Everything You Need to Know About Off Page SEO

Everyone wants to see their content rank on Google. While their focus might be on their on-page optimisations, it’s off page SEO that really pulls its weight when it comes to SERPs.

By using this strategy, you are actually telling search engines what to think about your content and how well it should be ranked in relation to a search query. It’s like giving a restaurant a raving review that helps brings people through the door. Except, in your website’s case, it’s traffic.

Who doesn’t want more traffic coming to their site? Here is everything you need to know about optimising your content for off page search engine optimisation.

What is Off Page SEO?

First of all, if you haven’t read our blog post on on page and off page search engine optimisations, let’s unpack the differences between these two strategies.

On page SEO refers to all of the details that you can add to your page and content that helps your SERP position. It’s the aspects of SEO that you have full control of.

On the flip side, we have off page optimisations that you can use to improve your SERP ranking outside of your website. As you’re building links, doing your influencer outreach, and investing in content marketing, you’re helping search engines understand your content better while building up a winning reputation.

The reason that off page optimisations matter is because of the effect it has on search engines. Google values websites that have reputable content more than anything and the trustworthiness of your website plays a major role in your page’s ranking. The more Google sees people citing your work, the more it will see that your content has tangible value. After all, Google’s main goal is to provide users with the most accurate information for the search queries.

What Can You Do to Optimise Your Off Page SEO?

Now that we have an understanding of what off page SEO is, let’s look at the ways for you to adapt your strategies accordingly.

Predominantly, this form of SEO focuses on two main strategies. To help bolster your organic rankings, search engines take into consideration how many backlinks and social signals your content accumulates.

Backlinks

A backlink is a link that directs a user from one website to another. Search engines value backlinks as it helps crawlers jump from one page to the next and it bodes well for your content’s quality levels.

The main focus of backlinks is to generate links from relevant and authoritative sources. Previously, it was thought that any backlink was a good link. These days, the focus is more on gaining high-quality backlinks to really please search engines.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Link building is a long process that will take some time to start generating the result you’d like to see. However, once you start getting links from major publications, your SERP position will soar to the top of Google.

So, what can you do to help build your backlinks?

• Spruce up your content If your content isn’t up to scratch, you are dramatically decreasing its chances of being featured on someone else’s page. Creating useful, unique and high-quality content that people actually can benefit from is key to its success.
• Give your content a boost with on page SEO On page SEO will help people find your content in the first place. If you start generating backlinks for a certain page, you won’t want Google to see it as an empty vessel without related keywords and heading structures. On page SEO will help search engine crawlers determine exactly what your content is about and how they should rank it on their SERPs.
• Do your outreach The most important step to link building is putting in the outreach hours. Outreach is your best bet in terms of getting your content featured and having your page linked on another site. Spend some time sending out helpful emails with your website’s link, dabble in blogger outreach, and scour the internet for broken links. If you spot a broken link, reach out to the content writer with your link as a solution.
• Use the right tools The secret weapon to a good link building strategy is using the right programs. Applications like Ahrefs are extremely helpful in finding out where your competitors are ranking and where there are opportunities for you to place your content.

Social Signals

Outreach and link building aren’t the only things you can do to strengthen your off page optimisations. Although social media signals don’t play as large of a role as backlinks do, they have become an important off page ranking factor that can’t be ignored.

Social media platforms have billions of users from around the world sharing content and bringing attention to new websites every day. Due to this, it’s easy to see why search engines would start picking up signals when a page is growing in popularity. Ultimately, the more likes and social shares your social page gets, the more attention your website will get in return. But that’s not all. Social signals also impact what content people see on their SERPs.

Have you ever gone on to Google and found an ad that eerily represents what you were just looking at on Facebook? That’s because searches take cues from your social network activity. If you’re logged onto your Google account while scrolling through Facebook, it will start to pick up on the type of content you’re interacting with. This is why getting active on the fastest and simplest way to generate social signals.

If you haven’t gotten your social media pages for your brand yet, now is a good time to start. The sort of social media page(s) you choose to set up will depend largely on where you think your audience is most active. Once you have your pages optimised, you can start utilising them as the content sharing platforms they were built to be!

Off page SEO may require a little bit of elbow grease but in the long run, the results are tenfold.