Most bloggers and marketers focus on on-page SEO first. But one of the most important Google ranking factors isn’t on your website. Yes, we’re talking about the backlinks from other websites that point toward your site. The top results on Google’s SERPs have around 3.8x more backlinks than the following nine results. Yet, off-page SEO isn’t all about building backlinks. It goes a bit deeper. Brand mentions, for instance, are huge when dealing with off-page search signals.
Off-page SEO tells Google what others think about your site. For instance, you want tons of links pointing toward your site. Why? Simple, search engines perceive this as a signal that you have a lot of great content that provides a lot of value.
Most people only cite, share and reference content they like. This even rings true in the brick-and-mortar world. Your clients will refer you to their friends if you provide a great product.
Are you ready to take the plunge and learn everything there is to know about off-page SEO? If so, great – keep on scrolling!
What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO is everything you (and others) do away from your website to improve its ranking on the SERPs.
Most associate off-page SEO with link building, but it’s way more than that. Many actions that don’t develop into a standard link on other sites are important for off-page SEO. On-page SEO occurs within our site, whereas off-page SEO happens outside your site. Guest posting and commenting on external posts are two great examples of off-page SEO.
Preparing a to Build Links
Google views backlinks as something of value. This is why it’s next to impossible for Google to gauge the value of any website if there are no backlinks.
Most site owners consider skipping over the initial preparations for link building. But that is a huge mistake. You need to make preparing your site a priority. Doing so will ensure that you’re mindful of the links sent to them.
So, how do you ensure your website is ready for link building?
1.) Lay Out Your Internal Pages
Optimized internal pages can positively impact your overall rankings. This includes interlinking your content using random keywords (focusing on your brand name).
In his famous post, “Google’s 200 Ranking Factors,” Brian Dean states that the number of internal links to a page indicates its value relative to other pages on the same site.
You must be careful when you do this. In a recent study, SEMrush found that 42.5% of websites have broken internal links.
To improve internal linking, you need pillar pages that link to your category pages and the supporting posts. This way, when you send a link to the homepage, the SEO juice flows through your category and supporting pages and boosts your search performance.
Sharp SEO professionals don’t just throw links around and hope they stick. Instead, they intentionally lay out the pages so each link will pass SEO juice to the other interconnected pages.
None of your internal pages should stand independently. You must craft each page to be an integral part of your site and include seamless navigation. This is critical to your site users and the value you present to Google.
Pages addressing the same or similar topics should link to each other to provide users with a rich experience.
Internal pages are often overlooked in the SEO world. Most SEO professionals fail to understand that most of a site’s “SEO value” resides in the structure of the internal page.
Remember, it’s no longer about the number of links you have. The quality of the links to your internal pages is e qually important as the pages’ structure. This may surprise you, but sometimes reducing the number of internal links can help your SEO efforts.
2.) Take Care of Basic On-Page SEO First
On-page SEO is critical. After all, you don’t want Google to tag your site as a neglected resource.
You’ve likely heard a lot about meta tags and keyword density. While these are important, other on-page SEO factors matter and are typically overlooked.
One of the primary reasons powerhouse sites fall off the SERP radar is that they disregard simple on-page SEO.
You want to connect your internal pages with the keywords that best define each page.
When you create a landing page that you want to rank highly, you need to pass SEO juice to that page from your core pages.
If Google sees a lot of pages on your site for a specific search term and is unsure which one to rank higher than the rest, you’ll struggle to improve your ranking no matter how much value you provide.
That’s what the basic on-page SEO process is all about – there’s no secret formula. You must ensure that your pages are well structured, your keywords are specific, and you send signals to Google correctly. When done correctly, you will climb the SERPs.
3.) Select Thematic Keywords
While links are the ultimate goal, the silver medal goes to your keywords.
Keywords are the foundation of your content campaign. However, not all keywords are created equal. You must select thematic keywords to improve your chances of driving organic traffic to your site.
“Thematic” means having or relating to a particular subject.
So when you’re picking your keywords, focus on those tied to a specific subject. Why? You can’t afford to spread your resources too thin. Let’s walk through an example!
Let’s say your business provides custom websites for businesses. This is a relatively crowded space, so it’s essential to identify the right related keywords around which you can create content.
How to Find Thematic Keywords
I’m a big fan of Ubersuggest, which is why I will use it for this walkthrough. All you need to do is enter your primary keyword (custom business website) into the search bar and click “search.”
