Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in improving your site’s traffic and ranking on the search result. It helps not only to improve user experience, but also helps make the search engine robots task of indexing a website easy. For the uninitiated, SEO is categorised into two parts – on-page and off-page SEO techniques. On-page SEO includes factors like quality content, headings, meta tags, images, and page speed. Whereas, off-page SEO is related to advanced SEO strategies like link building.
A. What is Off-page SEO? Why is it Important?
Any SEO tactic that occurs outside the boundaries of your own website and helps establish site authority and improve ranking is known as off-site SEO a.k.a off-page SEO. It primarily includes business listing, acquiring backlinks, guest posting, and influencer outreach.
In other words, off-page SEO helps build brand recognition and domain authority with content creation. It is also an excellent way to earn backlinks from high-authority websites in your niche.
While the off-page SEO process is time-consuming and you may not see instant results, be assured that over time, you will see gradual improvements in your domain authority and search engine ranking.
Several businesses tend to ignore off-page SEO but still expect quick results. However, as a SEO agency in Surrey, let us tell you a secret: if you want to improve ranking, increase website traffic, and generate targeted leads, you need a comprehensive SEO strategy that includes both – on-page and off-page SEO factors.
B. On-page SEO vs Off-page SEO
| ON-PAGE SEO | OFF-PAGE SEO |
|---|---|
| On-page optimisation is more focused on improving the website’s performance and functionality. | Off-page SEO focuses on increasing domain authority through content and backlinks. Hence, optimisation mainly occurs outside the website. |
| On-page SEO pays attention to what your website (products/services) is about. “What you rank for” is determined by the factors (such as keywords) present on the website page. | Off-page SEO looks at how popular and authoritative your site is on the search engine. “How high you rank” in search results has more to do with off-page factors. |
| On-page SEO is influenced by optimising specific pages/blogs with targeted keywords, meta descriptions, title tags, H1 tags, etc. | You cannot influence off-page SEO like on-page. |
| Common on-page SEO tactics include URL structure, breadcrumbs, internal links, keywords, site navigation, title tags, and meta descriptions. | Common off-page SEO tactics to earn backlinks include brand mentions, guest blogging, newsletters, social networking, broken link building, commenting, and influencer outreach. |
Further reading: SEO And Web Design: How Do They Work Together
C. Off-page SEO Checklist: Effective Techniques for 2022
Off-page SEO is tricky, but crucial to improve the position of your website on the search engine result pages (SERP). To make it easier for you, we have created this in-depth off-page optimisation checklist that can help you increase your site’s ranking and authority over time.
1. Google Local Listing: Google local listings are business listings that provide important information about a company, namely – name, address and phone number. To improve brand visibility, getting your site listed on Google My Business is important. You can add a short description of the products and services you offer. You can add recently published blogs and business social media links. You can answer questions from potential clients/customers. Plus, your customers or clients can leave a review for your business on this listing.
2. Competitor Backlink Analysis: To boost link-building opportunities, analyse your competitors to find sites providing backlinks to them. Using this list, pitch to the same websites. Check for guest posting opportunities or publishing your infographic on their website. Ideally, a website that has provided a backlink to your competitor would most likely also provide a backlink to you (provided you offer high-quality content). Just ensure that you choose websites relevant to you and your business. You can use Ahrefs free backlink checker tool for competitor backlink analysis.
3. Influencer Outreach: If you have created engaging content worth sharing, do not hesitate to reach out to influencers in your industry. It will only benefit your brand and increase its visibility. Backlinks from these sites can also help improve domain authority and drive referral traffic to your website. You can contact influencers and ask them if they would like to post your content/infographic on their site. You can also ask them to write a review for your product/service. Make sure the backlinks are do-follow.
4. Guest Posting: Guest blogging is one of the most common off-page SEO techniques for link building. When you write a guest post for another website or blog in your niche, they often let you link back to your website in the post or from the author’s bio.
- Apart from getting a backlink, guest posting helps build your brand’s credibility and authority, as the author name or the brand’s name is featured on the website.
- While following the guest posting strategy, you need to get quality backlinks from multiple websites. Guest posting on the same website would not be beneficial.
