Off page SEO is a critical aspect of search engine optimization that can significantly influence your website’s authority, visibility, and overall search engine rankings. While on page SEO focuses on optimizing the elements within your website, off page SEO works behind the scenes, building credibility and trust through external efforts. These off site strategies are essential for boosting your site’s reputation and expanding its reach across the web.
This guide is designed to help you understand and effectively implement off page SEO to enhance your own website’s authority and search engine rankings. We’ll cover the key concepts behind off page SEO and how they influence search engines’ perceptions of your site, along with actionable strategies that you can apply to build trust, generate high quality backlinks, and improve your overall online reputation. By following the insights and techniques outlined here, you’ll be equipped to elevate your SEO efforts, strengthen your online presence, and drive meaningful results for your business.
Need help with your off page SEO? For customized SEO strategies, contact our team at Digital Edge International today.
What is Off Page SEO?
Off page SEO (also called off site SEO) refers to a group of SEO techniques that are executed outside of your website itself. The aim of off page SEO is to increase the perceived trust and authority of your website in the eyes of Google and other search engines, building your online reputation and improving search engine rankings. Off page SEO techniques focus specifically on building the external signals that contribute to this increased authority in order to support your online presence and search engine rankings.
What Makes Off Page SEO Important?
The actions you take as part of your off page SEO efforts signal to search engines that your website is reputable and authoritative, helping you stand out in a competitive landscape. Websites that demonstrate strong off page signals, such as high quality backlinks and positive mentions across the web, are more likely to be viewed as valuable resources. As a result, off page SEO directly impacts your site’s credibility and can lead to better search engine rankings, improved brand visibility, and increased organic traffic. By building your site’s authority and trustworthiness in this way, you position yourself to attract a broader audience, solidify your online presence, and stay ahead of competitors.
How Search Engines Use Off Page SEO Signals
Search engines employ a complicated set of algorithms in order to determine the most relevant and helpful sites to rank in response to a user’s query. While it’s easy to talk up your own business, products and services on your website, Google needs an effective way to verify the trustworthiness and value of the content you are presenting to make sure your website is a useful resource. This is where off page SEO comes in.
The easiest way to think of off page SEO is to consider it as a series of external recommendations for your website. By building a network of quality backlinks, social signals, brand recognition and local optimization factors, you can effectively show search engines that other people also consider your website to be an authoritative source of information, making it a strong contender to rank highly in Google search results.
The Four Pillars of SEO
A successful SEO strategy involves optimizing your website across four fundamental areas that we at Digital Edge like to refer to as the Four Pillars of SEO – on page, off page, content and technical SEO. When implemented correctly, each of these four pillars plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of your overall SEO campaign. Despite being defined as separate areas, all four pillars should work cohesively to support each other – for example, high quality content is important on its own, but it also has a significant impact on both your on page and off page SEO strategies. When designing and executing your SEO plan, neglecting any one of the four pillars can have a serious impact on your website’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Off Page SEO vs On Page SEO
- On Page SEO activities are the specific strategies you implement on your website itself. These include factors such as meta data, image optimization, internal linking (not to be confused with backlink building) and content.
- Off Page SEO refers to actions taken outside of your website to increase the authority of your site. Off page SEO tactics include link building, citations, social media and external content marketing.
What is Domain Authority?
When learning about off page SEO, it’s likely that you’ve come across terms like domain authority (DA) or domain rating (DR). These terms all refer to the same thing – the estimated strength of your current online position, calculated based on various factors, including the number of total backlinks, the quality of those backlinks, and the overall trustworthiness of your site. While domain authority (or the equivalent) is generated by popular SEO tools and is not an official Google ranking factor, a high domain authority can be a useful indication of where your backlink profile sits in comparison to your competitors, and where there is room to improve off page SEO.
Off Page SEO Strategies
While understanding the mechanics of off page SEO is an important first step, you may be left wondering how to implement a strategy that relies strongly on external factors. Rest assured that there is plenty you can do to effectively build links and increase your online reputation if you are willing to invest the right techniques, time and effort into your off page optimization.
Link Building
Link building is by far the most well known off page SEO strategy. Link building, or backlink building aims to build natural links from authoritative and relevant websites that point back to your site. Links from other websites provide additional value as they not only help to build the credibility of your site but can also be a source of referral traffic if users click through. There are a number of different methods that can be implemented as part of your link building strategy and most SEO campaigns will benefit from a combination of approaches.
Networking
Link building can be likened to a form of online networking and referral, so it makes sense to start with what you know. Consider the contacts you already have available to you – other businesses you work with, the brands whose products you stock, local organizations your business is involved in, industry bodies and associations you are registered with – these can all provide a relatively easy starting point to your link building process. Send an email and see if they are willing to add a link to your website from theirs.
