People that are new to the world of SEO are often shocked to learn that there are factors that are entirely off of your website which can influence SEO and search engine rankings.
They then feel that these off-page factors are uncontrollable. But these ‘uncontrollable’ factors are absolutely controllable, well, for the most part, at least.
What Is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO are events or actions that happen outside of your own website yet still influence your website’s rankings in search engines. If, for example, Google perceives your site to be popular and trustworthy, then you will be ranked higher up.
But how is Google able to determine your website’s popularity, trustworthiness, and authority with relevance to your niche or industry? Well, Google is a massive collection of machine-learning robots that knows everything.
On-page SEO practices can change and evolve, but off-page SEO factors will always paint a much different picture. Let’s take a look at some ways that you can ensure off-page SEO success with your website or blog.
Off-Page SEO Fundamentals
We’re going to go over some specific tips a little bit further below, but we want you to understand that all of these tips go back to one rule of thumb: If people are happy with your website, brand, product, or service, then Google will notice.
Google can tell when somebody on Twitter or on Reddit speaks positively about your website. Google can tell when somebody gets on TrustPilot and leaves a glowing 5-star review.
Google can even tell when you email somebody to recommend a product or service to them.
Off-Page Backlinks
Whenever somebody somewhere on the internet links to your website or blog, it’s called a backlink. These are the very basic foundations that SEO is built upon. If a blogger likes your product, they’ll talk about it and link to it. If someone recommends your website to a friend online, they’ll leave a link to it. If another website feels like you provide a good resource, they’re going to link to it.
Natural backlinks will propel your site to stardom. Natural backlinks are links that come about, well, naturally. These are not links that you acquire through link-building activities. These are not links that you pay for or trade for. These are not self-created links from you spamming your site or submitting to a bunch of online directories.
Considering purchasing links on a website? Don’t do it. Instead, try influencer marketing. Want to try and spam your links in the comment sections of blogs? Don’t do it. Instead, try writing engaging content and offering to guest post on industry-relevant blogs. For every black-hat solution there’s usually an equivalent white-hat solution.
Off-Page SEO: How To Do It Properly
Top Quality Content, Products, Services – Creating unique content or a unique product or service is a great way to get noticed. You want to strive to be the best in your niche, class, or field. There’s a reason that top-quality, industry-leading products, services, and content providers outrank everyone else.
Social Media Presence – Social media should be seen as a resource, not a necessary evil. Give users genuine human interaction with a nice personal touch. Whether you’ve got a pizza delivery service or a finance blog, there’s always room for social media accounts. Additionally, many potential customers, clients, or readers will seek out social media accounts before purchasing or subscribing.
Customer Service – Having good customer service is great for both your brand and for off-page SEO. You want to ensure every single person that comes in contact with your website or blog and its related content, products, or services, has an extremely positive experience. This will also ensure higher ratings on consumer review websites.
Participate In Discussion – You should commit time every day to head over to industry-relevant forums, subreddits, discussion boards, and even comment sections of relevant blogs. Engaging in discussion with your peers, potential customers, and other like-minded individuals will work wonders for both off-page SEO and for potential subscribers and paying customers.
We’re All Humans – Finally, If you haven’t noticed yet, off-page SEO is heavily centered around human behavior. Whether this behavior is sharing or recommending something, leaving a review on yelp or Google, or reblogging about something you wrote about, it is all important. As you’re out there doing whatever it is you’re doing online, remember that we’re all humans, and you need these humans for your off-page SEO needs. So run your website or blog, and interact with your readers and customers, in a way that makes them want to talk about you in a positive light in every corner of the internet!
