Off-Page SEO For Beginners : (17 Best Tips & Techniques)

off-page seo

We need SEO for improving your search engine rankings. In last post, we covered the on-page SEO. Do you know the difference between on-page SEO and the off-page SEO? The on-page SEO is done within your control. You can do all the optimization changes in your site.

search engine optimization

While as in the off-page SEO, the whole process is done outside your website. That means you don’t have control on it. One must mix up both on-page SEO and off-page SEO strategies for ranking well in search engines. That means it improves your website ranking in search engine results page a.k.a SERP.

What Is Off-Page SEO?

The off-page optimization involves acquiring external backlinks, brand mentions and social media marketing. You may ask us what are backlinks and how to acquire them? Unlike on-page SEO, you do not get involved directly. The link building can be done by many many ways. As long as you build the link building naturally, there is no harm. Let us look at how it works.

What Is Link Building And How Does It Work? (Off-Page SEO)

link building

The search engines will rank higher when your site has built high authority backlinks. The link building is a process of acquiring external backlinks from various sources. It is a crucial part in the off-page SEO. One must put efforts on the quality rather than the quantity. It is better to acquire 50 high authority backlinks than getting 500 low quality backlinks. The Google or any other search engine will trust your website when you have high quality backlinks. Eventually your site will get ranked higher.

It is not easy as we said. The experts spend days to months in building the links. Do not jump into link building without creating a quality content. It is impossible to build high quality backlinks with low quality content. You must build a quality content website first. Then, you should go with link building. However, there is no meaning of having a great content if no one links to your website. The search engines rank your website by the links that you acquired or got from others.

Have you heard about the Whitehat SEO? The SEO work done following the guidelines of search engines is called as the Whitehat SEO. Look at the Google’s guidelines. While building links, one must follow white hat SEO strategies. You may be landed in trouble if you use black hat SEO. On the other side, the Blackhat SEO involves spamming, purchasing backlinks, cloaking, duplicate content and many.

The links in the off-page SEO can be categorized into 3 types :

1. Natural links :

When someone likes your content, then they will link to your piece of content in their article. You do not need to do anything from your side.

Say for example, you have a pet blog. You write informative content and do on-page on all posts. Mr.John owns a pet food company. He writes about everything that is related to the pets. He finds your content useful. So, he links to your blog mentioning the specific thing that you wrote.

For example : we have mentioned this in how to get free traffic to our blog post. See the image :

backlinks

This link is natural because we linked it thinking that this article will help readers.

2. Built links :

These backlinks are built by asking others to link to your website or a page. It is one of the effective link building strategy. You could manually build links through the outreach.

3. Created links :

These links are created by submitting your site on directories, forums or press releases. Some people create their website links in the comments. The Blackhat SEO comes under this category. One must take care while using this off-page SEO strategy. The majority of the links created manually are spam in the Google’s eyes.

One must focus on acquiring the natural and built links for better rankings. 

Earlier, the Google had Link juice as the ranking factor. It Now, we call it as the equity link. The equity is a ranking factor to pass value from one site to other.

There are mainly 2 types of links : Do-follow and No-follow. The do-follow attribute tells search engines to pass the value to the page. Whereas no-follow tells search engines not to add value to the link. You could ask us which is beneficial among the two. The do-follow wins but the no-follow can’t be ignored. You can get traffic to your sites from the no-follow links.

Example of No follow attribute :
<a href=”” rel=”nofollow”>Off-Page SEO Guide To Acquiring Backlinks</a>

While acquiring backlinks from a source, do you know what could influence while passing the equity? Have a look at them.

According to  Moz, the value depends on :

  • The linking page’s authority
  • The anchor text (Linking site)
  • The freshness of the link
  • The trustworthiness of the linking site
  • The number of other links on the linking page
  • Authority of the linking domain and page

What Is Guest Blogging In The Off-Page SEO?

