Defining the Difference between Off-Site SEO and On-Site SEO

There are basically two major forms of search engine optimization; they are the on-site SEO and the off-site SEO. Which of the two should you prioritize first? Actually, it is important to do both since each component contributes to the overall success of search engine optimization.

While some websites are able to land in the front page of the search results doing only one aspect of SEO, the attained high page rank will not last long if one component is missing. Thus, you have to do both not only to grab the top ranking position but also to maintain the rank and to successfully defend it against your competitors.

According to some experts, offsite SEO accounts to about 75% of the site’s page rank, while onsite SEO contributes approximately 25%. Others will say its 70%/30% in favor of offsite SEO. Either way, the main point is offsite SEO is the major component, but that doesn’t mean that you will neglect to conduct onsite optimization altogether.

Differentiating between onsite SEO and offsite SEO

As a website owner, it is important to know the borderline between onsite and offsite optimization. The following outlines a brief overview on each major component of search engine optimization.

Onsite SEO

Onsite optimization is anything that you do within your website to optimize it for the search engines. There are key factors to consider here. They are listed as follows:

• The domain name
• The meta description
• Web contents
• Internal links
• Tags and metatags
• Anchor texts
• Rick media files
• Bounce rate
• Loading speed

Among these things, web content is a key result area that greatly matters a lot to onsite optimization. Quality and uniqueness of the post must be given due focus. Each post must be unique. Ideally, it should not be published elsewhere but distinct only to the site. Aside from that, it should contain highly valuable information with eye-popping title that effectively grabs attention.

Another important component is the meta description. This is a short overview on what the blog is all about. The statement that you will input here will be used by the search engines to describe your blog. This will also be the short statement that will appear in the search engine result pages.

The meta description can heavily influence the search users’ decision on whether to checkout your site or not. This is also used by the search engine crawlers when ranking websites for certain keywords. Therefore, make sure that your target keyword term is present in the meta description.

The domain name is also important. However, with Google’s EMD update, having an exact match domain name no longer matters a lot to SEO. Nonetheless, the domain name adds credibility and relevancy to your blog. It can help users to decide if the blog is the right one to get the information they are searching for or not.

Also an important component is the rich media file. These are the relevant photos and videos in your web pages. These files further add value to your posts, and the relevancy of the photos and videos can reinforce the search engine’s assessment of the webpage. These files should be properly inserted with alt-tags that are relevant to the main target keyword phrase.

As part of offsite optimization, internal links must be properly in place. Each page should, ideally, has a link from another page or from the home page. The internal link structure should be flawless, as well, to ensure that visitors will quickly and conveniently find the right pages that are relevant to their search.

 

Other offsite optimization components are the bounce rate and the loading speed. While they have little SEO value, they can add up to better page ranking due to enhanced user experience. The loading speed of the webpage can affect bounce rate, and it can also cause some visitors to leave if the page loads too slow.

Offsite SEO

Offsite SEO is web optimization done outside of your blog. The major components are not as plenty as onsite SEO, but they are labor intensive that requires more time and effort than onsite optimization. Nonetheless, the following are the major factors of offsite SEO:

• Link building
• Reputation management
• Social media engagement

The bulk of the work is in link building. This is not only beneficial to SEO but it can also get direct referrals and further increase targeted web traffic. This normally requires content creation in order to improve the quality of each link. Links built for link building purposes and devoid of contents will have no bearing on SEO. Worse thing may happen if Google will rule them out as spam, which could only hurt the ranking position of your blog.

In order to make link building serve its purpose right in SEO, create links from credible high PR sources. The content where the inbound links will come from must also be unique and high in quality. In addition, observe link diversification for better results. Don’t concentrate your backlinks from only a few sources but spread them out in different sources and in different relevant niches.

Although less popular but similarly important is the reputation management. Having a trusted online reputation is not only beneficial to SEO but it is also helpful in giving your blog better credibility among your target audience.

In terms of legality, there are two types of SEO; the white hat SEO and the black hat SEO. White hat SEO is the legal method, therefore make sure that every web optimization activity that you do is within the legal bounds of Google. You must, therefore, ensure that your blog is free from black hat activities because this could hurt its ranking.

Having bad links will tarnish your link profile, and as part your online reputation management, you should remove bad links to your web pages. You can do this using Google’s link avow tool.

Social media is becoming popular today that Google use it as one of the ranking parameters. Social shares and social likes are signs of rising popularity of a web page due to the value of the information in the content. Therefore, increase the social engagement of your blog pages and you will also increase their ranking positions in the search engines.

Summary

Onsite and offsite SEO are both important aspects that must be done for ultimate success in search engine optimization. By knowing the key elements of each major component, you should be able to properly optimize your blog for better search engine visibility. Getting to the top of the SERPs can give you higher traffic count, which is crucial for better conversion and improved sales and income.