Off-page SEO refers to everything you do outside of your website to improve your standing with Google. It’s another important avenue for businesses because this is one of the most crucial factors for boosting authority. And authority means rankings, which if you’ve done everything right on your website, means revenue.
While off-page search engine optimization (also known as offsite SEO) can be pretty confusing, especially if you’re not in the digital marketing circles, we’ll pull back the curtain and show you how the rabbit gets in the hat. Offsite SEO may seem like smoke and mirrors, but it’s not that complicated (at least in theory — doing it in practice is another matter altogether).
What Is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO (also known as offsite SEO) encompasses all the work you do outside your website to improve your website standing with Google. We’re saying “Google,” specifically, since Google was the first search engine that made links an important part of its core algorithm.
Before Google’s PageRank (more on this in a second), search engines at the time, like Yahoo, AltaVista, and Lycos relied heavily on on-page SEO factors. Of course, this made the results really easy to manipulate.
In comes Google’s PageRank and the game changed. In 1998, Google introduced its groundbreaking (at the time) approach to search. Their algorithm not only evaluated the page itself, but also the quality and quantity of links pointing to it. And since it’s easy to manipulate on-page factors but very difficult to affect off-page factors, Google gained a significant market share. The rest, as they say, is history.
These days, off-page signals are a bit more complicated. Aside from quality and quantity of links (which are still a factor to this day) things like social signals (such as likes and shares), brand mentions, and local SEO are also a part of the equation.
The question you’re probably already asking yourself is: How can we do off-page SEO if we don’t have direct control of other websites? And if your idea is to buy up a bunch of websites so you can link them to yours, congratulations on your black-hat SEO thinking, but no. There are better ways to go about it that won’t get you penalized.
Off-Page SEO Strategy and Tactics
When it comes to off-page SEO strategies, the approach will be highly dependent on the industry and brand. A famous brand like Nike or Apple would hardly need to do anything in order to build links.
On the other hand, a small, local business would need a lot of work, research, planning, and sometimes even literal legwork to get their links. However, while it’s more difficult, it’s not impossible if you use robust off-page SEO tactics. And at Uptick, we do.
Building High-Quality Backlinks from Authoritative Sources
Backlinks are the backbone of off-page SEO. A backlink is a link from another website to your own. It’s like a vote of confidence from another website about your product, service, or content. This means that not any old backlink will improve off-page optimization. The more authoritative the link, the better the outcome.
In other words, you want to be getting links from websites that are considered an authority (which means they themselves have a lot of backlinks). If you’re in the medical field, getting a link to your website from Mayo Clinic, for example, is a huge vote of confidence.
Google puts a lot of emphasis on quality over quantity. It’s generally better to receive one good backlink from an authoritative website than 10 low-quality backlinks from low-authority sites. This makes sense, when you think about it.
Imagine you’re thinking of buying a new gadget (say, a smartwatch). Who would you trust more—your friend who’s a techie and has owned several different models, or 10 random strangers on the street? Of course, your friend’s opinion would matter more. Google views links in pretty much the same way: One link from an authoritative website is worth more than 10 random links from low-quality websites.
But the question is, how do we get them? Here’s the link building strategy we use at Uptick:
- Find websites we want links from. We use professional SEO tools and competitor analysis to identify places where it would be worth getting a link. These are often reputable websites, especially in your niche, or news sites.
- We create the right content. Many of our clients are in niches that require high-quality, in-depth professional content. We create that content and make it a no-brainer to link to. Website administrators are always on the lookout for good, professional sources.
- We distribute it to the websites we’ve identified. We pitch the content to webmasters, explaining what it is and why it would be beneficial for their readers to link to our client’s website. We’re not just looking for a link; we aim to provide actual value.
- We fix outdated information. Sometimes, links point to sources with outdated information. These are excellent opportunities to provide value to webmasters by letting them know the information they’re linking is out-of-date. And we just so happen to have the right information they need.
- Broken link building. Sometimes the authority sites we’re interested in point to pages that no longer exist. These are what we call broken links. We identify those pages and, once again, provide webmasters with the alternative.