Broken Link Building
Broken link building is another relatively simple link building tactic. It involves identifying broken or dead links on other websites, where the content they have linked to is no longer available and suggesting your own content as a replacement. There are a number of SEO tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush that can help you locate broken links on websites that are relevant to your particular business niche. Look for opportunities where you either have existing content that would be a good fit, or can easily create something new, then reach out to the website owner to let them know the link is broken and to provide your content as an alternative.
Unlinked Brand Mentions
Unlinked brand mentions are instances where your brand is mentioned across the web, but without a hyperlink leading back to your website. While these mentions still contribute to your brand’s visibility and authority, converting them into actual backlinks can enhance your off page SEO efforts significantly. Finding unlinked brand mentions can be as simple as searching for your brand name and seeing what comes up in search results, but there are also tools such as Google Alerts that can help you continuously monitor mentions of your brand. From here, the process follows a similar path to broken link building, by reaching out to the website owner and requesting a link be added.
Content Marketing
Remember when we mentioned that high quality content can play a role in your off page SEO? Great content can be used in multiple ways to help build your backlink profile, both in adding shareable resources to your own site and in creating and distributing content across the web.
Linkable Content
One of the easiest ways to start building links through content is on your own website. Linkable or shareable content refers to the pieces of content on your site that provide significant value, increasing the chances that other sites will link to your page as a resource. To create linkable content, focus on topics that provide solutions or insights that are not easily found elsewhere. This could take the form of in-depth guides, original research or data, infographics, case studies, or how-to tutorials. Content that is visually appealing or rich in practical information tends to attract more attention and shares.
Guest Posting
Guest posting, or guest blogging is simply the act of producing content that is published on other websites rather than your own. The primary goal of a guest post is to provide content to a wider audience while gaining a backlink to your website in return. When looking for guest blogging opportunities, you should aim to target reputable websites that align with your industry so that the content you contribute is valuable to their audience and the backlink you receive is relevant to your specific niche. Many websites will advertise when they accept guest submissions and generally have a set of editorial guidelines that posts must meet to be accepted for publication.
Social Media
While social media is not a direct contributing factor to your search rankings, there are a number of ways it can still contribute to your off page SEO.
- Sharing your content across social media platforms increases its reach and the opportunity for it to be discovered by bloggers, journalists, or other website owners who may link to it from their own sites.
- Engaging with your audience on social media platforms strengthens your brand presence, which in turn can lead to more brand mentions across the web and more branded searches for your business.
- Influencer marketing can also be an effective way to increase brand awareness and to promote your products to a wider audience. An influencer’s endorsement can be a powerful form of validation, encouraging others to engage with your brand and link to your website.
Press Releases
If your business regularly has newsworthy updates, product launches, events, or important announcements then digital press releases can be a great link building strategy. A press release allows you to naturally incorporate links throughout the content and, depending on the length, you can often include 2-4 relevant links within a single release. Press releases are submitted via distribution platforms that will send your online announcement to a large network of news sites, but in order to gain value from this technique it’s essential to target reputable PR services who only distribute to relevant and authoritative websites.
Local SEO
When you think of local SEO you may not immediately consider it to be one of your off page SEO factors, but increasing your local presence can send some powerful signals back to Google. Optimizing your local business, when implemented cohesively and with consistency, is another step in building your overall brand strength across the web and improving your reputation.
Citation Building
Citations are listings of your core business information on online directories or listing sites. Citations are sometimes referred to as NAP (name, address, phone number), although many listing sites will also accommodate additional information such as a website link or business description. While it may seem like a website link would be the most important factor here (because it’s a backlink, right?), the power of citations lies mostly in creating consistent references to your business information. Google then uses this information to confirm the accuracy and legitimacy of your brand, and to gauge the overall perception and trust of your business. Again, the key here is to add your NAP to quality directories that are relevant to your industry or local area.
A key factor in successful citation building is NAP consistency – ensuring that your business name, address and phone number are the same across all platforms, directories and listings. Inconsistent NAP information can cause confusion and reduced trust, potentially harming your local search rankings. You should make sure your details are correct across your Google Business Profile, social media accounts, and online directories and regularly check and update any that are incorrect.
Online Reviews
Generating online reviews not only helps to build trust with potential customers (75% of consumers say they always or regularly read online reviews when browsing for local businesses) but also, you guessed it, signals credibility to search engines. Reviews are considered a strong indication of your reputation as they are submitted by third party users who are speaking from real experiences with your business. Many review platforms, including your own Google business profile will allow you to respond to reviews, giving you the opportunity to further increase brand engagement and manage your online reputation.
