Off-page SEO techniques are crucial for improving the trustworthiness and visibility of your site.
Off-page SEO includes activities done off of a website in an effort to increase the site's search engine rankings. Common off-page SEO actions include building backlinks, encouraging branded searches, and increasing engagement and shares on social media.
Improving your off-page SEO performance will directly correlate with your Domain Authority score (DA). Your site’s DA is a ranking score that determines the ability of your site to rank within the SERPs. This score is from 1-100 which is based upon numerous factors including linking root domains, and the number of total links. The DA of your site is not a metric used by Google in determining where you rank, but is a good indicator for how well your site is performing from an off-site SEO perspective.
Creating backlinks is at the core of off-site SEO and is a technique that is crucial for any site with the aspiration of ranking on page one. Backlinks are the number one ranking factor when Google determines where your site ranks. Google will more likely rank a site higher than another if one domain has more backlinks. Furthermore, Google also take into account the quality of this link, a site with a higher domain that links to you is much more effective than a link from a site with a low DA. Nevertheless, Google’s algorithm does take into consideration the relevancy of the link to your domain.
Natural links: a link that is generated without any action taken. This can be either a blogger for example, who has a positive view towards your content and links to it from their site. This type of link can be a great sign of trust, appreciation, and endorsement. Links created through self-promotion: These links can be created through promoting or marketing your business online. This type of link can be gained through asking clients to link to your site or an influencer sharing your content.
Creating authoritative and relevant backlinks in line with the guidance provided by major search engine like Google should be at the forefront of any digital strategy. Links will bring referral traffic to your site, and Google will view your site as a trustworthy, reliable source of data. Yet building links is hard work and requires a long-term strategic approach but if done correctly, the average ranking position of your website in search results is likely to improve significantly.
Provide third party websites with guest content is another effective online marketing technique that can also yield off-site SEO benefits. This could be a thought-leadership piece through to ‘how to’ video content, something that will capture the attention of their readers. You should look to reach out to third-party websites whose target audience is similar to your own, such as niche online trade publications. This way you will be increasing exposure and brand awareness amongst potential customers and heighten the chance of driving referral traffic from that website. Of course, you will also benefit from a valuable backlink. Nurturing online relationships through providing insightful content can be a fundamental source of qualified traffic and leads.
One of the most effective off-page SEO techniques is using social media. Using social media platforms is a great way to extend the reach of your content. Not only can social media encourage more clicks to your latest piece of content, but it can be a crucial source of valuable backlinks from a site with a high DA:
A forum posting site is an online discussion board that allows users to have meaningful conversations in the form of a posted message. When carried out correctly, forum posting can bring multiple benefits for your business:
Also known as directory listings, local SEO has always been a consistent off-page SEO technique. When done correctly, submitting your business into local listings can be vital for increasing revenue, reputation and rankings, particularly in localised search results. Localised search results include those results where the user referenced a location as part of their search, as well as those where the results served are determined by the user’s IP address or location. The latter includes searches often reference phrases such as ‘near me’ or ‘nearby’. Local listings are largely free and can be extremely powerful.s
Think about off-page SEO as building your site’s domain authority. Without this, your site might struggle to outrank websites with higher authority.
Higher authority websites tend to rank better than those with low or no authority because search engines consider them more credible, relevant, and trustworthy.