You may have heard of Search Engine Optimization before, but have you heard of off-site and on-site SEO?
If not, you may not know whether you should be focusing your efforts on off-site, on-site, or even how to. This entire process must be tailored and planned around your specific business needs if you want to see results.
Failure to incorporate an SEO strategy into your business plan can cost you traffic, customers, and exposure opportunities.
What is SEO?
You might be asking yourself, “what is SEO on a website?” As mentioned above, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
This “optimization” refers to a broad range of strategies and practices designed to improve your website’s ranking on search engines. The essence of SEO comes down to presenting your content and refining that presentation to best appeal to the way search engines operate.
The optimization process can sometimes be difficult and frustrating if you’re new to SEO, but it invariably leads to better overall results for your website and your business.
There’s no magic formula for SEO, but you can discover what strategies will best present your website to the search engines with time or assistance. As Phil Frost of Main Street ROI once said, “Successful SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about PARTNERING with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.”
15 SEO Terms You Need to Know
While SEO includes a broad range of strategies and terms, some are more common or important than others. If you’re getting serious about exploring an SEO plan for your business, it pays to get familiar with these 15 frequently-used terms:
Alt Text (or Alt Tags): The text accompanying the data of pictures or other visual information. Since computers usually can't "see" pictures, alt text helps tell a search engine what is on the web page.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): A coding technology used to control the presentation of your website. For example, CSS can change the color and size of text on a web page.
Domain: The actual web address that contains all the content of your website. For Example, Google's primary domain is "www.google.com"
Headings and Subheadings: Pieces of text that serve two purposes: to structure a web page full of text and to help search engines better "read" your content. They are typically shown in a large, prominent font, and help your readers understand the main idea of your text. These are sometimes informally referred to as "titles" or "subdivisions."
Inbound Link: Any link coming from another site to your own website.
Internal Link: Any link connecting one page of your website to another page on the same site.
Indexed Pages: Website pages that a search engine has visited, analyzed, and added to its database. These are the only pages that can be served by Google and other search engines.
Keyword: Any search term entered on Google (or another search engine) that has a results page where websites are listed. Whenever that particular word or phrase is found on a relevant website, Google will bring the site up on the search results.
Link Building: The process of getting outside websites to include links to your site. The more high-quality links leading back to your site, the more reliable you appear to search engines.
Long Tail Keyword (or Long Term Keyword): Long-tail keywords that utilize a specific phase rather than a word or two. Targeting long-tail keywords like "best cleaning service in Albany" or "where to buy icecream in San Diego" will put your website in front of a more specific and relevant audience.
Metadata: Information about a website that is not visible to typical visitors. This information is nevertheless connected to each page and plays a role in how search engines rank your website.
Page Titles: The name of an individual web page on your website, such as "Home" or "Our Services."
RSS (Really Simple Syndication): A type of web feed that allows users or applications to quickly notice and respond to updates on websites.
SERPs (Search Engine Results Page): The pages Google and other search engines show a searcher after they type in their search. These include the all-important links to any relevant websites found.
Web Crawler: A computer program designed to search the entire internet and index its pages. These programs play a major role in assembling the search result pages of Google and other search engines.
One of the most important terms to familiarize yourself with are keywords. If you need more information on why keywords are necessary for organic growth, check out our recent blog post, “The Importance of Keywords and Why You Should Hire A Professional.”
The Difference Between Off-site and On-site SEO
Simply put, on-site SEO focuses on changes you can make to your website to improve your search rankings. This includes your page titles, metadata, alt text, and almost anywhere text is utilized on your site.
Content is a big part of on-site SEO, both existing and new. Creating new content is perhaps the best way to consistently demonstrate your website’s value to Google and other search engines.
On the other hand, off-site SEO focuses on external factors that impact your site’s search rankings. This can be a bit trickier as many off-site SEO strategies involve the participation of other parties. Still, there are ways to make significant improvements either on your own or in partnership with other websites.
Social media, for example, is a great way to begin link building and showing that your business has an extended presence outside your site.
CognitiveSEO actually found that the top 4 ranking positions have significantly more Facebook activity than sites ranked lower, meaning a social presence is necessary for website authority.
Local listings can also be of great value if your business has a physical presence. According to Google, 46% of all Google searches are local. Optimizing your Google My Business, Yelp, Foursquare, and other directory sites is essential for these local searches.
Why You Need Both Off-site and On-site SEO
While your main focus might be one or the other, both off-site and on-site SEO are important to your search engine rankings, organic growth, and overall web authority.
On-site SEO might be the foundation your house is on, but off-site SEO is the roof.
When all your strategies work together, they help search engines and crawlers see your website as a reliable source of information. Not only that but providing quality content on your website can help provide links off your website.
Conclusion
If you’re not used to researching and implementing SEO strategies for your business, you can find yourself expending a great deal of time and effort trying to learn the ropes. We invite you to skip the stress and leave both your off-site and on-site SEO to Zoek.
You get access to an experienced and educated team of SEO and Web Development professionals by working with us. We’d be happy to help you develop a full SEO game plan for your site, explaining each step of the process and answering any questions you may have along the way.
To book a free consultation with Zoek or learn more about our SEO bundles, click here. We look forward to helping you!
P.S.
Find a downloadable version of our 15 SEO Terms You Need to Know below...
Ryan Sargent is a Content Specialist at Zoek, an SEO, Web Design, and Digital Marketing Agency that assists small and medium-sized businesses with their online footprint. He’s been a writer for over 10 years, handling everything from pop culture coverage to video descriptive services to marketing copy and SEO text. Outside of work, Ryan also spends time as a game designer and podcaster, and enjoys watching movies and visiting new places with his wife.