Off-page SEO” refers to certain techniques to improve the position of a website in the search engine results pages.
Many people associate “Off-page SEO” with the creation of backlinks, but it is not only that.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is one of the 6 levers of Digital Marketing.
Concretely, SEO is a set of techniques to optimize a website and its contents for search engines.
The objective is to move your web pages up in the results pages of search engines like Google.
SEO is therefore vital to :
- Gain visibility on search engines,
- Attract qualified visitors,
- give credibility to your content.
Search engines use complex algorithms to :
- Determine which pages to include in their index,
- Then sort these pages in the search results.
Optimizing a website for search engines is broken down into 3 sub-areas:
- The “On-page SEO”,
- The “Off-page SEO”,
- And the “Technical” SEO.
Read also: 21 Tips To Generate More Traffic To Your WordPress Site
The “On-page SEO” or Optimizations on your pages
The “On-page SEO” includes actions to be taken on each page of your website so that they are properly optimized for search engines.
Here are some examples of these actions:
- Work on your titles and meta descriptions,
- Structure your URLs with care,
- Insert internal links naturally,
- Break your text into chapters with sub-headings,
- Optimize your images…
Find all these tips in my article: SEO On page: 11 techniques to boost your rankings.
The “Technical” SEO
Technical SEO facilitates the exploration and indexing of your website by search engines.
Indeed, search engines run crawlers on websites to retrieve certain information in their index.
This information is then used to classify the different pages according to the keywords typed by Internet users.
By working on your technical SEO, you help search engines to better access, analyze, interpret and index your website.
The actions to be taken optimize the infrastructure of your website without taking into account its content or its promotion.
This is why Digital Marketing experts talk about technical SEO.
Find my checklist of the 15 checkpoints of Technical SEO.
The “Off-page” SEO or Optimizations outside your site
Finally, the “SEO Off page” or “SEO Off-site” includes all activities to be conducted outside your website, ie on other sites than yours.
Specifically, you conduct actions to promote content on your website to get a maximum of inbound links (or Backlinks).
The objective of this article is to review all these promotional actions to work your “SEO Off page”.
But first, discover the benefits of working your “SEO Off page”.
Read also: White Hat SEO versus Black Hat SEO – Definitions & Differences
Why is working on your “SEO Off page” important?
Search engines are always looking to return the best results for Internet users.
For this, they rely on complex and secret algorithms.
Nevertheless, Digital Marketing experts have counted more than 200 criteria in the Google ranking system.
Among these criteria, several are used to measure the authority of your website or its popularity.
The popularity of your site is proportional to the number of references that your site has on other sites.
Indeed, if another site refers to one of your contents, it means that they find it so relevant that they want to refer to it. This acts as a “vote of confidence”.
Moreover, all these links on other sites also provide visibility.
Indeed, an Internet user visiting another site referring to one of your contents can click on this link and come to visit your website.
This is why the main activities around “SEO Off Page” consist in promoting your website to give it visibility and gain trust before collecting “votes”.
2 main advantages of “Off-page SEO
By getting all those referrals from other sites, your website traffic will naturally increase:
- More traffic from search engines. Your rankings in the results pages will go up since search engine algorithms take into account the number and quality of backlinks,
- More traffic as a result of the exposure of your links. Each link present on a third-party site is likely to be clicked by Internet users. You get a de facto share of the traffic of all these sites. SEO experts call this traffic acquisition “link juice”.
Obviously, to win new customers, it is necessary that this “link juice” generates qualified traffic.
It is therefore an aspect to be taken into account as soon as you work on your “Off-page SEO”.
Create yourself backlinks
We have seen that Google considers a link from another website to your site as a “vote” of confidence.
So why not “vote” for yourself?
Over the years, webmasters have created their own backlinks by “inventing” multiple ways to increase their number of inbound links.
Some of these methods are even questionable. Digital marketing experts call them “Black Hat SEO”.
Since the so-called Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird updates, Google’s algorithm has been tracking these unnatural inbound links.
Entrepreneurs who use these methods have their websites penalized. And if you abuse it, Google may even stop indexing your website!
The ” Follow ” or ” no-follow ” attribute
In order to give webmasters a way to connect to a website without passing the “link juice”, search engines have introduced the “no-follow” attribute for links.
It is an HTML attribute to add to a link like this:
<a href=http://www.unsite.com rel= “no-follow” >Click here</a>
This no-follow attribute tells search engines to disregard this link as a “vote of confidence” for the referenced website.
Nofollow was introduced to link to other sites from yours without looking like a “Black Hat SEO” practitioner.
