Essential Off-Page SEO Factors You Need To Know
6th July 2021
We’ve already covered On-Page SEO and in this blog, we are talking about Off-Page SEO. Specifically about how we can get others talking about and signposting to your website to increase traffic.
When a search engine ranks sites it factors relevance, authority, and trust. Whilst we don’t know the full algorithmic workings we can put a few elements into practice to help build these areas.
There’s a common feeling that off-page SEO is hard work because a lot of the time it’s out of your control – and in that sense, it’s true. But that’s why it’s such an important ranking factor!
If something’s harder to get, then it’s harder to manipulate, and ultimately that makes it a more reliable source to search engines when it’s trying to work out how to place websites in the rankings.
Off-page SEO includes things like social media, link building, and local SEO – all the things that can help generate referral traffic back to your site. Where your on-page SEO work can then take over and make sure they have an awesome digital experience.
Link Building
Building backlinks is at the heart of Off-Page SEO. It is simply a link to your site that sits on someone else’s website. But, as we mentioned earlier, relevancy is key.
Having links from high-quality sites to yours is a trust signal for search engines, proving to them you’re trusted by others and therefore they can trust you too.
Firstly, you need to ensure you are creating high-quality content. If your content isn’t shareable you won’t have anyone linking to it on their site. Few people link to a homepage or product page. Therefore you need to create a page that is valuable.
Don’t be afraid to reach out. Is there a leader in your industry, someone everyone looks up to and trusts? Try and work with them to get links to your site – whether that’s through a blog post, a directory, or something else equally valuable.
These can either develop naturally as these companies find you themselves, or you can get in touch to explain who you are and what you do, seeing if you can find some neutral ground to make some collaborative content.
Whilst links are essentially the backbone of Off-Page SEO, there are other things to consider too – from your social media presence to guest blogging opportunities.
Social Media
We all know that social media is an ever-growing presence. It’s crucial to develop strong social media channels that you can use to share content and links. When you share content on social media it reflects the diverse sources that are driving traffic to your site – which is a bonus in Google’s eyes.
Create infographics that can be shared. More engagement can help to build domain authority. Not only that but it will help with brand awareness, produce good traffic and generate plenty of backlinks.
Local SEO
This is essential if your business is locally oriented. Businesses such as hairdressers, florists, etc… To optimise local SEO you need to send signals to search engines that service customers in local areas. Here are a few key ways you can do this:
- Add your company to Google My Business
- Claim your business on review sites such as Trust Pilot and Trip Advisor
- Following that, encourage your customers to leave positive reviews
- Ensure your contact information is consistent across the board
Off-Page SEO is essentially things you can do outside of your immediate website that will drive traffic there. Get people talking about you in one way or another and if they provide a direct link to your website – then even better!
