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What is onsite SEO?

October 12, 2021
Tom Maynard
Organic SEO Agency in UK - Web Choice

The purpose of onsite SEO is to improve a site's rankings in the search engine results. Doing so requires making changes to a website regarding how it is interpreted by Google and Bing crawlers, or spiders.

The primary goal of onsite SEO is to draw in more visitors and make more conversions. The focus is on keywords and how they affect the user experience in an effort to direct users to desired pages.

For example, when someone searches for a "Mirrorless Camera," Google returns both general results from retailers such as Amazon, FujiFilm and Canon who specialise in Camera equipment, along with other relevant results specific to a user's intent that’s inferred from their query. In this case, you could use a simple phrase such as "shop for Mirrorless Cameras at Fujifilm" instead of just "Fujifilm", which would give the search additional context and expression of intent

In general, onsite SEO primarily consists of making changes to a website's code, with the aim of providing more relevant content and information to search engine algorithms.

Onsite optimisations include measures such as choosing specific titles and meta descriptions, creating keyword-targeted content, and adding alternative text (alt tags) to images.

What does onsite SEO include?

Onsite SEO is primarily concerned with changes that can be made to a website in order to affect how it appears when users search for specific queries or terms. In this respect, onsite SEO includes all the factors that go into helping pages rank highly in organic search results, such as backlinks and content quality.

Other aspects of onsite SEO, particularly technical optimisation, are considered to be best practices but may not significantly affect individual pages' ranking if existing page content is already relevant. For example, using HTML tags such as H1 and H2 headings should generally improve a site's search performance, but using H1 tags on every page of a site won't necessarily make individual pages rank higher than they otherwise would. Adding just the H1s would not help rank individual pages, but this should make for a strong foundation and rankings can be further improved with off-page processes that we will discuss later in this content.

What are examples of onsite SEO?

Onsite SEO is concerned with optimising the content and information of a website to help it rank better in organic search results for specific queries or terms. In other words, good on-page optimisation means focusing on factors that affect how well a web page will perform when it appears in search results for specific terms relevant to its subject matter.

In general, the more effective these factors are perceived by Google's algorithm, the higher a given target page should rank in organic search results

Can you give an example of onsite SEO?

An example would be choosing specific titles and meta descriptions, which can affect how users interpret a page's content and how Google's crawlers interpret it. This may be as simple as optimising the HTML tags of a web page, such as headings (H1s, H2s, etc.), images with alternative text (alt tags), and link text.

For instance, using "Fujifilm Mirrorless Cameras" instead of just "Cameras" gives users additional context to identify what they will find if they click that result. This may help them decide whether your site is relevant for their needs.

The same applies to alt tags, as Google often uses them as a ranking signal.

The website loading speed also affects SEO. You can read more on website speed and how it affects SEO here: Seconds matter when it comes to SEO & Web Design

What is off-site SEO?

Off-site optimisation is the process of acquiring links from external websites which point back to your website. off-site SEO is an important process, as it affects your site's visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). For off-site optimisation activities to be successful, you need to ensure that they are built around the target keywords you want to rank for.

Generally speaking, off-site SEO refers to activities carried out on a webpage externally, bringing external benefits towards a page's rankings in the search results.

When optimising a page for search engines, you should consider the keywords they would like to rank for, as well as what users are searching for. Site owners need to know their target audience so they can properly focus their SEO endeavours around providing a user with information relevant to what they are looking for.

The best way to match content with people who are interested in it is by providing value. Doing things that do not provide any value does more harm than good, which will be detrimental to both the user and the search engines.

When optimising content for the user, it's important to remember that you need to provide value and diversity. This means giving them something they want but also making sure the content isn't too focused on a specific topic or idea. It needs to broaden people's horizons and be able to surprise and entertain them.

How does Off-Site optimisation work?

There are hundreds of things that go into how Google ranks web pages and determines page quality, and all those things affect each other, in some way or another. Social signals, for example, can be seen as a direct influence on-page quality, but it's also possible that social signals are heavily weighted because of their direct impact on SEO.

For example, if Google sees many people linking to specific content or referencing it in forums, etc., there is a high chance they will want to index it for relevant searches

Off-page optimisation is all about link building. Link building is an important process for making sure people see your content and understand how good it is. Many companies spend a lot of time on link building - because it works.

What are some examples of off-site optimisation?

As you know, there are hundreds of factors that Google uses to determine page quality, and most things affect each other in some way or another. Hence, it is important for marketers to know how to use these factors properly.

Marketing experts must understand all possible means by which they can optimise their content in order to increase marketability in a competitive world.

Examples of off-site optimisation include link building, social media signals, press releases, guest blogging on other relevant blogs, bookmarking sites, backlink analysis etc..

When done well, these factors can have a huge impact on search rankings, but can also have the potential to be detrimental if not managed carefully.

Let's have a quick overview of various backlink strategies.

Guest blogging: Guest blogging is one of the best ways to get high-quality links for your website. It does take time though so don't expect results overnight . You should guest post on blogs which are relevant to your industry, offer a lot of good content, and have a lot of followers / readers who will see your content when you publish it there.

Socialising your brand: When someone shares one of your company's pages on social networks, this will direct a lot of traffic to your website and may bring in secondary links from people who follow them.

Participate in link exchanges: You can find other relevant blogs (which are not very competitive) and ask them if you can trade links with them. This is another great strategy because it can move the needle for your search engine rankings quickly.

Increase authority: There are ways to determine which websites get ranked highly by Google and then target those domains to try and acquire a link from (or at least reach out to see if they would like you to guest post).

Implement an email marketing strategy: When someone visits your website and decides to follow you on Twitter, or likes your Facebook page, these are forms of social proof. This can send signals to Google that your brand is legitimate. Implementing an email marketing strategy (i.e., sending emails on a regular basis) will increase the chances of people seeing your website as reputable / authoritative.

Find highly targeted keywords: One way to outrank other websites is by targeting very specific keywords which no one else is looking for. By looking through some keyword tools, you can find low-competition words related to your industry, then create content around them so that they have a chance of ranking highly in Google's SERPs.

What are some best practices when it comes to off-site optimisation?

1) Make sure your backlinks come from quality, relevant sites.

2) Do link outreach.

3) Socialise through social media websites.

4) Participate in forums.

5) Build relationships.

6) Create press releases.

7) Provide industry resources.

What is the difference between on-page and off-site SEO?

On-Page SEO refers to all of the elements that you can control on your own site. You can use it to communicate with search engines and influence how they see and index your content. On-Page Optimisation factors are those that you as a webmaster can completely control on your own. These factors include HTML tags, markup, text content etc

The way we see it, On-Page SEO demonstrates how much work and effort you put into optimising each and every page of your site to increase its visibility in search engines. This includes measures like making sure your website loads quickly, using header tags correctly, avoiding duplicate content, and using good keyword phrases.

Off-site SEO refers to activities undertaken by an entity or individual away from your own website, which results in favourable consideration in search engine rankings, and includes activities by other parties. With this strategy, a webmaster has no direct control as its third parties that are conducting them.

Off-site SEO is a way of increasing your website rankings by working on factors away from your site / domain. While it can be done via many different means, such as Facebook ads, press releases, PPC campaigns and more; the main driving factor for ranking changes is the number of high-quality backlinks you have pointing to your domain (which Google calls "link juice").

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