You have optimized images on your website, conducted in-depth keyword research, worked on internal linking, and set up a site structure. However, you are still struggling to rank higher on Google.
That’s because you have completed only half of the puzzle. You also need to work on the other half, i.e., off-page SEO, to build a strong off-site presence.
Off-page search engine optimization can make huge traffic in organic traffic, revenue, and search engine rankings. In fact, it accounts for over 50% of search engine ranking factors.
However, many businesses put off-page SEO into the backseat.
Off-page is a successful SEO strategy that demands a lot of hard work and consistency. We have put together a complete off-page SEO optimization guide to help you get started.
What is Off-page in SEO?
Let’s start this guide with an off-page SEO definition, discussing its meaning in detail.
Google and other search engines consider numerous factors while ranking web pages. Some of these factors include aspects that are visible on a website, such as content, URLs, meta tags, etc., while others are based on the website’s performance. Apart from this, search engines collect other information from sources outside the website. That is where off-page SEO is considered valuable.
Off-page SEO, or off-site SEO, refers to optimization efforts to improve a website’s organic search engine rankings without making any changes to the website itself. Off-page SEO activities occur outside of the website and include tactics such as building links, social media, mentions across the web, and guest posting.
Off-page SEO comprises various ranking factors. For example, link building is a crucial and commonly used off-page strategy. That’s because Google is built on PageRank, which is an algorithm to assess a page’s backlinks for quality and quantity.
Off-page techniques support on-page SEO efforts to boost the relevance, credibility, authority, and trustworthiness of a website. Off-page SEO aims to attract search engines and users to your website and view it as authoritative and reliable.
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On-page SEO vs. Off-page SEO
On-page SEO refers to optimizing elements on a website so that search engine crawlers can easily find and understand it. On-page optimization techniques include internal linking, keyword optimization, canonicalization, creating SEO-friendly content, generating keyword-rich title tags, etc.
On-page optimization includes stronger signals than off-page SEO, considering if the page is relevant for specific search queries. Hence, the focus is mainly on creating quality content that answers queries related to target search terms and phrases.
Although on-page SEO is considered more crucial, a website may struggle to rank without off-page SEO, especially in the highly competitive market. Off-page SEO includes marketing efforts through social media, emails, guest posts, and influencers. It comprises efforts made outside the website to enable search engines to discover web pages. The goal of off-page tactics is to increase the credibility and search engine rankings of a website. It is more like promotional activities to attract links and let potential consumers know that your brand exists.
One key difference between on-page and off-page SEO is that you have complete control on on-page elements while off-page is out of your control. Also, Google has extensive documentation for on-page SEO and uses it to measure the relevancy of your website. On the other hand, there are no specific pointers for off-page SEO, presumably because any information may give marketers and businesses hints on how to influence search engine rankings. Also, it is used to measure the credibility and authority of your website.
Also Read: Major Functions of Search Engine (How Search Engines Work)
Why Does Off-page Matter?
Off-page SEO is extremely valuable as it tells search engines that your website is reliable and trusted by other high-authority websites. Each link you get from reputable websites is an endorsement, showcasing your site’s quality and proving that your site is important on the web. Off-page factors, such as backlinks, reviews, mentions, and recommendations, show that your website is reputable, which improves its online visibility in search results.
Off-page SEO optimization is like a tie-breaker for websites with the similar on-page SEO efforts, enabling search engines to find the best pages to rank on SERPs. Web pages powered by off-page optimization can earn higher rankings through social media, backlinks, and mentions. For example, suppose there are two ed-tech websites offering similar courses and content. They both have the same on-page strategies, including optimized content, URLs, meta tags, etc. So, which one would rank higher? It’s the one with stronger and more effective off-page SEO signals because they determine a site’s ranking. Google analyzes several off-page factors, such as backlinks, to rank web pages. So, a website with a higher number of quality backlinks from reputable sources is likely to rank higher.
Similarly, using other off-page and on-page factors, search engines assess how valuable a website is for different search queries and return results accordingly. A website with less citations and links is not considered worth crawlin and indexing by search engines. Also, it can lead to stagnant traffic.
