In the United States, the SEO industry exceeds $72 billion. Learn about the difference between on-page and off-page SEO so you can enjoy an SEO strategy that works.
Google is the most popular search engine on the internet. Ranking high on Google’s first SERPs (search engine results pages) can do wonders for your business.
You’ve worked hard on your business’s website. You deserve the increase in brand awareness and sales that comes along with ranking higher in search engines.
Here’s what you should know about on-page and off-page SEO:
SEO 101
Let’s make something clear: SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engine optimization refers to the process of increasing your website’s visibility in search engines.
The primary goals of SEO are to increase a.) your website’s ranking on SERPs and b.) web organic traffic. After all, organic traffic is more likely to convert into sales than any other kind of traffic. Getting on the first page of Google is the best your website can do.
The Difference Between On-Page and Off-Page SEO
SEO has 2 main categories: SEO on-page and off-page. Both are critical to achieving SEO success.
What is on-page SEO and off-page SEO? It’s all a matter of whether you’re working directly on your website or not.
On-page SEO refers to optimizing your own website for search engines. On-page SEO tactics include anything you do on your own website to boost its ranking. For example, downloading an app to make your website load faster is an on-page SEO tactic.
Off-page SEO is anything you do outside of your website to boost your its visibility in search engines. Link building and social media promotion are the most popular off-page SEO tactics there are. (More on that later.)
Some people think off-page SEO is harder to control than on-page SEO. Contrary to these popular belief, off-page SEO is still very much in your control if you have an effective off-page optimization strategy.
Fortunately, professionals in the field of search engine optimization are experts at managing both on-page and off-page SEO. The aforementioned link will hook you up with the best SEO services on the entire internet.
Keywords
There are many things you can do to your website in order to boost its ranking on SERPs. Nonetheless, many of these tactics involve keywords.
Keywords are the search terms that users type into search engines. Using relevant keywords is a great way to ensure that your content gets indexed properly.
For example, it’s important to have a SEF URL (which stands for search engine-friendly URL). Having a SEF URL means including a relevant keyword somewhere in your domain name.
The title of your webpage must also contain relevant search terms. Your headers should act as guidelines that organize your content into digestible sections. The keywords in your header help spiders crawl your page and index it accordingly.
Whatever you do, avoid keyword stuffing/using a keyword too many times. Keyword stuffing used to be an acceptable tactic, but now, Google considers it to be black hat SEO. This could get you penalized by Google, so never do it!
Other On-Page SEO Tactics
Enabling Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) improves your website’s security. This changes your website from starting with http:// to https://. That simple change is enough to give your SEO ranking a serious boost.
Internal links are links from within the same domain name. Linking from one of your pages to another helps users get exposed to more of your content. Including internal links in your content also helps you create a more cohesive and SEO-friendly website experience for users.
Off-Page SEO Tactics: Link Building
The main difference between on-page vs. off-page SEO is that no amount of updating your website will accomplish what off-page SEO does.
Link building refers to the process of acquiring backlinks from websites with high authority. Let’s break it down: When site A links to site B, site B now has a backlink.
In other words, site A passed “link juice” to site B.
Each backlink you get counts as a vote of confidence in Google’s eyes. (That is, unless the website’s owner marked your link with a “no follow” tag. Then the link doesn’t give you any SEO benefits at all.)
When it comes to backlinks, quality matters more than quality. When you get a backlink from a website with high domain authority, it boosts your ranking on SERPs.
The Best Link Juice Comes From Good Content
The best backlinks are earned rather than given freely. That’s why it takes time and effort to acquire quality backlinks.
The best way to get backlinks is to create valuable and original content. The more useful your content is, the more people with websites will want to link to it.
Remember: The best link juice comes from credible domains with high authority.
Guest Posts, Social Media, and More
Writing guest posts for credible websites that relate to your niche is a great way to boost your authority in that field. Guest posts also give you the opportunity to link back to your website. If you can’t include a link back to your site in your guest post’s contents, then put it in your biography.
Getting featured in online publications that are relevant to your niche will also boost your search presence. In turn, this also presents the opportunity to include a link back to your website.
Promoting your content on social media counts as off-page SEO. Social media gets your content “out there.” This increases web traffic and the possibility of getting a backlink.
Embrace The Power of SEO So It’s On Your Side
Google handles around 2 trillion searches per year. Now that you know more about the difference between on-page and off-page SEO, you’ll have a better idea of how to boost your website’s visibility in search engines.
Being in good SEO standing increases organic traffic. Organic traffic counts for 40% of revenue, so it’s worth it to work on improving your search presence.
Invest in your website—read more of our blogger lifestyle tips. The knowledge you’ll gain will make you more successful.