Off-page SEO is one of the most difficult parts of digital marketing.
You may feel that there are more ways to get it wrong than to get it right.
Among the “do this, not that” tips are helpful approaches to promoting websites that won’t cause you to look over your shoulder.
Off-page SEO traditionally means acquiring links.
And since links are still an important ranking factor, off-page SEO is an important part of SEO.
John Mueller of Google recognized the importance of links when he said:
“Links are very important for us to find content initially.
So it’s like if no one ever links to your website, we’ll have a hard time acknowledging that it even exists.”
But Mueller has also said no links should be made:
You should not build links to your site in general. I recommend checking out our webmaster guidelines for more information.
— 🥔 johnmu (staff) updated for 2022 🥔 (@JohnMu) November 10, 2021
Google’s documentation on how to do SEO focuses primarily on optimizing what’s on the web page (also known as on-page SEO).
The SEO advice provided by Google rarely talks about off-page SEO, except in the context of guidelines on what not to do.
Approached realistically and with the clear eyes of a pragmatist, it is possible to navigate an off-page SEO strategy that stays within the narrow boundaries defined by Google and earns you more money.
What Is Off-Page SEO?
The narrow definition of off-page SEO is: it’s link building.
A broad definition includes off-site promotional activity, including press exposure and linking (with or without nofollow) and brand awareness campaigns that may involve posting to other sites and newsletters.
SEO is usually considered in direct relation to attributable search rankings.
When something is done for the purpose of SEO, there is an expectation of better rankings and more search traffic.
And that’s because, in the early days of SEO, search analytics showed which keywords were responsible for each search-derived site visitor.
So it was simple to attribute search rankings to traffic directly.
And from search traffic, it was possible to attribute clicks from search results to conversions directly.
This made it easy to connect the dots between SEO activities, rankings and earnings.
But this is no longer possible, because browsers hide keywords.
And that made it easier to start thinking about SEO in terms of traffic and earnings, even though it can only be indirectly attributed to SEO.
Anyone who has ever worked in B2B niches knows that there is more to cultivating online traffic than what is available through search engines.
Search traffic is relatively low on many B2B keyword phrases.
For B2B marketers, survival often depends on reaching potential customers who may not even be aware that a solution exists, as is the case with specialized tools such as organizational chart software or project management applications. performance
Although promotional activity does not directly influence search traffic, it does influence traffic in the short term. In the long run, as will be shown, it can even influence search traffic.
No one can search for a product or company if they don’t know that either exists.
Underscoring the importance of promotional activities, Google filed a patent that describes how branded searches could be used in a similar way to links to associate a business with a search term and rank that business higher in search results.
From this perspective, it makes sense to include online promotional activities in an off-page SEO description.
On-Page SEO Versus Off-Page SEO
On-page SEO is about optimizations made on a website that make it easier for search engines to crawl and understand.
This includes internal linking, using proper canonicalization, editing for content clarity, creating descriptive title tags, and writing unique meta descriptions.
On-page SEO ranking factors refer to what a page is relevant to and are considered stronger signals than off-page SEO factors.
This is why content is understood to be the strongest ranking signal.
However, without off-page SEO, a web page will struggle to rank, especially in highly competitive markets.
Off-page SEO helps search engines discover web pages to crawl and understand what they’re about. It’s best to think of off-page SEO as promotional activities related to attracting links. But it can also include promotional activities to let consumers know that the company exists and what it does.
The documentation available from Google for on-page SEO is extensive. This is not the case with off-page SEO, presumably because providing this information can provide clues on how to manipulate rankings.
Why Off-Page SEO Is Important
Off-page SEO is important because a website that does not have citations from other sites looks like a site that is not worth crawling and indexing.
Since off-page ranking factors like links measure the importance of a site, not getting any links can very well contribute to stagnant search traffic.
It’s no different than having a car without gas.
The most accurate description of what makes off-page SEO important is that it provides a boost to a site, helping it rank higher for more keyword phrases.
