SEO, or search engine optimization, can be categorised as either on-page SEO or off-page SEO. On-page SEO refers to all the techniques you apply on your website itself – things like optimising service and product pages, adding keywords and meta data, and anything else that will increase rankings of each web page in search results. Off-page SEO refers to the SEO techniques you use outside your website that influence your rankings in search results; things like a strong social media presence, guest posting and link-building. This creates a wider environment around your website and brand to influence these all important ranking results. Let’s take a more in-depth look at these elements, what they mean and how they work to complete your digital marketing strategy.
Why is Off-Page SEO Important?
On-page SEO is how you tell people what your business and brand is all about. It’s what you show the world. Off-page SEO is how your brand exists in the wider world. It’s this content that, when managed properly, builds your reputation, trustworthiness and authority. Although Google is fairly secretive about exactly how different factors influence their algorithm, it’s been generally established that this off-page SEO carries as much as 50% of the weight in terms of ranking your website in search results.
So, what areas of off-page SEO should you focus on?
Link-building Strategies
Building backlinks to your website and content is central to off-page SEO. Essentially, these are links from preferably high-quality online resources that are linking back to your website. The higher-value the website linking to you, the more weight that link carries with the algorithm.
There are 2 main types of backlinks:
- Natural – These are the hardest to get, but they do increase the more brand awareness you develop. A good example of a natural link is a gardening blogger linking to a favourite fertilizer – it’s totally unprompted and not strategic, but it’s good word-of-mouth.
- Active link-building – This is a strategic digital marketing tactic where you perform deliberate link-building between different parties. For example, you can create partner content with another business that’s published on their blogs or social media where you have agreed on a link back to your website, asking customers to link to your website in their reviews or on their own social media pages. This works especially well in partnership with non-competing businesses, suppliers and clients, where you can work out a mutually-beneficial agreement. You can also write content for publications and news websites where you can link back to your own business in the content you create for their websites.
Social Media Marketing
Another very effective way to build a good off-page SEO environment for your brand is through social media platforms. This isn’t just about creating and posting regular, high-quality content on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest, it’s about connecting with other brands and people who have considerable authority on those platforms and having them connect with you. This helps to get your content Infront of two audiences, to the benefit of both parties. Again, think about partnership content with suppliers and clients, sharing content that you have posted on third-party websites or that contains mentions of your business, and encouraging your social media followers to tag your brand in their content.
Let’s Build a Digital Environment Where Your Business Can Grow and Succeed
For expert assistance on positioning your brand, building trust with your target market, and attracting your audience online, speak to our talented digital marketing and search strategy team. With extensive experience assisting small, medium and large size businesses and helping them navigate a path to success through digital marketing, we have the resources and skill to set your business on the right track. Contact us today for expert search engine optimisation strategies.
