A well-optimized website generates targeted traffic and engagement.
But here's the thing:
It takes a lot of work to develop a great site. It takes even more work to get it ranking in search engines.
The two elements you need to explore are on-page and off-page SEO. These are what helps your site achieve higher rankings, more engagement, and greater success. What's the difference between the two? Glad you asked!
Let's deep dive into understanding the differences when comparing on-page vs off-page SEO.
Why We Need SEO
The early days of the Internet were mostly about discovery. It's why people would "surf the Web" because they bounce from site to site. There weren't many ways to index sites and pages outside of manual lists (like early Yahoo). Early attempts were made but it took the introduction of Google to start shaping the Web the way it is today.
Early search engines (even Google) used keywords to understand what a page was about.
While this indexing method sounds fine — it led to many unethical 'black hat' strategies. This mostly revolved around keyword stuffing, hidden text, and the like. It created a terrible Internet experience.
The champions of ethical strategies and site best practices helped shape the Web.
Before long, Google could understand more about the page beyond just keywords. Search engines became sophisticated. Indexes now used hundreds of elements to contextualize a page. The result is what searches provide today, relevant info that's valuable to the user.
Search Engine Optimization is an adaptation to the evolution of search.
What is On-Page SEO?
A webpage is a wholly different experience for humans vs search engines.
As a human, we see information, visual elements, sounds, and whatever else on the page. We're engaging with the content and so much more. For search engines, they see code and text. It's mechanical. It's a ton of data for processing.
On-page SEO is a way to:
- Improve a web page for a specific topic and offer more value to users
- Optimize a page so search engines understand what it's about so it ranks for desirable terms
Every webpage contains content. This is what users want and search engines need (to apply rankings). Great content has many on-page SEO elements by default because it's more likely to include lots of keywords and phrases. However, there are plenty of extra ways to boost a page's SEO value by way of on-page SEO tactics.
With on-page SEO, you can apply desirable keywords you want to rank for to:
- Titles
- Meta descriptions
- Headings
- Body content
- Internal & outbound links
- Media descriptions
- Structured data
The simplest way to think of it is this: You're trying to create an amazing piece of (optimized) content around your topic.
The keyword supports this topic because they're relevant. These keywords also go into elements of the page search engines use to contextualize the page. The result is a better user experience AND stronger SEO value for the page.
What is Off-Page SEO?
If on-page SEO is a measure of what the content is about then off-page SEO is its perceived value. These markers tell search engines the "value" of a page based on the community at large.
Think of it this way:
A great piece of content (or product/service) people enjoy tends to get more mentions. More mentions are (usually) a great indicator that it's valuable. Mix in a touch of on-page SEO and you've got a page that deserves higher rankings.
Off-page SEO tends to include the following:
- Backlinks (links from other websites)
- Mentions (social media links and mentions)
- Authority (trustworthiness, relevance, engagement)
Off-page SEO is still mostly focused on gaining quality backlinks from relevant sites. The currently popular method includes site outreach. The gist of this is to publish content on relevant sites that includes a link back to your website. The same result may be achieved by asking if fellow site owners would link to a resource you created.
Prioritizing On-Page vs Off-Page SEO
Think of your website as the foundational asset all online efforts radiate from.