Do Links Help Build Authority?
Although SEO professionals like to think of abstract concepts like website authority in relation to links, Google doesn’t actually have any kind of metric that corresponds to authority.
Google often says that it strives to rank authoritative content. But, this word is generally used in the context of the quality of the content itself, not as a stand-alone ranking factor that flows into the web page and imbues it with “authority”.
Google webmaster trends analyst John Mueller debunked the notion that Google uses an authority metric.
“Generally, Google does not evaluate the authority of a site.
So it’s not something where we’re going to give you an authority score and say that’s the overall authority score on your website. That’s not something we would be applying here.”
Do Links Build Domain Authority?
Another misconception about links is that they help build domain authority.
The concept of domain authority has its roots in the early days of SEO, when Google still displayed PageRank values for web pages.
What was clear was that sites with high PageRank scores tended to rank better than sites with lower PageRank scores.
The home pages of these sites contained the highest PageRank scores.
Therefore, it was understood (at the time) that domains with high PageRank scores ranked better.
Since domains with high PageRank scores were considered authoritative, it was easy to say they were authoritative domains.
Anyone could see PageRank scores and how domains with high PageRank were ranked higher than those with lower PageRank.
This led to the belief in the concept of “domain authority”.
But Google never used any kind of domain authority metric.
The concept of domain authority was simply a vague idea based on what could be visually confirmed.
Finally, Google adjusted the ranking of web pages so that PageRank scores played less of a role in deciding which pages were ranked higher.
Relevancy then started to play a bigger role in determining which pages were ranked.
It took more than PageRank to rank a page and the proof, once again, was in the search results themselves.
It could be seen that web pages with low PageRank scores were ranked ahead of web pages from sites with higher PageRank.
But the idea of domain authority persisted.
Articles insisting that Google uses domain authority never cite any patent, research paper, or statement by a Googler to support these claims (because no official confirmation exists).
In a Reddit AMA, Google’s John Mueller answered the question of whether domain authority exists with a witty answer:
“Of course it exists, it’s a Moz tool.”
Three Kinds Of Links
In their SEO Starter Guide, Google’s documentation explicitly endorses promoting a website by telling others about it.
Here’s what Google posted about getting links:
“Although most links to your site will be added gradually, as people discover and link to your content through search or other means, Google understands that you would like others to know about your work hard you have done on your site.content.
Effectively promoting your new content will allow for faster discovery by those who are interested in the same topic.”
Although Google follows this statement with the warning that promoting a site to “extreme” levels could damage a site’s reputation, the advice still leaves plenty of room for promoting a website.
Here are three types of links that can be safely achieved:
1. Research, Write, Tell Others About It
In the planning stage of web page content, it is important to research what types of sites link to content pages on that specific topic.
One way to do this is to identify what types of sites are being linked and, more importantly, why those pages are being linked.
Every link strategy I create for a client always starts with researching what sites are linking and identifying the topics that trigger them.
Content writing happens after identifying the right content to publish.
The biggest mistake businesses make is writing the content and then trying to get links to it. This doesn’t always work, no matter how good the content is.
Some sites consistently link to smart content that covers trending topics such as popular media.
Other sites tend to link according to the zeitgeist.
Every site you link to has a reason for linking. Find this pattern and write on it.
2. Be Proactive About Getting Quoted
There is a service called Help A Reporter Out (HARO), where editors ask qualified people to provide quotes on topics, and perhaps provide a link to a website.
You could say that HARO has been overwhelmed for the past 10 years as there is a lot of competition from link builders flooding the system with links.
And some publishers upload a citation but never provide one.
For example, it has been my experience that some editors abuse the system to collect quotes and article ideas from other people with no intention of ever citing, let alone linking to, any of the contributors.
Thus, an entire business model has sprung up around helping companies obtain what has come to be known as “HARO links”.
But why run like a pigeon looking for crumbs? There is a better way.
