Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of improving the visibility and ranking of a website or webpage on search engine results pages (SERPs). There are two main types of SEO: onsite SEO and offsite SEO.
What is onsite SEO?
Onsite SEO refers to the optimisation of a website’s internal elements, such as its content, images, and videos, to make it more search engine friendly. This includes the use of heading tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.), meta descriptions, and alt tags for images. Onsite SEO is focused on optimising the website’s structure, content and technical elements such as page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and URL structure to ensure that the website is easy for search engines to crawl and index.
Key aspects of onsite SEO
One of the key aspects of onsite SEO is keyword research. This involves identifying the keywords and phrases that people are searching for when looking for products or services related to your business. These keywords are then used to optimise the website’s content and meta tags to improve its relevance to search engines. This includes using keywords in the title tags, meta descriptions, and throughout the content of the website.
Another important aspect of onsite SEO is the use of structured data. Structured data is code that is added to a website to provide search engines with additional information about the content on the website. This includes things like product prices, ratings, and reviews. This helps search engines to understand the content on the website and display it in a more user-friendly way in the SERPs.
What is offsite SEO
Offsite SEO, on the other hand, refers to the optimisation of a website’s external elements, such as backlinks and social media presence. Backlinks, or inbound links, are links from other websites that point to your website. Search engines view these links as a “vote of confidence” in your website’s content and authority, which can help to boost its ranking. The quality and relevance of the linking website and the anchor text used in the link are also important. Building backlinks is an important part of offsite SEO as it signals to search engines that other websites consider your content valuable and relevant.
Key aspects of offsite SEO
Social media presence and engagement can also influence a website’s ranking. Google takes into account the number of shares, likes, and followers a website has on social media platforms. This is why having a strong social media presence and actively sharing quality content on social media platforms can help to drive traffic to a website and also help with building backlinks.
Local SEO is also an important aspect of offsite SEO. If a business serves customers at a specific location, they need to optimise their website and Google My Business page for local search. This includes including location keywords, adding Google Maps, and getting listed in online directories. It’s important for businesses to have an accurate and complete NAP (name, address, phone number) on their website and other directories, as Google uses this data to understand the business’s location.
Onsite and offsite SEO conclusion
One of the main differences between onsite and offsite SEO is that onsite SEO is focused on optimising the website itself, while offsite SEO is focused on building relationships with other websites and increasing the website’s visibility on the internet.
