What is off-page SEO? Off-page refers to the activities that aren’t on your own website but are instead done on other websites and blogs that aren’t owned by you or your business. Just like on-page SEO, off-page SEO consists of a series of specific strategies and tactics that must be executed to drive organic traffic from search engines to your website. This off-page SEO checklist will lay out those strategies in an easy-to-follow format so you know exactly what to do each step of the way.
Conduct keyword research on social media platforms
In addition to monitoring your competitors’ social media activity, you should also conduct keyword research on relevant social media platforms. You can find these keywords using a tool like Google Keyword Planner and then track them through tools like Facebook Insights or your favorite social listening platform. To be sure, keyword research isn’t strictly off-page SEO—it goes hand in hand with on-page optimization—but it’s still an important factor in ranking well for local search. (Here are 4 tips for doing off-page SEO right.) Conduct keyword research on your competitors’ locations: If you’re looking to grow outside of your city, you should do some additional digging into where they rank and what keywords they’re optimizing for.
Build backlinks naturally
There are hundreds of ways to build backlinks and traffic to your website. Some, like buying backlinks from low-quality directories or paying for sponsored social media posts, will be nearly useless—if not worse than useless—to your business. Others will be legitimate methods of creating a foundation of valuable inbound links that could help you rank higher and bring new visitors to your website. Keep reading to learn how to avoid wasting time and money on off-page optimization tactics that don’t work.
Use relevant images on your blog posts
One thing that I see a lot of bloggers miss is including relevant images in their posts. While not always necessary, sometimes an image or two can make all of the difference. Imagine if you were trying to tell someone about your favorite new book, but all you could say was it’s good and leave it at that—you wouldn’t be doing anyone any favors by leaving out details like setting and context! Images are very similar in terms of adding information that people would otherwise have to guess at or piece together for themselves. This is especially true when we consider search engine optimization (SEO).
Add keywords in social media descriptions and bios
On Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Facebook (and just about every other social network), you can customize your bio and use that space to add relevant keywords. This way, people who are looking for products or services like yours will find you in search results more easily. Just remember to keep it real; if you make it sound like you can do everything under the sun, people may trust you less because they’ll think your skills don’t match up with what they need.
Communicate with influencers in your industry
Influencers are an incredible resource for new businesses. As with email marketing, these types of relationships can take time to develop—but they’re worth it. If you can build a relationship with an influencer in your industry who’s recognized by your target audience, they can help you create awareness around your product or service (and even refer customers to you). Here are four ways to do it.
Search engine submission
How do you submit your site to search engines? Well, there are two ways to go about it. One way is to fill out a form online, either on Google or Yahoo!, that lets them know you have a new website and wish for them to index it. This is a good idea but not necessarily comprehensive. Alternatively, you can create an XML sitemap and submit it through Google’s Webmaster Tools or Yahoo! Site Explorer.
Guest blogging
Working with other sites to post your content can improve your search rankings. Search engines, specifically Google, treat guest posts more favorably than self-posts because they provide content of high value that you would not otherwise produce (or often cannot produce) on your site.
Infographic submission
Take all of your efforts to build off-page SEO—from building links and optimizing your content to guest posting on high authority sites and building relationships with influencers—and present them in an infographic. People love visuals, so that’s a great way to give readers a holistic view of how off-page SEO works.
The Importance Of Social Bookmarking For Off-Page SEO
If you use social bookmarking sites to help spread your content, you can improve your SEO off-page optimization. Start by identifying relevant websites where your target market hangs out and then see which of those sites have an active social bookmarking community. Create a profile on each of these sites and start bookmarking. Most will require that you put a link back to your website, so make sure to follow that rule when making bookmarks. You don’t want anyone to look at what you’re doing as spam!
PDF/PPT submission
Submitting your site to social networks, directories, and other Web resources is a great way to get more exposure. It’s also an off-page SEO technique that can help boost your rankings. By submitting your site to Web sites outside of your network, you’re increasing its presence on search engines. But there are lots of things you need to know about off-page SEO submission—and a lot that could go wrong if you don’t handle it correctly.
Image submission
If you’re looking to get more views on your website, there are a few ways to improve how Google and other search engines see your website. One of those methods is image submission. By adding images to your site, you create additional backlinks, which helps boost your search engine rankings. Make sure you follow a couple of rules when uploading photos, including using only one image per page and using rel=alternate anchor text for all links within that photo.
Video submission
After you’ve put your content in front of your target audience, you can up your off-page SEO game by reaching out to video submission sites. In addition to Google and YouTube, there are thousands of sites that accept submissions from creators. These sites might have a bigger audience than you initially imagined, so take advantage of them! You might be able to leverage these videos as part of a new guest post, landing page, or other promotional pieces. Just be sure to share with me! Ultimate SEO checklist
Write content that answers questions
One of your most powerful marketing tools is your website, so it’s important to ensure that you’re answering potential customers’ questions and catering to their needs. People frequently use search engines as a source for answers before they make a purchase, and if your website doesn’t address these concerns, it could be driving customers away from you. Develop content based on what people are asking about you or your business—this is an effective way to increase traffic from off-page SEO efforts because it helps visitors with their immediate needs, which makes them much more likely to stick around. When creating content like FAQs or other types of articles meant to answer specific questions, incorporate key phrases related to what people are looking for into each piece.