What makes Onsite SEO different from Offsite SEO?
Most conversations with prospective clients come with the request to be “found on Google”. The motivations behind Search Engine Optimization are obvious and inbound marketing strategies all agree that this is a critical objective.
Nevertheless, the strategies to achieve it have changed considerably over the years, and by far the biggest change has to do with onsite SEO and offsite SEO. With that said, we’ll examine the relationship between Onsite and Offsite SEO so you have a clear understanding of what each means and how you can implement best practices to create a stronger website presence.
What is Onsite SEO?
Onsite SEO is the process of integrating specific keywords on different web pages, including blog posts – which technically speaking, are simply web pages even though they have a different function than homepages, product pages, landing pages, etc.
Onsite SEO keywords should also be integrated into web page titles — both in the HTML code and headlines/sub-headlines — and it can also help to have URLs with specific keywords. We put it this way, because sometimes it’s not possible or even desirable to have a URL that has a coveted keyword in it.
For example, a company that sells “cheap health insurance” may not want to have the URL “cheaphealthinsurance.com”, since it’s not how they want to brand themselves. Or, the keyword-friendly URL they want may be taken – which is often the case, since there is a whole industry that does nothing but register domain after domain after domain for the purposes of selling them to businesses that want the URL.
Onsite SEO Keywords are Strategic – Not Random
Onsite SEO keywords must be strategically chosen based on various factors, including competition level, search volume, relevance, and so on. What’s more, keyword integration has to be done carefully, because search engines (or more specifically, their algorithms) can detect when a web page is little more than a keyword vehicle. This tactic is called “keyword stuffing”, and it can lead to both a page and an entire website being de-indexed.
Getting Web Pages Indexed
As for actually generating search engine attention, Google, Bing and Yahoo automatically “scrub” web pages (this is called “indexing”). However, at Leap Clixx, we build sitemaps for our clients’ websites, which clearly tell search engines how a website is configured. This helps ensure that web pages are not overlooked during the scrub/index. We also re-index our clients’ web pages on a regular basis (i.e. we tell the search engines that there are new pages for them to rank).
Onsite SEO or Onpage SEO?
Before wrapping up our look at what is onsite optimization, it’s helpful to clarify something that may seem confusing: although the industry term is “onsite SEO”, as you can see from above, it really should be called “onpage SEO”. This is because Google (et al) index web pages, not websites. This is why, for example, blog posts are useful for SEO, since each one can be indexed and serve as a search engine doorway through which a prospect can enter a website, and connect with a business.
So while we’ll continue calling it onsite SEO – because as mentioned, this is the industry term – keep in mind that it’s essentially about individual web pages. This is why adding more pages to a website (usually through quality blog posts) is still the single best onsite SEO strategy.
What is Offsite SEO?
Now that you have a solid, basic understanding of what is onsite optimization, we can switch gears and look at offsite SEO.
Offsite SEO is based entirely on links come from other websites (or more specifically, other web pages) to your web pages. Search engines place an enormous amount of importance on offsite SEO, because they use it as a measure of how relevant and useful web pages/websites are.
Offsite SEO is like Voting
This can be a little bit confusing – especially compared to onsite SEO – so we’ll slow down a bit. Look at it this way: with one exception, every link that goes from one website to another is a “vote” for the link-receiving website. That’s because the link-giving website is telling its visitors that the link-receiving website is useful and relevant to them. When Google sees that “vote”, it believes the same thing: the link-receiving website must be useful and relevant, so it gets a little offsite SEO love.
The exception is when the link-giving website specifically tells search engines not to see the link as a vote (we don’t want to get technical here, but just in case you’re curious, these links are called “no-follow links”).
The reason that some websites choose to turn some or even all of their links into no-follow links, is because they’re worried that Google will see their website as a “link farm”. These are websites that are little more than clearinghouses (i.e. websites that do very little but route visitors to other websites). Unless we’re talking about a formal directory – like the kind that a college or university might offer — Google takes a dim view of such websites, and an even dimmer view of their links (votes).
Not All Votes Are Equal
Search engines don’t view all websites equally. Some are viewed as being of higher quality (i.e. they are deemed to have higher “page rank” or authority). So returning to our voting metaphor, search engines give some websites more than 1 vote, because it deems them to be very credible – such as CNN.com and NewYorkTimes.com. Links from these types of websites are extremely valuable.
Of course, most businesses can’t get a link from these top-level websites, nor frankly should they even waste time and money trying. It’s much smarter and simpler to focus on generating quality content, and then sharing it on various mid-tier websites.
Learn More About Onsite SEO and Offsite SEO
To learn more about onsite and offsite SEO, contact us today. Without boring, annoying or intimidating you with online marketing jargon, we’ll clearly and simply explain what you need to know – and especially, what you need to watch out for. Because there are MANY consultants and online marketing agencies out there that will steer you in the wrong direction. It’s what they do.
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