Off-page SEO is arguably the most challenging and time-consuming aspect of optimizing your website for search engines.
This is predominantly because many of the techniques are often out of your hands.
Unlike on-page or local SEO, off-page SEO relies on the collaboration of third-party websites and individuals for things such as backlinks, brand mentions, and product/service reviews.
This is why many SEOs avoid off-page techniques altogether.
Unfortunately, in doing so, they miss out on the potential of massive traffic gains through higher search engine rankings. Afterall, Google relies solely on these off-page factors when it comes to distributing authority and deciding which resource to rank for any given query.
While much of off-page SEO lies outside of your immediate realm of influence, there are still a few steps you can take to begin influencing the authoritative signals being sent back to search engines.
For starters, you can check out my off-page SEO services and contact me for a free consultation.
Alternatively, if you don’t have the budget or simply want to handle it yourself, you can follow this DIY guide to creating an off-page SEO strategy for small businesses.
- What is Off-Page SEO?
- Key Off-Page SEO Strategies
- How to Implement Your Off-Page SEO Strategy
- Bonus Tips for Advanced Off-Page SEO
- Final Thoughts
What Is Off-Page SEO?
As the name suggests, off-page SEO encompasses all of the activities and techniques that go into boosting your brand’s online visibility that isn’t or can’t be done directly on your own website. This includes building quality backlinks, enhancing your social media presence, and managing your online reputation through various third-party platforms.
Definition of Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is a type of search engine optimization that focuses on external techniques taken outside of your website that work cohesively to promote your brand and improve your search engine rankings.
It is a broad term that encompasses a wide breadth of SEO techniques, ranging from link building, social media marketing, and digital PR. The trick to doing off-page SEO properly is in enacting these independent techniques within a single cohesive strategy.
However, while off-page SEO is one of the most challenging and costly, it is also one of the most vital in any SEO campaign and yields some of the greatest results.
Why Off-Page SEO Matters
Unlike on-page SEO, which focuses on making your website crawlable for search engines, off-page SEO is all about building your online authority, which, more often than not, yields more trust from Google, improved rankings in search engine results, and a significant boost in traffic generated through referrals.
By generating quality backlinks on authoritative sites in your industry and building an online presence on social media platforms, you not only signal to Google and other search engines that you are a trusted authority, but you also build up brand recognition through the established audience of these platforms.
In the end, building your online authority is the surest way to promote your website as a trusted source in your industry and is the quickest way to improve your search engine rankings.
Comparison: On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO
On-page SEO and off-page SEO are complementary aspects of search engine optimization. However, while on-page SEO focuses on making your website crawlable for search engines through optimizing elements within your website, such as content, meta tags, and site structure, off-page SEO focuses on elements that can’t be done directly on your website.
As such, off-page SEO tends to be the most challenging of the two, and is often the one that goes neglected within a company’s overall SEO strategy.
Now, between outreach, social media management, and reputation management, handling off-page SEO can be difficult to add to your day to day tasks of running your business. This is why I offer my off-page SEO services. Feel free to contact me to schedule a consultation and find out how my services can help promote brand as the authority in your field.
Key Off-Page SEO Strategies
Whether you are interested in working with me or want to try to do it yourself, these off-page SEO strategies are the best way to begin building your domain authority and boost your online reputation.
1. Link Building
Link building is the backbone of off-page SEO. This is because backlinks are the only resource Google and other search engines have when evaluating the reputation of your website.
This is a brief rundown on how backlinks work:
Search engines have a list of websites that they trust. These tend to be the large media conglomerates and news channels that rely on exhaustive research and investigative reporting.
Since these websites prioritize and have earned their credibility, websites they reference and link to in their content are often viewed as an authoritative source. This is true for both audiences and search engines.
With each quality link you acquire pointing back to your website, you begin building up your own authority, which you can then pass on to websites you link back to in your own content.
How this translates to search engine rankings is that Google and other search engines tend to prioritize websites with a strong backlink profile that indicates they are a reliable source on the topic.
While evaluating the strength of a website’s backlink profile requires its own blog post, you can begin generating backlinks and building your brand’s online reputation with these common tactics.
Guest Posting
Guest posting is one of the most common forms of backlink-building tactics. It involves writing and publishing blog postings on other, more established websites within your industry, including links back to your site within the content.
Not only is guest posting a great way to generate a high-quality backlink, but it also leverages the host site’s existing platform to generate referral traffic back to your website. When done right, a guest post can boost your search engine rankings and open your site up to a new traffic stream.
