In a previous blog, 101 Management, Inc. discussed on-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and how to use it to increase traffic to your website. Both on-page SEO, and off-page SEO are equally important, but off-page SEO is often-neglected.

Off-Page SEO Importance

Off-page SEO is important to help drive visitors to your site, but it is not as much in your control as on-page SEO. However — there are steps you can take to ensure search engines rank your page near the top of their results. If you follow them, you’ll be way ahead of your competition because so few people take the time to learn these techniques.

Briefly, off-page SEO lets search engines know what others think of your website and your expertise in your field. If you can get other websites and social media postings to link to your website, the search engines are more likely to recognize you as an expert and rank your website higher in their search results.

Establishing Credibility

The primary factor in determining off-page SEO is external links because it lends your site legitimacy.  If highly respected websites have linked to your website, their credibility rubs off on you, so to speak. Websites like Reddit, Buzzfeed, and Digg, or respected news organizations like CBS, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, etc., automatically confer an aura of respectability when they place a link to a website.

As you might imagine, this is one of the most difficult goals to achieve. But if you regularly submit high-quality articles to social bookmarking sites (Reddit, etc.), this can increase your external links. Remember, though, that people who visit these sites are seeking information, not advertising. Write articles that answer questions your prospective customers have, provide solutions to their problems, and provide links to your website at the end of your article.

Another way to achieve this is to maintain a presence on the popular question-and-answer sites like Quora and Yahoo Answers. Offer answers to questions from readers and link to your site at the end.

Obtaining Quality External Links

One way is to ask other website owners to link to your page in exchange for your linking to theirs. This makes sense if you’re not in direct competition with each other. For example — if you own a pilates studio, you could set up a reciprocal link with one or more sites that blog about fitness or that you do business with. (See how we linked to our client’s website there? BINGO.)

Another is to be sure you have and maintain an active presence on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, for example, can help expose your website to large numbers of their users. One popular way to get external links for your business is to do guest blogs that will provide links to your website at the end of their blog.

Imagine, for instance, that you sell roses. You’re an expert in them and their pests and diseases, you’ve been doing it for 20 years, and despite roses’ reputation as a finicky flower, you have been able to grow every kind of rose with no problems. You could blog for a large garden center in your area on how to plant the roses they sell to ensure they thrive. Or you could do a blog for gardening forums or discussion boards on how to avoid black spot. You could also write a guest column for your local newspaper on roses. Many papers have gardening sections on the weekend, and editors are usually more than happy to receive ideas for their columns.

Internet Marketing Advice 

The important thing is to not neglect this aspect of SEO. If you need advice and guidance, turn to 101 Management, Inc. to help you increase your off-page SEO strategy. As a certified Google Partner, our SEO experts stay up-to-date on all the latest trends in marketing and SEO tactics.