How much does on-site SEO *really* matter for Google rankings?

I have been focusing all my energies on off-site SEO... I'm talking about Angela's and Paul's backlinking... SENuke... XRumer... link farms... link wheels... all kinds of crazy stuff.

I have been hearing though that on-site SEO is important, too.

Is this so? If I work really hard on my on-site SEO, will I be able to break into the top 10 of my competitive keyword on Google?

Basically, what I am asking is: Is it worth my time to study on-site SEO or should I continue with off-site SEO methods? (And if it is worth my time, where can I learn the techniques?)

Thanks all!

PaulieP said:

Yes it is...

Click to expand...

any elaboration?

Well, you could start with http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf.

If you're site is already indexed you should start seeing results within a few days.

Big G is your friend.

jackiecaine said:

Well, you could start with Google's guide.

If you're site is already indexed you should start seeing results within a few days.

Big G is your friend.

Click to expand...

Is this basically all I need to know about on-site SEO or are there any other "secrets" out there?

Thanks for the response. It looks like a good read.

In my modest opinion, on-site SEO is letting know search engines what is your site about, nothing more

Still there is much importance regarding this on-page optmization, study proves that keyword density, title and meta tags have 30-40% of importance in ranking factors.

Google won't consider these title and meta descriptions but yahoo and other SE's still gives value for these things in their algorithms..so, it it is good to concentrate on these on-page factors too...

What happens on other sites (eg anchor text in links pointing to you) is prominent in bringing relevance to your pages. However the recipient of this relevance (pagerank, juice etc) has to appear deserving not to waste it. When it is time to decide why you got the links and for what you should specifically rank, the robot will judge the contents.

At that point, if the contents appear parked pages, spam pages, pages filled with junk (spywpare, ppi, scraped text), then not only the site will be marked as trash and dropped down in the serps. Your link providers will be seen as spamming and penalized for promoting useless garbage, too. Cure the on-site, otherwise you will be kicked out-serps...

Since onpage optimization is so easy and quick to do, I don't know why you wouldn't take a few minutes and just get it done.

You'll provide an indication of relevance for the search engines and often times when you use onpage and offpage SEO, you're a lot more likely to outrank your competitors.

If you want organic search traffic, it matters a great deal.

Well it is. Think about the mathematics behind ranking pages, if you have a four spoke fully interlinked hub within your site which is about a certain concept then would that pull more weight in serps against an 'everything else' equal site with only one page? I found a good way to do this is to used tabbed content and unique urls.

Good seo/internet marketing covers so many areas - SEO isnt just about getting as many backlinks as possible, backlinking is going the same was as keyword stuffing did and am just waiting for the day google slaps the crap out of it! You gotta cover as many bases as possible...

It's two different ball games being at the top of Google and then knowing what to do with that visitor when they come to your site.

On site SEO is definitely an important factor, in fact for me it is the #1 factor i think about when designing any site, it certainly shouldn't be an after thought - build your sites with a strong SEO core to begin with, it's not difficult. You wouldn't build a house without a good solid foundation... don't build you site without a good solid seo core...

Your sites call to action and the overall aesthetics of the site are also important too - you have hundredths of a second to convert a visitor into a paying customer, your loosing money if you get to the top of google and then send them to a site with no call to action or the site looks dated or crappy.

hth

Get listed in dmoz, will help you with google positions.
Get listed in yahoo directory, will help you with yahoo positions.

It can matter a lot. If the the top positioned sites are not on page SEOed then with all things equal you will pop to the top.

in my opinion on-site seo matters less than you think for ranking. it helps for getting ranked for particular keywords but if your site has a decent description of all of it's pages then that is usually enough.

Most of the guys I talk to say about 30-40% of total SEO factors are from onpage (Non link) factors.

domain URL , page URL , site's age, title , meta, on-page keywords, LSI value of page ,ect.