8 replies to this topic

[zero_digit]

hi guys

can anybody discuss to me what is the difference of the two or what the advantages and disadvantages???

or an article will do fine

thanks I really appreciate it .....

need help pleaseeee.

[lee.n3o]

On page ...

Stuff you do to your page, like change an H1 or page title

Off Page ...

Literally that, stuff you do off your page to promote your site.. Maybe adding it to stumble upon etc...

[joedolson]

That pretty much sums it up. On page changes would include:

• Adding headings
• Adding text
• Adding descriptions to images
• Rewriting Javascript so content will render with JS disabled.

Off page tasks might include:

• Link building
• Press releases
• Personal networking
• Advertising
• etc.

The difference is pretty straight forward - the only fuzzy area is with internal linking structures. The way you link between pages on your own site is a mix of on-page and off-page behavior: you're adding links on your own pages, so you are editing an active page - but the main purpose of the changes is to distribute traffic and ranking towards other pages.

[AbleReach]

Or, for SEO purposes,

On-site

1. anchors on the page are crawlable
2. content uses concrete, focused language
3. unique title tags

Off-site

1. quality of inlinks
2. relevance of inlinks
3. quantity of inlinks

Edited by AbleReach, 31 July 2007 - 12:28 PM.

[Black_Knight]

The answers above all hit the mark, although Ablereach kind of widened the question to on-site and off-site, which is slightly different, since that can also involve navigation structure, own-site link structure, and of course, file and directory structure.

I think it is simplest explained by saying that if I had a website, and hired you to produce an optimized page for it, that I would upload, then all you are working with is on-page factors - things in that page itself. Whatever you could do to optimize the page in such circumstances is, by definition, an on-page factor.

Off-page factors would be entirely up to me, since you don't even control what URL the page will have in this example. It is important to remember that off-page factors begin while still on the same site, such as the navigational links to the optimised page, the link-text used in the site, and even the URL (which reflects site structure).

Then there's the third-level of optimization which is off-site, and is all about who else links to this page, what words they use in and around the link, and all other factors of how they link to the optimised page. Again, this form of optimization and promotion would not require FTP or other uploading access to the site itself.

[AbleReach]

On-site

1. anchors on the page are crawlable

I didn't even realize I had moved from "page" to "site." In this context it just seemed natural.

Off-page factors would be entirely up to me, since you don't even control what URL the page will have in this example. It is important to remember that off-page factors begin while still on the same site, such as the navigational links to the optimised page, the link-text used in the site, and even the URL (which reflects site structure).

Could you go into what you mean by "Off-page factors would be entirely up to me," please?

This is what I thought, but is it what you meant?
*Good on-site optimization leads to pages that are more available to be helped by off site factors.*

Edited by AbleReach, 31 July 2007 - 01:48 PM.

[Black_Knight]

This is what I thought, but is it what you meant?
*Good on-site optimization leads to pages that are more available to be helped by off site factors.*

Sure thing, Liz.

Let me first establish that I was originally answering the specific question of what are the differences between on-page and off-page factors/optimization. On-page and on-site are not the same thing. On-site includes links from other pages in the site, directory structure, keywords in URLs, URL lengths, domain name, etc. Those are not things you can do by optimizing a single page.

On-page is a phrase that dates back to when doorway pages, or a handful of 'optimized pages', were often added to a site to bring traffic in. When link-popularity and off-page factors began to be considered, the terms on-page and off-page arose primarily among those SEOs who'd previously been selling their services in creating optimized pages or doorway pages, hook pages, or whatever else they wished to call them.

There are still companies and individuals who create and sell add-on optimized pages to be inserted into an existing web site, without broader access/permission to restructure the rest of the site, change URLs of existing content, etc. So the phrase retains specific meaning for such cases especially. There are still people who can only perform the on-page SEO aspects, and merely advise clients on broader on-site SEO issues.

With the rise in SEO copywriting services, I think there will continue to be a firm place for the term of on-page as opposed to on-site, and that the more we can do do ensure the clarity of the terms, and differences between on-page and on-site the easier things will be for newcomers to the field.

On-page is evrything you can do to a page without touching any other page, and without changing its location on the site. Title is a tag on the page. Meta tags are on the page. The Headings, copy, images, and every other HTML element in the code of that page is on-page.

The definition does have a little leeway, in that usually we assume the filename of that specific page can be classed as an on-page factor. It is also common to regard making CSS and JavaScript external (calling files rather than being coded directly into the page) as on-page optimization, but it is more correct to call this on-site optimization really, since getting the real benefit from externalizing those files, means calling them from every page that uses those bits of code, so they remain cached and speed the whole site.

Technically, everything that relies on any factor not hard-coded into the specific page in question is an off-page factor. Off page factors can include things that can be done on-site, such as the internal linking, url structure, server responses, etc, etc. as well as off-site things like interlinking multiple sites, directory submissions, other link building, PR, and networking.

On-site was something you sort of added to the discussion, and it isn't the same as on-page. Joe touched on the on-site topic too, but only in addressing the slight grey-area of things that the webmaster/designer cn do in an editor of som kind that re not directly on-page factors as in Tags on a page. Everything on-page is obviously on the site, but never is everything on the site on the page. The distinction between the terms on-page and on-site is an important one, and not something to confuse.

[SEOigloo]

Heh heh,
Zero-digit doesn't need a link out to an article...Ammon just wrote one right here!
Miriam

[Black_Knight]

...doesn't need a link out to an article...Ammon just wrote one...

Doh! :duh: Must... learn... bevity!