Here are the thematic keywords that Ubersuggest provides:
Remember, your goal is to help other people. If you know the words, phrases, and terms they use in their inquiries, you can easily tailor your content to meet their needs.
You can take things one step further by switching to branded keywords. Instead of targeting “business websites,” you could focus on your niche and include your brand or domain name. The beauty of branded keywords is that they typically serve up several results from the same site on the SERPs.
Naturally, you still need to create high-quality content. When you see several of your pages ranking in the SERPs, it doesn’t matter what positions they hold. You can pass more link juice to them via any of the primary link building strategies, such as guest blogging, digital PR, content marketing campaigns, infographics, or relationships with webmasters.
Branded thematic keywords will provide an edge over your competition and are an effective SEO technique. How many top brands currently dominate the top ten organic listings doesn’t matter. Branded keywords will help drive motivated visitors to your site.
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
When targeting keywords for on-page SEO, you can’t use the same primary keywords repeatedly.
Instead, you want to use synonyms or latent semantic indexing (LSI) terms. LSI keywords serve one purpose – to help search engine bots derive meaning from average keywords, especially those with multiple meanings. For instance, Apple (the computer company) and apple (the fruit).
If you’re writing content on a topic related to Apple (the computer company), Google expects to encounter relevant words and terms associated with the brand. You want to avoid mentioning your primary keyword in every sentence because Google considers this over-optimization and will likely penalize you.
You’re likely wondering how you can find these synonymous keywords. Thankfully, there are several tools at your disposal you can use to research LSI search terms. Here’s how you can find these helpful synonymous keywords using Ubersuggest!
How to Find LSI Keywords
- Open Ubersuggest, enter your primary keyword, then click the “search” button.
- Click “Keyword Ideas” in the left-hand sidebar.
- Review the Keyword Ideas.
- Select your keywords.
Make sure you select keyword phrases with high search volume, low SEO difficulty score, and a high CPC.
The final step in the process is to gain a better idea of what your need to do to outrank your competitors on page one.
Quick Recap
On-page optimization is all about researching, choosing, and integrating keywords that you can easily rank for into your content. You want to avoid going head-to-head with top brands with higher (and stronger) domain authority.
This is why it’s wise to go after longtail keywords since you already know how to find and use them to improve your search rankings.
How to Get Relevant, Authoritative, and User-Friendly Backlinks
Google processes upwards of 3.7 billion queries every day. Imagine the potential traffic your website could receive if you capture just a tiny sliver of those searches.
As SEO professionals, content marketers, and bloggers know, backlinks are currently the most valuable off-page SEO factor.
This is because natural links from reputable and relevant websites act as a “vote of confidence,” which lets search engines know that your site is trustworthy.
When Google’s bots crawl your site, they look for fresh content. They also index your new pages and prepare them for search users.
Once your pages are added to Google’s vast index to be returned in search results when relevant search queries are triggered, Google applies several algorithmic factors to figure out which pages to serve and how to rank them.
In the SEO world, we know these as Google’s ranking factors. These are the factors that determine organic rankings. Thankfully, you don’t need to memorize all of the ranking factors. This is a huge relief since there are hundreds of them! Here are a few of the core off-page factors:
Key Off-Page SEO Ranking Factors
- The Number of Linking Domains: the number of domains linking to your site is among the most valuable ranking factors.
- The Number of Linking Pages: There could be several links from a specific domain to your site, which is essential. However, it is still better to have more links from individual domains than from a single domain – try to diversify your backlinks!
- PageRank of Linking Page: Not all pages are created equal. Links from pages with higher PageRank will carry more weight than pages with less PageRank power.
- Link Relevancy: Some SEO professionals believe that Google views links from pages related to your content as more critical than unrelated pages.
- Authority of Linking Domain: Like PageRank, the authority of a domain could also be a ranking factor. If this is true, a link from a low PageRank page on a high PageRank site will be worth more than a lower PageRank one.
- Links from Homepage: Some SEO professionals believe that links from a homepage of a linking domain carry more weight than those on other pages.
- Number of dofollow vs. nofollow links: Google officially confirmed that they don’t count nofollow links. Therefore the number of your dofollow links should impact your rankings.
- Diversity of Link Types: The types of links you build matter. Too many links of one type may set off Google’s spam alarms and negatively impact your rankings.
