Most people associate the term search engine optimization with keywords, but SEO goes well beyond incorporating keywords into website content. However, there are many off-site SEO factors that can influence whether search engines view your site as a trustworthy authority. To give your site the best chance at earning top-ranking slots, you will need to address both onsite and offsite SEO factors.
Defining Offsite SEO
Essentially off-page or off-site SEO includes things that occur outside of your website that affect your search engine rankings. Hopefully, you have spent time making sure that every aspect of your website has been optimized, but there are other actions you can take beyond your site that will help with SEO.
Why Does Off-Page SEO Matter?
Search engines look at a variety of factors when they are deciding rankings. On-page SEO is used to measure your site’s relevancy, which is why solid content is so important. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is used to rank your site’s credibility. If other sites feel good about linking to your site then it must be a credible source of information. This will also help establish your authority.
Examples of Off-Site SEO
Link Earning
Link earning is the most valuable off-site SEO tactic. If you provide high-quality, relevant content, it will be easier to earn backlinks and improve your rankings. Natural links occur when someone from another authoritative site links to yours. They could be citing your blog or sharing your products with their own audience. You can also manually build links by asking customers to provide links or connecting with social media influencers.
Social Media
Most businesses have gone through the obligatory steps of creating social media profiles on different forums, but these accounts won’t do much for you if you don’t find ways to engage with your audience. Be sure to use social media to promote your blog posts and find creative ways to get people to follow and share. These social media strategies can create valuable backlinks.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is a great way to earn valuable backlinks. Businesses are constantly working to create more content for their site, which is why a lot of them are more than happy to post a guest blog as long as you are able to propose a relevant and informative topic. Cold contacting websites and offering a guest blog can be a labor-intensive process, but if you are able to land a link on a highly authoritative site, it will be well worth the effort and lead to additional guest blogs.
Mistakes to Avoid
Link earning requires work. So if you come across something that offers you a shortcut or makes link earning seem too easy, stay away. Never pay for links or spam other sites with links. These are black hat practices that will negatively affect your rankings and search engines will make sure that your site is basically never found.
Successfully executing SEO strategies requires a comprehensive approach. Remember that SEO is much more than utilizing keywords. You also have to take care to create helpful content and use off-site strategies to establish your site as a credible authority.