On-Page vs Off-Page SEO is the opposite yet equally important part of an SEO strategy.
Before drawing out the differences between them, let’s cover some basics in case you forgot.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is basically divided into 3 parts.
- On-Page
- Off-Page
- Technical SEO
We’ve discussed them in our previous posts. If you want a recap, you can read that here: What is SEO.
Now on a quick note, technical SEO is basically managing the technical stuff of your website such as sitemap submission and attaching an SSL certificate. These generally do not take much of your time and energy unless you have very bad luck 🙁
So basically you can set them up in one go and do not need to check them much frequently.
Now, the other two do not have the same story.
An effective search engine optimization strategy is divided into two categories: On-Page and Off-Page SEO.
On-Page and Off-Page Optimization processes include a big list of factors and techniques. They can be considered almost opposite of each other but equally important.
- On-Page SEO is all about optimizing the elements that are present on your website.
- While Off-Page SEO intends to increase the domain’s authority by earning quality links from other websites around the web.
To put it more simply, let’s break down
Mainly, there are two bowls that search engines look into,
- What is on your site?
- Do the people in your industry know you on the web?
On-page SEO works to solve the first issue by improving your site.
While Off-Page SEO earn links around the web to indicate to Search engines that you’re trustworthy.
Now that you have a rough image of how this works. And how they’re different from each other, let’s dive into details.
Further in this article, we’ll discuss,
- What is On-Page and Off-Page SEO?
- On-Page vs Off-Page
- On-Page vs Off-Page SEO Factors
- On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO Techniques
On-Page and Off-Page SEO Definition
On-Page SEO: On-Page SEO is a bunch of techniques that are applied to optimize web pages in order to make the site rank higher.
That will lead to more relevant traffic and more potential leads. In on-page SEO, one optimizes the element present on their own website such as content, page speed, metadata etc.
Off-Page SEO: Off-Page SEO represents the techniques that are not applied to your website but still help the site to rank higher on SERPs.
The core of off-page SEO is link building. But it also includes many other effective search engine optimization techniques like guest posting, social networking and brand building.
On-page vs Off-page SEO
Now that we know what are On-Page and Off-Page SEO and their importance in an effective SEO strategy. Let’s discuss the On-Page and Off-Page SEO differences.
| On-Page SEO | Off-Page SEO |
|---|---|
| On-Page SEO includes writing good content, choosing the right keywords and placing the keywords in the right places. It also counts writing relevant and attractive metadata for each and every page etc. | Off-Page SEO counts link building, increasing brand awareness, increasing link popularity, social networking etc. |
| In On-Page SEO, we analyze and optimize the website. | In Off-Page SEO, we promote the brand and website. |
| We use internal linking in On-Page SEO. | Direct Linking is used in Off-Page SEO. |
| On-Page SEO Techniques include publishing high-quality content, optimizing page content. Optimizing page titles and meta descriptions. SEO Images and other multimedia elements. Headings and content formatting. Internal and external linking and URL optimization | Off-Page SEO Techniques include link Building, Influencer Outreach, Contribute as Guest Author, Social Bookmarking, Social Media Networking, Forum Submission, Blog Directory Submission and Content Sharing |
| As per a report by MOZ, 70% of the SEOs and website owners spend time on On-Page SEO | While they spent only 30% of the time on Off-Page SEO |
| On-Page SEO helps you depict better what your site is about | Off-Page SEO helps you make your site more popular around the web |
On-Page SEO vs Off-Page SEO: Factors
On-Page SEO Factors
On-Page SEO is all that you do or optimize on your website in order to gain better rankings. Optimizations like Keywords, title and description and loading speed of the website counts in On-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO is all about making your site better for humans and crawlers.
Factors impacting On-Page SEO include:
Core Web Vitals:
Core web vitals are the latest on-page ranking factors introduced by Google. This is basically the measure of a website’s real-world user experience. To measure this, Google takes things into consideration like visual stability, interactivity, and load time.
Page Speed:
The load time of a page is a crucial part of On-Page SEO. Google favours the pages that load faster in rankings than the ones that are slow.
Mobile-friendliness:
Mobile-friendliness is simply the measure of how well a website performs on a mobile phone. As 60% of the web searches come from mobile devices, Google suggests optimizing your website for mobile devices.
Title tags are just HTML tags that define the title of a page. Google takes title tags into consideration while deciding whether the content is relevant to the search query or not.
Meta descriptions:
Meta descriptions are just like title tags helps Google and the user to understand what the page is about.
Google does use the meta description to decide whether the page is relevant to the search query or not. Still, the main function of meta descriptions is to attract users and increase the CTR of the page.
Content quality:
This should go without saying. Content is the very first the user is coming to your site. So, it has to be top-notch and relevant. Quality content carries some more features like providing value, being easy to read, and being unique.