So, we can conclude that off-page is important because it gives momentum to a site by boosting its search engine ranking for related keywords.
Off-page SEO Techniques
Now that you have a fair understanding of essential off-page elements, let’s delve into off-page techniques to drive organic traffic and accelerate a website’s success:
- Link Building
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Local SEO
- Influencer Marketing
- Online Reviews
1. Link Building
Link building involves efforts and tactics to get reputable websites to link to your site. These are known as backlinks and work as a vote of confidence in your domain. So, the more backlinks you get, the more authoritative your website may seem to search engines. This can boost your ranking on search engines. On the other hand, the fewer links you get, the harder it is to convince search engines that your website is trustworthy.
Therefore, you need to connect with other websites and convince them to vouch for your brand. This may require a lot of effort and time but if done right, it can work wonders for your off-page SEO.
Getting valuable links offer two major advantages- driving organic traffic to the website and determining your rankings on SERPs. Make sure you get links only from high-authority and trusted websites to reap these off-page SEO benefits. Also, links help users navigate the internet and find useful information easily, enhancing user experience.
Moreover, search engines use links to assess the authority, expertise, and trustworthiness of a website, making it a key ranking factor.
The big question is how to convince top websites to link to your site. Here are a few tricks to help you get started:
- Create high-quality content to get more natural links and clicks. Compose different types of interesting and unique content, including videos, images, blogs, infographics, and more, to draw more attention.
- Promote your content across different social media platforms to gain popularity and engage the audience. You can post blogs, images, carousels, videos, and other content. Make sure to optimize the posts by using trending and relevant hashtags to make them discoverable.
- You can join any industry association and add your link to its website.
- Connect with bloggers and journalists to post your content, as it can give you an opportunity to earn links to leading websites.
Please note that some links have more value than others. For example, getting links from influencers have more authority than links you get from spam websites. Such high-quality links tell search engines that top websites recognize your brand, and they will rank you higher.
Before you start building links, you need to understand different types of links. There are majorly three types of links:
Natural Links:
Natural links come naturally to the website without making any effort. You don’t need to do any off-page SEO activity or conduct outreach to earn these links. People mention or add your website’s link without asking you because they either discovered your content via search or follow your brand. Basically, they find your content valuable and worth mentioning. For example, happy customers sharing their feedback about your brand on any platform or website to recommend it to others.
Built Links:
Link building is one of the most important off-page SEO tactics businesses and marketers use. Also known as manual links, they demand outreach, and you need to make an effort to earn these links by connecting with publishers. You perform certain activities to obtain these external links from reputable websites. It also includes promoting your content via ad campaigns and giving it exposure so people can discover it. Some examples include asking people to review your products or services and contacting influencers to promote your brand. Although these links are built, you still need to develop high-quality content.
Created Links:
These links are created intentionally without any outreach. These links come from self-submissions on social media profiles, loca directories, press releases, forums, blog comments, etc. This link building strategy may be considered a part of black-hat SEO as search engines look down upon these links.
Make sure you use only white-hat strategies to gain links because any black-hat practice to get links to your website may result in penalties by Google. Also, while working on your link-building strategy, don’t just focus on getting as many links as possible. Prefer only quality links and understand why you are building them. Your goal is to mark a digital presence and reach the target audience.
Also Read: What is SEO in Digital Marketing? Beginners Guide 2024
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media is often considered among the best brand awareness off-page SEO tools rather than an SEO technique. This is because it doesn’t directly influence your search engine ranking. However, it’s a great way to get attention and gain domain authority, leading to higher search engine page rankings.
When you regularly share content and mark a strong presence on social media platforms, users think of your brand as more approachable, which is immensely important for businesses today, especially in a highly competitive market. It drives organic traffic and links to your web pages and content, showing Google you are getting traffic from diverse sources. This means you post quality and useful content.