My advice: add the no-follow tag on all your external links on your pages that point to websites you don’t fully trust. For example: on all the links inserted by people in your comments. This is also useful for links in advertisements
What is a good backlink?
First of all, the creation of backlinks is not only a question of quantity, it is also a question of quality.
Indeed, no matter how many backlinks point to your website, it is more important where these backlinks come from.
Indeed, backlinks are not born equal.
A single link from a high authority site has more weight than several backlinks from many low authority sites.
Your goal with “Off-page SEO” is therefore to get inbound links from websites with strong authority.
So how to get good-quality inbound links?
Google talks about “natural” inbound links.
Natural” backlinks are exactly what their qualifier implies.
The owner of a website appreciates the content on another website and naturally adds a link to his website.
So, to generate good-quality backlinks, you need to create useful and relevant content that others want to cite in their own content.
And since it’s a “vote of confidence”, you have to do everything you can to make people trust you first.
So, here are the 5 winning techniques to succeed in your “Off-page SEO”.
5 tactics that work to create quality backlinks
Since you’re looking to generate qualified traffic, put yourself in the shoes of your personas (or target customer).
Indeed, if you know exactly which websites your personas regularly visit, you will save time and efficiency.
The results are immediate:
- More mentions for your company,
- More “natural” backlinks,
- More trust from your target audience,
- Diversified inbound links from many sites…
1. Be present where your customers are
Let’s say you work for #wallacewalley.
Our target client is an entrepreneur looking to gain visitors and sales with his website.
Our target audience is therefore mainly composed of :
- Entrepreneurs or company managers,
- Marketing managers within companies.
These people regularly frequent sites like:
- LinkedIn, Medium…
- Twitter, Facebook…
- Reddit, Quora…
Joining communities and getting involved in conversations
By joining these communities and getting involved in the discussions, we promote #wallacewalley directly to our target.
For example, we answer questions on Quora :
We also republish our articles on LinkedIn.
And also on medium.
Obviously, this is not wild promotion.
We are looking to start a conversation and solve their problems.
So you get to reference your product and/or service in the “replies”. Sometimes, I don’t even mention #wallacewalley.
Here’s the principle: Always add value to the discussion.
In the short term, you get low-value inbound links since your links on these platforms are “no-follow”.
This has a little direct impact on your SEO.
But your direct traffic will increase since you are addressing your target audience…
As time goes by, you are perceived as an expert in your field. You gain the trust of your audience. And eventually, some will refer to your content in their articles.
Comment intelligently on other content
Another tactic is to insert comments on other blogs.
I’m not talking about copying and pasting standard text or inserting a link wildly into the comments.
I’m talking about making useful, value-added comments – that is, authentic, insightful, and relevant…
Such comments expose your name to your target audience and that can only be good for your SEO.
My tip: Monitor who is mentioning your brand online with Google Alerts, mentions, or ahrefs. Then participate in the conversation with relevance.
2. Writing guest articles
Guest blogging is not a new technique in SEO.
Obviously, it is not about publishing articles with dozens of links pointing to your site. Besides, with such a level of quality, your host should not accept publishing it.
Here are the main benefits of guest posting:
- Strengthen your and your company’s expertise,
- Increase the number of mentions of your brand,
- Bring in qualified traffic,
- Acquire some backlinks…
Tip: contribute to authoritative websites in your field by publishing quality articles
3. Contacting bloggers to build strong relationships
When I talk about contacting other bloggers, I’m not talking about the emails I get every day asking me to add a link to one of my posts or to do a link exchange.
This tactic is, in my opinion, closer to spam than to “awareness”. Besides, the email goes straight into the trash.
Build a lasting relationship
Your goal is to build a lasting relationship with your contact.
This involves:
- Monitoring what’s going on in your industry,
- Contacting other bloggers to initiate the relationship,
- Earning their trust!
This usually starts with helping the other person before asking for something in return.
Then, acquiring backlinks becomes easier and more natural. Indeed, it is easier to ask something to someone you have previously helped.
Admittedly, this “Off-page SEO” approach is time-consuming, but the benefits are clear.
Giving to receive
Here is an example from a few months ago.
I was reading an article on Digital Marketing.
And I came across a broken link that pointed to an article that looked interesting to read.
It wasn’t even an external link, just a badly formatted internal link.
So I decided to send a quick email to the owner of the site to let him know about the problem without even asking for anything in return.
Of course, the site owner thanked me. Since then, from time to time, he retweets some of my content without me ever asking him anything.
My advice: It’s not easy to get such a result every time. But put all the chances on your side, with really personalized emails, not just the first name.
Start by thanking the people who mentioned your content.