Broken Link Building
Broken link building is another great tactic for generating backlinks and often requires a lot less effort than guest posting. Enacting this strategy involves scanning authoritative websites in your industry for broken links and replacing them with a link back to your website.
The first step of broken back link building is to find the broken links themselves. Using tools like Screaming Frog and Ahrefs, you can scan relevant sites within your industry for broken links. When you have a list, you can then begin reaching out to the websites’ webmasters, informing them of the broken link and offering a relevant page on your website as a great alternative.
Since broken links can have a negative impact on a web page’s performance, these webmasters will often be more than receptive to quickly replacing the link.
Unlinked Brand Mentions
Like broken link building, unlinked brand mentions promise a relatively low-effort target for generating backlinks. Using tools like Google Alerts or Mention, you can track instances on the web where your brand is being discussed. Once identified, you can reach out to the content creators or webmasters and request they add a link to your site in the mention.
Journalist Requests
Responding to journalist requests is one of the best proactive ways to earn high-quality backlinks and can even earn you a placement on one of the high-authority news sites that search engines love.
Platforms like Connectively (formerly Help a Reporter Out or HARO) connect journalists with relevant industry experts as sources for their projects. Journalists from around the world will post their queries, which are then open to responses from experts.
All you need to do is simply browse through your area of specialty and respond to an inquiry where you can provide valuable insight. In return, the journalist will typically include a link back to your website within their final piece, although this isn’t always the case.
2. Content Marketing
We’ve already talked about guest posting, but that is just one form of content marketing. There are several ways you can leverage your content creation efforts within your off-page SEO strategy.
In fact, not only will creating share-worth content boost your search engine signals for better keyword rankings, but it will also generate new avenues for building your brand and new channels for traffic generation back to your website.
Even with its SEO benefits aside, any business or brand can benefit from an effective content marketing strategy and can begin implementing these strategies with the following tactics.
Creating Share-Worthy Content
As I’ve already mentioned, on- and off-page SEO works collaboratively to promote your website’s authority to search engines, and this is at its most evident when it comes to creating share-worthy content.
From well-crafted articles and infographics to video content, great content is the backbone of your SEO efforts, and the first place you need to publish it is your own website. However, you shouldn’t stop there.
A great piece of content can be repurposed into dozens of formats, be it social media posts, a Google Business Profile post, or republishing it on a third-party site. In doing so, you open your content to a wider audience and send positive user and social signals back to your website for better rankings.
Digital PR
Digital PR is one of the best content marketing methods for reaching a wide range of authoritative websites through press releases, media coverage, and influencer collaborations. This strategy enhances your content marketing efforts by securing mentions and links from high-authority sites and news outlets.
The best way to do this is by repurposing your high-quality content and leveraging it within your digital PR campaign. By doing so, you can amplify your brand’s presence to new audiences, generating massive amounts of referral traffic and boosting your authority for better rankings in the long-term.
Content Syndication
Content syndication involves republishing your content on third-party sites to reach a larger audience and drive traffic back to your site. While this can be a great way to garner some backlinks, there are a few downsides.
For starters, if you are trying to generate a high-quality backlink, then you want to publish on authoritative website in your niche. However, if the hosting website is too big, there is very little reason why someone would click through to your website.
Still, if you are just starting out, content syndication can be a great way to generate some impressive backlinks from high authority websites, with some easy sources being Medium, Reddit, and LinkedIn.
Podcasts
This is one off-page SEO technique that I don’t like to engage in as I am a better writer than a speaker, but hosting or participating in podcasts can be a great way to reach new audiences while generating a high-quality backlink back to your website.
Like with the other techniques touched on so far, participating in a podcast taps into the established audience of the host, leveraging their authority to boost your own credibility in the industry and connect with a wider audience.
Influencer Marketing
Leveraging the power of influencer marketing is one of the best ways to quickly garner brand awareness in your industry. By partnering with influencers on social media, you are tapping into a massive, already-established audience that can be redirected back to your website with a valuable backlink.
Forums
Participating in forums related to your industry is one of the most accessible and affordable methods to build your website’s authority. By engaging in discussions and providing valuable insight, you establish yourself as an expert, which is reflected in the way your website is viewed by your audience and search engines.
With that said, you don’t want to simply spam forums with backlinks. Instead, participate in conversations where you can add insights, linking to relevant pages on your website where they make sense and avoid overloading a post with too many links.
3. Social Media Marketing
Google and other search engines use social signals to determine how content resonates with audiences. This is why social media marketing should be a pillar of your off-page SEO strategy.