The guest blogging is writing a piece of content for other sites. It will be useful for other blog’s readers and the blogger get free content. While you earn a free backlink. It is a win-win situation for both. Make sure to approach the owners of established blogs in your niche. Please don’t go with random niches or low quality blogs. At the same time, the other blogger may look at your blog and previous writings before accepting your offer.

The people don’t reject when your site has some authority. Make sure your content is great and unique. Use relevant images and videos in the article. One shouldn’t place the links aggressively in the article. Check whether they allow the do-follow links. We have seen many established platforms allowing only no-follow links. That means your link will not get any importance. When your content is great, then your site automatically attracts decent traffic.

Prepare a list of well doing blogs in your niche. Approach the site owners through the contact form. Do not send the guest blogging offers to random people. While requesting, give the published links of your previous work. The guest blogging is a  great strategy in off-page SEO for acquiring backlinks.

When you publish a guest post on a high authority blog, the backlink will either placed within the article or in the author bio.

Note : You must not offer money or gifts to the site owners for publishing guest posts or placing links. It comes under the Blackhat SEO. The search engines will slap penalty for indulging in these practices.

Check these tips of Guest blogging written by Brian Dean of Backlinko.

How Can You Use The Social Media In The Off-Page SEO?

social media marketing

One must build strong profiles in the social media. Be it a Facebook or Twitter. You should interlink your profiles. For example, one should give their social media profiles and website link in the YouTube. Invite the people from your niche to join or like your profiles. You can use free email marketing tools to send newsletters. Once you prepare the list, let them know about your social media profiles.

Now, it is time to promote your content on the social media. Use hashtags while promoting. Apart from promoting your own blog posts, try to share the posts of others. The posting of Infographics, graphs, images and videos will get attention.

Keep your followers or fans engaging. Maintain consistency for posting it frequently. When your profiles get much attention, your posts from social media will also get ranked in the search engines. The links from the social media are no-follow. But, the mentions you get is really significant.

If you have a budget, you can try paid promotions(PPC) on the social media. But, remember that the SEO drives more traffic to your website than the social media PPC. Sometimes the PPC campaigns are necessary to attract sales and leads. It depends on your motive.

Why Should Someone Join Communities? (Off-Page SEO)

connections

These days community marketing is doing good. You find a lot of influencers and leaders in Growth.org (Inbound.org) and Growthhackers. The communities are very strong and you can benefit from fruitful discussions. Unlike social platforms, you do not find any time wasters there. You should not join these communities for the sake of promoting your content. One can ask or participate in the discussions. Once you earn the expertise, you get the recognition. The people will start looking to you.

Joining micro blogging sites like Medium and Tumblr. Contribute useful content to them as well. It increases your brand value. The AMA (Ask me anything) sites like Quora and Reddit helps you in building connections and traffic.

What Is Brand Mentions? (Off-Page SEO)

The brand mentions is a ranking factor in the search engines including Google. It comes under the Off-page SEO. What does it mean? It means the mentioning of your brand name without the hyperlinks. The more people talk about your brand, the more chances of boosting up your rankings.

IS Social Bookmarking Still A Ranking Factor? (Off-Page SEO)

The social bookmarking is still alive today. Although they may award you no-follow link, your site will receive traffic. When your content (text or visual) is great, there are higher chances of getting ranked in the search engines. Here comes the list of 50 social bookmarking sites. They allow you to build connections. You can help each other in the content sharing.

What Is Influencer Marketing And How Does It Work? (Off-Page SEO)

influencer marketing

These days, the influencer marketing has grown significantly along with the social media. Have you heard about it? It is a type of marketing, where an influential person is hired by a company to promote their product or service. The influencer markets to the wider audience. When an average influencer posts something, the likes and shares can be hundreds to thousands. They will have thousands to millions of followers. Find the influencers in your niche and request them to share your content.

