What is the difference between on-site and off-site SEO? This is the question asked on a Cre8asite Forums thread. While this is a somewhat beginner topic, it's a good question and helpful to review.
On-site SEO, as many say, are focusing on the on-page elements. For example:
- Unique title tags
- H1s/headlines
- Copywriting
- Adding descriptions to images
- Crawlable links
- Internal navigation
And off-site SEO, focuses on things beyond your website, such as:
- Press releases
- Link building
- Advertising
- Social media
Ammon Johns has a pretty good summary of how they should be distinguished:
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).
Thus, off-site factors and on-site factors are separate but somewhat tied to each other.
Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.