On-page SEO is everything you do on your own website to help it rank: the words on each page, its title and headings, how pages link to each other, image descriptions and structured data. Off-page SEO is everything that happens elsewhere that tells Google your site is trustworthy: links from other websites, your Google Business Profile, reviews and mentions of your business. On-page work tells Google what a page is about. Off-page signals help decide whether it deserves to rank above the competition. You need both, plus a technically sound site underneath them.
The rest of this guide explains each in plain English, with a worked example and a short checklist you can use on your own site.
What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?
The difference is who controls it. On-page SEO happens on pages you can edit. Off-page SEO depends on other people: the sites that link to you, the customers who review you and the publications that mention you. You can influence off-page signals, but you can’t simply switch them on.
A third type, technical SEO, is often grouped with on-page work. It covers whether Google can crawl, index and load your site properly. We give it its own section below, because a technical problem can quietly undo everything else.
What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO means making each page a clear, complete answer to a specific search. Say you own a bike shop in Hackney and you want to be found by people searching “used bikes London” and “bike servicing Hackney”. Here’s what on-page SEO looks like for the servicing page.
- One target search per page. The servicing page targets “bike servicing Hackney”. Used bikes get their own page.
- The title tag. This is the headline shown in Google’s results: “Bike Servicing in Hackney | Same-Week Repairs | [Shop name]”. Keep the main phrase near the start and the whole title under about 60 characters.
- The meta description. The short summary beneath the title. It doesn’t affect ranking directly, but it decides whether people click.
- Headings. One H1 that says what the page is about, then H2s for the things people want to know: what a service includes, prices, turnaround, how to book.
- The content. Real detail a customer needs: service levels and prices, what’s checked, how long it takes. Pages that answer the search fully tend to outrank pages that only repeat the keyword.
- Internal links. Link from the homepage and related pages using descriptive text such as “bike servicing in Hackney”.
- Images. Compressed so they load fast, with alt text that describes them (“mechanic adjusting the gears on a road bike”).
- Structured data. Schema markup tells Google your business type, address and opening hours in a format it reads directly.
What is technical SEO?
Technical SEO makes sure Google can find, read and load your pages, and that visitors get a fast, stable experience. It includes:
- an XML sitemap submitted in Google Search Console;
- no important pages blocked by robots.txt or set to “noindex”;
- fast loading on mobile, measured by Core Web Vitals (loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability);
- HTTPS across the site;
- one version of each page, with redirects or canonical tags handling duplicates;
- no broken links or redirect chains.
If the bike shop’s servicing page is excellent but the site takes eight seconds to load on a phone, or a forgotten setting is telling Google not to index it, the on-page work never gets a chance. Our guide to why websites are slow and how to fix them covers the most common speed problems.
What is off-page SEO?
Off-page SEO is how the rest of the web signals that your business is real, relevant and trusted. The main parts are:
- Backlinks. Links from other websites to yours. Quality matters far more than quantity. One link from a respected local news site or industry body is worth more than hundreds from directories nobody visits.
- Your Google Business Profile. Complete, accurate and active, with photos, opening hours and regular posts. For local searches, it often appears above every website.
- Reviews. Genuine reviews on Google and sector review sites, with your replies. Our guide to online reputation management covers how to build and handle them.
- Mentions and citations. Your business name, address and phone number listed consistently across directories and local sites.
For the bike shop, good off-page work might be a listing with a local cycling club, a feature in a neighbourhood newsletter, sponsorship of a community ride with a link from the event page, and a steady flow of Google reviews from customers collecting their bikes.
What to avoid: buying links, joining link exchange schemes or publishing guest posts purely for the link. Google’s spam policies treat these as link schemes, and they can lead to a manual penalty.
On-page SEO makes your site worth finding. Off-page SEO convinces Google that other people think so too.
Which matters more, on-page or off-page SEO?
Neither on its own. Without good on-page work, Google doesn’t know which searches your pages should appear for. Without off-page signals, a well-built page may struggle against competitors that more sites trust.
In practice, most growing businesses should start with technical and on-page SEO, because it’s entirely in your control and the results show sooner. Then build off-page authority steadily over months. The exception is a site that’s already well optimised but has almost no links or reviews, where off-page work is the gap. Either way, find your weakest area and start there.
A quick checklist to find your weakest area
- Open Google Search Console. Are your key pages indexed, and are any flagged with problems?
- Pick your three most important pages. Does each target one clear search, with a title tag that names it?
- Run each page through PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Are the Core Web Vitals passing?
- Search your business name. Is your Google Business Profile complete, with recent reviews?
- Ask whether any other website would link to you today, and why.
Whichever question is hardest to answer well is where to put your time first.
How we approach SEO
Our in-house team handles technical, on-page and off-page SEO together for growing businesses, because they depend on each other. We start with an audit to find the weakest area, fix what’s in your control first, then build authority month by month. You can read more about our SEO services, or see how this fits into getting your website on Google in the first place.
FAQs
What is the difference between on-page and off-page SEO?
On-page SEO covers everything on your own website that helps it rank, such as content, title tags, headings and internal links. Off-page SEO covers signals from elsewhere, mainly links from other websites, your Google Business Profile, reviews and mentions. On-page work tells Google what a page is about; off-page signals show that others trust it.
What are the main types of SEO?
The three main types are on-page SEO (content and page elements), technical SEO (crawling, indexing, speed and site structure) and off-page SEO (links, reviews and reputation). Local SEO, which focuses on map results and Google Business Profile, draws on all three.
Which is more important, on-page or off-page SEO?
Both matter, and they work together. Most businesses should fix technical and on-page issues first, because they’re fully in your control and show results sooner, then build off-page authority over time. The right starting point is whichever area is weakest on your site.
Is link building still part of off-page SEO?
Yes, but the focus is on earning relevant links from respected sites, through useful content, partnerships, local involvement and press coverage. Buying links or swapping them in bulk breaks Google’s spam policies and can lead to a penalty.
