Are you struggling to rank your website despite doing everything right? It’s very frustrating to not get expected results when you invest enough time and energy.
But, this problem is nothing new. Many websites don’t get enough visitors even after properly optimizing their sites.
It could happen if you neglect off-page SEO.
While on-page SEO includes every action you take on your website, off-page SEO happens outside your website. It helps you to gain valuable backlinks that you need for google ranking.
What Is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO (also called “off-site SEO”) involves SEO tactics done off of a website to impact your search engine ranking.
This can include building backlinks, promoting branded searches, being active on social media (increasing engagement and shares), and guest blogging.
Optimizing for off-site improves your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs) and user perception of a site’s popularity, credibility, authority, and relevance.
What Makes Off-Page SEO Important?
If you don’t optimize for off-site, it’ll be tough for you to rank for competitive search terms.
Google ranks websites based on the site’s authority. The sites with higher authority get to be on the top of Google search results.
So, if you want to outrank those already on higher ranking, you have to improve your site’s authority. Effective off-page SEO improves that much-needed authority for your site.
While Google doesn’t reveal the full algorithm it uses to rank content, data gathered by Moz’s Search Engine Ranking Factors study show that more than 50% of the ranking factor weight is carried by off-site SEO-related factors.
Effective Off-Page SEO Techniques
Off-page SEO is often thought to be just link building. But, it’s much more than that. Let’s see some trending off-page SEO techniques that you can apply to rank your website.
Link Building
“For people to discover your website, you need to build pathways and big, flashing signs that lead them there. In digital marketing terms, this means you need links, links and more links.” — Luisito Batongbakal, MonitorBacklinks.com
Given the weight of links in Google’s algorithm, link building is undoubtedly the backbone of any off-page SEO strategy.
Links from other sites serve as votes of confidence in your domain. The more votes your site gets, the more likely it’ll rank on search engines.
You have to convince Google that you’re an authoritative, credible site. If other higher authority sites suggest your site, it is a clear win for you.
There are two ways to get a backlink-
- Natural or earned links- It comes when some consumers or editorial publishers organically mention you.
- Built links- It requires some effort on your end, and it is where your SEO skill comes in handy.
The critical goal of link building should be to gain quality links from authority sites. There are many shady methods to gain backlinks, but Google can penalty your site for doing so.
So, you must use white hat strategies to gain backlinks. Aiming for only high authority sites is not always helpful. You need to understand the link gap between your own site and your competitors before taking any action.
Three primary factors must be understood before link building-
Authority
You already have some ideas why the authority of links is so important. Data gathered by Semrush gives us some idea how authority links should be-
- The domain’s quality and quantity of backlinks.
- The number of referring domains and the number of referring IPs.
- Organic search traffic
- The number of users.
- Follow vs. no-follow links.
You can use the Backlink Analytics tools to gain insights into the authority score.
Unique Domains
The number of linking root domains that point to your website is another critical factor in building success. There is a clear correlation between the higher rankings and the number of linking domains. Therefore, you must focus on domain diversity.
Topical Relevance
It’s a matter of common sense. For example, suppose you have a website for food delivery services. So, you must expect backlinks from food-related ( restaurant, super shop, food delivery service) sites.
That being said, it is okay to have some links that come from other areas. For example, suppose you get some backlinks from travel-related sites. Now, traveling has some relevance with food indeed.
Social Media
You’ve probably thought of taking social media marketing service to increase sales and brand awareness for your business.
However, social media is also a great way to increase search engine ranking and domain authority.
When you share quality content on social media, it increases traffic to your website. Google regards your site very highly when it starts to gain traffic from diverse sources.
That’s why it’s crucial to engage in social media with consistency. More engagement means more traffic and backlinks. In addition, it’ll help you to increase your domain authority.
Local SEO
For your local business, it’s crucial to optimize a site for local search results.
For example, if you are running a construction or air conditioning business in Toronto, you have to make sure that people who live in Toronto can quickly notice your service.
So, you must send signals to search engines that your service is located in Toronto.
Now, how can you do that? Here are few key ways:
- By using Google My Business, add your business or service to local and national business directories..
- Go to review sites and claim your listing there. And, don’t forget to respond.
- Encourage your clients to write positive reviews online.
- When you give contact information, be consistent across all digital platforms.
Content Marketing
When you want to attract your target audience with information that addresses their needs and demands, content marketing is the best option.
Content marketing is also closely related to on-page SEO. But you can also gain leverage by guest blogging, surveys, reports and downloadable offers.
These practices are invaluable to generate leads, drive traffic to your website and improve your search engine ranking.
Guest blogging doesn’t only help you to reach new audiences but also creates opportunities to get backlinks from high authority domains.
Looking for SEO Services for Your Small Business Website?
I’ve always noticed that small business websites struggle a lot to gain any significant traffic. You may have a beautiful website, but it will do you no good if it can’t bring any clients.
The reason these sites don’t get any significant visitors is that they are not properly SEO optimized. Our professionals have year-long experience and proven records to boost traffic for sites like these.
If you’re worried about your website’s SEO performance, you can surely contact us. We can help you to draw more organic traffic to your business website from major search engines like Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and more.
