How Off-Page SEO Impacts Your Website
What Is Off-Page SEO?
When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) there are three major types to consider. The first, most well-known is on-page SEO. This includes on-page text descriptors which integrate keywords, title tags, and internal links to other pages on your website. There is also technical SEO, which has to do with optimizing your website for a better user experience by providing better site speed and improving site structure. This is sometimes seen as a subset of on-page SEO as it still pertains to one’s own domain. Lastly is off-page SEO, which is exactly what it sounds like- it’s a way to boost your website’s ranking by utilizing avenues outside of your own website. Before we discuss the tools that can be used for off-page SEO, let’s first discuss why it is important for a healthy, high-ranking website.
Establishing EEAT with Off-Page SEO
The main purpose of off-page SEO is to establish something for your website called E-E-A-T: Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These are all factors that search engines such as Google takes into account when algorithmically selecting search results. Unlike the discrete keywords of on-site SEO which can be easily tracked with the right tools, E-E-A-T factors can be much more ambiguous since they are not directly involved with your own website in the first place.
What Are the Different Types of Off-Page SEO?
While there are many different types of off-page SEO, there are three which we will be covering today. These are link building, social media marketing, and content marketing.
Link Building
Link building is when another website shares a link which directs their audience to one of your own web pages. Think of it as the host website vouching for your on-page content by passing it along to their audience.
The best way to engage in link building is by providing unique, useful content to your audience on your page. By providing content that they can’t get anywhere else, you can boost the chances of your web page getting shared.
The key factor in providing unique content that is likely to get shared is to ensure that you are using a research-driven or data-based content marketing strategy. Utilizing research and data that pertains to your target audience will help keep your content ahead of the curve and ensure that you are providing helpful information to address both persistent pain points and time-sensitive market trends.
Another way to get featured on a reputable website is incredibly simple- just ask. These “built links” are more common than you might think. All it takes on your end is a little bit of initiative to find the right host site that is willing to share your content. In the best-case scenario this will at least put you on the radar of the host site, so even if they don’t have a spot to feature you at the time, they will likely consider your content for future backlinking.
While link building can be incredibly helpful when performed by trustworthy sites that are relevant to your industry, it poses a risk of danger to your website’s standing as well. It is common practice for malicious host sites to backlink to more reputable pages to appear on the first page of unrelated search terms and mislead users into clicking on their page. These are called “toxic backlinks”. These websites often contain malware, computer viruses, or content that you really don’t want to have attached to your brand’s professional name.
For this reason, it is important to regularly conduct backlink audits and review which backlinks may be helping or hurting your web page’s ranking. Any toxic backlinks that you find can be reported to Google. Upon review of your claim, they will break the toxic backlink to restore your website’s previous health.
Social Media
Another type of off-page SEO is that which utilizes social media. As we previously discussed with link building, the key to successfully leveraging social media as an off-page SEO tool is knowing how to use it properly. There is so much more to social media than just hash tags and following trends- although those two aspects are not to be overlooked by any means. When properly harnessed, social media can increase awareness of your brand, establish your website’s authority, and drive traffic to your website from a diverse group of sources.
The most important factor of any good social media post for off-page SEO is that it must be engaging. There should be some kind of attention-grabber, whether that be a hook, a question, or an intriguing statistic. In the end, viewers should feel compelled to learn more about your brand or your services, which is why it’s imperative to include links to your website in your social posts.
Keep any links back to your website relevant to the post itself. If the post is discussing a service that your company provides, link back to a web page which highlights that service. If it’s discussing your brand identity, link back to your About page. Whatever the case may be, make sure to direct any potential customer back to your website. When your website gains traffic from a new source, Google takes note of this and positively factors it into your page ranking.
MFG Tribe is the leading expert in creating engaging social media content for industrial businesses like yours.
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Content Marketing
The last way to improve your website’s off-page SEO is through content marketing. In the past this meant doing things like trying to land a spot as a guest blogger on another reputable website, but as times have changed so have the most effective avenues of content marketing.
These days, video content is by far the most effective method of content marketing. People are watching videos now more than ever, both short-form and long-form. By hosting video content on dedicated video-sharing websites like YouTube, you can accomplish everything that off-page SEO sets out to do.
Not just any piece of video content will do. So long as your video topics are selected intentionally- remember, research and data driven- you should be able to create content to address your audience’s pain points and needs in an engaging way. By sharing your company’s insight on topics that your audience is interested in, you can establish every part of E-E-A-T in one fell swoop. Make sure that your video content is high-quality, both in terms of the content itself and the production value, to make your audience more likely to share it and further drive traffic to your site.
Podcasts are a close second to video when it comes to the types of content that people are consuming the most. This method can be easy to write-off due to the daunting start-up investment of starting a podcast- securing the proper equipment, creating a content calendar, and the like, all with the risk of failure. However, starting a podcast is not the only way. It could be argued that doing so isn’t even the best way.
The alternative course of action is to get featured on a podcast. There are plenty of benefits to this over starting your own. For one, startup costs are eliminated on your part. Next, the audience ideally consists of new potential customers, or maybe some who have heard of your brand but haven’t quite been sold yet. Serving as a guest feature gives you the chance to demonstrate your brand’s E-E-A-T to a new collection of ears with minimal risk involved. As with backlinking, your established credibility could land you an invite to a show- but if you’re not quite there yet, there’s no shame in putting your name out there yourself.