Building a Strong Social Media Presence
Having a strong social media presence requires consistently sharing valuable content. The good news is that if you already have a strong blog marketing strategy, you can simply repurpose your blog content.
This way you are connecting with your audience on the channels they visit, and redirecting them to your website where you can convert them into loyal readers and potential clients.
Increasing Engagement
Along with generating leads for your business, social media provides an outlet to engage with your leads. By responding to comments, posting polls, or asking questions, you are prompting interaction with your brand, which in turn can translate into improved media visibility and higher brand awareness.
Unfortunately, maintaining engagement with your audience can be fairly time consuming. This is why I include social media management as an optional add-on to all of my off-page SEO services. Send me a message if you are interested, and we can arrange a consultation.
4. Local SEO
While often promoted separately from off-page SEO, conducting local SEO can go a long way in growing your brand’s online visibility. Local SEO focuses on growing your reputation among local customers, but is also a great off-page practice for growing your authority as a whole. This is because it generates real-life interactions between your brand and clients, which can severely enhance your company as a credible authority in the industry.
Google Business Profile Management
Having a Google Business Profile (GBP) is an essential aspect of local SEO. However, simply making a profile isn’t enough. You also need to ensure it is well-optimized for search engines.
This means making sure your profile is completely filled out with relevant information and accurate details. From there, you need to post regular updates to show your company’s activities and generate reviews from your clients. Be sure to respond to all reviews, good or bad, to ensure a satisfied user experience and trust in your company.
NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) Consistency
Another key to conducting proper local SEO is to ensure your name, address, and phone number is uniform throughout every directory and listing you are featured on. This goes a long way in terms of brand recognition, and ensures your audience easily finds you across online platforms.
Beyond this, maintaining NAP details across your websites, directories, and social media also allows search engines to easily identify your brand, verifying your business’ legitimacy and earning it higher rankings atop the SERPs.
5. Reviews and Reputation Management
Another important aspect of conducting proper off-page SEO is in managing reviews and your online reputation. As a business, user reviews are an additional tool available to you that isn’t available to non-product/service related business models (think media blogs).
Along with backlinks, reviews are the only other tool Google and other search engines have to establish your authority in your industry. As such, this direct user feedback can make or break your SEO efforts and can either see you climb the rankings or drop to the bottom of the barrel.
Your reputation management needs to start with providing a positive customer experience. From there, you need to encourage clients that have had a positive experience to leave a review, sending a positive user signal to search engines.
The second stage of reputation management comes in the form of responding to all reviews, good or bad. By responding to positive reviews, you reinforce your brand’s personal connection to the client, encouraging brand loyalty.
By addressing negative reviews you are showing you care about the feedback and will make steps to correcting the problem in the future, again reinforcing your brand’s passion for the product/service and commitment to customer satisfaction.
In both instances, you are building your brand’s authority in the industry, sending positive user signals to search engines, and earning your brand a wider online visibility.
How to Implement Your Off-Page SEO Strategy
Now that we know a few of the off-page SEO strategies that will help you grow your online visibility, let’s start taking a look at how you can begin implementing these techniques into your business practices. If you need a hand, don’t be afraid to reach out. I’d be happy to take a look at your site and determine the optimum SEO strategy for you.
1. Analyze Your Backlink Profile
Analyzing your backlink profile is the first step in understanding where your off-page SEO efforts are best directed. By conducting a backlink audit, you can begin to understand the quality and impact of links currently pointing back at your website.
Using SEO tools, such as Ahrefs or SEMrush, you can evaluate a link’s online authority along with its spam or toxicity score. In doing so, you can determine which links are actually providing value and which ones may actually be a detriment to your SEO efforts.
Along with looking at the value of each link, you also want to take a peek at the diversity of your backlink profile. You want to ensure your profile has a mix of high and low authority backlinks and backlinks from different sources, such as directories, guest posts, brand mentions, etc.
In doing so, you ensure your backlink profile maintains an organic appearance and reduces the chance of being flagged by search engines.
When you are done analyzing your own backlink profile, you should then conduct a backlink audit of your direct competitors. This way you can determine where they are getting backlinks that you aren’t and can begin making a strategy to fill the gap.
2. Conduct Outreach for Link Building
Once you have identified where you can begin improving your backlink profile, it is time to start reaching out to webmasters of authoritative websites.
Begin by making a list of relevant websites and industry influencers who might be interested in linking to your content and who would generate a high-authority backlink. You then need to craft a personalized email detailing who you are and how hosting your link will benefit your site.
