Off-page SEO is an overlooked strategy that can deliver results
Quite often, site owners complain that they have done everything possible to please the search engines. They’ve worked on keyword optimization, internal linking, setting up the right site structure, and more, but their rankings are still poor. This could be because they have ignored the other important part of SEO, Off-page SEO.
Off-page SEO includes all the activities that you do off of your website to get the search engines to see your website as trustworthy and authoritative. Ultimately, this increases your site’s search engine rankings. Both on-page and off-page SEO are vital to ensure that your website gets found in searches. In fact, data from the Moz Search Engine Ranking Factors study show that off-site SEO-related factors possibly carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight.
Common Off-Page strategies
Backlinks
A study published on Backlinko found that the number of domains linking to a page was the factor that had the highest correlation to rankings in Google. According to the study, the #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10.
Links from other websites are an indication of trust and confidence and the more links you get, the more likely you will rank well on search engines. With too few links, it would be hard for you to convince Google that you are a trustworthy site.
There are two main types of links you can generate. First, natural or earned links, which your website gains organically when consumers or publishers mention your brand. Second, built links, for which you have to approach publishers, influencers, or consumers.
Another type of link called a self-created link is created by website owners/managers themselves by adding backlinks in forums, online directories, press releases with optimized anchor text, and other practices. It is worth noting that some of these practices are considered black hat SEO and are disproved by search engine algorithms. So, it is important that you earn your links through fair means.
Local listings
Local SEO is an effective off-page SEO technique. By submitting your business to local listings, you can boost your reputation, improve rankings-especially in local search results, and increase revenue. Local listings are free and can prove very helpful. With local listings, you can increase your traffic and exposure, and at the same time increase your link-building opportunities. Some of the most popular online directories include Google My Business, Yelp, Foursquare, and Central Index. These are all high authority sites and by providing accurate and consistent business information on these sites, you can give a great boost to your search rankings.
Social media marketing is an off-page SEO tactic
Social media platforms are incredibly helpful when it comes to generating brand mentions and backlinks. Today, millions of people use social media platforms as search engines to look for products, services, reviews, brands, and other information. These platforms are also great for sharing and linking content. So, by engaging your target audience on social media and regularly sharing interesting content, you can drive traffic to your website and also boost your brand awareness and build authority.
Content marketing
Creating and sharing great content is the best way to reach your target audience. It helps generate more leads, drive traffic to the website, and boost your rankings. You can achieve this through guest blogging, surveys, research, podcasts, and other forms of content that may interest your audience.
These are just some of the common off-page strategies that can help your website reach the top of the search engine results page. There are several other strategies such as influencer marketing, which are extremely effective.
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