Of course, the best way to get links is to write content that is so good and so authoritative, it makes it easy to attract links. This is one of the hidden goals of content marketing — to attract relevant backlinks. But sometimes rolling the dice and hoping for the best isn’t enough. This is where a successful SEO strategy comes in.
Building Links Through Social Media
Social media is rarely talked about when it comes to link building. This is great because it makes it an underutilized resource. It’s not immediately obvious how social media can help you build up your authority, so here’s how we do it:
- We help establish consistent branding. If our clients don’t already have a brand strategy, we help them establish consistent branding across channels. This helps distribute content and potentially expose more people to it. More people combined with high-quality content usually means more links.
- We sometimes use influencer partnerships. At times, the best way to get your website out there is to have someone with an already-established audience rave about your brand. Influencer marketing is not our go-to, but in some niche cases, it’s a very good way to get the ball rolling.
Social media can be a very powerful tool to get your brand name out there. Furthermore, brand mentions and links from social media also play a role in overall search engine rankings.
Link Building Through Guest Posting
Guest posting is a tit-for-tat process that used to be a lot more popular than it is now. Essentially, back in the day, SEO professionals used to write content for webmasters. This content was hosted on webmasters’ websites. Webmasters got free, optimized, high-quality content and SEO professionals got a link to whatever website they were working on. It was a beautiful system.
Then things started to change. While there are still plenty of websites that allow for user submissions, getting a link from them is a lot trickier. At one point, webmasters realized they were providing a valuable service, especially since the SEO-written content helped their websites gain authority. Links became valuable enough to charge for.
To get a link from a high-quality website these days can cost you a pretty penny. Even charges in the tens of thousands of dollars, while rare, are not unheard of. Besides, this pay-to-win system has led to a lot of content degradation.
We rarely use guest posting unless we discover a tremendous and somewhat organic opportunity to do so. Besides, these paid links can sometimes lead to trouble. Sometimes, these websites go down and they take a lot of other websites with them, so we tend to avoid them. At Uptick, we focus on the long game.
On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO: Understanding the Difference
On-page and off-page SEO are like the two sides of the same coin. You can think of them as the yin and yang of the SEO world. You need both if you want to have a well-performing website and a successful online business presence.
Direct comparison between on-page and off-page SEO
On-page SEO deals with optimizing individual pages and website elements you have direct control over. The goal is to bring relevant traffic to those pages and have users convert (whatever conversion means to your business).
Some of the elements of on-page optimization include:
- Content
- Metadata
- URL structures
- Internal linking
- Image optimization
Anything you do in terms of on-page optimization is visible to the user so it’s essential to do a good job on all fronts.
Off-page SEO, as already established, deals with the things you do outside of your website to build your brand. Things like:
- Link building
- Brand mentions
- Social signals
- Guest posting
You need both if you want to get the best results. And don’t think for a second social media marketing isn’t helping, either.
How they complement each other
At the end of the day, it’s not on-page vs. off-page SEO. It’s on-page and off-page SEO. On-page SEO lays the foundation by ensuring your site is user-friendly and optimized for search engines. Without solid on-page SEO, even the best off-page strategies won’t be as effective. At the same time, off-page SEO helps to amplify the visibility, credibility, and authority established by your on-page efforts.
The Importance of Off-Page SEO for Your Website
Off-page SEO services are vital for your website’s overall SEO health and business growth. People (especially SEO professionals) often talk about it in terms of rankings, but the truth is that it goes way beyond that. Here’s how:
- Credibility and authority: High-quality backlinks signal to search engines that your site is a credible and authoritative source of information.
- Brand awareness: Off-page SEO activities, such as social media engagement and guest posting, help increase your brand’s visibility and reputation. Brand awareness can directly improve business outcomes.
- Higher rankings: Effective off-page SEO can significantly boost your position in SERPs, leading to increased organic traffic. Combined with good on-page, you get a robust lead or sales generation machine.
Conclusion
The success of your business online is not only established by what you do on your own website. How you engage with outside sources is also critical to your business development.
Whether it’s getting high-quality links from authoritative websites, getting a ton of mentions on social media, or guest posting, there are benefits to getting your brand name out there. And if you don’t know how, or don’t feel like doing the work, we can do it for you!
