Our attention spans are getting smaller by the year, and the average internet user has an expectation that whatever they need will be at the top of Google search results. Attracting new people to buy into your products or services comes faster and easier to those ranking at the top of a search engine results page (SERP). It’s become clear that one of the most important and valuable plans you can make is a solid search engine optimization strategy. Your SEO strategy does not have to be complicated, however it can feel daunting to branch into a new area of marketing that you haven’t tried before. If you feel out of your depth, you can always get the help of a SEO agency for small business. However, we have some helpful information to help you better understand SEO.
Typically, SEO strategies are separated into two categories: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
- On-page SEO refers to SEO factors and techniques focused on optimising aspects of your website that are under your control.
- Off-page SEO refers to SEO factors and strategies focused on promoting your site or brand around the web.
Put simply, on-page SEO focuses on building a website that consumers find appealing, which in turn ensures that search engines also favour it. Off-page SEO regards gaining exposure for a website whilst building authority and trust for your on-site content.
On-Page SEO Factors
On-page SEO comprises everything you do to your website that elevates the site’s position in the search engine results. The fundamental factors that come to mind when you’re thinking about SEO are on-page search engine optimisation; these can include HTML tags, page titles and mobile friendliness.
This particular section of SEO is rooted in making sure your content can be indexed, crawled and understood by search engines; however, the rest is much more complicated than this.
For example, a search engine like Google aims to endorse the top websites for searchers, so it’s imperative to make all aspects of your website enjoyable for people to visit and explore; this is an essential part of on-page SEO.
Factors that can impact on-page SEO include
- Core Web Vitals
- Page speed
- Mobile friendliness
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Content quality
- HTML headers
- Image alt text
- Internal linking
- Navigation
Off-Page SEO Factors
So, off-page SEO is the accumulation of all the strategies, efforts and tactics you manage to display content relating to your brand and linking to your website on third-party sites on the rest of the web. Off-page SEO is centred on ensuring your brand gets discussed on other websites.
We’re sure you’ve heard of building links to your website being an aspect of off-page SEO. Whilst backlinks are essential, there are more complicated aspects of off-page SEO that are important as well.
A brief intro/survey of off-page factors:
- Backlinks
- Social media
- Unlinked mentions
- Google My Business
Start Optimizing Your On-Page and Off-Page SEO
It’s important to know that a strong strategy for SEO isn’t just about deciding between on-page and off-page SEO. The best analogy we can think of is that being like deciding between your car tyres or your car engine.
This being said, it is more important to build strong on-page SEO before you put too many resources into promoting your site on social media platforms and building links.
SEO research will be the foundation of your strategy; spending time looking at competitors’ websites and researching keywords will help you build strong on-page and off-page SEO.