5. Social Media Marketing: The shares & likes from social media may not influence search rankings, but they do offer numerous benefits. By making social media marketing a part of your off-site optimisation strategy, you can improve brand awareness, generate leads through paid ads, and reach a global audience. Social media has also helped brands enhance their engagement with their customers/clients, through live videos, instant responses to queries, comments and suggestions. A strong social media strategy is important to amplify your brand’s visibility.
6. Google Business Review: Google Business Reviews help to step-up your SEO game. A higher rank in Google alongside a good review indicates to potential customers/clients that you are a credible business/provider. A positive review also helps establish your brand’s name across the industry. Most importantly, it helps improve your website’s traffic.
7. Web2.0 Submission: Submitting web 2.0 content is another technique, wherein you can create sub-domains on high-domain authority websites. You should keep sharing great content, update the site regularly, and build backlinks for published articles for better results. Some examples are Medium.com, Tumblr, Blogger, and WordPress.
8. Question and Answer (Quora): Quora is undoubtedly one of the best ways to boost visibility and improve your site’s SEO off-page optimization. Question and answer sites can get you a good amount of targeted traffic. You can join these sites and search for questions related to your niche, product or services and provide informational answers (without being too promotional). Do not forget to link your blog in the answer. You can start with sites such as Quora and Yahoo Answers.
9. Broken Link Building: This tactic is an excellent way to earn backlinks. Links are bound to break if the hosting expires or if the site shuts down. Also, if the URL is changed and not redirected, it could lead to a 404 error. Find these broken links through tools such as Dead Link Checker, contact the owner to make them aware, and pitch your blog/infographic link that they can use to replace the broken link.
Read: Must-Have WordPress Plugins For Business Websites
10. Newsletters: Email newsletters are used by businesses to inform their network of subscribers about new product launches, promotional deals and other important brand changes & updates. Newsletters can help boost engagement and generate leads that convert. They are one of the most cost-effective off-page strategies that provide great results. You can customise a newsletter as per your marketing strategy.
11. Unlinked Brand Mentions: This is another way to earn backlinks. Sometimes influencers or bloggers can add your blog or website’s name in their articles but may not link back to you. Here, you can connect with them and ask for a backlink. Tools like Lemlist is a good way to identify unlinked brand mentions, which you can claim.
12. Blog Commenting: Blog commenting was once the most effective way to earn a backlink. Today, most blogs are run over by spam, and most comments have a no-follow tag that doesn’t provide much value. However, sometimes, you can get a do-follow link by commenting on relevant blog posts.
13. Video Submission: Videos/reels attract more attention than plain text. If you are a vlogger or create videos alongside your content, submit them to relevant video sites to improve visibility. It is one of the simplest ways to gain quality backlinks. Ensure that you submit optimised videos with an appropriate title, description, tags, and reference links. Sites with high DA – that are highly preferred – for video submissions are YouTube, Vine, Vimeo, and MetaCafe.
Read: Video Marketing For Business
14. Image Submission: Engaging images usually work great for your content. Make sure the image you wish to use is well-optimised – they are of high resolutions, correct format, correct size and ratio. Ensure the image has an ALT text, a title tag, and a description accompanying it. Also, ensure the image URL has a keyword. Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Picasa are some of the best image submission sites.
Read: Image SEO: Optimising Images For Search Engines
15. Infographics Submission: Creating infographics is an excellent way to provide information visually. They can help acquire authoritative backlinks and attract a larger audience. Why? Because they are more engaging than plain text or blocks of content. If well-promoted, infographics can go viral and generate continuous organic traffic. Some infographics submission sites are Visual.ly, Reddit, and Infographicsarchive.com.
16. Blog Directory Submission: Blog directory submission is a simple off-site SEO technique that helps build backlinks. Though it is a time-consuming process, it can show results in the long run. Select a proper category under each directory that is relevant for your brand and start submitting your posts. Networked blogs, Elecdir, and Alltop are some good blog directories to submit your posts.
17. Article Submission: It is always a wise decision to submit newly published blogs or articles to high DA (domain authority) directories. Refrain from submitting low-quality content, which might get rejected. Some article submission sites are HubPages, Thefreelibrary, and Bright Hub.
18. Forum Submission: Make sure to sign-up for relevant forums to build connections and create a community. Use the do-follow forums to submit quality content to improve brand visibility. Blog Engage, bbPress, and Warrior are some forum sites, wherein you can submit your articles.
