The first thing most companies talk about when discussing SEO is what can be done within the site. Your site is your greatest asset on the net, and as the focus of all your search engine hopes, it’s only natural to focus on what it can do for you. The next step, however, is to focus on what the net can be doing for you.

It is well known that off-page factors play a significant part in a site’s ranking. The links toward a site and the mentions of it contribute to the weighing of reputation and popularity within the ranking algorithm. While a site can get by while leaving off-page factors to develop independently, it’s much smarter to give your off-page factors a boost as part of your SEO plan.

There is a fair amount of debate within the SEO community as to the right balance between on-page and off-page search engine optimisation. There is little doubt, however, that both types of factors need to be taken into account when you want to mount a successful SEO campaign.

On-page and off-page SEO – what’s the difference?

The difference between on-page and off-page factors in your SEO plan is fairly straightforward. On-page is whatever you can do within your site, and most traditional SEO techniques fall into this category. Things such as keyword placement, meta tags, your URLs, internal links and quality content are regular on-page factors in an SEO plan. Off-page is everything you do outside your site to draw attention to it, usually hinging on the links you can get.

What to do with your on-page SEO

As stated above, on-page SEO has been the focus of techniques for a very long time. The first step for most on-page SEO will be to research a keyword list and decide which keywords the site should compete for. Keywords are then distributed through content, tags are rewritten and internal links re-focussed to support the site’s relevance for those chosen keywords. After that, the paths through the site are tidied up and code polished so that everything within the site will run smoothly whenever a search engine spider crawls past. This is, of course, an oversimplification of what happens for on-page factors in an SEO plan, and you can talk with our consultants at SEO Consult about using your site’s assets to their full ability for your SEO.

How to approach off-page SEO

Approaching off-page SEO is a lot more difficult than on-page SEO, simply because the site has more control over its own pages. At the most basic level, off-page SEO involves getting other sites to link to yours. This can be very hard. The techniques used can include naturally developing links through participation in online communities, or not-so-natural things like buying links. The approach will depend on your resources and those of your SEO firm.

Search engine optimisation needs to be well-balanced to address the needs of your site. Some sites have natural assets off their own pages, so less work needs to be done with off-page SEO. Talk to a consultant about your site’s unique needs.

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