What Are On-Page SEO & Off-Page SEO?

If you want to get your business in front of potential customers and build a successful brand, you need SEO. Good search engine optimization helps your website rank better in search engines, and that visibility is key for a growing business. To achieve the best results, it’s important to understand the differences between and impact of on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Once you know how to both optimize your website and build SEO value away from it, you can put yourself in a better position to succeed—figuratively and, when it comes to SERP, literally. 

What Is On-Page SEO? 

As you might guess from the name, on-page SEO covers the different ways that you can optimize your website. The goal is to build a website that establishes your experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. These concepts are the foundation of E-E-A-T, which Google uses to determine the quality of a website. The better the quality, the more likely your page is to rank well in SERP. 

How do you optimize your website with on-page SEO in mind? One of the most critical pieces to the puzzle is content. Good, high-quality content demonstrates your E-E-A-T value proposition to search engines and potential customers. Not only should your content be well-written, but it should also be optimized with a descriptive title, headers, and images.

You can take steps to support your content and improve the user experience with other important optimizations: 

• Keyword research and implementation
• Metadata, including meta title tags and meta descriptions
• URLs that are short and descriptive
• Descriptive alt text for images
• Internal links to cornerstone content and other relevant pages

On-page SEO also folds in technical SEO, which focuses on optimizing your website to ensure a smoother user experience. A well-organized sitemap, a responsive and mobile-friendly website, and fast website speeds are all important if you want to rank well. 

What Is Off-Page SEO? 

Off-page SEO is any effort you make to boost your ranking beyond what you do to optimize your website proper. This includes steps you take to build your brand and increase your public profile, such as creating a strong social media presence or successful PR campaigns. By growing your brand reputation, you can build and optimize the SEO value of your website.

Backlinking is one of the most important elements of off-page SEO because it feeds into the concept of E-E-A-T. Getting a backlink from a high-quality, highly authoritative website can help boost your profile and improve your site’s SEO value. The more of these links you get from a variety of valuable sources, the more authoritative and trustworthy your website appears. 

Content marketing is also key for off-page SEO because it supports your backlinking strategy and builds E-E-A-T. Posting on social media and engaging with visitors, creating videos for YouTube, appearing on podcasts, and guest posting on high-value blogs and websites can all help draw attention from potential customers. So can getting a shout-out for your product or service from influencers or celebrities with a notable public following. 

Local SEO is another way to optimize the SEO value of your website off-page. Make sure that your Google Business Profile is verified and up-to-date and solicit reviews on platforms like Google and Yelp to establish your expertise and trustworthiness. You can also work local SEO into your on-page SEO by using keywords relevant to your area, which makes your content more appealing to the people you serve. 

Get Results With a Page One Digital Website SEO Audit 

On-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO—it’s all important if you want to optimize your website, rank better, and build a winning brand. You don’t have to go it alone when it comes to search engine optimization and improving your website. A Website SEO Audit from Page One Digital can ensure that you’re getting the most value out of your website and reaching customers. Contact us today, and let’s get started!