Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a powerful means of optimising a business’s online search ranking and gaining organic website traffic.

However, being such a broad area of activity, SEO can often be confusing or difficult to manage for many small businesses. Generally speaking, SEO can be broken down into two broad categories: on-site SEO and off-site SEO.

On-site SEO
On-site SEO is fairly straightforward. It refers to everything a business can do on its website so it is optimised for search engines. On-site SEO practices include adding proper URL structures, user-friendly navigation, optimised internal links and publishing new content that is relevant to targeted keywords. An example of on-site SEO would be writing a blog post about a topic that is relevant to a business’s products or services.

Off-site SEO
Off-site SEO is a little trickier and requires an ongoing effort from a business. It refers to activities that happen outside the boundaries of a business’s website. Off-site SEO gives search engines a good indication on how websites and internet users perceive a particular website. An example of off-site SEO would be backlinks from other websites and blogs. A search engine like Google considers these backlinks to a business’s site as an indicator of good content, so if a lot of sites link to a firm, then the firm must be a relevant source of good content.