SEO is one of those topics that can significantly improve conversions on your website. It’s also a mechanism that hides a lot of secrets. Today we’ll uncover the differences between off-site and on-site SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a process used to optimize websites for search engine algorithms such as Google, the most widely used search engine. The scope of activities that fall under SEO keeps changing, mainly due to constant improvements to these algorithms. This scope includes things like valuable content that reflects a site’s proper structure, as well as both internal and external linking. SEO is split into two types: on-site and off-site.
The difference between on-site and off-site SEO
SEO is divided into two types, and as their names suggest, the difference lies in whether the activity happens on the site itself or outside it. On-site SEO covers everything that exists strictly on the website. Off-site activities, on the other hand, have nothing to do with optimizing the site itself and don’t directly concern it.
What exactly is off-site SEO?
Off-site SEO is a more complex process and concept. All the activity happens outside the website, so it’s not directly connected to it. The most important element of off-site SEO is link building — valuable external links that point to your website. It’s important here to focus not just on quantity, but above all on quality. You can aim to get links to your site placed on other portals, industry blogs, or sponsored articles with high-quality, substantive content.
What is on-site SEO?
Activities carried out on the website itself are known as on-site SEO. These solutions cover everything we can improve in terms of optimization within our own site. This includes, among other things:
- writing content that’s friendly to Google’s crawlers
- choosing the right keywords
- page load speed
- a user-friendly URL
- internal linking
- a well-refined site structure
The most important feature of on-site SEO is that we can modify it ourselves and continuously improve the site.
On-site SEO activities
Since we can modify on-site activities ourselves, this is the type of optimization we should focus on above all. It’s worth remembering that SEO is also affected by hosting — the service that provides the server your web infrastructure runs on. A VPS server is a good example of hosting that performs very well today.
On-page SEO activities include:
- meta title and meta description – directly affect click-through rate
- site speed – choosing the right hosting
- URL optimization – using simple, readable page addresses
- heading hierarchy – one main heading that contains the keyword
- content – valuable, substantive material
- images – the right format and size that won’t slow the site down – internal linking – redirects to subpages.
Optimization is a complex process, and above all a long one, so patience is key. It’s worth spending extra time taking care of every detail in order to enjoy the highest possible position in search engine results.