Suppose your brand is not approachable. People would not be able to connect with your products or services and couldn’t access the required information. This will affect your brand’s trustworthiness and reputation. So, make sure to connect and engage with the target audience by posting regularly, replying to comments, and staying active.
Generate relevant and easy-to-read content and always have a positive approach while reverting. Don’t sound like a robot, but be friendly. If you don’t get instant results and traffic, you’ll definitely get more attention, which will lead to more mentions and searches. You can use different tools to schedule posts on multiple social media platforms, track performance, and assess user engagement.
Be consistent and distribute content effectively across all channels to increase shares, likes, and comments. This will build domain authority and brand awareness. Here are a few things to remember about social media marketing:
- According to Google, social signals, such as shares, comments, and likes, don’t directly affect your search engine rankings.
- Links you get from social media are ‘no-follow’, so search engines ignore them while evaluating domain authority and rankings.
- Viral posts on social media have more chances of getting natural links from top websites.
3. Content Marketing
Content marketing is another off-page strategy to reach potential customers and address their needs by providing useful information. By publishing content across different channels, you can earn quality backlinks, gain attention, and most importantly, meet E-E-A-T requirements, i.e., experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.
You must distribute content on different platforms in the form of surveys, guest blogs, reports, etc., to send more off-page signals to search engines. This can drive organic traffic, generate leads, and boost your rankings.
Let’s go through a few off-page activities to distribute quality content:
Digital PR:
Digital PR is now considered more of a link-building tactic as it helps gain backlinks. Many SEO professionals use it to earn authoritative links. With a great PR campaign, you can drive referral traffic, increase brand awareness, and place your business in front of the target audience.
Guest Posting:
Guest posting brings your business at the forefront and lead to increased backlinks and mentions. Moreover, you can reach a new section of the audience that falls within the target market. In addition, publishing guest posts on high-authority websites can add value to your brand. Lastly, it drives more traffic.
To seek all these benefits, you need to focus on building quality backlinks. It means choosing websites relevant to your niche and offering useful and genuine information.
Forums:
Don’t simply drop your links on forums to amp up your search engine rankings. Try to be a part of meaningful conversations related to your domain. Establish yourself as an expert in the industry and let the audience know about you. You can find various online platforms that encourage open discussions. You can get involved in those interactions and provide answers to questions that are relevant to your business. It will help you build relationships with people. So, whenever they have a query, they will count on you for answers, and you can share relevant blogs accordingly.
4. Local SEO
Local SEO is used specifically by businesses with brick-and-mortar stores, as it involves optimizing a website for local search results. Businesses that cater to clients in specific location or area use local SEO as one of the primary off-page SEO optimization technique to achieve higher ranks in location-aware searches. For example, cafes, salons, supermarkets, etc.
You send signals to search engines about your business in local areas by creating Google Business Profile. You need to add the name, address, and contact details of your company. Also, you submit your business to local and national business directories and claim listing on various sites. Encourage customers to share their positive feedback online and make sure that contact information is consistent across all platforms.
Here are two major techniques you must use for local SEO:
Google Business Profile Management: Google Business Profile (GBP) is a business listing platform that helps you decide how your business must appear on Google. It is an off-page factor that is out of your website, so make sure to optimize your profile. As a key ranking factor, it can enhance your online visibility and increase sales. Follow these tips while creating your Google Business Profile:
- Reply to all reviews
- Be consistent and careful while adding contact details
- Be regular with posts, such as photos and videos
NAP SEO
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. NAP SEO refers to the process of getting your business’ name, address, and phone number correctly in online listings. You can see these citations in social media profiles, business directories, review sites, and different websites.
Businesses must pay attention to NAP citations, as Google uses this information to ensure that your business details are accurate across all channels. Inconsistent citations can be confusing for users and Google, which can affect your rankings.
Use a reliable tool to ensure all your NAP references are the same. Here are some useful NAP citation tips:
- Submit correct and accurate information across all platforms
- Keep citations consistent
- Conduct monthly NAP audits
Also Read: How to Learn SEO in 2024? Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
5. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is among the top off-page tactics where you collaborate with famous personalities, content creators, and bloggers to promote your brand, products, or services. It is a phenomenal way to connect with a wider audience and establish a brand by leveraging the reputation of influencers.