And that way is to be proactive and approach the high quality sites you want a link from.
Everyone loves a gift, and there’s no better gift for a content editor than an article that writes itself.
The best way to do this is to research or compile relevant statistics for the readers of any post that is ideal for a link.
As long as the topic is very relevant, being quoted in an article already created by a press contact is a good way to get links.
Be sure to request that the article be held under embargo, which means withholding publication until a certain date.
For an extra kick, post the entire dataset on your website, then provide some of that data to publishers and ask them to consider linking to the full report page.
In the past, people produced infographics by creating a visual representation of government statistics, turning dry text into an easier-to-view infographic.
But people consume media content on mobile phones, and infographics don’t always look good on mobile devices.
The infographic approach to off-page SEO can be considered an outdated practice.
In the long run, building a list of desirable places to post may make more sense. Then research each site to see what relevant article topics they post, the type of sources they link to, and the article pitches they might entertain.
They also don’t have to be sites that offer link opportunities.
There is immense value in positioning a company’s name in front of tens of thousands of potential customers.
3. Good Old Resource Links
Some sites still post links to sites that provide a particular type of resource, such as a download, templates, how-to instructions, patterns, etc.
Websites like to link to useful content.
But again, don’t create the content and find someone to link to.
Find out who is linking to resources and then create that type of content.
Be sure to give it a great angle – a twist that makes it stand out from other places.
Guest Posting For Links… Not
Guest posting has been officially off the table since 2014, when Matt Cutts (a Google engineer at the time) publicly announced that guest posting for links was over.
“So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; too much rubbish has been made. In general, I would not recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to personally testify for someone or know them well.
Likewise, I would not recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a link building strategy.”
In 2020, Google’s John Mueller explained that Google’s machine learning algorithms had a lot of training data to help it identify guest post links and automatically devalue them so they don’t help sites rank better
He said this about guest posts for links:
“The other thing is that because this is so old, we have a lot of training data for our algorithms. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of these links are automatically ignored.”
Then he suggested doing something useful:
“If all this work is for ignored links, why not do something useful?”
Guest Post For Higher Earnings, Not Links
A better approach to take with guest posts is to use them to build awareness of a site in front of an audience that might be interested in it.
SEO professionals will create an opportunity to increase sales by insisting on links.
Why not just guest post to increase sales? Isn’t the money for link building and search marketing to begin with?
There are many opportunities to put your product in a favorable light by forgetting about links and just doing it for sales.
Making money is what marketing is all about, so make money while everyone else is racking their brains trying to find a way to trick a site into giving them a link.
This is true off-page SEO because once people know about a site, word of mouth kicks in, and that’s when Google understands that a site is popular, meaning the type of site people expect to see.
There’s even a Google patent on how Google can use branded search queries as a form of links.
I wrote about Google’s patent using search queries containing brand names as links here: Do Brand Mentions Matter to Google’s Algorithm?
This shows that building awareness can have an indirect impact on rankings.
The importance of this is to highlight that off-page SEO doesn’t necessarily have to be about links.
Off-Page SEO Is Site Promotion
It can be helpful to think of off-page SEO as something that encompasses more than the limited scope of link building.
Therefore, you need to think about strategies to expose the company to thousands of decision makers.
Link builders leave behind many valuable and useful opportunities to generate sales and indirectly create popularity signals that search engines could pick up.
Off-page SEO is useful for promoting a website to increase rankings, traffic and earnings.
Featured Image: Myvisuals/Shutterstock
What is off-page techniques?
Off-page SEO refers to all the activity that takes place outside of your website, which determines where you rank within the search engine results pages (SERPs). Optimizing off-site SEO ranking factors is crucial to improving your website’s relevance, trustworthiness, and authority.
What are off-page SEO techniques?
What is off-page content writing?
If you write a guest post for another blog or leave a comment, you’re doing off-page promotion.
What is on page techniques?
