On-Page and Off-Page SEO – What’s the Difference?

On-page SEO and off-page SEO may sound similar, but they are two very different things.

And in order for your website to be successful, you need to be practicing both of them.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is anything that happens on the page. It includes:

  • The page title.
  • The headings.
  • The page URL.
  • Alt text for images.
  • How quickly your page loads.
  • The page content itself (content must be useful and not stuffed full of keywords).
  • Internal links that direct to other pages on your website.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is a bit trickier to control, and that’s because it focuses on how authoritative your website is — which is determined mostly through outside links. These can be generated from:

  • Other sites linking to yours.
  • People sharing your content on social media.
  • Influencers who link to you.
  • Guest blogging on other sites and linking back to your own.

However, off-page SEO isn’t just determined by link quantity. Link quality is also important. This is why spamming your website URL into comments on other blog posts isn’t the way to go anymore. Google will also penalize you for buying links or submitting your links to link directories.

Instead, you should focus on creating original content with value that others will want to share. You can increase your domain authority through social media marketing, guest blogging, social bookmarking, and link building.

Does SEO Even Matter?

You may have read clickbait-y headlines declaring that SEO is dead. Is it true? And if so, do on-page and off-page SEO tactics even matter?

To answer the first question, no, SEO isn’t dead. And to answer the second, yes, both on-page and off-page factors still matter. However, the way we use SEO is changing.

SEO used to be about picking the best keyword and then stuffing your page full of it. It also used to be more important to have a high volume of link building – other sites linking to your content.

Keywords and link building is still important, but the SEO of today is more about quality rather than quantity. For instance:

  • The content you create matters. Having readable, interesting, unique content that answers your reader’s questions is much better than having a post stuffed with keywords.
  • Your website design matters.
  • We recently wrote about Google’s switch the mobile-first indexing. If your site isn’t responsive, isn’t mobile-friendly, is slow to load, etc. you can have the best-written content in the world and still not rank.
  • Link building is more about quantity than quality. Choosing several authoritative sources is often more effective than finding hundreds of smaller websites.
  • More isn’t always better. Fewer posts can be more effective for building SEO – such as one post a week vs. one post a day.

SEO is important, but it is also one piece of the digital marketing puzzle. It works best alongside quality content, a well-designed website, robust social media, and a long-term strategy.

At Pulsion Marketing, we offer SEO services for on-page and off-page SEO, including strategy and planning, keyword research, content mapping, competitive analysis, and more.

Learn about our SEO services today by visiting https://www.gopulsion.io/solutions/ or calling 1-888-701-4441.