As influencers are popular, they have a larger audience who trust and follow them. So, influencer marketing helps you build credibility and earn the trust of the target users.
The following points explain how influencer marketing works:
- Choose the right social media platform
- Find your audience to target with the influencer marketing campaign
- Hire influencers to represent your brand
6. Online Reviews
Reviews have the power to influence buying decisions and persuade people to trust a particular brand. Whether it’s feedback for your product, service, brand, or website, it is a vital ranking factor that Google considers while evaluating a site’s reputation and credibility.
Reviews are most important in local SEO as people have to make instant decisions to seek services. Moreover, you must reply to all comments and reviews to show that you value your customers’ opinions and feedback. Most reviews will have no-follow link but when they come from trusted sources, they can bring a surge in your local search ranking as Google views reviews as a ranking signal.
Create a Google Business Profile, claim your listing on major websites and directories, and request clients to share their reviews on various platforms. Also, reviews will get you more exposure on search engines and build trust among users.
As you include reviews in your off-page strategy, keep the following points in mind:
- Ask customers to drop reviews
- Reply to all reviews, whether good or bad
- Never offer or accept money in exchange for reviews
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Off-page SEO Checklist
Off-page SEO happens on third-party websites and platforms. Hence, it’s entirely out of your control. However, if done right, it can give you an edge over competitors, making your site more authoritative and driving you more organic traffic. Here’s all that you must tick off while working on off-page SEO strategies:
- Audit Your Backlink Profile
- Invest Enough Time in Comment Sections
- Don’t Forget Local SEO
- Stay Active on Social Media
- Post on Forums
- Increase Brand Mentions
- Collaborate with Influencers
- Leverage the Power of Guest Posts
1. Audit Your Backlink Profile
Backlinks are links from third-party websites to your web pages or content. These links tell search engines that reputable websites trust your content and find it valuable. This influences your rankings and places you in the top position. Videos, infographics, quizzes, list posts, and how-to-articles are known to attract most number of backlinks.
Backlink profile is the collection of backlinks that redirect to your content or website. A healthy backlink profile comprising quality backlinks from high-authority sits can work wonders for your search engine rankings.
You need to conduct a backlink audit regularly to maintain a strong backlink profile. Here are a few tips to know about a good backlink profile:
- A higher number of backlinks shows a stronger backlink profile, given that all links come from reputable sites.
- More backlinks mean better domain quality.
- Grow backlinks gradually over a period.
- There should be a clear division between do-follow and no-follow links. Do-follow links are like endorsements of your site and pass authority, so focus on increasing the number of do-follow links.
- Try to connect with high-authority websites and domains to get backlinks.
- Your anchor texts should fit naturally in the content. Also, there shouldn’t be an excessive number of anchor texts.
2. Invest Enough Time in Comment Sections
Generally, businesses consider other websites as competition. Therefore, they avoid commenting on their posts. However, it’s crucial for off-page search engine optimization that you find a few amazing sites within your niche that aren’t your direct competitors and get involved in their comment sections.
Drop funny, quirky, positive, and engaging comments consistently to place yourself in the lead. It will get you more attention from the audience and people will be compelled to check out your content and website. This will improve your brand visibility and traffic. You can also add your links in the comments.
3. Don’t Forget Local SEO
If you have a brick-and-mortar business, it’s time to consider investing in local SEO to improve your online presence and spread the word about your store. It involves improving your digital footprint so you can reach people in your area via search engines and tell them about your products or services.
It will also place you on Google Maps, and Google will display your website for relevant keywords. Claim your listing on review sites like Yelp to mark a stronger presence. It will support your off-page strategies and boost your rankings. As you list your business and create a Google Business Profile, make sure you mention the correct business name, address, website URL, and phone number across all platforms and local directories. In case there’s any change, update it at the earliest on all channels.
