We don’t know how search engines exactly rank sites. But we know that relevance, authority, and trust are key factors.
Off-page SEO can help build these areas. It can boost authority and trust with both search engines and users. Many feel that off-page SEO is hard work. It’s often out of your control, that’s true. But that’s why it’s such an important ranking factor! If something’s harder to get, it’s harder to manipulate. So, it’s a more reliable source for search engines. They use it to rank websites.
Off-page SEO includes:
- Social media
- Link building
- Local SEO
These can help generate referral traffic back to your site. It helps to bring potential customers and visitors to your site. Your on-page SEO can then take over and ensure they have a great experience.
One of the major players in off-page SEO is backlinks. This is simply a link to your site that sits on someone else’s.
As with all things in digital marketing, relevancy is key. High-quality, relevant sites linking to yours are a trust signal for search engines. It proves that others trust you so that they can trust you too.
You want to focus on obtaining high-quality links that come from authoritative sites and are relevant to your brand.
Okay But how to get links
Try and work with a blog post, a directory, or something else equally valuable. These can develop naturally as these companies find you. Or, you can reach out to explain who you are and what you do. Then, see if you can find common ground to create some content together.
While links are the backbone of off-page SEO, there are other things to consider. These include your social media presence, guest blogging, and any other ways to create buzz around your brand.
When another brand mentions you online, whether they link to you or not, is a great way to go about this. Factor ways into your marketing activity that can help you increase the number of brand mentions you’re getting.
This could be in other people’s content, on social media channels, or forums. User-generated content and collaborations are great for brand mentions. You might try some blogger outreach. Look to a guest blog or have guest writers to extend your reach.
Try not to think of this as a selling tactic, but rather an opportunity to increase your audience’s affinity to your brand. This will set you on the right path for successful off-page SEO. Keep in mind that your offline marketing activity may inadvertently help to boost your off-page SEO efforts too!.
For an easy solution, it’s better to hire an SEO expert to take care of everything from on-page to off-page optimization. See the ROI from your search engine ranking.