Off-Page SEO

Optimizations Beyond Your Website

Off-page SEO refers to techniques leveraged outside your website to enhance your site and brand’s search engine rankings and credibility. Unlike on-page SEO that primarily deals with content, meta tags, and site structure, off-page SEO focuses on factors beyond the website itself.

Key Off-Page SEO Techniques

Link Building Strategies

Linking in general is a big deal in SEO. For on-page SEO, we focus on your internal linking–or the linking structure that connects the pages of your website to each other. With off-page SEO, we’re focused on links that point from another website to your website. These often come from: 

  • Influencers, product reviewers, or service reviewers 
  • Affiliate websites 
  • Participating as a guest blogger / podcaster 
  • Offering excellent website content that other websites link to from their own sites (this most often occurs when someone releases breaking news or provides original research on a subject)

Social Media Engagement

Your social media profiles can rank on search engines, so making sure yours shows up for branded search terms is part of the SEO playbook. On top of that, social links can drive traffic to your pages and boost their performance. 

Online Reputation Management

Reputation management isn’t limited to off-page SEO. You can execute on reputation management on page by making your content trustworthy and offering a great product or service. 

Off-page reputation management IS a big part of the puzzle though. 

  1. Check your BBB rating and seek to improve it. Remember, search engine optimization is about expertise, experience, authority, and trust. If your score with the BBB or other major quality review platforms is low, there’s something you need to address. 
  2. Set up a review collection and management system. E-commerce sites will want product reviews on their specific product pages, while all businesses benefit from positive businesses on a Google Business Profile. 
  3. Reply to reviews–especially negative ones. You can’t delete a Google review unless Google removes it for violating their policies (which is rare). So don’t focus on trying to get rid of negative reviews, respond to them instead. Even if you don’t befriend whoever gave you 1 star, your response will show others that you’re attentive and responsive, and it might win their business. 

Content Marketing and Promotion

Creating valuable, shareable content is pivotal in attracting natural backlinks. Content promotion strategies involving influencers, online communities, and content syndication amplify content reach, encouraging more backlinks and increased visibility.

Measuring Off-Page SEO Success

Like all of SEO, off-page SEO should be measured with data. If you want to know how well your off-page SEO techniques are working, you can look into your referral traffic reports on analytics, check backlink reports on SEMrush or Ahrefs, measure your review quantity and quality compared to your competition, and more. 

You can also see how many people have viewed your Google Business Profile on your account. Then, try something like adding posts to your GBP, optimizing your listing, etc. to see if you can influence your view count. 

Adapting Strategies Based on Analytics

Data-driven decision-making is paramount. Interpreting analytical data helps in identifying strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. Flexibility in strategy based on insights is key to continual improvement in off-page SEO efforts.

Start Developing Your Off-Page SEO Strategy 

Off-page SEO is an ongoing, multifaceted discipline that impacts a website’s visibility on search engines. Including off-page strategies alongside on-page search engine optimization is essential for achieving sustainable and long-term success in the competitive digital landscape. 

By continually refining techniques, staying updated with industry trends, and adapting to algorithm changes, businesses can establish a formidable online presence that resonates with their target audience.