As you sign up for GBP, a free business listing tool, here are a few steps to follow:
- Create the account
- Select attributes to describe your business accurately
- Mention working hours
- Upload images and videos
- Reply to comments and reviews by customers
Also Read: All Types of SEO (Search Engine Optimization): 2024 Guide
4. Stay Active on Social Media
If you are already active on social media and post regularly, then you are off to a great start. When you share content across multiple social media channels, you directly connect with the audience, which makes your business seem approachable. Also, it brings traffic to your website from diverse sources, convincing search engines that your site offers valuable and useful content to users.
Make sure you reply to every comment on your post and every mention of your brand. To make your social media marketing more effective, here are a few tips to help you:
- Tailor your posts and content according to the social media platform to align with their unique characteristics. For example, you can post a long video on YouTube, but when it comes to Instagram, you need to cut it short.
- Engage with your audience by responding to comments, answering their queries, conducting live Q&A sessions, and encouraging fun interactions. When your business comes across as friendly and engaging, people are likely to share your content often.
- Find the target audience and market to zero in on the right social media platform that works for you. For example, a home decor business must focus on Pinterest and Instagram. Similarly, an ed-tech platform must reach its audience via YouTube or Facebook.
- As a huge number of users access their social media profiles via smartphones, your social media content and posts must be compatible with mobile devices. Images and videos must load quickly without compromising on quality.
- Create high-quality and relevant content that resonates with your brand voice and connects with the target audience. Focus on maintaining quality rather than posting mediocre content frequently.
5. Post on Forums
Posting on forums may not skyrocket your search engine ranking instantly, but it can bring referral traffic. Engage in relevant threads when you have something valuable to contribute and respond to comments to connect with the target audience.
Add your website link to the forum or community profile. However, avoid explicitly promoting your content or posting frequent promotional links about your products unless it’s related to the topic.
Forums are among the effective and holistic off-page SEO factors that can improve your website authority, visibility, and search performance. Build a positive reputation across all forums and communities to boost brand awareness, which will compel people to visit your website and explore your products or services.
6. Increase Brand Mentions
Brand mentions are important to build brand visibility across the web and attract user attention. The following are the common activities used to earn brand mentions:
Press Releases: When there is an event, product launch, or anything newsworthy, you draft a press release and distribute it across various media outlets.
Affiliate Marketing: You partner with influencers, bloggers, and websites to promote your business or brand and pay them a commission in exchange.
User-generated Content: Encourage existing clients to share their experiences and feedback about your brand on social media and other websites. You can offer giveaways or incentives to get more reviews.
Free Education: Conduct seminars, workshops, and training programs to build brand authority and gain trust.
Podcasts: Host webinars and podcasts to share industry insights with users.
7. Collaborate with Influencers
Partner with influencers and renowned personalities with a huge online following and incredible reputation. Collaborate with them to promote your brand and gain backlinks from their social media profiles and sites.
The following points will guide you during your influencer marketing journey:
- Find influencers who are trusted by people and are relevant to your niche with sizeable followers. Make sure they are well within your budget.
- Set your goals to implement an effective influencer marketing strategy. Decide what you want to achieve through the campaign, sales, backlinks, or brand awareness.
- Send a personalized message and pitch to convey your objectives to the influencer.
- Track the performance of your campaign, website traffic, sales, backlinks, engagement metrics, etc. You must be aware of the success and ROI of the project.
8. Leverage the Power of Guest Posts
There are many sites that accept guest blogs. You can use such oppotuniuties to secure backlinks from top websites. However, each guest posting site has its terms and conditions, especially for links. Some may allow do-follow links, while others will let you to mention just the brand name or add a no-follow link.
Irrespective of the rules, guest blogging should be a part of your off-page checklist as it allows you to connect with new audiences, earn quality backlinks, and drive more traffic.
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Conclusion
Many assume that focusing on on-page elements will be enough to improve their search engine rankings and online visibility. However, you also need off-page efforts to support on-site SEO and achieve the desired results. Off-page optimization is essential to reach more audiences and build domain authority. So, start working on your off-page elements now and take your SEO game up a notch.
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