How to Craft SEO Strategies Both Users and Search Engines Love
There are different ways of doing things, especially when it comes to SEO. Depending on your marketing goals, the time you spend on your off-page ranking efforts may vary. But like word-of-mouth for every brick and mortar business, it can make the difference between success and failure. Our expert team is here to shed some light on how to effectively use off-page SEO to the benefit of your business and avoid getting caught up focusing on one technique only!
Off-page SEO, also known as off-site SEO, is a term used to describe the combined actions and interactions that occur with your content outside of your own website. That, however, doesn’t mean that they’re completely out of your control! Since off-page SEO helps search engines understand what others think about your website, service and product, good content marketing, link building and working with influencers can go a long way. Writing a guest post on a blog or leaving a comment under a related article, already count as off-page SEO effort. And you’ll soon see, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started” - as Mark Twain used to say.
How Does Off-Page SEO Work?
How people interact with your website is a high trust (or distrust) indicator for any search engine. Similarly, how other websites value your content is also highly regarded. The longer your website lives on the internet, the more you are scored on ‘domain authority.’ Domain authority is a way of telling how well a website ranks, using a simple 0 to 100 scale. The higher the domain authority, the better chance it has to rank on Google, theoretically.
In the words of Google Support themselves:
In the same breath, Google advises you to keep in mind their algorithms which can identify which links are natural and unnatural. Backlinking schemes have been the bane of the ethical marketer’s existence for many years. Thankfully, this is getting thrown out of the backlinking door and sites participating in dodgy behaviour are being severely penalised. Following Google’s recent Sept 2019 core update, several marketers have reported results consistent with a backlink scheme crackdown - great news. So remember, it’s not the number of links you get - it's relevancy and quality. Although a vital part of most SEO efforts, there is more to off-page SEO than backlinking. Here are the strategies, tips and tricks that our expert search engine marketers have been using for years and are being endorsed by SEO Guru Neil Patel!
Truly Effective Off-Page SEO Strategies
In 2020, there are more than two billion sites and 500 million active blogs spread across the internet, not making it easier to stand out amongst the crowd. Ranking for a particular keyword seems like an impossible task when thousands of other businesses are trying to do the same. If you feel like you can’t see the forest for the trees, we’d love to offer some insight. Luckily, we’ve had a few years to figure out what works (and what doesn’t). And since we’re all about transparency, we decided to share our knowledge with you!
These are the four main off-page SEO strategies the Anchor team employs on a day to day basis!
1. Writing Guest Posts on Other Websites
Brand mentions, comments, forum discussions. Nothing goes unnoticed by the search engines' vigilant eyes. Building relationships with your audience and influencers will help you to establish authority and leverage those of other sites. These efforts should include:
- Collaborations with an industry colleague on a reciprocal guest blog
- Reaching out to quality sites and pitching your offering
- Using self-publishing platforms such as Medium
2. Mentioning Influencers And Experts in Your Field
If you’re paying close attention, you’ll notice that we have done just that only seconds ago, when we mentioned Neil Patel and linked to his website, which by the way, has almost two million monthly search visitors.
3. Fixing Broken Links And Offer to Replace Outdated Content
Successful backlink building is a full-time process in itself. It takes careful research and consideration, professional pitches, high-quality content, and constant monitoring. As one of the number one SEO ranking factors, it deserves your attention. When a backlink strategy is executed correctly, it will serve you well. Make sure to include:
- Building relevant backlinks to boost domain authority
- Natural backlinks should be industry and/or topically related to your site
- Shooting for links from trusted authoritative websites
- Disavow poor quality sites with a high spam score who link to your content
4. Creating Shareable Content
Create content that spreads around the web. And we’re not talking about cute cat videos that break the internet within a day (although we admittedly enjoy those, too). Instead, we’re talking breaking news, memes, how-to articles and real problem-solvers. These are the things that get picked up quickly and will increase the domain authority of your website exponentially. This also includes:
- Creating content other people will want to link to or share, such as infographics and tutorials
- Calculator, a quiz or survey...statistics are always appreciated
- Use social media to your advantage
What is the Difference Between On and Off-Page SEO?
Source: https://micropyramid.com/au/search-engine-optimization/
That is a great question! And one that is easily answered: On-page SEO efforts tell search engines and their users what your own page is all about - which then determines what terms you rank for. Instead of using data from external sources, search engines rely on information pulled from your website to determine your position. This includes not only the quality of your content but also keyword density, the usage of meta titles and other factors.
On-page SEO is the practice of optimising individual web pages through content, meta tags and keywords relevant to the content of the page. But it also includes an array of other factors and actions, such as:
- Customer and competitor research
- Keyword research
- Keyword optimisation across all content
- Adding relevant phrases to meta titles, meta descriptions and H1, H2 & H3 headings
- Never over-optimising, but instead ensuring your content is reader-friendly
- Regularly updating old content and come up with unique, fresh content
- Internal linking to other relevant web pages where appropriate and helpful - consider a content silo
- Optimising your image name and image alt text with LSI’s, synonyms and relevant keyword variations
- Structuring and optimising your URL and slug - dropping unnecessary syncategorematic words such as if, all, and is, where possible. Allow your keywords to shine!
- Finally, ensuring you have prominent social sharing buttons on your articles and posts, making it easier for your users to share your content and spread the word
We’ve covered everything you need to know about on-page SEO in our practical SEO guide for smart marketers.
Source: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/06/13/off-page-seo
Off-page SEO efforts also impact how high you rank for these terms and furthermore, help to establish your reputation online, proofing not only that you have interesting content of great quality, but also, that users care about your product and service. As you see, balancing both on and off-site strategies will provide the best possible results. For sustainable long-term success, you really do need both.
In a Nutshell
Off-page search engine optimisation is certainly a little harder to control than on-site strategies. Nonetheless, your SEO efforts will be rewarded if you stick to and follow through with our tips and tricks. The four main off-page strategies still work well today and include guest posts on other websites, influencer collaborations, fixing broken links and making use of various social media platforms to share infographics and other likeable content.
Follow our four top strategies, and watch traffic and leads to your site increase over time, resulting in a plus in conversions, too. If you’d like to explore off-page SEO strategies and better understand the techniques that drive organic traffic, keep an eye out for new articles from our expert team!If you’re ready to take action today, let us support you on your way!
Anchor Digital is a crew of creative strategists, coders and account managers. We are a digital agency powered by your business goals. With Anchor in your corner, you can expect tailored expertise and measurable results. Our business model is simple: Consult, Create, Convert. Through close collaboration, accountability and total transparency, Anchor combines the forces that set your digital brand sailing. From the ground up, we’re your partners in the climb. Contact us today.