You will find 2 types of promotions : Free and Paid. Research well about the influencer and mention their work on your website and social media. Then, approach them. Some companies offer free products (No money) to the influencers. So, be prepared. Think what you can offer them. Is it a simple backlink or anything else? No influencer will promote your content unless they get benefited.

When an influencer agrees to your offer and promote on their profile or blog, you get tremendous attention. This is the power of influencer marketing. Not everyone would agree to your proposal. They will accept only, when you are a professional.

Try Buzzsumo to find influencers in your niche. Get the list and create an outreach campaign.

Tip : Write great content, do on-page SEO, off-page SEO and receive huge traffic before reaching influencers in your niche.

How To Ask For The Backlinks? (Off-Page SEO)

While asking the backlinks from others, keep these points in your mind :

  • Approach people from your niche only. It is a waste to build irrelevant backlinks.
  • While approaching someone, make sure to personalize. It is better to greet with their name rather than saying Hi and Hello. Use their name wherever it is necessary. It builds your bonding with that person.
  • You must first add value to your readers. The people will turn off your offer when they find your content mediocre.
  • One must research the website before approaching their owner. It is better if you avoid asking to place your link on the homepage. Identify the right page that goes well with your link.
  • Be honest and explain how your link will benefit their readers. Give all the sources where your content has published before.
  • When you do not get positive response from the others, do not disturb them again. Stay away from the spamming.

Tips (Off-Page SEO) :

  • Build connections in your niche. Join groups and pages in social media. Attend webinars, events or community meetings. Meet the enthusiastic people in your niche and maintain healthy relationships with them. A giveaway also helps.
  • Every SEO expert will advice you to do the competitor research. It is an important aspect in the off-page SEO. Look at the backlinks that your competitors had created. Research what made them link to your competitor’s site. Check whether it is the content or any strategy.
  • Search for the blogs that allow the do-follow comments. Leave comments that relate to the topic. Do not comment for the sake of the links, otherwise the bloggers will not approve your comments.
  • The testimonials is a great way to build links. You leave the genuine feedback about the products or services. The testimonials increase credibility of any company. It helps in increasing sales. In return, you get a backlink.
  • Offer a free eBook or course to the readers. Make sure to place appropriate links in the PDF eBook. When someone find them great, they will share with others.
  • Make your content useful so that you can earn links naturally. Using right images, videos, references along with on-page SEO will surely earn you backlinks.
  • One must avoid purchasing or selling links. At the same time, don’t spam your site links everywhere. It will harm your site.
  • Identify broken links of the sites belonging to the influencers or people in your niche. Let them know about them and request a backlink to your site. Mostly, they will agree.
  • Reach media houses and tell them that you can answer on the issues in your niche. Whenever they need your advice, they will reach you. You get a backlink from them.

Find more articles about the Link building!

What Are The Other Off-Page SEO Techniques?

  • PDF guides : We already talked about the ebooks strategy.
  • Videos : Create the best video content and leave the links in the description. When people find your videos helpful, they will embed in their websites. At the same time, you will get traffic.
  • Infographics : Create compelling content so that people share it on their website.
  • Roundup posts : When the people treat you as an expert, they will invite you for a roundup. You just need to write your opinion on the topic that they give you. There would be 10-15 experts like you who tells their opinions. You can create a roundup post on your blog too.
  • Images : Create high quality images. The images plays an equal role in the ranking.
  • Slideshare
  • Podcasts
  • Webinars

What Are The Final Words About The Off-Page SEO?

This is all about the Off-page SEO. One should do the on-page SEO before jumping to the off-page SEO. For creating natural backlinks, you should create an informative piece of content. If you are a business, then include sales copy and case studies. Write and also accept high quality guest posts. Use the right mix of do-follow and no-follow links. As long as you follow the search engine guidelines, your site will be safe. The Google always tell you that links should be built naturally. It happens only when you add value to your readers.

You can see your site rankings going higher only, when you do both on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

What is your favorite off-page SEO strategy? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. Do you love our article on the off-page SEO? If yes, then share with your friends.

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