In recent years, SEO came into the limelight for all marketing campaigns. It was only some time ago when marketers discredited the implementation of proper SEO. However, having seen the impact SEO brings to the website, several traditional marketing practices have been abandoned. But what exactly is SEO?  Search Engine Optimization is optimizing your website, aiming for enhanced visibility, and possess all-inclusive money-making potential. It serves as a bridge between web-owners and the average internet user. Thus, when a user searches for something, you want them to see your page first. SEO serves that very purpose. Nevertheless, SEO has two different branches; on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Both categories contribute to ranking a website. However, which one is more important? Let’s have a look.

What is Off-Page SEO?

While on-page SEO comprises elements of the website itself, off-page SEO is about ranking elements happening off the website. These elements relate to other aspects, such as marketing, promotion, and social media. It is but a passive means for generating attention, which indirectly increases your website awareness. Ultimately, boosting your SEO ranking in the long-run. 

Factors Affecting Off-Page SEO

Domain Authority

Domain authority is a number assigned by search engines to rank your website. The strength varies between 1-100, depending on the quality of your website. Sites with visible domain authority will be preferred by the search engine, thus, displaying it among the top results. The parameter is measured considering various factors. These include your domain uptime, number & quality of backlinks, blank pages with errors, and the domain history. Nevertheless, by improving your domain authority, you will significantly boost your SEO ranking. 

Backlinks

The majority of content creators focus solely on the sheer amount of backlinks their websites possess. While the overall number does matter, the quality must remain a priority. For better off-page SEO, both aspects of link building contribute equally. If multiple sites like your content, your domain authority is bound to skyrocket. Although premium or paid options are available, Google and other search engines prefer the organic ranking instead. You have several possibilities to improve your organic viewership.  Guest blogging is a powerful tool for doing just that. Likewise, trade publications and contacting journalists is also a substantial option.

Social Media Promotion

Undoubtedly, a website is not ranked based on its social media interactions. However, social media posts and marketing indeed generate a tremendous amount of clicks and views. And the more attention a website garners, the higher does Google rank the pages. Social media promotion has many modes of process. Depending on your website, it can get advertisements, influencer marketing, and countless other options. Among these, influencer marketing is very crucial. Even Google is known for promoting this marketing mode, suggesting to get in touch with influential bloggers.  Furthermore, these bloggers will help grow your website by either sharing links to your site or guest blogging.  Irrespective of the option, the results will surely be astonishing. 

What is On-Page SEO?

The foundation of every website contributes significantly to its on-page SEO. Factors such as the title, HTML code, literature tags, and internal links are all part of it. Thus, this tells us that all such readily changeable elements on your website are part of on-page SEO. 

Factors Affecting On-Page SEO

Keywords

The importance of keywords has grown significantly over the years. More importantly, keyword optimization is now the backbone of SEO structure. Back in the day, people preferred to use short and common keywords. Due to the presence of high saturated web content, experts have set long-tail keywords as the industry standard. When using keywords, the user experience and preferences must come into consideration. A common mistake by many beginners is the flooding of content with keywords.

Meta description

The short description under search engine results is known as the meta description. It serves as a remarkable tool for improving your website’s rank. However, webmasters often disregard formulating the text entirely. Organizations well-aware of the meta-descriptions importance hire professional copywriters just for the task. Moreover, the description must include vital keywords, but, to ensure visibility, it also must not exceed 300 characters. 

URL Structure

The SEO algorithm design dictates it to rank organized and easy-to-read content higher than the rest. It allows the search engine to seamlessly move through pages, thus, approving for user readability. Like other factors, you must include keywords in the URL. Websites with easy-to-use URLs often do not require users to resort to search engines. A fascinating strategy that has found its way to some websites is the pillar page tactic.  These pages serve as the hub for links to all your important content. Web developers often set them as the main page, designing other content and URL to fit the pillars properly.  

Internal Linking

Working in tandem with URL structure, linking relevant pages in your content is quite beneficial. It makes it easy for users to jump from one page to another while improving your SEO ranking. Moreover, doing so will likely keep the viewers engaged as well. 

Page performance

While your content quality and structure is vital, the performance of your website is equally important. If your webpages are laggy and require ample loading times, the website’s ranking can get negatively affected. Another factor to consider is the average viewing time spent by a user on the website. If the viewership is too low, you need to revamp the entire web design and optimize it for better performance. Similarly, if the search engine algorithm notices an increase in bounce rate, it will decrease your SEO ranking. Therefore, marketers and web developers must use well-suited image files for each platform and minimize the source HTML/CSS code. 

Conclusion

Many viewers will come to believe that on-page SEO is far more critical compared to the contrary. However, that is not true. Admittedly, the foundation of a website relies heavily on its on-page elements. And though the website may generate a certain degree of visitors, it does not outshine off-page SEO. Marketing and social media promotion will always remain unparalleled tools for generating more clicks and traffic. In conclusion, both modes of SEO are equally important; neither triumphs over the other. They both have different purposes of serving and going hand-in-hand for boosting a website’s success.