What’s the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?

Posted on by Rodney

Google’s algorithms rank websites on three main factors. These are: On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, and Technical SEO.

On-page SEO are all the actions that are made on your website that affect the ranking on search engines. All the changes made to optimize a website can be seen by visitors on a page.

Off-page SEO are those actions made away from your website but which also affect a website’s ranking. Off-page and Technical SEO elements aren’t always visible to those people who visit a website.

Here’s a list explaining the difference between the two.

On-page SEO

  • Page titles
  • Headers
  • Meta Descriptions
  • Image Alt-text
  • Page URLs
  • Internal linking
  • Site Speed

Off-page SEO

  • Content marketing
  • Social Media
  • PR
  • Events
  • Influencer Marketing
  • Podcasts
  • Forums(facebook)

As a writer, On-page SEO feels far more comfortable and accessible to me. It’s what I do every day at work.

Whether it’s creating new content or updating existing pages, On-page SEO is one of the main features of content creation.

Headers

Header tags are On-page elements that help Google understand what a page is about. An H1 Tag will be the main one for each page.

The heading for H1 tags should include the keyword you’re trying to rank for. After H1 tags, you’ve got your H2s or H3s you use for subheaders. Always remember that core key words need to be in the title and the URL.

Meta Descriptions

These are the short page descriptions that appear under the title in search results (SERPs). They help add context to the page heading listed in the SERPs and encourage click-through rates. It’s all about encouraging people to click on your website listing over other listing.

Image Alt-text

Most CMS systems should allow you to add what’s known as “alt text” to any images you want to add to your website. It helps if you use specific keywords to explain exactly what the image is.

Adding relevant keywords that accurately describe the image that you’re using will help search engines understand your page’s content.

Internal linking

When writing a piece of content, I’ll always look to link to other relevant and related pages that will help our readers.

There may be a particular topic for example ‘family and pets’ and all our written articles will have links to link back to a main page on the particular topic.

As a content writer my role revolves around creating new content and editing and updating existing content. Both require On-page SEO techniques but updating content provides a great way of using On-page SEO to increase organic search traffic.

Off-page SEO

SEO specialists will tell you that off-page SEO involves actions that influence and affect your search engine rankings.

Unlike on-page SEO, Google gains an understanding of a website through sources outside of the domain. That’s why off-page SEO is important.

The main activity associated with off-page SEO is link building. Websites can increase authority by getting more links from other websites.

Off-page SEO is about building authority for a website and Google recognises authority by giving websites higher SERPs.

Within our marketing team, there are a lot activities that take place which fall under off-page SEO.

Social Media

Social media is one important way of gaining domain authority and increasing search engine ranking. Within our marketing team, we use Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Facebook to increase our engagement and raise brand awareness.

We love to share videos and graphics to our communities and pet parents. Social media is one of the most important online marketing platforms and allows us to speak to and connect directly with our customers and pet owners.

PR and Events

PR and events are important way of building brand awareness. Gaining press coverage or sponsoring events are two examples of brand building and something our marketing team are heavily involved in.

At ManyPets we sponsor the dog festival DogFest. A series of festivals that take place at various venues across the UK.

Meeting dog owners and talking about pet insurance with ManyPets is a great way of increasing brand recognition and visibility. This can ultimately lead to an increase in brand searches.

Reviews

Reviews are a massively underrated off-page SEO. We use Feefo and TrustPilot. Online reviews play a major role in influencing the customers before they make a purchase.

Great reviews will have a significant influence in increasing conversions and building trust in your brand.Reviews can help Google better understand your site which is so important when it comes to organic SEO.

We also use influencers who have their own public and social media profile who can promote and spread the word of our brand.

As well as using influencers, ManyPets, have also produced a short podcast series. A lot of businesses still don’t use podcasts despite their increasing popularity, to grow yours, visit the page for more information. Having a podcast is one way of gaining a competitive advantage and differentiating yourself from competitors.

Traditionally speaking, Off-page SEO was always associated with Link building and this is still important and relevant. Receiving back links from other sites acts as an endorsement from other sources that your website is of credible and of high quality.

But considering other elements like social media, PR/Events, and reviews; there are many other elements to add to your On-page SEO strategy.