What is On-page & Off-page Search Engine Optimization?

What is On-Page and Off-Page Search Engine Optimization?

Is your search engine optimization campaign falling short of expectations? If so, it’s time to reformulate your strategy, starting off with the basics.

You have probably heard about on-page and off-page SEO, but do you really understand the difference between the two? To fully understand what sets them apart, it helps to gain a basic knowledge of how search engines work.

Google and other search engines evaluate your website by looking at on-page factors and off-page factors.

On-page: What is your website all about?

Off-page: How trustworthy or popular is your website?

Basically, on-page factors determine what you rank for while off-page factors influence how high you rank in the organic search results.

Optimizing On-Page Factors

Many webmasters jump straight to link building, but doing so without optimizing your on-page factors could bring little to no results. On-page SEO factors are things you have control over, which means it’s easier to make changes according to your needs.

Title Tags

The title tag is one of the most powerful on-page factors you should take advantage of. Be sure that your target keyword is included in the title tag. But instead of simply using the exact match keyword, don’t forget to make your title interesting to generate clicks from potential visitors.

Headings

Headings break down your page copy into smaller, more readable sections. But they also play an important role in boosting your rankings. It’s a good idea to use LSI terms for your headings to help the search engine bots understand what your page is about.

URL Structure

Pay close attention to your URL structure, particularly because you can only set it up one time. Make a mistake and you might have to re-create the page or deal with annoying redirects. Again, keywords should be included in the URL if possible while making them as short as you can.

Alt Text

Have lots of pictures on your posts? Optimize your images by adding alt text. Relevant keywords in the alt text help search engine crawlers “see” your images, allowing them to form connections between the photos and your page copy.

Internal Links

This is an underutilized on-page SEO technique. Building internal links allows visitors to navigate your website more easily while helping search engine bots get an idea of what your entire website is about. Wikipedia takes full advantage of this, and you know it works since they rank for pretty much everything.

Page Load Speed

Nobody wants to spend time on a slow website. Speed up your loading speed to provide the best user experience to your visitors. It has been shown that pages that load faster enjoy higher rankings than slow webpages.

Optimizing Off-Page Factors

Off-page SEO is geared toward boosting the authority of your website. Google knows that people are more likely to trust authoritative websites than a personal blog. You can think of off-page SEO as gaining votes from other people. The more votes you have, the more chances of ranking your webpages on the first page of Google.

The most influential off-page SEO factor is your number and quality of backlinks. But be careful with your link building campaign. Instead of relying on automated tools, focus on creating valuable and share-worthy content. Utilize social media and email marketing to promote your posts and get other people to link to them.

Guest blogging is another popular off-page SEO strategy. By providing guest posts on relevant websites, you gain a high-quality link pointing back to your own website.

Is One More Important Than the Other?

You don’t have to choose between on-page SEO and off-page SEO. These two work in cohesion, giving your website the best chances of ranking high for your target keywords. Get both of them right and you’ll help your visitors and search engine robots understand your website better.