Having a well-optimized website can be the difference between a successful business and a failing one.
Off-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to rank your website to the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
By ranking high in the SERPs, your business will receive more visibility, more clients, and as a result, make you more money!
But, what is off-page SEO? Why is it so important? How does it differ from on-page SEO? Let’s find out!
What Is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO involves using strategies that drive referral traffic and awareness to your website and brand. Contrary to on-page SEO, Off-page SEO involves strategies outside of your website.
Some examples of these strategies include guest posting, shares on social media, link building, and mentions across the web.
Because off-page SEO can be a huge undertaking, many businesses opt to outsource their Off-page SEO efforts to professional SEO agencies.
Popular SEO agency “Duck Toes” has a page that demonstrates some of the strategies that SEO agencies utilize. You can check it out here.
Why Off-Page SEO Is Important
Writing good content is undoubtedly one of the most important factors when it comes to ranking a website. However, off-page SEO is a close second.
You can write all the amazing content you want, but if you’re not utilizing off-page SEO – you’re neglecting a major ranking factor that’ll leave your amazing content undiscovered.
Google takes into consideration various factors when deciding how to rank a website – Off-page SEO being one of the most important factors. Off-page SEO builds credibility to your brand in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
Think of your website as a tree. A tree is supported by its roots which enable it to grow. Off-page SEO is similar to the roots of a tree because it enables your website to grow. You can think of the roots as backlinks, guest posts, social media shares, and other mentions across the web that point back to your website.
Off-Page vs. On-Page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to strategies you do outside of your website which promote ranking.
Some examples of off-page SEO strategies include:
- Guest posting (writing articles for other sites)
- Backlinks (links from other sites that point back to yours)
- Social signals (social media likes and shares associated with your site)
- Newsletters
- Blog commenting
On the other hand, on-page SEO refers to optimization within your website. Thus, you have complete control over your on-page SEO.
Some examples of on-page SEO include:
- Writing keyword-driven, SEO-friendly content
- Interlinking (linking pages of your site to other relevant pages on your site)
- Meta-descriptions (The small bit of text underneath the title of a page in the SERPs)
- Alt-text (text used to describe an image)
- Website speed, performance, and navigation
On-page and off-page SEO are completely different, but they go hand-in-hand.
For instance, if you have great off-page SEO but your website is slow and contains poorly written content, you’re not going to rank well in the SERPs.
On the contrary, if you have great on-page SEO but your website contains no mentions, backlinks, or social signals, you’re not going to rank well in the SERPs.
Start Your Off-Page SEO Journey Today
So, what is off-page SEO?
Off-page SEO is the use of off-page strategies to strengthen your website to rank higher in the SERPs. Some strategies utilized for off-page SEO include guest posting, mentions, social shares, and link building.
Off-page SEO has an array of benefits that can strengthen your business tremendously.
An effective off-page SEO strategy can raise your domain authority, increase your rankings in the SERPs, increase your page rank, and provide more exposure to your business.
This can generate you more traffic, new leads, more clients, and as a result, more profits!
If you’d like to learn more about on and off-page SEO, be sure to check out our other guides covering SEO tips, how to choose an SEO agency, and the top SEO secrets!
