You’ve probably heard of the term “Off-Page SEO” countless times. But what exactly does it mean?
Contrary to popular belief, off-page search engine optimization is more than just links. To give you a clear description, brand mentions (this is when your website or brand name is mentioned on another website without hyperlinking) are an important part of off-page search signals.
Most bloggers and content marketers typically start with on-page SEO. But it doesn’t end there because apparently, Google cares a lot about what happens outside your website than in it.
So, how long should you spend time doing off-page search engine optimization? Well, it depends on your marketing goals. According to Dr. Pete Meyers from Moz, a lot of website owners approximately spend 30% doing off-page SEO, while 70% is spent on on-page factors. For the remaining website owners, these numbers are reversed.
What Is Off-Page SEO?
Simply put, off-page SEO lets Google know what others think about your website. If there are numerous valuable websites linking to your pages, Google automatically assumes that your website offers amazing content that provides value for visitors.
Off-page SEO pertains to the efforts you do outside your website to increase your ranking among search engines. As mentioned, off-page SEO goes beyond link building – though it is an important part. There are other activities, aside from link building, that is also important for off-page optimization.
Since on-page search engine optimization, off-page happens away from your website. Guest posting for another blog or leaving a comment are great examples of off-page site promotion.
Why Is Off-Page SEO Important?
If you don’t put much importance of off-page SEO, that has got to change. Off-page SEO is necessary for every website since it literally tells search engines (aka Google) that your website matters and that it provides value to other people on the web.
Every time another website links or page or URL site on their own website, it’s a positive endorsement that your website is of good quality. Think of off-page SEO as tiebreakers
To give you a clearer example, ABC Company did their homework on on-page SEO – they optimized for keywords, they have appropriate tags, page titles, word lengths, and the like.
XYZ Company on the other hand also did on-page SEO. The difference between the two is that popular websites linked XYZ in their blogs, the company also has social media accounts, and their president is called an expert in their industry by reputable websites.
When Google crawls ABC’s website, it credits the on-page SEO but Google will also figure out that it didn’t do a good job with their off-page SEO.
Obviously, XYZ Company will rank higher in search engines because it has both on and off-page SEO. It had social media, credible publicity, numerous backlinks, brand mentions, and the like.
How Exactly Does Off-Page SEO Benefit Your Website?
Once you’ve implemented off-page SEO and it ran successfully, your website will benefit in terms of:
Increase in Page Rank: The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, invented Page Rank. The page rank indicates the importance of a website which is usually ranked between numbers 0 and 10.
This invention paved the way for Google’s success because it showed the most relevant results when someone googles something. As Google evolved, page rank is now one of many factors that Google uses to rank websites.
Increase in Rankings: Your website will show on the first page of Google searches, which means there will be more traffic to your website.
More Exposure: When your website ranks higher, it will have greater exposure. As more people read your content, it’s more likely to generate more visits, social media mentions, and more links.
3 Ways to Conduct Off-Page SEO Campaigns
Since we now know how off-page SEO contributes to a website’s success, here’s how you can implement or improve your off-page SEO:
Link Building
Sure, you constantly insert links from highly reputable websites to your content. But the question is, how will you get them to link to you? Here’s what you can do:
Create Good Content: Make it a point to create quality content – from blog posts and infographics to videos. These are excellent ways of drawing organic links and click to your website. Ideally, if your content is great, people will follow.
Join An Organization: Join a club or organization related to your industry – or not. As long as you get your website’s URL on their website.
Reach Out: If you want something, ask for it. Reach out to bloggers or journalists and ask them to mention your website or whatnot.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is submitting your content to prominent websites, such as Reddit, 9gag, Buzzfeed, Tumblr, and more. These websites usually group their content into niches, so use this to your advantage by targeting the niche directed to your target market.
Write For Others
Writing for others gives an impression that you’re an expert in your field while advertising your business. This gives you an opportunity to have your voice heard by people who may not know your website. It’s also a great addition to your portfolio of writing.
The Bottom Line
Off-page SEO goes hand in hand with on-page SEO. A successful, search engine optimized website applies both SEO strategies. There’s so much more than link building. However, don’t take the easy way out when you build your links.
Make it a point get links from reputable websites – the hard to reach websites – since it gives you more value than regular ones.
SEO is constantly progressing. Years ago, it’s easier for websites to rank higher by getting thousands of links but in this day and age, you have to step up your game.