On-Page SEO Checklist Review and optimize your page titles by adding keywords, power words, and numbers. Provide a unique meta description for all your pages (including your target keywords). Do some keyword research and make sure your target keywords are part of your title and content.
What is on-page technique?
It’s a way to tell search engines about your other pages. As explained above, when search engines find a page with links, they will also go and read those pages, so you can use this technique to tell search engines about the pages on your website that they have. not yet discovered
What is on-page SEO with example?
On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and get more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and the HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, unlike off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.
What is the meaning of off-page?
“Off-page SEO” (also called “off-site SEO”) refers to actions taken outside of your website to affect your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
What are off page factors?
Off-page factors unrelated to the link. Off-page SEO refers to anything done outside of your website with the potential to affect your search engine rankings. Link building is the most obvious example of this, but there are many other off-page factors besides links.
What is on-page and off page?
On-page SEO refers to SEO factors and techniques focused on optimizing aspects of your website that are under your control. Off-page SEO refers to SEO factors and strategies focused on promoting your site or brand on the web.
What are the two techniques of SEO?
SEO techniques fall into two broad categories: White Hat SEO – Techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design. Black Hat SEO – Techniques that search engines do not approve of and try to minimize their effect.
What are SEO techniques?
What is the most important part of SEO?
The #1 Google Ranking Factor At WebTek, we say that the most important parts of SEO and the most important Google ranking factors are web page titles and heading tags. Titles are the prime real estate on any website – they’re your best chance to tell Google exactly what your website or web page is about.
What is most important in SEO? The #1 Google Ranking Factor At WebTek, we say that the most important parts of SEO and the most important Google ranking factors are web page titles and heading tags. Titles represent the prime real estate of any website – they’re your best chance to tell Google exactly what your website or web page is about.
Which is more important on-page or off page SEO?
“If a site has just launched or is about to launch, then on-page SEO is more important. This is because the site is ready for potential customers and search engine bots. The pages will be indexed quickly, showing whether the site is relevant and easy to navigate, and these factors will show in the rankings.
What is more important for onsite or offsite SEO strategies? Both concepts are important to search engines. Most important to your overall SEO strategy is proper research to ensure you’re competing for the right keywords and the right audience attention. Onsite SEO is the foundation of your SEO house, but offsite is your roof.
Which is important on-page or off-page?
On-page SEO refers to SEO factors and techniques focused on optimizing aspects of your website that are under your control. Off-page SEO refers to SEO factors and strategies focused on promoting your site or brand on the web.
What is the importance of on-page and off-page in SEO?
It involves activities that generate significant traffic, awareness of your website and links. On-Page SEO deals with content marketing, keyword optimization, page speed, etc. Off page SEO deals with links, social media, backlink and guest blogging.
Which is better on-page SEO or off-page SEO?
On-page SEO and off-page SEO are basically two sides of the same coin. SEO is most effective when practiced with both because Google uses ranking factors that occur on and off your pages. Depending on your needs, you can sometimes focus more on one of these types of SEO.
Is off-page SEO better than on-page SEO?
Both SEOs work together in a complementary way to achieve search engine optimization which is our main goal. We cannot select which is more important between the two. But in the whole process, SEOs recommend focusing on on-page SEO before off-page.
Which SEO is better on-page or off-page?
On-page SEO includes providing good content, good keyword selection, putting keywords in the right places, giving a proper title to each page, etc. Off page SEO includes link building, link popularity increase, search engine, link exchange etc. 2. On-page SEO will analyze the entire website.
Why off-page SEO is important?
Off-page SEO helps build a website’s domain recognition and authority. Without this, your site will continually rank below other websites that already have a more substantial advantage. While links aren’t the only off-page signals Google’s algorithm applies to rank a site, it’s perhaps the most important of the lot.
What is off page SEO a comprehensive guide?
“Off-page SEO” (also called “off-site SEO”) refers to actions taken outside of your website to affect your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). Along with on-page SEO, they include several of the basic SEO factors that help a site rank.