "Home" or your web developer's company name, that is costing you clicks in search results.
Common problems on NZ business websites
We see the same issues across hundreds of New Zealand business websites. Most are straightforward to fix once someone points them out.
1. The "built five years ago and never touched" website
Many NZ businesses had a website built by a mate, a family member, or a budget web developer years ago. It looked fine at the time. But web standards move on, and a site built in 2019 without updates will often have missing title tags, no meta descriptions, slow loading from uncompressed images, and headings that do not tell search engines anything useful. The site still works for visitors who type in the address directly, but it is invisible to anyone searching.
2. Generic or missing page titles
Title tags are the single most visible piece of on-page SEO. They show up in search results, in browser tabs, and when people share your link. Yet we regularly see businesses with title tags like "Home," "Welcome," or even the template default text from their website builder. Your title tag should include your business name and what you do. "Smith Plumbing | Emergency Plumber in Christchurch" tells Google and customers everything they need in one line.
3. Thin content pages
Some business websites have barely any text on them. A homepage with a logo, a phone number, and three sentences does not give search engines enough to work with. Google wants to see that your page provides genuine, useful information to visitors. You do not need to write a novel, but each page should have enough content to explain what you offer and why someone should choose you.
4. Slow loading from oversized images
A single high-resolution photo uploaded straight from a phone camera can be 5MB or more. Put three of those on your homepage and the page takes ages to load, especially on mobile. Search engines penalise slow pages, and visitors leave. Images should be compressed and sized appropriately for the web before uploading.
Picture this
Rachel runs a physiotherapy clinic in Tauranga. Her website looked professional, but her MarketBase on-page score was 22 out of 100. When she checked, her homepage title tag said "Home" and there was no meta description at all. Every competitor in her market had both.
Her web developer updated the title tag and added a description in about 15 minutes. Two weeks later her score had climbed to 58, putting her ahead of most competitors in her area for this dimension.
How this connects to your website foundation score
MarketBase measures your website across two separate dimensions. Your website foundation score looks at the basics: does your domain work, is it a proper New Zealand domain, how old and established is it. Think of it as the building inspection.
Your on-page SEO score looks at what is inside the building. Are the rooms labelled? Is there useful information? Can visitors (and search engines) find what they need? You can have a solid foundation with poor on-page SEO, or excellent page content on a dodgy domain. Both dimensions matter, and they work together.
If your foundation score is low, start there. Fix the structural issues first. If your foundation is solid but your on-page score is lagging, the problem is in your page content and setup, and that is where this article helps.
You do not need to become a writer or an SEO expert. You need your website to be set up properly so Google can understand what you do.
Improve your on-page SEO score
10 minutes today
- Check your homepage title tag (look at the browser tab text) and note whether it describes your business
- Google your own business name and read the description text that appears under your website link
- Open your site on your phone and count how many seconds it takes to fully load
30 minutes this week
- Update your homepage title tag to include your business name and main service (aim for 50 to 60 characters)
- Write a meta description for your homepage that summarises what you do and where you are (130 to 150 characters works best)
- Ask your web developer to compress any images over 500KB and check the page loads in under three seconds
Ongoing this month
- Review every page on your site and make sure each has a unique title tag and description (not just the homepage)
- Add more text content to any pages that feel thin, especially your services and about pages
- Check that your main heading on each page clearly describes what the page is about
Where MarketBase fits in
You can check some of this yourself. But what you cannot easily do is see how your on-page SEO compares to every other business in your local market. MarketBase scores your pages against your actual competitors, shows you exactly where the gaps are, and tracks your progress as you fix them.
Your on-page score updates as we collect new data, so improvements show up over time. Fix the title tag today, compress the images this week, add more content this month. Each change closes the gap between you and the competitors who are currently showing up ahead of you in search results. To understand how all your scores work together, see how MarketBase scores work.