How To Make the Best Use of Off-page SEO (Complete Guide)

Off-page search engine optimization (SEO) is challenging at best and frustrating at worst. Hiring an SEO agency makes the work more manageable, but first, you need to know what you want and need to achieve. Off-page SEO is a vast subject with many applications.

Here are five broad ways to make the best use of off-page SEO for your business:

1. Invest in brand building
2. Gather quality backlinks
3. Explore marketing ideas
4. Use social media right
5. Manage your reputation

There’s a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

Let’s go!

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1. Invest in Brand Building

Branding dictates your company’s perceived value, which is reflected in the public’s image of the company. For example, Apple brands itself as a high-end smartphone manufacturer, which you can see in its pricing and customer base. It is considered a status symbol due to the high cost.

While it is tempting to want to be a company for everyone, it is not a feasible goal. Strong branding requires consistency to make a lasting impression on people. Inconsistent online branding makes it hard for customers to trust you.

Consider the following tips for consistent brand building:

• Be consistent in how you present your company across all channels.
• Align your messages with your company’s core values and stick to them.
• Work on reinforcing your experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
• Make sure that your content clearly reflects your company’s branding.
• Build a personal and familiar image that your customers find relatable.

Your brand’s online and offline identities are precious, so treat them delicately. It takes years to build a recognizable brand, but you can lose it quickly if you do not nurture it.

When you become inconsistent, you become distant from your customers. Hiring an SEO agency is one way to unburden yourself. They can help you create and maintain positive online branding for your business.

2. Gather Quality Backlinks

Off-page SEO’s core function is increasing brand awareness and driving website traffic. It uses backlinks, or links coming from outside sources.

How do backlinks help your website?

• They affect your domain authority (DA) and page authority (PA).
• Users trust websites referenced by sources with high DA.
• They signal that your content is well-made and valuable for users.

Unfortunately, not all backlinks are beneficial for your website. Apart from websites with high DA, peers from the same industry or companies like yours are the most important. That is because those backlinks reinforce your position as a thought leader or authority figure in the field.

Managing your backlink profile is important to avoid harmful associations with spam content. Use a backlink checker tool to find any dangerous links and remove them immediately.

The same tools can help you monitor which pages receive backlinks and track their growth. To increase the number and quality of your backlinks:

• Take the time to network with peers.
• Write guest posts for news websites.
• Create unique and high-quality content.
• Work with known, reputable influencers.
• Join a podcast as a subject-matter expert.

3. Explore Marketing Ideas

Marketing is perhaps the most recognizable component of off-page SEO and its contributions to your company are huge. While marketing strategies sometimes overlap with one another, different types of marketing can really benefit your business.

Here are the three most common marketing ideas you should explore:

• Content Marketing: Your content is your business’s most valuable asset online. The better your content is, the more desirable it is for your audience. Leverage your best content to draw your target market into your sales funnel.
• Social Media Marketing: Apps like Instagram and Twitter are great for your overall SEO strategy because they have a lot of utility. Social media platforms, in general, provide many benefits, such as reaching a wider audience.
• Email Marketing: What do you do with all the contact information you collected through landing pages? Use them to strengthen customer relationships by sending exclusive offers such as coupons, ebooks, or webinar invites.

4. Use Social Media Right

Your online presence affects people’s perception of your brand, which is important in off-page SEO. Having a robust and consistent online presence keeps you in the public consciousness. In other words, social media is the way to go if you want better SEO rankings.

Here are some of the critical advantages of using social media:

• Your audience has another way to connect with your brand online.
• Posting your best content on social media helps with awareness.
• Users sharing your posts keep your content current and relevant.
• You draw organic traffic through posts and mentions from users.
• You establish yourself as a public figure in the local community.

To get the most out of your social media account, remember to:

• Adapt your content to the best format on the platform.
• Include all necessary business information on your profile.
• Share about your company and what makes it unique.
• Create genuine connections with your online audience.
• Listen to your target market and fit your brand to their needs.

5. Manage Your Reputation

Branding and reputation are two different concepts. While the former refers to the image you project through your values and messages, the latter has more to do with public perception. In short, your reputation is what people think of you.

For instance, Apple markets itself as a maker of high-end smartphones, but it has a reputation for being boring. Critics say that its newer models are too similar to its older ones, with only small changes.

The above example perfectly illustrates how your biggest competitors are sometimes people’s expectations. It goes back to maintaining the right image for your business. Positive engagement and good customer service are the two best ways to help you achieve that.

Summing Up

Off-page SEO is a must-have for businesses that want to grow online. While it is cliche to say that the customer is always right, you should definitely aim to please and interest them. Start with your branding and work your way up to excellent customer service to win people over.

Need help building an off-page SEO strategy for your website? Contact us to learn more about how we can help.