Few of your competitors do this and you stand out immediately. And often, the relationship is maintained.
Here are 3 ideas for building lasting relationships via promotion:
- Inform people about problems with their website: broken links, misspellings…
- Thanking people who have referred you to your content,
- Ask relevant questions to the people you want to reach…
Above all, don’t ask for anything until the initial relationship has been established. Apply the principle “Give to get” which is the most effective on your SEO Off page success!
Related Aticle: Backlinks: How To Find Sites That Will Link To Your Content
4. Working on your “Local SEO” is also part of “Off-page SEO
If you receive your customers and prospects in your office, local SEO is essential to attract new customers.
The notoriety of this type of business relies on “word of mouth”.
And in Digital Marketing, “word of mouth” is the reviews we leave on the Internet.
By being well-referenced on review sites:
Not only do satisfied customers leave reviews that are taken into account by the Google algorithm,
But above all, your potential customers will read them to verify the seriousness of your service.
Local referencing is experiencing a significant craze, especially with the rise of smartphones.
Indeed, on smartphones, most of the searches we do have a local component.
In other words, the results are around us when we search on Google from our smartphones.
This makes sense since the next step is to either call or visit the successful candidate.
My advice: at the very least, declare your business on Google My Business and make sure you fill in all the relevant information.
Read also: How To Write An SEO Friendly Article
5. Social networks also help to some extent
Promoting your content on social networks is part of “Off-page SEO”.
If you think about it, Marketing on social networks is also a form of backlink creation.
However, most of the inbound links you get on social network platforms are “no follow”.
But that doesn’t mean they have no value.
Social network mentions are gaining ground, as ranking factors and proper configuration of social network profiles can also boost SEO.
In itself, social networks are not essential for your search engine position.
However, it does give you a unique opportunity to connect with potential customers and visitors.
Again, find out on which platforms your personas connect: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… and start engaging them.
Remember that social networks are two-way channels. It’s all about the conversation.
A special mention for Pinterest
Pinterest is one of the few social platforms that don’t declare links as “no follow.”
So every time someone “re-pins” one of your pins, it’s a real backlink earned.
Update September 2108: this is no longer the case today. The links on the images have been switched to no follow.
That being said, the value of Pinterest for acquiring traffic is not to be questioned.
So, make sure you set up a pro account on Pinterest for your website and at the very least share your content.
Know that the types of content that generate the most backlinks are lists, guides, and infographics (source isglobalweb),
So the ultimate is to have infographics designed from your content and relayed on Pinterest. Use canva for this.
Content publishers are also fond of beautiful infographics to enhance their content.
Take the time to build your audience on Pinterest, it can only increase your backlinks.
Note: you can know your backlinks and those of your competitors with tools like OpenLinkProfiler or ahrefs…
Off-page SEO is useless without good On-page SEO
Off-page SEO is the activity that entrepreneurs spend the most time on.
This makes sense given the number of places you can promote your company’s website.
On the other hand, if your “On-page SEO” is not square, all the actions taken to gain backlinks will be useless.
Let’s say your website looks like the screenshot above.
Do you trust Arngren?
No!
Will you link to this website?
Probably not.
All in all, this is an extreme example. But my point is this:
No one is going to link to a website that doesn’t give confidence.
In other words, if your design is from the 2000s, it’s probably time for a refresh.
Similarly, if your website is littered with spelling or grammatical errors with outdated information, you’ll never get a backlink on an authority site like lemonde.fr.
No matter how much effort you put into it. It’s lost in advance.
And if someone shares your content by chance, the users who will come to see your site then will leave immediately.
Moreover, a good “On-page SEO” has a direct impact on your “Off-page SEO”.
Why?
- Because by ranking well in search results, more people will click through to your content.
- And if more people read your content, more people can potentially reference it in their articles.
- And if more people refer to your articles, you get backlinks.
Advice: prioritize your “On-page SEO” before trying to work on your “Off-page SEO”.
Conclusion on the 6 “Off-page SEO” techniques to boost your rankings
Off-page SEO is clearly extremely important, no matter what industry your business is in.
However, it’s not just about building inbound links.
Of course, backlinks are probably still one of the most important criteria.
But they are only one factor out of 200 in Google’s algorithm.
Moreover, today, link building is no longer a silly process like “search for a site, build a link, go to another site…”
Building quality backlinks is about:
- Promoting your content,
- Building trust,
- Establishing lasting relationships with other Internet users.
This requires first and foremost great content, a smooth customer experience on your website, and a well-optimized “On-page SEO”. Do this to win.
So what’s your favorite tactic for creating high-quality backlinks?