A Brief Dive into Off-Page SEO

  

 Off-Page SEO: What is it?

SEO can be seen as an equation with two parts; “The first part of SEO is having a great SEO friendly website (on-page and technical) and the other half is actually promoting the website (off-page),” (SEO – Off-Page Optimization, 2021).  Off-page SEO deals with all of the tactics taking place outside of your website, to drive a higher ranking in SERP (search engine results pages). Off-page SEO works in harmony with on-page and technical SEO, to help a site’s rankings, user-experiences and authority. Below is a graphic that shows the differences behind each SEO tactic (Varagouli, 2020). 

As shown above, each SEO tactic has different techniques that drive the overall category. Again, each SEO tactic is NECESSARY for website success, and it is important to find a good balance of each three. Today, we will focus on off-page SEO and the techniques used to improve off-page SEO. 

 

 

Off-Page SEO Techniques

Like technical and on-page SEO, off-page has many tactics that make up the category. Link building is usually the “main” off-page SEO tactic, but off-page also includes content marketing, social media, reviews, PR, Google+ Business Pages, etc. Off-page SEO is concerned with inbound links from other websites to your site, these natural links give your website authority and relevancy helping search engines to trust your website, boosting its SERP (Fishbein, 2019). 

(Vancouver, 2019) 

 

Without off-page SEO, your site will struggle to rank for competitive search terms because your site will lack any authority and cannot outrank those with authority. This authority is important in building a brand and allows search engines and users to trust your site. Although link building is one of the largest off-page SEO tactics, it’s “by no means the only off-page signals that Google's algorithm uses to rank a website, despite being perhaps the most important,” (Varagouli, 2020). Off-page strategies that don’t include link building, will not be able to build that authority as links are one of Google's top three ranking factors (Varagouli, 2020). Again, link building is extremely important, but there are many other SEO tactics that need to be employed to drive any SEO success and build a brand.

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Social Media

Social media is an off-page SEO tactic that should definitely be employed as it can actually link various off-page SEO tactics together (Greene, 2020). You can share your other tactics, like content marketing, guest blogging, press releases even positive reviews on your brand’s social media platforms and drive exposure to all these other forms of off-page tactics. Not only can you create meaningful content and share it on your social media, but you can also create bonds with influencers and large outlets via social media (Greene, 2020). The connections with others that already have a large following/exposure will build your credibility and lead your site to form bonds with high-ranking sites that can further your own online presence and ranking (Greene, 2020).  

 

SEMrush describes social media platforms as search engines or answer engines, that can put your brand in front of potential clients or customers (Varagouli, 2020). Creating quality content on social media that fits the platform you’re posting on is also extremely important as it will encourage users to interact and be boosted by the social media platform as well. Social media alongside this, can also be used as a customer service platform. Customers can directly engage with your brand on social media, and it is important to keep this line of communication open.  It is important to note that Google states social media is not a direct ranking factor, but it is certainly an indirect factory that can have a huge impact (Lincoln, 2020).  Through great content, you can generate shares and links, which are direct rankings and do have an effect on SERPS (Lincoln, 2020).  

Some tips on an effective social media strategy for off-page SEO includes consistency, authenticity, interact with your audience and optimizing your social media channels. Consistency is a major key, as keeping up with your social media pages and posting high-quality content will encourage engagement and keep customers interested and keep your brand relevant. Having authentic interactions and your own brand voice will also help audiences create a bond with your brand. Lastly, you want to optimize your social media channels by linking your website and other social media handles in the bio of you page, making sure you are filling out your profile completely, and using all of the resources provided by the app (like Instagram reels, stories, IGTV, etc.). 

 

 

 

References:

Fishbein, M. (2019, March 20). 9 Technical and On-Page SEO Wins (@mfishbein). Mike Fishbein. https://mfishbein.com/on-page-seo-wins/

Greene, J. (2020, November 13). 98 Marketers Share Their 35 Most Effective Off-Page SEO Techniques. Databox. https://databox.com/off-page-seo-techniques#2

Lincoln, J. E. (2020, November 12). Off-Page SEO Optimization: Techniques, Examples & Strategy. Ignite Visibility. https://ignitevisibility.com/off-page-seo/

Vancouver, T. S. (2019, August 26). Important Off-Page SEO Strategies - Top SEO Vancouver. Medium. https://medium.com/@topseovancouver/important-off-page-seo-strategies-70e6540e1712

Varagouli, E. (2020, August 3). What Is Off-Page SEO? A Comprehensive Guide. Semrush Blog. https://www.semrush.com/blog/off-page-seo/