When we talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it’s important to remember from a consumer’s perspective that it is the ability for search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, to find your website and present it in the right spot for the public to find.

If your website has no SEO at all (most common), or incorrect SEO (the second most common thing for websites to display), than that company website is largely invisibile to consumers unless a consumer were to look up a very specific company name.

The value of SEO is that good SEO means your website is found at the top of search results for specific terms, phrases, or content. Bad or no SEO means the website is not found.

Two Types of SEO: On-Page and Off-Page

There are two main types of SEO: on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the factors that affect your website’s ranking within the search engine results pages (SERPs) that you have control over.

This usually includes elements such as your website’s blog posts and pages, its meta tags (which is how you list or “tag” terms within your website), and page structure (also called taxonomy and is basically the website structure).

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO, on the other hand, refers to the factors that affect your website’s ranking that are outside of your website’s control. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what off-page SEO is, how it works, what businesses it is ideal for, and provide website links to sources.

Off Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to the various techniques and strategies that are used to improve the ranking of a website outside of its own domain: meaning anything outside of the company website.

These techniques generally involve link building, which is the process of creating links back to your website from other websites (called backlinks).

Backlinks are a critical factor in the ranking algorithm used by search engines, as they are seen as a measure of a website’s popularity and authority. The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more likely it is to rank well in the SERPs.

Creating backlinks can take a long time since you have to find the right type of websites to somehow add your own links to that direct back to your website or pages or posts on your website or special deals or offers on your website (such as a free giveaway you are promoting).

Dead backlinks, such as off-page SEO links that direct the user to a page, blog post, or ad that’s no longer used, for example, don’t help anyone. Sometimes business owners can cross-post or share links on related sites, can offer “guest” blog posts, or simply pay for links in other websites to build back-links. (Some of these practices can be shady and actually damage SEO authority so be careful and research before trying something that seems off).

How Off Page SEO Works

Off-page SEO increases the number of links outside of its own website. This in turn improves the way Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and DuckDuckGo view the webiste or rank it.

The search ranking, lower in search results for a term or higher, is a website’s “authority.” The authority of a website can dramatically increase through the acquisition of backlinks from other authoritative websites.

Example of Off-Page SEO in Action

For example, a website such as CNN or USA Today is considered a news website with high “authority.” This is because both websites contain links to news items carried all over the world, and specific breaking news stories. If we wanted to increase our own website’s “authority” for news rankings in search results we could use off-page SEO by trying to have more links to our own similar website in CNN or USA Today. The same principal would apply for whatever busness we have. If we have a pizza restaurant we would want more links in a very famous pizza chain or vendor website. If we have a law firm, we would want our links in much larger, much more famous law firm websites or websites about lawyes who specialize in an area that lawyer may specialize in.

The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more likely it is to rank well in the SERPs. There are various strategies that can be used to acquire backlinks, such as guest blogging, broken link building, and influencer outreach.

How I Used Back-Links and Authority to Grow My Digital Marketing Agency

Years ago when I was building my own small digital marketing agency in Denver, Colorado, I wanted to focus on specializing in being a digital marketing agency catering to anyone interested in WordPress or with advanced-level WordPress needs related to growth. I wanted customers who had database issues, no SEO at all, broken eCommerce, Point Of Sale issues…in other words business owners with established clients or customers who needed help and had budgets set aside for marketing and were ready to take action.

There were (and are) many large, corporate digital marketing agnecies in Denver who had large staff, were spending tens of thousands of dollars on SEO regularly and print advertising. So how could I compete with them? I decided to create events where I would teach WordPress workshops all over the Greater Denver area. I would blog about the events. I would promote the events on social media, on event calendars, on event websites, in local news media, on and on, and then cross-promote those links to those resources and my own comments and my own content, then link to videos, podcast interviews, appearances, and wherever else the content appeared.

Over the span of a few weeks or a few months I began to outpace the much larger corporate agencies to the extent that whenever someone in Denver searched for WordPress help, my agency came up in the top of local Google search results. Soon I was receiving phone calls every fifteen minutes on everage from potential new clients. I began onboarding more clients than I’d ever had before so that I had more contracts as well. This is off-site SEO in action, using backlinks (and also content marketing and content repurposing).

Soon I was lecturing at Microsoft, teaching workshops in WordPress for different organizations, and had a client list that helped me expand fairly rapidly. You can do the same thing, if you’re organized, deliberate, and willing to invest time, resources, and energy on doing so.

Who Off Page SEO Is Ideal For

Off-page SEO is ideal for businesses that want to improve their website’s ranking in the SERPs but do not have the time or resources to focus on on-page SEO. It is particularly useful for businesses that operate in competitive industries or niches, as it can help them to stand out from their competitors and attract more traffic to their website.

Additional Reading

Here are some useful sources for further reading on off-page SEO:

1. Moz – Off-Page SEO: What It Is and Why It’s Important
2. Search Engine Journal – Off Page SEO: An In-Depth Guide
3. Neil Patel – Everything You Need to Know About Off Page SEO
4. Ahrefs – Off Page SEO
5. Backlinko

Summarizing

In conclusion, off-page SEO is an essential component of any comprehensive SEO strategy. It involves acquiring high-quality backlinks from other authoritative websites, which can help to improve a website’s ranking in the SERPs.

Off-page SEO is ideal for businesses that want to improve their website’s ranking in the SERPs but do not have the time or resources to focus on on-page SEO. By implementing an effective off-page SEO strategy, businesses can stand out from their competitors and attract more traffic to their website.