You work hard to boost your website’s SEO so that you can make it to the first result on Google’s massive list. You add high-quality keywords, eye-catching imagery, rich content, and you even throw some local keywords in there to boost your local SEO. But what about the SEO work you do off of your website?
Your website itself should be strong, but it’s important not to neglect off-page SEO, which is the SEO efforts you make throughout the internet outside of your website. If you have strong on-page SEO and robust off-page SEO, your website is certain to thrive, driving the traffic of your dreams to your digital storefront.
How do you do it? Here are some top strategies for off-page SEO.
#1 – Link Building
Building links from other sources back to your website is one of the best ways to build SEO, though it can be tricky to achieve. Essentially, backlinks can happen one of two ways. The natural way is the most ideal: someone links to your website on their social media or their website and you get that boosted off-page SEO with little effort on your part. Having strong, relevant content can help, but mostly this is a game of luck.
But since natural backlinks don’t often happen, the next strategy is to build links through purposeful self-promotion. For this, look for influencers and brands who would compliment your brand in some way. Then reach out to them and ask them to add a backlink to your webpage. You can also offer to link to their website or to collaborate with them in exchange for the link building.
#2 – Social Media
Social media marketing is one of the easiest and least costly ways to build off-page SEO. You just need the right social media accounts and a posting schedule where you can link back to new blogs, relevant webpages, or your contact page. Unlike link building, social media is within your control. Your team runs your social media account and decides when to post the links.
However, there is still a strategy that goes into this. First, you have to know what social media accounts your target audience is likely to occupy. If you market to other businesses, for instance, LinkedIn will be your best B2B hub. If you’re marketing to millennials, Twitter or Instagram might offer better alternatives. Once you’re set up on social media, do some research into the best times to post on those platforms. From there, you can create your posting schedule.
#3 – Content Marketing
While content marketing is more often an on-page SEO tactic, it can also help you from the perspective of off-page SEO, especially if you follow Google’s EEAT acronym: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. Highly informative, authoritative content is a sure way to catch valuable attention. This could increase your chances of getting some natural links — or it might help to sway other influencers or brands over when you reach out for a link. As always, content is at the center of any good SEO strategy.
#4 – Guest Posting
Guest posting is another excellent strategy for off-page SEO. Guest posting involves writing a post on someone else’s blog or inviting them to write on yours. When you guest post on another brand’s blog, you have an automatic opportunity for backlinking — you can link back to relevant posts on your website throughout the post, and there’s generally a biography at the bottom of the post where you can link back to your website.
You can also build some off-page SEO by inviting others to write a guest post for your blog. This will build your off-page SEO because they will likely share this post on their social media and send the link to others in their social network. You may need to be more selective about who you choose for a guest post — such as an expert in your industry.
#5 – Hire an Influencer
If you can afford it, an influencer might be one of the most effective forms of off-page SEO. An influencer comes with their own sizeable social media following. You can collaborate with influencers for guest blog posts, but more often, you can sponsor an influencer and make them an affiliate of your brand. This can be costly, but the ROI is significant since the influencer will have a vested interest in encouraging their followers to engage with their brand. If you can’t afford a macro influencer, micro influencers can be effective with a more concentrated following.
