Off-Page SEO Strategies

Search Engine Optimization is all about helping your website rank higher for relevant keywords. 

Most often, people think of keyword planning, optimized content, and even technical SEO when they think about improving their search rank.

While all of these on-page SEO strategies are critical, they are only part of the puzzle.

Even doing all of these strategies correctly may not have the impact you’re looking for if you neglect the off-page SEO strategies.

That’s right!

It’s not just about your website. You must also implement the top off-page optimization strategies if you want to generate more organic traffic.

What is off-page SEO and how do you improve it?

Let’s dive in.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO includes strategies that are not on your website. These are indirect methods that can help boost your site’s credibility and traffic.

One of the most well-known off-page SEO strategies is backlink building (which we’ll explain more in-depth shortly). While backlinks are important, it’s not the only off-site method you can or should use. There are several key strategies that you can use to increase your off-page SEO. 

The Importance of Off-Page SEO

Why does off-page SEO matter? Search engines use hundreds of ranking factors to determine where to rank websites. Some of the factors involve off-page SEO. The trustworthiness and authority of your website matter. When other websites link back to your site, it helps build your site’s credibility.

Backlinks

Undoubtedly, getting others to link to your website is helpful for off-page SEO. When a site includes a link to your website, it’s called a “backlink.” Acquiring backlinks helps differentiate your content and your website, telling Google that it’s credible and authoritative. 

But when it comes to backlinks, quality matters. You don’t want any and every site linking to yours. Backlinks from low-quality, spammy sites can actually harm your SEO. Instead, you want to acquire high-quality links. 

The best backlinks are from sites with:

• High domain authority, or website quality/performance. Links back from websites with high DA can help to increase your page rank search rankings. 
• Relevance. Is the other website relevant to yours?
• Potential for high traffic. Can the website actually help you generate traffic?
• Do-follow link type. Do-follow links pass value to the webpage they link to. You want these, instead of no-follow links, which don’t pass value because they don’t allow Google bots to follow.

How to Generate Quality Backlinks

Natural links are great. They occur when a website generates a link without any action on your part. These suggest a genuine, organic interest in your business or offer. While natural links are a great sign of endorsement, they are very few and far between. When it comes to growing your business online, you may not want to rely on natural links. 

Instead of sitting and waiting for others to link back to your website, implement these strategies for creating valuable backlinks:

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is an essential digital marketing strategy in the modern digital world. Social media helps you get your content in front of more relevant people. You can use it to encourage website visits, share your content, and partner with influencers. 

Instagram and TikTok may be great for some businesses, but for others, those platforms don’t make sense. That doesn’t mean that social media marketing is useless for you. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter also have high DA scores and can help you connect with your audience.

While it’s unclear if having a social media platform directly helps SEO, Google has stated that they crawl social media platforms. Furthermore, social media marketing is a proven method for generating organic traffic. 

Here are some helpful social media marketing tips:

• Share relevant, helpful content that your audience cares about 
• Create visually appealing content 
• Interact with your target audience
• Join relevant groups (especially on LinkedIn and Facebook)
• Post consistently

Guest Blogging

Instead of waiting and wishing that certain websites would link back to you, give them a reason to. Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to generate quality backlinks. 

The basic idea is that you write content for another website, and they post it as a guest blog. A guest blog differs from a ghost blog in that the author is credited. 

You write a piece of content that is likely to interest and help their audience, and it will link back to you. This is not only a great way to increase off-page SEO, but it also helps improve your thought leadership and brand awareness. 

What can you write for a guest blog? Here are some ideas:

• How-to
• Checklists
• Video content 
• Case study

For top websites, it may be difficult to get approved. You should ensure that they will find the content beneficial. It should be unique and directly relevant to their audience. 

One simple tip for getting your guest blog accepted is to send the completed blog in the proposal. This shows that you are serious and took the time to understand their audience. They can see your writing immediately and decide right away if it’s a good fit. 

Make sure you include a concise author bio that links back to your site. Follow the website’s rules on guest blogging. If they allow it, see if you can naturally work in some links to your content throughout the piece. 

If you’re not exactly an author but have some great knowledge that you could leverage in a guest blog, then work with a professional writer. An experienced writer can help bring your vision to life, so you can submit compelling guest blogs and generate more quality links.

Local Listings

Submit your business details to local listings. This can help you show up for local search results, and it also makes you appear more credible to potential customers. You should claim your profile and include relevant, updated information on the following sites:

• Yelp
• Foursquare
• Angie’s List (if applicable)
• Google My Business

Note that all of the business details should be the same on these local listings. Mismatched information can hurt your SEO. 

In-Person Advertising

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, use your in-person location to drive traffic to your website. Display your website around your business, and tell people why they should follow. Give your customers a personal invitation to visit your website to schedule their next visit or to learn more about a certain service. 

Start Leveraging Off-Page SEO!

The bottom line is that off-page SEO is a crucial part of your overall SEO strategy. While on-page methods are important, you should not neglect the off-page strategies discussed above. These methods can help you improve the authority and credibility of your site, which ultimately helps you rank higher.