Image alt text:
Using images and other multimedia elements are an amazing way to keep users reading. They also make the content easy to understand.
But the catch is, Google does not understand images. So, for that alt text is entered to tell Google what the image is representing. Image alt text has been an important On-Page SEO factor.
Internal Linking:
Linking to the pages on your own website helps you in many ways. First, they help readers find more useful content and you can make them stay on your website longer. Internal linking also helps Google find new content on your website. And the anchor text used helps Google understand what can they expect on the other side of the link.
Navigation of your site is an important On-Page SEO factor. If the navigation of your site ain’t good and a user or crawler finds a dead end, it leaves a bad impression on both Google and users.
Off-Page SEO Factors
Next in off-page vs on-page SEO is Off-Page SEO factors.
Off-Page SEO basically includes everything that you do outside of your site that earns a backlink or increases brand awareness. The most basic techniques that count in off-page SEO is link building and creating shareable content.
Factors impacting off-page SEO include
Backlinks:
Backlinks are undoubtedly one of the most important factors in entire SEO. The quality of the backlinks should be checked. As Google has been updating their algorithm a lot in the last few years, just to fight link spam.
Social media:
While sharing your content on social media, doesn’t directly impact the ranking of your site on SERP. But a social media presence of your brand helps you increase brand awareness. And attracts users from different social media platforms. That indirectly does help your site’s SERP.
Unlinked mentions:
Mentions of your brand across the web that do not leave a link to your site are helpful too. Unlinked mentions help you increase brand awareness among the targeted audience.
Google My Business (GMB):
GMB is basically for local businesses. They can be very helpful for a local business. GMB helps a business rank in Google local pack and Google Maps searches. Google My Business is a critical off-page SEO factor for local businesses.
On-Page vs Off-Page SEO Techniques
Now let’s look through the best on-page and off-page optimization techniques that you can use to better the SEO of your site. And ultimately improve the rankings of your web pages on SERPs.
I won’t be going in deep to explain them, as we’ve already done that before in our previous posts. You can read them to know about them in detail.
On-Page SEO Techniques
Title Tags: Better Title tags with focus keyword included lets Google know better what your content is about.
Headings: Headers make the content looks interesting and easy to understand. They also help you gain better rankings when keywords are added to them naturally.
URL structure: Google has clearly stated that it look into the URL of a page to determine whether it is relevant to a specific search query or not.
Alt text for images: Alt text help crawlers better understand what the image is about. And if it is relevant to the topic or not.
Page Speed: Fast loading speed of the web pages satisfies the users and hence improve the user experience which is a direct ranking factor.
Mobile Friendliness: As 60% of the searches come from mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly then you already losing half of the potential audience.
Page content: Page Content must offer value to the users. Because if not then users will leave your site, which will increase the bounce rate and would also create a negative brand image.
Internal Linking: Internal linking helps Google and users find new and useful content on your website.
Schema Markup: Adding structured data to your website helps Google better understand what the content on a page is about. It also makes the page appear as a rich snippet. And that increases the chances of a web page gaining clicks.
Social Shares: Social Media shares depict that your content is useful and users have found value in your content.
Core Web Vitals: User Experience is a crucial ranking factor for Google. And you must make sure that a user that comes to your site should not leave unsatisfied. The measures of user experience include visual stability, engagement, and page speed.
Off-Page SEO Techniques
Now in the on-page vs off-page SEO guide, let’s list the best off-page SEO techniques.
Link Building: Link building is the core of off-page SEO. Every technique from which you can earn a link to your site from an authoritative website can be considered in link building.
Creating Shareable Content: Creating and sharing content exclusive content too helps your brand. As it gains a link and also increases brand awareness among the targeted audience through different sources.
The shared content can be of any form including articles/blogs, images, videos, infographics, pdf, ppt and documents.
Google My Business: GMB as mentioned before can be quite helpful for local businesses. Citations also play an important role in GMB, NAP citations indicate to Google that your business is real and trustworthy. Just make sure that you make them consistent.
Marketing Tactics: Marketing tactics include every tactic that a business can apply to increase brand awareness. Marketing tactics include content marketing, influencer marketing, and social networking.
On-Page and Off-Page Optimizations, Better Together
We’ve discussed what is on-page vs off-page SEO, their differences, factors that affect them and their best techniques.
While these two optimizations might look effective enough on their own to help your site rank higher in SERP. One must include them both with a balance to form a comprehensive SEO strategy.
As Google rankings factor include approximately equal factors from both types of SEO.
Your strategy too must include techniques of both to make a considerable change, both in the short and long run.
If you have any doubts or want some help in making an effective SEO strategy for your website, you can mail us at [email protected]. We will be more than happy to help you.
I hope you would have found answers to all your questions. If not, then the comment box is wide open for you.
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