Off-page SEO strategies include tactics that occur outside of your website and generate backlinks and brand mentions. These include blog commenting, forum participation, and submitting your site to directories.
A robust off-page SEO strategy includes intent-aligned, full-funnel content that generates digital word of mouth and earns positively linked mentions on review sites, social media, and major online news publications. It also involves strategic partnerships.
Here are the Top 9 Off-page SEO strategies:
1. Guest Blogging
Although some marketers have pushed back against UGC platforms (User Generated Content) like forums and comment sections due to their misuse by SEOs, this off-page strategy is still one of the most effective. Find relevant question-and-answer websites and answer questions about your products and services in a helpful manner, linking back to your website.
Be careful not to use guest blogging as a link-building technique and only post quality articles for established, authoritative sites with a relevant audience. Otherwise, you might be at risk of earning a Google penalty. This is one of the critical off-page SEO strategies.
2. Forum Participation
SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). On-page SEO refers to factors that impact a site’s content, while off-page SEO refers to factors that affect a website’s ranking outside its own content.
Forum posting is a great off-page SEO strategy because it can help you obtain relevant backlinks. However, it’s important to use your forum signature wisely and only include links when they add value to the discussion.
3. Blog Commenting
While backlinks are important, off-page SEO tactics are equally essential for a website’s ranking success. They provide a way for search engines to validate and understand the quality of a web page.
Blog commenting is an off-page SEO tactic that can boost your rankings by increasing your visibility and brand recognition. However, it’s important to use your full name and a valid email address when leaving comments. Also, be sure to connect your email to Gravatar to display a profile picture with your comments.
4. Social Media
Off-page SEO focuses on increasing your website’s reputation, authority, and visibility across the internet. It is a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy. Off-page SEO includes strategies like link building, brand mentions, and social media marketing.
Backlinks are a big part of off-page SEO and can significantly boost your rankings. However, it is important to understand that quality is more important than quantity. High-quality links from authoritative websites are more effective than low-quality ones.
5. Local Citations/backlinks to your website
Local citations are a great way to improve your local SEO. They help search engines verify that your business information is accurate and increase your chances of appearing in local searches.
There are two main types of local citations: structured and unstructured. Structured citations are found on local directories and review sites and include your business name, address, and phone number.
Unstructured citations are mentions of your business on other websites, usually in the article text. These can be hard to get but are very valuable for local SEO.
6. Press Release Submissions
While on-page SEO deals with the structure of your website, off-page SEO is all about promoting it and making it more visible to other people. It includes tactics like brand mentions, reviews, comments, and links.
For example, a brand can run local marketing campaigns in their physical stores and communities that help drive online visibility and discovery. Similarly, social media and other off-page marketing efforts like PR can help build brand awareness and increase engagement.
7. Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a type of off-site SEO strategy that involves creating and submitting links to bookmarking sites. This helps Google find and understand your content better.
It used to be a great way to get backlinks, but since it was misused by many SEO marketers, it has lost some of its value. Nevertheless, it can still be an effective way to promote your website and build brand authority.
8. Infographics
Infographics are a great way to boost organic traffic and reduce bounce rates. This is because they have a better text-to-visual ratio and are more appealing to readers.
Another off-page SEO strategy is to write relevant questions and answers on question-and-answer platforms like Stack Overflow, Quora, and Yahoo Answers. This will help build your credibility and boost your search engine rankings. However, make sure that you do not spam these platforms with low-value links.
9. Link Building
The best off-page SEO strategies involve getting backlinks from other websites. These are links that point to your website and help search engines understand its value. There are different types of backlinks, including do-follow and no-follow.
Off-page SEO strategies for link building should be about quality, not quantity. Avoid tactics that violate Google’s guidelines, such as private blog networks (PBNs), link farms, and spammy links on low-authority websites.
See what backlinks we have to our website here.
This is a guest post from Roger Avila from Jet Rank. He can be reached at roger@jetrank.net.