SEO means search engine optimization and its sole purpose is to help your pages rank at the top of the search results page. But there are two main types of SEO, on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Both are important, and they work together to boost your site’s visibility on search. In this article, we will walk you through the key differences between on-page and off-page SEO and point you in the right direction to optimize your site and pages for higher rankings.
What is on-page & off-page SEO?
On-page and off-page SEO are two sites of the same coin. Both are essential for improving your site’s search engine rankings, but they focus on different areas:
On-page SEO is about optimizing the content, structure, and elements within your website, making it easier for search engines to understand and rank your site. It is everything you control directly on your site, like the text, images, meta-tags, and links.
Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is all about building your site’s reputation and authority across the internet. It focuses on activities outside of your website.
Think of it like running a successful restaurant. On-page SEO is like designing the insides of your restaurant, the menu, the decor, the food quality, and how easy it is for your customers to find what they want. You make sure that everything inside the restaurant is perfect so that your diners have a great experience. Off-page SEO is like word of mouth and reviews about your restaurant. The more people recommend your restaurant, leave positive reviews, and share it on social media, the more customers will want to come.
Off-page vs. On-page SEO
- The focus for on-page SEO is to optimize elements within your website, such as your content, keywords, headings, links, alt tags, site structure, meta tags, etc. The focus for off-page SEO is to build reputation and authority outside of your website through backlinks, social media, guest blogging, and many others.
- For on-page SEO, you have full control over every aspect of your website, but you have less control when it comes to off-page SEO because you can’t control the actions of other bloggers or authority figures.
- The purpose of on-page SEO is to make your website understandable and user-friendly for your audience and search engines, while the purpose of off-page SEO is to boost credibility and drive traffic from outside sources.
- The speed of results for your on-page SEO is almost immediate because you can quickly make changes to your website elements, and it makes sense that it takes longer to see results for off-page SEO because it relies on external validation.
The Importance of On-page SEO
On-page SEO is all about the things you do on your site to help search engines and people understand what your site is about. When you decide to write an article, every piece of content is supposed to drive traffic and sales for your business. For example, you think the keyword “grain-free dog food for sensitive stomachs” is a keyword that would drive traffic and sales for your business.
But you need proof that people are searching for the keyword. You will use tools like Ahrefs’ free Keyword Generator or Wordstream’s free Keyword tool to discover the search volume of the keyword. It appears that the keyword has search volume, so it makes sense to write an article and try to rank for this keyword. You won’t waste time writing an article if you know no one is searching for it. It’s a waste of time and resources.
How would Google and other search engines know what this page is going to be about?
The key is optimizing your page with the keyword you are trying to rank for in different places. Other recommended places to add the focus keyword are in the subheadings and in the image alt text.
The Importance of Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is all about the things you do outside of your website to make it more credible and trusted and, as a result, increase its ranking potential. Off-page SEO is like getting other well-recognized people in your niche or industry to talk about your website. Some off-page SEO strategies like guest posting, email outreach, broken link building, etc. are the key techniques for doing so. However, not all strategies are suitable for new or beginner sites.
Imagine you are a new site owner, and you try to reach out to other established bloggers in the same niche or industry. Will high-quality sites be willing to link back to you? No, there is no reason, and it is a risk to them. You only want to link to sites that are credible.
Of course, you may still get backlinks, but more likely than not, you will only attract backlinks from low-quality sites. For new sites, you shouldn’t be worried about reaching out to others. You should focus more on having a good site structure, which is on-page SEO, getting backlinks by providing testimonials to credible products in your niche, starting your own podcast or YouTube channel or likes of it, and finding internal linking opportunities. As your site starts to gain some traction, you can start focusing on contributing content and expertise to other websites, or, in other words, guest posting.
Reach out to other authoritative sites in your niche with broken links and ask them to link to your resource. Comment on relevant blog posts, but the idea is not to get backlinks but to start a conversation with the blog owner to open up opportunities. Create link-worthy content, reach out to interview influencers, do reverse image searches to reclaim links, appear on popular podcasts or interviews, and many others.
Once your site becomes an authority in your niche, you can then coin a new phrase and start a community.
Which one is more important?
A successful SEO strategy requires a balanced approach that addresses both the on-page and off-page SEO factors. But if your site is new, focus on the on-page SEO first. Establish a strong foundation through careful planning of your site structure and content creation. Once your site is growing in authority and other bloggers are naturally linking to your content, you can gradually start to work on off-page SEO.
Bottom-line
A strong SEO plan must include both off-page and on-page SEO. Optimizing your website’s content, structure, and aspects is the main goal of on-page SEO in order to raise search engine ranks and enhance the user experience. It contains components that are entirely within your control, including headings, meta tags, internal links, and keyword placement.
On the other hand, off-page SEO uses outside initiatives like guest blogging, social media interaction, and backlinks to increase the authority and trustworthiness of your website. Off-page SEO is essential for improving your site’s reputation and ranking potential, even though you have less influence over it.
On-page SEO should be given top priority for new websites in order to build a solid foundation. You can progressively invest in off-page SEO tactics as your website becomes more popular in order to increase your visibility and authority. Over time, a well-rounded SEO strategy that includes both on-page and off-page components will increase visibility, increase traffic, and raise rankings.