The Difference Between On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO
We divide our search engine strategy between two categories: on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Though both are very different strategies, they’re both essential for improving SEO performance.
If you’re looking for a simple definition of these two strategies, here it is: on-page SEO is what your site (or page) is about. Off-page SEO is about how popular or authoritative your site is.
If you’re looking for more detail, keep reading.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is the process of ensuring your site is readable to search engines, so they know what your site is about. You want your site readable so Google picks up on the keywords you want to rank for. On-page SEO includes the things you have control of and can change on your site.
These are the biggest components:
Title tags
Each page on your site has a title tag. Put your targeted keywords here.
Headings (H1)
Usually the largest words on the page, headings are seen by search engines as a little more important than the other page copy. For that reason, it’s a good idea to use your targeted keywords in your headings. Just be sure the headings accurately reflect your page content.
URL structure
If possible, put keywords into your URLs. But don’t go and change all of your current URLs unless you plan on redirecting your old ones. Seek out a professional if you plan to do this. Regardless, make sure any URLs from here on out have your targeted keywords in them.
Alt text for images
For each image you have, you should have alt text. Most content management systems allow you to do this. Alt text isn’t seen by the average user, but is used by screen reader software to help visitors who are blind understand what your images are. Search engines read this alt text too, so you should include relevant keywords in it. Just make sure it accurately describes the image.
Fast-loading pages, or page load speed
If you want to rank higher, make sure your pages are optimized to load faster. Google wants to give users what they’re looking for as quickly as possible, so a speedier website should rank higher.
Page content
The content on your website should be useful to people and help them find what they’re searching for. It should be easy to read and understand, benefiting both the user and search engines.
Internal linking
Having links on your pages that bring people to other pages on your website is useful to both visitors and search engines. It improves usability and navigation for human users and search engine crawlers, increases page views, and brings people to other content, which can increase conversion rate.
These are some of the things you can take control of to improve your on-page SEO. Improvements like these let search engines know what you want your site to rank for, so don’t neglect them. Now that search engines know what to rank you for, let’s look at the other side of the SEO coin: off-page SEO.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is the process of increasing the authority of your website through link building. Links are like the currency of the web. Every time a page links to another, it’s a vote for the value of the page being linked to. So the biggest factor in this process is the number and quality of backlinks to your website. Here are some great ways to build links to your website:
- Create good content that people actually want to link to because it’s valuable to them
- Share your content on social media, since that ultimately generates links
- Build relationships with other influencers in your industry, which will likely lead to links
- Guest blog on sites related to yours; these guest posts will have links back to your site
The quality of the links you’re getting is more important than how many links you get. If you’re creating shareable and valuable content, you’re on your way to earning valuable links and improving your off-page SEO.
By combining both of these processes you increase your rankings and, therefore, your bottom line. Through on-page SEO you get the word out about what your business is and does, and through off-page SEO you gain popularity and authority for your business across the web.