Most people think on-page SEO is the only thing they need to do to optimize their websites for search engines. And frankly, it’s understandable. If you want your website to place better in SERPs, that’s where you make changes. But that’s only half the work. The other half is just as critical. And that is off-page SEO. On and 0ff-page SEO are two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other if you want the best results. There’s a lot of things you can do away from your website to help build its reputation with Google. And most of them revolve around link building. In this guide, we’ll help you out with the top 15 off-page strategies to try in 2023!
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What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO is the set of techniques and actions you can take outside of your website to rank higher in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). It is a subset of search engine optimization that happens particularly off your website. Simply think of them as techniques to get recommendations from others around the internet. The goal is to get other websites to link to yours, and these links act as recommendations. Google and other search engines take these recommendations into consideration when deciding how to place you on SERPs. The more recommendations you have and the better quality they are, the more Google will assume that your website is trustworthy and credible.
On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO
The primary difference between off-page and on-page SEO is where the magic happens. On-page SEO is all about making changes to your website and the content that is present on it. This is also the most common subset of search engine optimization. It includes the content itself, keywords, images, URLs, title and meta tags. On the other hand, off-page SEO is all about getting links from other websites. Links are the backbone of off-page, and most techniques will pertain to them in some way. It’s also worth noting that on-page SEO works much faster than off-page. Since you’re optimizing your own website, the results are immediate. But in off-page SEO, you have to wait till you get a link and people click on it. This is also why on-page SEO is much more popular than off-page.
15 Best Off-Page SEO Strategies for 2023
If you want to boost traffic to your website and improve your SERPs ranking in 2023, these are the best off-page strategies to use:
Guest Posting
Guest posting might just be one of the most popular off-page SEO techniques in the marketing space. This technique involves writing content for other people’s websites. It may seem counterintuitive. Why should I help other websites? Well, it’s simple enough; they’ll help you back. And they’ll do this by linking back to your website. Your content will be shared on their blog with a link to your website and credentials. This is a natural link that will help increase traffic to your website. Make sure that the blog you’re writing for is relevant to your industry. In guest posting, you don’t have to build a high quantity of links. But you need to focus on getting links from high-quality websites.
Engage on Social Media
A lot of people skip social media because it isn’t a ranking factor in search engine algorithms. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful at all. Social media is a direct and personal channel for you to interact with your audience. The more you interact with your audience, the better relationship you will form with them. And your followers will end up sharing your accounts with others, thus increasing your traffic. The first step is to create a presence on all major platforms. These would include; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok. If your audience is present on them, you can even go for Snapchat and Reddit. Next, create interesting and valuable content. Lastly, engage with your followers. Reply to the comments and nudge them toward your website.
Influencer Outreach
Influencers are another aspect of social media that you should pay attention to. These social media personalities have amassed huge followings that you can take advantage of. You don’t have to hire one to promote your brand or website. Simply reach out to them and ask if they can share your content. Influencers also need high-quality content to keep their followers interested. If you can provide them with such content, they’d be more than willing to post a link to your content on their social media. This will increase traffic to your website, and you’ll also build credibility. Make sure to select influencers that are relevant to your niche.
Broken Brand Mentions
Many bloggers or influencers might have talked about you, your brand or your website all across the internet. But you may never know because they didn’t give proper credit or link to your website. Such brand mentions don’t improve the SEO of your website. But have the potential to. Ahrefs is a great SEO tool that can help you do just that. It’ll crawl the internet and find unlinked brand mentions for you. Contact the author or owner of the website and ask them for a proper link. Thank them for mentioning your brand, and tell them how a simple link to your website can help you do wonders. Linking to another website has no downsides, so they won’t hesitate to do so.
Internal Links
This is a very important off-page technique that actually happens on your own website. Internal links are hyperlinks in your content that link back to your own website. This is a great way to keep your visitors on your website and stop them from leaving. Internal links feed into search engine algorithms and improve your ranking as well. They increase your visibility and, thus, traffic. A great way to create internal links is to publish content in parts. Long-form content can be divided into parts, and you can link the second part at the end of the first one. Aim for at least two internal links per web page for better SEO.
Create Valuable Content
Most marketers regard content marketing as on-page SEO, but it also falls under off-page. The thing is, if your website has amazing content, other people would want to link to it. Industry leaders, thought leaders, experts and big brands are always looking for new and valuable content to share with their audiences. So why shouldn’t this content be yours? You’re already creating content for your audience, right? Why not let others share it as well? So create content that others would want to share. It should cater to the relevant niches, must have the right keywords, and, most importantly, must have valuable information. The better your content is and the more shareable it is, the more people will want to link to it.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is one of the most underrated off-page SEO techniques. But it is certainly a powerful strategy to use. On the internet, you’ll find several websites where the public discusses topics and websites and shares resources. Brands can tag their own websites here, and people will flock to check it out and discuss it. It’s an excellent platform to promote your website without doing too much. Links that you gain from social bookmarking aren’t as valuable, but they’re great for increasing brand awareness. Some popular social bookmarking sites are Reddit, Slashdot, Scoop.it, Digg and StumbleUpon. If you choose a site that already has a high DR, it’ll be a big boost for your website.
