The Difference Between On-Page And Off-Page SEO
The competition for the online space is becoming stiffer by the day as more and more pages strive to secure a slot on Google. Pages want to rank on the first search engine results page (SERP) if not the very top. For this to happen, the only way proven to work is through search engine optimization.
SEO comes in two different components and both of them are important for the SERPs. Websites need both on-page SEO and off-page SEO to attract visitors and ultimately make sales.
On-site SEO involves strategies that the website employs to make the site appealing to visitors and Google. These are aspects or rather settings within the website that are totally under the control of the owners. They make the site easy to find, understand, and navigate hence improving user experience.
Off-page SEO involves strategies that the site owner employs to make the page discoverable through other sites. The strategy involves carrying out activities that promote the page by making it appear as an authority. In simple terms, off-page SEO makes the site discoverable, hence attracting new visitors every day.
Strategies That Improve On-Page SEO
If you’re thinking about improving your search engine optimization, the first activities that you’ll carry out involve on-page SEO. Before you even get visitors to your page, you must ensure it’s good enough for the users and Google. You want to ensure the search engine can crawl, index, and understand your page.
When Google understands your page, it will automatically show it to searchers. You have to work on things such as title tags, HTML tags, page speed, keywords, and quality content to make your site discoverable. Here’s how these strategies work:
- Quality content: An empty page will not prompt visitors to take action even if it manages to appear on top of the SERP. Content makes pages worth the visitors' time. Quality content is well-written, engaging, and optimized with keywords to attract users and search engines. Through effective content marketing, you have the highest chance of attracting people’s attention and getting them to your site.
- Keywords: Keywords help Google understand your page and present it to searchers. It helps determine the content of your page to match what people are looking for. To achieve this, your page should use relevant keywords in the page titles, headings, meta descriptions, and throughout the content.
- Page structure: The structure of your page will make it easy to navigate by both users and Google. Use headings, subheadings, and bullet lists to improve your page structure. If you can’t do this by yourself, get experts to help you design and structure your page in a way that helps it get discovered by Google.
- Page speed: Make sure your page loads within a few seconds because visitors don’t have the patience to wait. To optimize your page speed, consider things such as JavaScript files, page compression, and caching.
- Mobile-friendly page: Visitors using mobile devices should view your page without problems. A page that’s mobile-friendly can shrink and fit on any device. Think of responsive design, easy navigation, and page speed when making the site mobile-friendly.
- Meta description: A meta description tells people what the page is about, encouraging them to click through and find out more. Optimizing with relevant keywords help the page attract visitors easily.
- Title tags: These are HTML tags that introduce the content of the page and make Google determine if it’s relevant to searchers’ queries. Using keywords in the page title may help improve SEO throughout the site.
- Image optimization: Using alt text and descriptive tag names help optimize images to make your page discoverable. Google uses the alt text to determine if the image is relevant to a user query.
- Internal links: These are links that lead visitors to another page within the same site. Use relevant anchor texts to show Google and users what to expect from the page they intend to visit.
Strategies That Improve Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO can largely be considered as link-building. It’s like getting your page quoted on other websites. However, off-page SEO doesn’t just end with links. Any activity you undertake to promote your page through other sites is considered off-page.
Here are some off-page SEO strategies:
- Backlinking: Links are the backbone of any off-page SEO. Getting high-quality backlinks indicates to Google that your page is trustworthy and authoritative. You can get backlinks from other authority sites through guest blogging, outreach, and other methods.
- Social media: You can promote your page online through social media. If you have followers on social media, they’re a good starting point for your off-page SEO. Posting and promoting your content on social media can help you engage new and existing followers. Remember, you have to create people-first content if you want them to visit your website.
- Google My Business: Google My Business (GMB) allows businesses to feed Google with important details such as location, type of business, and operation hours among other information. Using GMB can offer both off-page and local SEO benefits as it helps businesses get discovered within its geographical area.
Balancing On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO
You cannot choose between on-page and off-page SEO because they’re all important for SEO. However, you can’t use both strategies if you’re just starting your SEO journey. Before you start link building to improve your off-page SEO, you must begin by working on your on-page strategies.
For example, if one of your strategies is to create engaging and informative content, your SEO should start with developing a content plan. Create content that you can post on your site before you consider content for backlinking or guest posting.
On-page SEO strategies ensure your website is strong enough and can accommodate new visitors. You don’t want a situation where a visitor clicks your site and leaves because the page is too slow or they can’t access it through their phones. Check your site speed, mobile friendliness, reviews, and keywords.
Create a strong strategy that can work for both on-page and off-page SEO. Take a holistic approach that provides all strategies that improve your page ranking and reach.
How Penmo Can Help With Your On-Page and Off-Page SEO
If you understand the difference between on-page and off-page SEO you can come up with the right strategy to help your page be more visible and attract organic traffic. Working with a partner like Penmo who understands on-page SEO and off-page SEO can give you a great boost, making you a thought leader.
Penmo has expertise in content writing and provides invaluable benefits in boosting your site ranking. We provide the right balance between off-page and on-page SEO to help you achieve your SEO goals. Some of the ways we can help you enhance your on-page and off-page SEO include:
- **High-quality content: **We work with experienced writers who create engaging and informative content optimized for the search engine and users in mind.
- Keyword research: We can help you identify the right keywords to target and optimize your content for search.
- Page structure: We ensure your page is well-structured, making it easy for the visitors to understand and navigate.
- Off-Page SEO: Penmo provides off-page SEO support through various link-building strategies. We can help with guest blogging, local SEO, and enhancing your online reputation.
If you’re ready to rank your page on the top pages of Google with various SEO strategies, Penmo is here to make that happen. Sign up today and begin your journey towards achieving your SEO goals.
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