If you’re one of those who are eager to boost their business’ online presence, you’ve landed on the right page. We will be providing answers to the above hypothetical questions in today’s article. You may consider this an ultimate guide to off-page SEO.
Now, before you dive in, just relax – you’re not in for a rocket science lesson.
Off-page SEO is the techniques many businesses use outside their website to shine in the rankings. Among the most popular techniques today are link building, guest posting, and social media magic. Ultimately, the goal of this procedure is to make search engines (and users) completely trust their site.
Think of off-page SEO as building up your site’s credibility – the better it looks to search engines, the higher it ranks. Those websites we all know and love tend to rank higher because search engines value their backlinks, reviews, and recommendations (and other off-page factors, too) – which together make up the secret sauce of a business.
On-Page vs. Off-Page
These two techniques take a completely different approach. Or, more specifically, they take place in entirely different locations. But before we further explain their differences, you might first need to understand what is on page SEO and why it is crucial to digital marketing.
On-page SEO refers to the things that you have full control over on your website that will impress search engines and make them fall in love with your content (even more). We’re talking about a site’s content, those catchy title tags, the right keywords, snazzy URLs, and even those nifty internal links. Everything is in your hands with On-Page SEO, pretty much.
Off-page SEO, on the other hand, describes actions taken outside of your own website. For example, backlinks and mentions on other platforms – totally different from On-Page SEO.
7 Successful Off-Page SEO Techniques
Now that you’ve understood what is off-page SEO, let’s look at the different techniques involved.
Here are 7 techniques that are proven to work for most businesses:
Web Directories
If you want to kickstart your company’s online game, get it listed in web directories ASAP.
Although some might say otherwise, claiming your business’ spot in these directories can really make a big difference. It’s just that you have to be smart about it. You need to find those legit directories in which you can promote your company.
The good news is, we have some suggestions to share today. Here are a few web directories for local businesses you might want to check out:
- Google Business Profile
- Facebook (yes, official Facebook pages are indexed by Google)
- Yelp
- Foursquare
Social Media Channels
Social media channels are, without a doubt, today’s most effective tool for marketing. There are many awesome platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook with massive followings, which can boost your brand’s visibility tremendously. Although Google hasn’t explicitly come out and said that getting links from these social media platforms is directly beneficial to our SEO, everyone knows that they crawl such sites for data, as they would any other website.
When it comes to engaging with your audience on social media, there’s a bunch of cool stuff you can do. We’ve seen tons of businesses hosting contests, games, quizzes, and all sorts of events on social media to supercharge their branding – and the strategy seems to be working very well for them.
Inbound Links
If you understand what is off-page SEO, you probably understand the concept of inbound links too – they’re one of the go-to moves for SEO experts these days.
But if you are new to all this, inbound links, put simply, are links from another website that point right to your own page. The thing is, the quantity and quality of these links seriously affect your off-page SEO ranking. So, if you want to reel in the right crowd, gather these links from businesses in the same niche as yours, and one way to achieve that is to collaborate with them.
Here’s the key thing – stick to getting links from legit and reputable websites in your field. Trust us, implementing this makes a whole lot of difference.
Q&A Webs
Lots of people head to Q&A websites like Quora or Yahoo! Answers to ask questions about things they’re curious about, including questions about a service or product.
Answering those queries can totally help spread the word about your brand. As a business owner, it’s crucial for you to go out there, be active, and provide as many helpful answers as you can. That’s how you reach a wider audience and get your business pumped up.
Here’s a nifty little trick we picked up – include some keyword links when answering those questions. It may seem a little sneaky, but it’s an effective way to drive more traffic to your website.
Guest Posts
Guest posting involves writing an article and getting it published on someone else’s website for the purpose of generating a backlink.
Guest posts are most effective when you nail the quality of the articles. To no one’s surprise, it all comes down to the content’s originality. So, when writing them, make sure they stand out from the crowd.
If your business is in the digital marketing game, for example, you can check out third-party sites like SingleGrain or HubSpot. You can write about your products, your industry, or any hot topic in your niche. Just make it super interesting so that the readers are hooked.
People’s Reviews
Reviews are treasure troves of original keywords that give your website a boost in ranking. It’s obvious, therefore, that they’re a great addition to your website. The icing on the cake is that search engines love them too, mainly because they drive more clicks.
Here’s a slick trick for all you business owners out there – get your customers motivated to post reviews on your site, and the best way to do so is by offering them cool incentives like rewards, discounts, or coupons.
Social Bookmarking
You know how some people add products and pages to bookmarking sites like Pinterest, Scoop.it, Reddit, or StumbleUpon?
Well, basically, that whole process is what internet people call social bookmarking.
On these social bookmarking platforms, content is grouped into different sections or threads. What users can do is follow the ones that match their interests, and they’ll get notified whenever there is a fresh post.
Let’s say your brand is in the gaming industry. You can dive into these discussions and see what’s buzzing in that space, which is a sweet chance to connect with users who totally dig what you offer. Plus, you can even share your own awesome content too.
Aside from that, there’s an SEO bonus – getting backlinks from a high domain authority platform. That, my friend, can give your content a real boost in the SERPs.
Conclusion
There’s a whole bunch of other useful techniques you can use as part of your website’s off-page SEO. Like a never-ending game, new tricks pop up in this ever-changing digital world every now and then. Stay on your toes and keep up with the latest updates about upcoming platforms – that’s the name of the game.
One popular platform for off-page SEO today, for example, is podcasts. People are talking about this platform more and more in SEO communities. So, if that’s your thing, dive right in and explore everything it has to offer.
There’s so much more to discover if you want to ace the SEO world. Just keep researching and trying out different approaches, and you’ll find what’s right for you (and your biz).
