Seo on-page vs. Seo off-page

For marketers who have been keeping an eye on the SEO landscape for a few years, you will know that Google has made several major changes to its search engine algorithms. So far, there have been Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and Pigeon, as well as numerous 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 updates. If you lost track of that zoo, you are not alone, and many marketers have spent the last few years thinking that if you enter enough keywords on your website, you will be fine. However, that won't get you exactly where you used to 5 years ago, because today's algorithms have more emphasis on optimizing pages for the user, not just search engine crawlers.

Another big problem you see with SEO today is how marketers approach it. While many marketers consider that everything related to SEO is within a set of activities, there are actually two different branches that need to be addressed: SEO on-page and off-page (off-page). ). So that you can better understand each one, here is an overview and explanation of some of the best practices:

What is on-page SEO?

When you think about the most basic search engine optimization tactics like using keywords in your copy and optimizing the meta description, HTML code, title tags, and alt tags, that's the foundation of on-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to all measures that can be taken directly within your website to improve your position in search rankings. This includes the basic tactics listed above, but also takes into account things like overall content quality, page performance, and content structure.

SEO factors on the page:

Keywords

While keywords are less important than they were a few years ago, keyword optimization is still a cornerstone of SEO today. That said, the focus has shifted to more long-tail keywords, which better fit the search patterns of today's internet users. Think about your audience and the keywords they are searching for, and try creating and optimizing your website content around those keywords.

Meta description

A meta description is the short description that appears below your URL on a search engine results page and below a title on a social post. You should describe the content on that page, but most importantly, be sure to include relevant keywords in this area so they can be picked up by search engine crawlers. Try to keep your descriptions under 300 characters to ensure that your full description shows up in search results.

Alternative text

Alternative text refers to the word or phrase that can be attributed to an image file to help it be indexed for search. If you use an infographic on your website that describes some tips for fixing a house, for example, you can save the alternative text for that image as "tips for fixing a house", and that graphic will begin to rank for that phrase in Image results .

Title tag

The title tag refers to the title of your web page, or the main heading that you see on search engine results pages. The title tag in the photo above is the SEO Survival Guide (H1 tag). Again, this is another crucial opportunity to include relevant keywords and increase your page's searchability.

SSL / HTTPS

Page security is more important than ever in 2018, and enabling Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security technology is crucial to improving its security, reliability, and visibility. By enabling SSL, you increase the likelihood that a third party will not come between your web server and the visitor's web server, ensuring that the information entered on the site is secure. Similarly, Google prefers SSL-enabled sites, so increasing visibility is essential.

URL structure

In addition to the factors listed above, an organized URL structure is important to today's marketers as it enables search engines to crawl from page to page on your website more easily and makes navigation be more efficient for visitors. You want your URLs to contain keywords that reflect the pages they lead to, as easy-to-understand URLs are more likely to gain clicks and also help search engines crawl your site.

This is where pillar pages most recently came into play for marketers, with certain pages on websites dedicated to popular topics their prospects are searching for, and linking all related pages to that pillar. Let's say you want to create pillar pages dedicated to automotive, medical, and consumer injection molding applications, for example. With your pillars identified, you can tailor your content and URL strategy specifically to those pillars, link all related content to the main pillars page, and help you increase your searchability on those topics.

Internal link

Speaking of internal linking, internally linking related pages on your website is another important factor of on-page SEO. Linking to different relevant pages on your site makes it easier for search engines to crawl everything, and it also keeps visitors interested longer.

Page performance

While other factors of on-page SEO deal with content quality and structure, the performance of your website and its pages is also an on-page ranking factor. Pages that take a long time to load or that don't render correctly on mobile devices will rank lower in search engine results pages (SERPs) as users will get frustrated, leave, and increase the bounce rate. Search engines evaluate this and use it as a key page ranking factor, so it is crucial for marketers to consider image file sizes on their pages, reduce redirects, improve mobile responsiveness. of your site and minimize the amount of CSS / Javascript.

You may be interested >>> 31 Ways to improve the organic positioning of your website

What is off-page SEO?

While on-page SEO refers to factors that you can control on your own website, off-page SEO refers to page ranking factors that occur outside of your website, such as backlinks. from another site. It also includes your promotional methods, taking into account the amount of exposure something gets on social media, for example.

Off-page SEO factors:

Backlinks

The number and quality of inbound links you have on your site is by far the most important factor in off-page SEO. The more sites that link to your content, the more domain authority Google will give your site, increasing your ranking. This has led marketers to try questionable paid link building tactics, but there are several organic approaches you can take that produce effective results, such as guest blogging, appearing in industry trade publications, and seeking industry contacts. . happy to share your content

Domain authority

Measured on a scale of 1 to 100, your domain authority is a number that search engines give you to determine the strength of your website. Think of it as a rating, essentially. Websites with a higher domain authority receive preference in search results, while websites with a lower domain authority are more likely to rank lower. Domain authority is measured by a few different factors, including how long you've had your domain name (the longer the better), the history of the domain name, the number of backlinks, and the number of 404 pages. By ensuring you have a technically sound website that follows the SEO best practices , you can maximize the authority of your domain and improve its ranking.

Social promotion

While page ranking is not directly related to interactions on a social media post, social posts that generate a lot of clicks will certainly help increase traffic to the site and generate a ton of shared links.

On-page and off-page SEO work together to improve search engine rankings. By working on what you can control today, producing quality content that supports high-quality on-page SEO, you'll be on your way to getting backlinks, improving your domain authority, and controlling your off-page SEO. .