I’ve already detailed a few ways you can identify and acquire these backlinking leads, but they include;
- Guest posting opportunities
- Broken link building
- Unlinked brand mentions
- Responding to journalist requests
A good off-page SEO strategy engages all of these techniques to ensure a varied backlink profile that maintains its organic appearance while providing a significant boost to your domain authority and search engine rankings.
3. Utilize Social Media Effectively
Beyond building up your backlink profile, one of the most effective off-page SEO techniques is to leverage social media to reach new audiences. You can start by identifying the most relevant social media platforms.
LinkedIn is by far the best platform for B2B businesses and reaching professional audiences. Meanwhile, Pinterest and Instagram are ideal for image focused businesses, while Facebook promises the widest reach and can be advantageous for a wide array of industries.
Regardless of your platform, social media can be leveraged within your off-page SEO strategy in several ways, including;
- Posting content for organic traffic
- Running targeted ads
- Participating in industry conversations
- Collaborating with influencers to amplify your reach
If you are just starting out in social media marketing, I always suggest that my clients begin by integrating social media posts within their content calendars. Depending on your industry, a good place to start would be to publish one Facebook post, one Instagram or LinkedIn post, and five Pinterest posts per every blog post you publish, redirecting to the blog itself.
Doing this will quickly generate a buzz on your platform, garnering you new audience channels for your services/product.
4. Optimize and Maintain Local SEO
The final step to ensure a healthy off-page SEO profile is to optimize for local SEO. You can start by ensuring your Google Business Profile is fully updated with accurate information, including your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) details.
From there, you want to make sure these details are accurate across all of your profiles and online directories. Maintaining consistent contact information is pivotal to enhancing your local search presence.
Once your online identity is established and uniform across all platforms, you can then begin building up your brand’s reputation with reviews. Encourage customers to leave reviews and respond to all reviews promptly (good or bad) to maintain a positive brand reputation and build trust with your audience.
By maintaining these practices, you encourage a healthy relationship with your audience, which can then translate to positive user signals sent back to search engines for higher SERP rankings.
Bonus Tips for Advanced Off-Page SEO
So far, we have touched on the basics of off-page SEO. And while they are a great place to start turning the dial to better search engine rankings, they are also only the beginning. Here are a few advanced techniques to start driving massive amounts of authority to your website and begin yielding top-ranking results.
Press Release Distribution
We’ve touched on digital PR slightly, but press release distribution can be one of the most powerful ways to gain exposure and build authority to your brand. Instead of taking a one-at-a-time approach to your backlinking strategy, press releases attract attention from many high-authority websites at one time.
Press releases about noteworthy events, product launches, or company milestones can garner backlinks from major media outlets with very high domain authority. However, there are a few tricks to doing a press release right.
Crafting a compelling press release requires a strong headline, a clear message, and relevant keywords. Doing so increases your chances of being picked up by journalists and industry publications and makes you more likely to collect the types of backlinks you are looking for.
Participation in Roundup Posts
Participating in roundup posts is like writing a guest post but on a smaller scale. Instead of writing a whole post, you only contribute a small section highlighting one point on a list. Instead of writing 2,000 words, you may only be contributing 200.
This saves a lot of time when collecting a guest post-styled backlink. However, one drawback is that the link isn’t quite as powerful as writing a full guest post. This is because there are typically dozens of websites participating in roundups, meaning you are sharing link juice with each participating domain.
Partnering with Bigger Brands
If you want to quickly grow your online authority, partnering with bigger, more established brands may be your best bet. By collaborating with well-known companies or influencers in your industry, you are tapping into their established audience, gaining you credibility and exposure at an accelerated rate.
These partnerships can take various forms and can include
- Joint marketing campaigns
- Co-hosting events
- Cross-promotion content
When done right, these collaborations can be one of the best ways for new or less established websites to quickly gain authority and grow their reputation.
Final Thoughts
Off-page SEO is an essential component of any SEO strategy. Unfortunately, it is also the most difficult and time-consuming.
While I have given you all the tools to start implementing off-page techniques into your current SEO strategy, you don’t have to do it alone.
Tap into the expertise of an SEO specialist with my off-page SEO services or complete SEO marketing packages. Send me a message and schedule a consultation to find out how my services can help you exceed your marketing goals.
Kurt Norris is the founder of Kurt’sCopy, where he helps B2B, e-commerce, SaaS, and local businesses craft compelling content and SEO strategies that deliver measurable results. With over six years of experience, Kurt specializes in creating data-driven campaigns that drive traffic, increase conversions, and establish brand authority.
