Off-page SEO is important for websites to rank on search engines as it builds trust and authority.
Have you done everything right with your on-page SEO, and still struggling to rank?
While there might be a number of factors to be considered, only doing on-page SEO correctly may not lead to Search engine rankings.
What is Off-Page SEO Optimization?
An off-Page SEO technique is something you do outside of your website technicalities. It doesn’t include any form of coding or technical stuff. It is more of doing PR and advertisement of your business through backlinks, guest posts, and social media.
While On-Page SEO is vital for any website, search engines also look out for the credibility and trust of your website. The only way to check that is through Off-page optimization.
Link building is considered one of the important techniques in off-page SEO. The reason is that, when other website links back to your website, your trust score is built. Google is also built on a Page rank algorithm, which means it checks the quality and quantity of links coming from other websites.
Higher spam score website links have zero value while the higher authority website backlinks have high value and a good chance to rank.
Difference between On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO
As discussed above, On-Page SEO means action taken inside the website and Off-Page SEO means action taken outside the website.
The image below should clear the confusion between these two terms while doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
While the list may not be complete, it should give you a clear picture of the differences between on-page and off-page SEO for beginners.
Off-site SEO practices
1. Link Building
Link Building is considered one of the most important aspects of Off-Page SEO. The act of linking your webpage from another domain to yours is known as link building.
Link Building can be done in various ways. Guest blogging, Forum links, blog commenting, social media sharing, answering questions, and so on.
There are two types of links, do-follow links, and no-follow links.
Do-follow links provide link juice to your page while no-follow links do not provide link juice, which mostly happens with forums and social media. With Guest posts, you still have chances of do-follow links depending on the negotiations you have.
While it is important to build authoritative links pointing to your domain, it is not an easy task and it is ongoing. You should never shy away from mentioning your website where it is required, given you are not spamming.
2. Reviews
With the internet wave, customers have become smarter than ever before. If the customer wants to buy a bag or wants to go for a coffee, a smart customer would go on to check your google reviews or trust pilot reviews, and so on.
Businesses should look after their reviews carefully be it on Google Business or Facebook reviews and other review sites depending on the niche.
A good review will help you rank higher, while a bad review will lose your rankings.
Good customer care is the answer to the best reviews.
3. Social Media Engagement
While a website is your home, social media is your store where you entertain your customers with good content. Good content can lead to engagement and sales for businesses.
Social Media Engagement is vital today, as the more customers engage on your social media pages, the more brand awareness it creates and makes noise.
When your business makes noise on different platforms, you have the ability to rank higher due to the trust factor.
4. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing means when you ask influencers (actors, vloggers, bloggers, tiktokers, reelers, etc) to promote your products.
When you do influencer marketing, it is an easy way to reach people related to your niche within minutes. They bring their audience who are loyal to them and most of them would like to try out the products they suggest.
It’s a win-win for both the brands and influencers.
5. Guest Blogging
When you write content for other bloggers it is called guest blogging. The owner of the guest blog site can either promise you a shout-out or a link back to your website or other things depending on the owner to the owner.
It is a good way of getting a backlink as well as getting traffic from the audiences of that website and also getting your name promoted through other websites.
6. Email Marketing
Incorporating a subscribe button on your website can bring you subscribers who are willing to know the updates from your site.
When a subscriber subscribes to your email list, you can send them newsletters in their inbox, where you can add hyperlinks to your website.
Email Marketing is known to be an effective tactic for off Page SEO. When you have a good subject line including good content, the audience is bound to click the links. Hence, bringing valuable traffic to your website.
7. Directory Submission
A directory such as Yelp is helpful for businesses to list their services. This can further give you added authority links to your website. It also builds trust with the customers.
There are different directories depending on your niche. For example, a dentist might have different directories apart from universal directories like Yelp. Dental businesses can sign up for those directories and get the traffic from a niche audience.
3 Link Building Factors to Consider
- Referring Domains and link authority: Google considers referring domains as a major factor to give the search positions. The more websites refer to your website, the better it is considered. However, the links should come from less spammy websites with higher domain authority.
- Relativity of the Link: A link should come from the website which is related to your website. For example, I keep getting emails from marketers who want to promote their websites through my blog. However, not everyone emails me with a similar niche, for example, digital marketing. I will never promote links that are not related to my niche, like “yoga” as I am not writing blogs on it. Unless I want to write a case study on yoga blog optimization, then it is relevant for me. Thus, create links where your niche fits, not everywhere to spam. Otherwise, Google will give you penalties with their algorithms and you will not be seen anywhere.
- Anchor text: The link’s anchor text should always be relevant to the link you are pointing to. For example, if a link talks about dog food, do not have anchor text as dog homes. Do not make your link look spammy.