What's The Difference Between "on Page" And "off Page" Site Optimization?

The terms "on page" and "off page" are two important words to familiarize yourself with if you're new to the art and science of search engine optimization. They are an integral part of the SEO process used to increase website traffic. Although there's a big difference between the two, you must understand these optimization techniques if you'll be leveraging SEO as one of your tools for online promotion of your growing business to drive more traffic for your website.

On Page optimization is the foundation for your SEO process by which elements of your web site are designed in a way that it qualifies for a high ranking when specific keywords are typed. Off Page optimization, on the other hand, as the name indicates, is the work that needs to be done off the pages of your website. This is done to improve your web site's search engine page rank and increase your web site traffic. On Page optimization by itself will not guarantee that your website gets good ranking unless performed in concert with off page optimization strategies. This means, both on page and off page optimization techniques need to work hand in hand for you to get the results that you want.

On Page site optimization - Deals with Internal linking (linking pages of your site to one another), your web site coding, creation of a sitemap and good quality content. Optimizing also includes identifying the target keywords or keyword phrases that your target customers are searching for. These keywords should be included in your web site's URL, title tags, Meta tags, headlines, subheadlines and body text. Next, internal linking is done between the pages of your web site whenever required to make it more attractive to Google. All of the major pages of your site should be linked to your homepage. The creation of a sitemap is needed so that all your web pages get listed by the search engines. In addition, good quality content is absolutely vital to get the most out of the search engines. Your site content should have compelling information that is written to appeal to your customers first and the search engines second. Lastly, ensure that your html code is error and warning free.

While the above mentioned On Page factors are needed for on site optimization, the following factors should be avoided: Don't use "black hat SEO techniques" to increase your serp (search engine result page) rankings> For example, hiding links or text by making them the same color as the background of your web pages. This is cheating as you're trying to hide or conceal something from your viewers solely for the purpose of increasing your search engine rankings. Also, make sure that you don't create mirror sites, or two different sites, one for the search engines and the other for your site visitors. You should have only one site. These tactics very well may cause your web site to be "banned" by the search engines. Also, avoid posting duplicate content as much as possible. This means both NO Plagiarism, unless you give a credit to the original source, as well as not posting identical information on your web site as you do on your blogs and other sites. Simply change the wording around of the content when posting it on your web site if you're also posting it on other sites.

Off Page optimization, on the other hand, are the techniques which are done off of your web pages to improve your search engine page rank as well as your web site traffic. These include: building quality links, link popularity, relevancy, directories and social bookmarking. Building quality links for link building purposes which include industry relevance, page rank and authority sites. Link popularity can be completed by using social networking sites, blog commenting, forum postings, articles, press release promotions, directory submissions, link baiting, classified ads, and back links from social bookmarking sites. The last factor of off page optimization is to have high quality, informative and organized content for visitors to which they will have easy access such as blogs and article directories.

In simplest terms, on page optimization includes all the activities done on your web site while off page optimization are all the activities that take place off of your web site. Having an effective strategy that leverages both will improve your search engine rankings and drive highly targeted relevant traffic to your web site.