A Guide to Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO optimization: what is it and how to use it

If you aim for your website to rank on Google’s search results which will increase your business’s organic search traffic, you will need to complement your on-page SEO strategy with off-page SEO.

Off-page SEO is one of the most critical components of a successful SEO strategy. In this article, we will share what off-page SEO is, what benefits it brings, and outline some techniques that can increase your website’s visibility.

What is off-page SEO?

Search engines continually aim to identify ways to serve the best results to their users.

To work towards this goal, search engines take into consideration many on-page SEO factors, along with other quality factors and some off-page SEO factors.

Off-page SEO provides a good insight into how websites and searchers view a particular website.

Even though many people connect off-page SEO with link building, it is more than that. Many actions that do not result in a standard backlink on another website are often more important in terms of off-page optimization.

On-page search engine optimization occurs within a website, meanwhile, off-page SEO takes place outside of the website. For example, if someone writes a guest post to go on another blog or even leaves a comment, that is off-page website promotion.

Websites that are recognized as high quality and useful sites are more likely to have backlinks from other websites, in the same way, that a popular book or article is likely to be cited more. Moreover, the website will likely have more brand mentions via social media networks (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.).

All these items, and more, act as signals that indicate a ‘green light’ to search engines to rank a website higher in the search results.

Off-page SEO benefits

An effective off-page SEO strategy will offer at least some of the following benefits to websites:

Higher up in the search rankings – This is the main benefit of off-page SEO. The website will be higher in the Search Engine Results Pages (also known as “SERPs” or “SERP”), and this leads to more traffic.

Higher PageRank – Page rank is indicated by a number from between zero to ten which shows the significance of a website in Google’s view.

Page rank is one of Google’s official ranking factors that Google uses to rank websites.

More exposure – Higher search rankings also generate more exposure because when a website comes up in the top search results, this will lead to more backlinks, an increased number of website visits, and more social media mentions. It’s a self-serving sequence of events where everything is connected and supports each other.

Build trustworthiness – Along with the mentioned points above, Google has also introduced the notion of Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T), which is an essential part of the rankings structure and directly correlates to off-page SEO.

Essentially, Google aims to rank websites that have expertise and authority on a given subject, and one of the methods to safeguard that the websites selected by the algorithms can be trusted is via the number and kind of incoming links.

Off-page SEO methods

Off-page SEO relates to actions you can conduct outside the limits of your website. chief off-page SEO methods include:

Link building

Link building is one of the most widespread and effective off-page SEO techniques. Through growing links that go back to your website, you are attempting to gather as many ‘votes’ as possible so that you can get ahead of your competitors to rank higher.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is another ‘off-site SEO’ technique, and it also relates to link building.

Google does not officially use social signals (like likes, comments, shares) as a ranking factor. This is because they can be easily manipulated or even paid for, and therefore they may not demonstrate how popular a social post actually is. However, even though organic reach is virtually dead on many social media platforms, if you promote your social media posts effectively, they will reach a larger audience. This increases the probability that more people will read the content, and some of these people will link to the article or page.

Brand mentions

Google prefers official brands to rank at the top of relevant search results. This is part of the same thought process as the above-mentioned “Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness”. This is because brands are more likely to be reliable and therefore trusted by users, which leads to a better user experience, and this is something that Google is aiming for.

Whereas brand mentions, link building, and social media marketing often have a link pointing to your website, this is not the case with brand mentions. Brand mentions can be found in forums, articles, reviews, or social media channels.

Customer reviews

Customer reviews can be either for your company, website, products, or services reviews play an important role in your rankings. For local online marketing and SEO in particular, reviews can be one the most effective off-page SEO techniques.

Conclusion

Off-page SEO is just as important as on-site SEO and they have to work hand-in-hand. In order for your SEO to be effective, you need both to work properly.

When considering link building, there are no shortcuts; for example, paid links often do not work. It is usually the case that the more difficult it is to get a link, the more valuable it is.

If you have any questions related to SEO, please feel free to contact our expert team at info@relevantaudience.com for more information.