In the world of digital marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plays a crucial role in a website’s visibility and driving organic traffic to your site. However, SEO isn’t a one-dimensional strategy, it’s divided into two main categories – onsite SEO and offsite SEO. Understanding the differences between the two can help your business develop a more effective SEO strategy. In this blog we will break down the key aspects and differences of onsite and offsite SEO and how to optimise both for better search rankings.
What is onsite SEO?
Onsite SEO, or on page SEO, refers to all the optimisations made directly on your website to improve its search rankings. This includes both content related improvements and technical improvements that improve user experience, and makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site.
The key elements for onsite SEO.
1. Keyword Optimisation: Strategically place important and relevant keywords in titles, headers, meta descriptions, and throughout your content. These keywords tell the search engines what searches are relevant to your website.
2. Content: Informative and educational content is the cornerstone of strong SEO. Quality content keeps your users engaged for longer, which signals to search engines that your content is good quality. Google specifically has put a lot more emphasis on informative and educational content in their search engine algorithms over the last few years.
3. Meta tags and descriptions: Compelling title tags and meta descriptions improve your click through rate. These are the first point of contact a customer will often have with your site. They should encourage them to click through to your site. First impressions are always important, search engine results are no different.
4. Internal linking: It should be easy for a user and the search engine bots to navigate your website. Strong internal linking enables this. If a piece of content references another page or blog post, link to that page or post. If a user must go searching for that information, they’re less likely to engage with it.
5. Mobile optimisation: Over 60% of Google searches are completed on mobile devices. If your website isn’t optimised for mobile users, you’re going to have a high bounce rate from people performing searches on mobile devices. Not only does this mean you’re losing out on those customers, but it signals to the search engines that people aren’t spending much time on your site which will have a negative impact on your search rankings.
6. Site Speed: Site speed is often the biggest reason for a person to click off a site. If your site takes too long to load a person will move on to the next search result. Resulting in you losing that customer and having a high bounce rate, which as mentioned earlier, will have a negative impact on your search result positions.
What is offsite SEO?
Offsite SEO, or off page SEO, involves actions taken outside of your website to improve its authority, credibility, and visibility in search engine results. The goal of offsite SEO is to build trust with search engines and establish your site as a reputable and trustworthy source of information.
The key elements of offsite SEO.
1. Backlinks: Acquiring high quality backlinks for authoritative and relevant websites boosts your site’s domain authority. Backlinks from other trusted websites in your industry tells search engines that your site is a trusted source of information. It’s important to not have “spammy” and low-quality backlinks as this can have a negative impact on your domain’s authority instead.
2. Guest blogging: Writing articles for other reputable sites within your industry can gain you strong backlinks for your website. It will also help your business establish authority within your industry, leading to more branded traffic searches for your website.
3. Brand mentions: Your brand being mentioned across different websites, even without a backlink, can help drive traffic to your website. It will also lead to higher branded searches for your website, telling the search engines that your brand is trusted.
4. Local SEO: If you’re a local business having an optimised Google My Business (GMB) listing is important for local traffic. Studies show roughly 42% of people searching for a local business will click a business from the map pack. That’s a lot of opportunity to be leaving on the table if your GMB profile isn’t optimised.
Onsite vs Offsite SEO – Which is more important?
Both onsite and offsite SEO are essential for a successful SEO strategy. Onsite SEO ensures that your site is optimised for search engines and users, giving you a strong foundation to earn your rankings. On the other hand, offsite SEO helps build your website’s credibility and authority, making it more likely that search engines will trust your site and rank it higher.
Focusing on one while neglecting the other can limit your website’s potential. A well-rounded SEO strategy combines both elements to maximize your site’s rankings.
With so many things to keep straight, SEO can be an overwhelming beast to tackle. Luckily Anomaly has local SEO experts on staff ready to help build and implement your SEO strategy. Talk to us today to build your SEO strategy!