The SEO practitioner’s toolbox is usually quite full. There are just so many things that can be done – and we’re not just talking about the things you do on your website.
Improving the content on a certain page, publishing a new blog, interlinking various pages on your website, strategically placing keywords across your website, and improving the speed of your website are all important tasks that every SEO expert will execute.
But these are things that YOU do on YOUR website. This doesn’t account for all the benefits that come with things you do off your website, as well as the things other people do off your site to lead others to your site. This is referred to as off-page SEO.
Your website is a small ecosystem within a much larger ecosystem (the world wide web). Making connections with many other small (and large) ecosystems will help improve the authority of your site and thus make it more visible to the average user.
In this article, we’re going to put off-page seo under the microscope to show you what it is and how you can use it to improve your SEO efforts.
Off-Page SEO: What is it?
Many people tend to think that off-page SEO is all about link building. Basically, they think that the main goal of off-page SEO is to get links to your website on other websites.
You should note that link building is an important part of off-page SEO (probably the most important), but it is not the be all and end all of your off-page SEO plan.
You want to show search engines like Google that you are a trusted authority on a subject, topic, industry, etc. Ultimately, the goal of marketers is to get people talking about a brand (preferably in a positive light). So it is incumbent on you to find any and all opportunities that get people talking about your brand.
This is why off-page SEO is not just about getting links to your site. These are many more tactics that you can use. Here is a list of things you can do now to improve your off-page SEO efforts:
- Linkbuilding
- Content Marketing
- Online Press Releases
- Local SEO
- Social Media
- Influencer Marketing
- Podcasts
- Reviews
- Content Syndication
Let’s take a look at each of these strategies to see what they are and how they can be used to improve your website’s authority. Let’s start with…
1) Link Building
As mentioned before (and as the name suggests), link building is about getting links to your website on other sites.
This sends a strong signal to Google’s algorithm because it shows that people trust your website (why else would they be linking to your site from theirs?).
Though you need to be smart about link building. It doesn’t help to get links from any site on the internet. The last thing you want are spammy links to your site.
Your main goal should be to get quality links. That is why you should target websites that have authority. Lucky for you, there are some tools that you can use to determine a site’s Authority Score, which is a score based on things like quality of links, quantity of links, organic search traffic, and the number of users to name a few.
You can check the authority score of a website using proprietary tools from sites like Moz, Ahrefs and SEMrush.
Before you jump into link building it is important to remember one thing: it is not about quantity, it is about quality.
2) Content Marketing
You most likely have a plan for developing content for your site. The content can take the form of a blog, infographic, research paper, or even a white paper.
Naturally, you’ll want to feature this content on your site because you put in a lot of effort into it and you want your site to have the best possible content.
But why limit the reach of your great content? There are so many sites that host content from guest writers/content creators. Maybe a post on one of these sites would do more for your website than a post on your site’s blog.
The right content in the right place at the right time could attract many readers and links to that piece of content (which can subsequently link people to your site).
Here are 2 things you can do right now to start your off-site content marketing strategy:
- Guest Posts
- Sponsored Content
Sponsored content means you have to pay for an article published on another site, while guest posting is basically publishing without having to pay. Sponsored content is the quickest way to get an article published. Guest posting will take a bit more time and require some more heavy lifting (reaching out to blogs, pitching ideas and seeing if they do guest posts or sponsored content).
3) Online Press Releases
Got a new product coming out? Is your business offering a new service? Have you recently done something within your community that you want to share with people? If you said yes to any of these, then why not write and distribute a press release about it?
This is a good way to get some eyeballs on your brand while sharing content that features links to your website (be it your homepage, a blog post or a landing page).
For Canadian businesses, you can sign up to sites like Cision, Business Wire or Press Release to distribute your press release. And if U.S. businesses want to elevate their SEO game, platforms like PR Newswire, GlobeNewswire, and EIN Presswire are excellent for distributing press releases. These are great resources because all you have to do is write your release and let either of these distributors do the heavy lifting so that your release gets noticed.
If you haven’t written a press release before, don’t worry. Here is a helpful guide and a useful press release template.
4) Local SEO
There is a lot to local SEO tactics, but for the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on just 2 tactics: managing your Google My Business (GMB) account and citations.
We’re focusing on just these two because they are relatively easy for any business to implement and manage (though you are required to spend some time on each).
