On-page SEO versus off-page SEO

Search Engine Optimisation, often abbreviated as SEO, is a collection of methods that can be employed to get a web page or website from the depths of page 8 to the top of the pile in search results based on search criteria that matter to you. This is something you can try yourself or alternatively you could hire an SEO professional to help.

SEO targets keywords that are related to a website in question and do everything possible to show Google and other search engines that this page is more related to what someone is looking for than that page. The methods for doing so fall into two categories: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-page SEO refers to anything done to the website itself. The simplest and most common item on this menu is to have your keyword(s) on your pages as often as naturally possible, with a higher density being desirable without going overboard and making the search engines think the words are there specifically to attract attention. This process can get more specific in terms of placement, with the opening paragraph being more important than what is halfway through the page. Titles and headers with your desired keywords can tip the scale in your favour as well, and while not technically visible on the page meta tags are also valued by search engines as they go about ordering their results.

Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is everything that can be done to promote a web page beyond altering the page, and the primary motive of most of these is to build links from other sites to point back to yours. Social bookmarking, directory submissions, and link exchanges are the most effective here, along with other ideas such as Blogging and traditional advertising.

Social bookmarking includes sites like Digg and StumbleUpon. Include the widgets and they will come, and while these are completely out of your control and no guarantee, content of high quality gets favoured by such services, with each link getting more exposure and more links getting generated automatically - both of which search engines like to see. The number of links (and hits) you can get from here can increase exponentially if the pages are helpful and engaging.

Directory submissions and link exchanges, on the other hand, are more or less under your control. Getting your web page on high quality directories sites is worth it, despite how some claim they are 'dead' and 'useless' in the modern world. Having your link on other sites with similar primary keywords can boost your ranking quite a bit as well, and many websites do swap links with others in the agreement that both host links to each other's websites.

Both on-page and off-page SEO should be used in conjunction with each other, for together these two forms of Search Engine Optimisation are more effective than either are alone. The more you do and the more effectively you do it, the higher your page rank will go, and the more likely your site will be visited by people actively seeking what you have to offer.

Author: davey dungan / Posted: 30-05-2011