Link Building Tips for Effective Search Engine Optimization
Quality vs Quantity
Link building is not always the easiest or most straightforward process, and it can be tempting to go after the easiest options. Often, what this leads to is a backlink profile that has a high volume of links, but low value and relevance. High quality links from relevant sites may take a little more effort to obtain, whether it means writing a shareable piece of content, sourcing guest posting opportunities or following up broken links and brand mentions but will ultimately provide a much stronger boost to your website’s overall trust and authority.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text on a page that links to another page or site. When another site links back to yours, the anchor text they link from forms part of the information that Google analyzes to understand the context of the link, and the information it links to.
There are several types of anchor text that are commonly found in a website’s backlink profile:
- Branded Anchor Text: Uses your brand name as the clickable text, helping to reinforce brand recognition and authority.
- Naked Anchor Text: Displays the full URL as the clickable text, showing the link in its raw form without additional keywords or context.
- Exact Match Anchor Text: Contains the exact keyword or phrase you want to rank for, directly matching the target search term.
- Partial Match Anchor Text: Includes a variation of the target keyword or phrase, offering a more natural and diverse way of linking.
- Generic Anchor Text: Uses non-specific terms like “click here” or “read more,” offering no keyword relevance or context within the link.
- Long-Tail Anchor Text: Contains a longer phrase or sentence that includes the target keyword as part of the text, providing more context and often appearing more natural.
- Image Anchor: When an image is used as a hyperlink, the anchor text is technically the “alt” text of the image, which search engines use to understand the context of the link.
- LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Anchor Text: Utilizes synonyms or related terms rather than the exact keyword, helping to diversify anchor text while still remaining relevant to the target topic.
A typical anchor text ratio in a healthy backlink profile should consist of a mix of different anchor types to maintain natural diversity and avoid over-optimization. Recommendations on the ideal ratio vary depending on who you ask, but may look like:
- Branded anchor text (30-50%) as the majority, reinforcing your brand’s identity.
- Naked URLs (20-30%) for natural linking patterns.
- Generic text (10-20%) like “click here” to avoid keyword stuffing.
- Exact match anchors (5-10%) sparingly, as overuse can trigger penalties.
- Partial match and LSI anchors (10-15%) to provide keyword relevance without appearing manipulative.
Follow vs No Follow Links
Understanding the difference between follow and no follow links is essential for building a balanced and effective backlink profile that supports your SEO strategy.
Follow links are backlinks that pass SEO value, or “link juice,” from the linking site to the destination site, helping to improve the destination site’s search engine rankings. These links signal to search engines that the linked content is credible and worth ranking higher.
No follow links, on the other hand, do not pass SEO value. They include a specific HTML attribute (rel="nofollow") that tells search engines not to transfer authority to the linked site.
When building your backlink profile, focusing on quality, “follow” links will have the greatest impact on your site’s authority, however while no follow links don’t directly boost rankings, they still provide value by driving traffic and increasing brand visibility, and search engines may still consider them as part of a natural backlink profile.
Diversify Your Backlink Sources
A strong backlink profile includes links from a variety of sources, such as blogs, news sites, forums, social media, and directories. This diversity signals to search engines that your content is being recognized across different platforms and appears more natural than multiple links from a single domain.
Monitor Competitor Backlinks
Keeping an eye on your competitors’ backlink profiles can provide insights into valuable linking opportunities. By analyzing where your competitors are getting their backlinks, you can identify potential websites or platforms that might be interested in linking to your content as well. Tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can help you track competitor backlinks and discover gaps in your own strategy.
Avoid Link Schemes
Search engines penalize manipulative tactics like link farms, buying links, or engaging in link exchanges solely for SEO purposes. These “black hat” SEO techniques may seem easier to implement, but they can severely damage your site’s reputation in the long run. Focus on acquiring links naturally by producing shareable relevant content that others want to link to, or by building relationships with other authoritative sites in your niche.
Unlock the Full Potential of Off Page SEO
Off page SEO is a powerful tool for enhancing your website’s trust and authority as part of a successful SEO strategy. By building a strong network of quality backlinks, engaging in strategic content marketing, and creating a positive brand presence across the web, you can effectively demonstrate your site’s authority to both search engines and potential customers. Implementing these off page SEO techniques not only improve your performance in search engine results but also help establish your business as a trusted and reliable resource in your industry.
Looking for expert assistance with your off page SEO? Get in touch with Digital Edge International today for a tailored SEO strategy that drives long-lasting results and elevates your online success.