Google My Business
If you are not already updating your GMB, then you need to get on it now, or even better, yesterday. Why? Well, for starters, this work can help you rank in map packs (see image below):
When it comes to Google searches, your GMB profile plays a huge role. First of all, it displays reviews. Beyond that, it has your address, displays photos, tells people about your business, and lists products and services. It is not difficult to understand the impact this can have on people doing local searches for products and services.
Citations
Citations are typically a listing of your business that displays your company’s name, address and phone number. Additionally, these listings are usually found on business listing websites. These can be general listing sites or more targeted ones (like a listing site for landscaping companies in Ontario or sites like VisitFlorida.com or local ones like the Tampa Bay Chamber if you are in real estate or hospitality business in Florida).
For the most part, it is easy (and free) to get your business on these listing websites. You just have to ensure that you remain consistent across all of your citations. Oh, and did we mention that you can also include a link to your website with each citation?
5) Social Media
We don’t need to convince you that social media is important. You’ve probably heard it a million times by now.
That being said, from an off-page SEO perspective, you should think of social media as its own search engine. Social media doesn’t have a huge impact on how you rank on Google. But your work on your company’s social media accounts has a huge impact on your visibility on the social platforms that you have a profile with.
Through social media, you can share links to various pages on your site. And through the various activities you can do on social media, like social posts, comments, videos, stories, and paid campaigns, you can drive many people to your site.
6) Influencer Marketing
This falls under the umbrella of social media. But instead of you creating the perfect post to drive people to your website or make them more aware of your brand, you get an influencer with a larger following to do that for you.
Obviously there is a price that comes with this, which is why it is essential to do your research. It isn’t a good idea to just give money to any old influencer. You should target influencers within your industry, particularly those with followers who would be interested in your brand.
For example, if you are a home renovation company, maybe you might want to partner with a home reno influencer like Mike Holmes or consider collaborating with Jason Creel of Lawn Care Life if you are in landscaping business. You’re not always building links through influencer marketing, but you are getting notable people to tell their followers about your brand. And there is nothing wrong with a little word-of-mouth marketing.
7) Podcasts
Unlike social media, we probably have to talk about how podcasts are becoming more and more popular. A look at podcasts statistics found that there are over 546 million podcast listeners worldwide and 47% of the US population 12+ listen to a podcast at least once a month.
These are huge numbers, and guess what – these numbers are only going up (and this is just looking at the US).
One thing to remember is that social media platforms function like their own search engines, separate from Google, and similarly, Apple Podcasts and Spotify also act as search engines in their own right. The more work you put into your podcast, the more visibility you will have on these other “search engines”.
So if you have thought about making a podcast, now’s a good time to start. But if you don’t want to start your own podcast, you can try connecting with other podcasts that are relevant to your industry. Maybe you can build a relationship with another podcast and pitch having you on their show to discuss a topic.
You may think this would be tough because there aren’t podcasts about your industry. But even if you are in appliance repair and can’t find podcasts about appliance repair, you can look to connect with a podcast about small businesses.
8) Reviews
In the influencer marketing section we mentioned word-of-mouth marketing. There are few things that are more beneficial to a brand than real customers telling people how much they love your product or service.
It is so important for companies to encourage their customers to leave them a review on Google, and other review sites like Better Business Bureau, HomeStars, Yelp, Facebook, and Amazon to name a few.
A good review is something that can turn a potential customer into a paying customer. When the average user sees that someone had a great experience with your brand, that can be enough to convince them that they should go with your company.
So if you aren’t already doing it, then now is the time to get more reviews wherever you can.
9) Content Syndication
This is similar to content marketing and sponsored content, but on a larger scale. There are some companies that own many different publications in different cities. Most of these companies will allow for guest content creators to write an article that will simultaneously appear on all of their publications’ websites.
The benefits to this tactic are obvious. With one move, you can get a link to your website on many websites that are trusted by users and have a lot of organic traffic.
Of course, you still have to put in the effort to produce quality content. This tactic isn’t just about getting a link somewhere. Through this content, you are putting your brand out there on multiple publications, so you have to make sure you are putting your best foot forward.
So as you see, like on-page SEO, off-page SEO as well takes a lot of work and should not be ignored. Successful off-page SEO efforts improve your website’s authority because more websites, influencers and users will engage with your brand in a positive way and direct people towards your brand. Once this happens, the Google algorithm will then guide more users to your site based on relevant search queries.
If you need help jump-starting your SEO efforts, then we invite you to get in touch with the experts at Gilmedia. We’re a web design and search engine optimization company that has worked with companies big and small to improve their SEO, and we’re ready to do the same for you. Call us today at (647) 478-5858 or send us a message through our contact page.