I want to talk a little today about the differences between on-page and off-page optimization and give an example that will hopefully settle the debate once and for all about which is MORE important. Without question, off-page optimization has become vastly more important in the eyes of Google then on-page optimization factors. The reason I say MORE important is because I don’t want anyone to get the impression that on-page optimization can be ignored, however if off-page optimization is done right, it is possible to rank highly for a keyword that does not even appear ANYWHERE on the page.
Take the following example…
Go to Google and do a search for “click here” and check out the number one site for this keyword. Look familiar?? It is Adobe’s download page for Acrobat Reader. Now why would this site rank number one for this keyword? If you look closely at the page, you will not find the words click here ANYWHERE… Not in the title, not in the meta tags, not in the page text, not in headers, footers, alt image tags, NO WHERE… Clearly Adobe has not intentionally done anything to this page to get it to rank high for this particular keyword… So what then is the answer? I bet those of you that swear by keyword density must be having a migraine right about now…….
The answer is actually very simple…. Think about how many sites all across the internet that distribute PDF’s (perhaps even yours) have a link to the Adobe reader download site in case their visitors don’t already have the viewer. Most have a sentence that reads something like this…. “This file requires the latest version of Adobe Reader to view. If you don’t have it, click here to download” where this words “click here” are a hyperlink to the Adobe Reader download page……. Starting to make sense now? The words “click here” are called anchor text and this is THE reason why this site ranks number one for these words. Not because of any on-page optimization factors at all… Like I said before, Adobe has done NOTHING to this website to get it to rank for this keyword.. It ALL has to do with the in bound links pointing to it with a certain anchor text…
I hope this helps you to understand a little more about what Google REALLY sees as being important and so while you should still do the customary on-page optimization methods I always discuss, especially for new sites and new keywords you are trying to rank for, never get too caught up on this because at the end of the day it is the OFF page things that you do that will get you to the first page of Google!
Joe Moennig is a top Internet Marketing Expert and SEO Consultant. Learn Internet Marketing at Learn Internet Marketing
