Nearly 70% of all activity online starts with a search engine like Bing or Google. With search engine optimization (SEO), you can appear in front of relevant searches. Unfortunately, most people (75%) never look beyond the first page of results.
You need both on-page SEO and off-page SEO to improve your rankings.
What’s the difference between on-page SEO vs off-page SEO? Keep reading to find out. After reading this guide, you can start building your SEO marketing strategy.
Boost your rankings to start reaching more customers with these tips today!
What is On-Page SEO?
First, let’s answer the question that likely brought you here: what is on-page SEO, exactly?
On-page SEO refers to tactics completed on your website that can benefit your search engine rankings. On-page tactics can involve the words you use on a webpage or your site’s design and development.
You have complete control over your on-page SEO factors. On-page search engine optimization will show Google and readers your content is relevant. You can also demonstrate the quality of your content, which can boost your credibility.
There are a few different on-page SEO factors you’ll need to consider to improve your ranking.
URL Structure
First, consider the URL you create for each new page on your website. It’s important to consider how one URL will impact the URL structure of future pages.
For example, some websites set up their blogs as a subdomain (blog.yourdomain.com) versus a subfolder (yourdomain.com/blog).
Using a subfolder can benefit your main website’s domain authority. Otherwise, the backlinks you generate for a subdomain won’t benefit your main site.
You might find it difficult to improve your ranking for the main site and a subdomain if you decide to use both.
When creating subfolders, it’s important to keep the number of folders you create to a minimum. You can create a flat site structure. This structure is easier for search engines to crawl.
Some content management systems like WordPress will automatically set your URL as the post title. Try to shorten your URL when needed, though. Shorter URLs look better on search engine result pages (SERP).
It can also help readers better understand your content.
Meta Descriptions
Consumers often skim-read meta descriptions when exploring the results of SERP. Your meta description can entice consumers to click on your website. If your meta description doesn’t appeal to their interests, you’ll fail to generate website traffic.
When creating your meta description, make sure it’s engaging, informative, and easy to read. Keep it short (you only have 160 characters). Don’t forget to include your target keyword within the meta description, too.
Search engine crawlers also look at your meta description to learn more about your content. Creating strong meta descriptions will make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.
Title Tags
Title tags tell search engines what title to display on SERP. They’re an HTML element.
Make sure your title tag is relevant to the content and contains your target keyword. Choose titles that are unique to the rest of your content, too.
Try to create engaging titles that encourage people to click on your content.
Content Structure
Most people think of content structure when discussing on-page SEO.
How you structure your content can help search engines crawl and index your website. It’s important to write for consumers, not search engines, though.
Use headings and subheadings to organize your content. Make sure your target keyword appears in an H1 tag. Crawlers assign top priority to H1 tags.
Image Alt Text
Use high-quality images for your pages and blog posts. Then, add the target keyword to the image filename. Include the keyword in the image alt text, too.
Links
Links are also important on-page SEO factors. First, include internal links. Internal links send readers to other pages on your site.
Use external links to statistics and research to boost your credibility.
Site Speed and Mobile Optimization
Google uses mobile-first indexing when determining rankings. Make sure you’re optimized for mobile devices.
Then, speed up your page load times.
When updating your website, make sure to appeal to Google’s Core Web Vitals, too.
What is Off-Page SEO?
What is off-page SEO, then? Off-page SEO refers to factors that are beyond your website. You might not have complete control over these factors.
Good off-page SEO can boost your brand awareness and credibility.
Backlinks
When choosing which off-page SEO techniques to focus on, start by creating backlinks. Backlinks are links that send readers from other sites to your web content.
You can start guest blogging to generate backlinks. Find websites that already reach your target audience. Make sure the content on that website is high-quality.
Choose websites that have a high domain authority before guest blogging, too. Make sure the anchor text that holds your link is relevant to your content.
Google claims backlinks are one of its top three ranking factors. The more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it can generate.
Domain Strength
Domain strength measures your website’s authority on a scale of 0 to 100. Factors that impact domain strength include:
- User experience
- Relevancy to the search query
- Website traffic statistics
- Your link profile
Many of the on- and off-page SEO techniques mentioned above can impact your score.
Social Sharing
Social media won’t directly impact your SEO rankings. However, generating traffic to your website can boost your ranking. You can use social sharing to generate more website traffic.
Google will recognize you’re generating referral traffic. It might decide to improve your ranking as a result.
Add social sharing buttons to your website to encourage more people to share your content.
Content Distribution
Help more people find your content online by sharing your content to relevant forums and communities like reddit. You can attract more people to your site, which could help your ranking.
Boosting Your Ranking: Understanding On-Page SEO vs Off-Page SEO
To recap, what’s the difference between on-page SEO vs off-page SEO?
You can control on-page SEO factors by making changes to your website. Off-page SEO techniques involve factors outside of your website. You need both to improve your search ranking.
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