Use Your Images
You didn’t expect to see these here, right? Here’s some new information. You can use your images to create high-quality backlinks as well. How you ask? It’s really simple; just submit your images to image hosting websites. The best option here is Pinterest. This website is the epitome of images on the internet. Most Google Image searches lead to results from Pinterest. So you should take advantage of this. Submit your images to Pinterest, and add a title tag and a URL. If someone pins your image, they will use the information you provided, and you’ll get a backlink. If someone opens your image, they’ll be redirected to your website. You can also use Imgur and Flickr.
Local SEO
Since local SEO happens off your site, it can also be considered a part of off-page techniques. Local SEO is a big part of SEO and deserves its own space. It includes optimizing your website for local searches. The first step is to create your Google My Business account. GMB is a powerhouse when it comes to giving visibility to local businesses. With a GMB account, your business and website will show up when people search for queries locally. It will help improve your brand’s visibility and get you more organic traffic.
The next step is to make a Google Maps listing. When searching for local businesses, a lot of people skip typing on Google. And go straight to Google Maps. If your business isn’t listed, they won’t see you on the map. If you’re listed, and people are interested, they’ll click on your listing. Eventually, they’ll end up on your website to make a booking or look for more information. This is an excellent way to increase your traffic without investing any effort or resources.
The last step is to get more citations. Citations are mentions of your brands aided with a NAP (Name, Address, and Phone number). There are other places where you can get listed, just like Google My Business. Some of these are Yelp, Capterra, and Crunchbase. To take full advantage of these citations, you need to be consistent. Provide your complete information with a link to your website. And keep updating it regularly.
Podcasts
The world of marketing is ever-evolving, and new trends are always popping up. The latest trend is podcasts. This is a stellar opportunity for marketers and SEO experts. It’s simple enough to use podcasts to market your website. Create a great podcast that your audience will enjoy listening to and find useful. The success of your podcast will depend on the relevance and usefulness of its content. Market your podcast through every channel; social media, email, and even syndication. Add CTAs to your podcasts in the form of links. These CTAs will take your listeners to your website so they can learn more about you. In this way, you’ll earn high-quality traffic that is already near conversion.
Make Videos
Video is a great content type that can help increase traffic to your website. It is an expensive strategy, as video production requires time, effort and resources. But the results videos produce for your SEO are unmatched. Create amazing videos that hook your audience in and capture their attention. Provide valuable content and information, so they keep coming back for more. Submit your videos to video hosting websites. These would be YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion. You’ll get the best results from YouTube, as it’s the most popular website. Write catchy headlines, and provide tags and a description with links to your website. These backlinks will be a great resource, as YouTube has a very high DA.
HAROs
Here’s another example of an underrated technique. Help A Reporter Out is a platform where reporters and journalists can post queries about their upcoming articles and blogs and collect information. Industry experts who have knowledge about their queries reply to them and help them out. Their knowledge is then quoted in the upcoming blog/article. Along with the quote is a crediting link to the expert’s website or social media handle. This is a legitimate link that is used by search engine algorithms to determine your ranking. If you get quoted enough, and on reputable blogs and websites, you’ll see a significant rise in your Domain Authority and the visibility of your website will also increase.
Email Outreach
This is just like influencer outreach. But instead of influencers, you’re reaching out to relevant websites and blogs. You can use tools like Ahrefs and Moz to find websites that pertain to your niche. These tools will also tell you if the website has a high enough Domain Authority to bring any benefits to you. The higher the DA of your backlink, the larger its effect will be. Create an email campaign where you’ll contact multiple websites and help them understand how your brand and content are the right fit for them. The bottom line here is also that you need to provide them with valuable content that their audience will be interested in. If you get featured on a reputable site, the backlink will help improve your SEO.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are highly valued by Google. The better reviews you get, the more Google will trust you and your credibility and the higher you’ll place on SERPs. Customer reviews have a huge part to play in consumer behavior. If people read a review they can relate to, they’ll flock to that product like vultures. Online reviews can be a game-changer for your off-page SEO. Getting positive customer reviews will not only help your SEO and organic traffic but also increase your sales and overall brand reputation. You should claim your listing on popular review websites like Yelp, Angi, Amazon Customer Reviews and Google Customer Reviews. Choose review sites that are relevant to you, as most sites are industry-specific. Engage with people who leave reviews for your business, regardless of whether it is positive or negative.
Roundups
Roundups are one of the latest methods of link building. Some popular blogs collect articles and other blogs from around the internet and post a summary of them. These are called roundups. Most roundups happen on a weekly or monthly basis. These roundups post a link to these blogs, which helps them with their SEO. If your blog or website gets mentioned, you’ll earn big brownie points with search engines, as these are high-quality links. But the most important aspect here is maintaining a relationship with the roundup blog. The better your relationship, the more you’ll get featured in roundup posts. Make sure to submit your content to roundup blogs that are relevant to your industry and your audience. To find blogs that post roundups and are relevant to you, simply go to Google and type in; weekly roundup + your industry.
Start Your Off-Page SEO Today!
Well, these were the fifteen best off-page SEO strategies that you can try to give your website the boost it deserves on SERPs. Off-page is an underrated subset of SEO that a lot of marketers don’t pay enough attention to. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less important. Off-page strategies like link building, email outreach and social media engagement can help build trust, credibility and reputation for your website and business.
Do you have any tried and tested off-page SEO techniques? Let us know in the comments below!
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