- Contextual Links: It is said that links within the primary content are worth more than links in a sidebar.
- Link Anchor: Anchor text used to be a significant ranking factor. However, it typically functions as a spam indicator and can negatively impact your ranking.
How Does Google Evaluate Backlinks
In the past, if Site A generated 100 backlinks and Site B only had 20 backlinks, Google would view Site A as more authoritative and valuable than Site B.
While this is still somewhat true, Google now takes link quality into account.
Google perceives links differently today. Many questions surface when Google sees a link to your content. For instance:
- Where does the link come from?
- What prompted the site owner to link to your content?
- What is the link quality?
- How fresh is the link?
- How natural is your link profile?
When building links to your site or internal pages, you should focus on building relevant, authoritative, and SEO-friendly links.
How to Get Valuable Links to Improve Off-Page SEO
There are numerous ways to obtain backlinks. Here are a few of the most common and effective methods.
Broken Link Building
This is one of the easiest yet most underutilized ways to build backlinks. According to SEMrush, 40.5% of websites contain broken links. You can leverage this by asking websites with broken links to replace the links with functioning links that point to your site.
Broken link building is wicked easy, way faster than guest blogging, and can produce a sizable stream of inbound traffic.
The opportunities are endless when you seek out dead links since too many will eventually break the internet.
The majority of links on authority blogs are often dead. As hosting expires, sites get scrambled during the file transfer or migration, and links often break. These broken links lead to 404 error pages, which are not appealing to users.
All of these broken links are screaming for you to take action and fix them!
There is nothing fancy or new about fixing broken links. This tactic will never fall by the wayside because the internet will always have new dead links that require fixing.
Broken Links Do NOT Impact Your Ranking
Fear not if you have numerous dead links on your website and wonder if this will impact your search performance. According to the Offical Google Webmaster Central Blog, and confirmed by SEMrush in 2021, 404 error pages will not impact your site’s ranking.
– Google Search Central Blog
404errors are a perfectly normal part of the web; the Internet is always changing, new content is born, old content dies, and when it dies it (ideally) returns a404HTTP response code. Search engines are aware of this; we have404errors on our own sites, as you can see above, and we find them all over the web. In fact, we actually prefer that, when you get rid of a page on your site, you make sure that it returns a proper404or410response code (rather than a soft 404).
Broken Links and User Experience
While Google is typically okay with a well-made 404 error page, do you think it makes for a pleasant user experience? No way!
When people click on your web page from a SERP, they’re not expecting to land on a 404 error page. They want to see the content for which they searched.
Imagine the frustration your visitors will experience when they search for “best SEO advice” only to click on the top result and see an error page.
A handful of these searchers will mark the site and never revisit it. This is an instance of poor user experience. Nothing drives visitors away faster than a poor user experience, which indicates your customer service to the searcher. The impact of a poor user experience can be disastrous.
In short, broken link building consists of four simple steps:
- Conduct a backlink analysis of a website
- Find a broken link
- Contact the owner
- Let them know about their broken link(s)
Since you’re helping the site owner identify broken links, they might favor including a link to your website, so offer a replacement link when appropriate.
Trust me – if you take the time to seek out broken links on other websites, you can get it right the first time and build the right type of links to your website.
Create & Distribute Powerful Infographics
There’s little room for argument here: infographics still work today and will likely work in the future.
As of 2000, infographics were the fourth most popular form of content marketing media. While they garner massive results, you must understand that not all infographics get the job done.
A well-crafted infographic can cost up to $1,000. However, if you’re on a shoestring budget or just getting started, you might not be able to afford $1,000 for a single infographic.
Thankfuly, you can use sites like Dribble to connect with professional infographic designers for a fraction of the cost. If you can afford to spend a few more dollars, you can go with Visual.ly and get a better final product.
Many content marketers use infographics to attract their target audience, gain authoritative links, and enrich their email lists.
It doesn’t matter if you’re B2B or B2C. Visual marketing can drive engagement with your target audience and gain editorial links from the correct sites.
Creating and distributing effective infographics is fun. Like any compelling content, when you give it adequate initial promotion, an infographic has a higher chance of going viral.
The great part is that you’ll continually generate organic traffic to your site when people share your infographics.
Naturally, there are other ways to build quality links to your content. For instance, you can leverage blogger outreach to forge relationships that will yield better links. You can also use social media outreach to claim unlinked brand names from relevant blogs.
How to Avoid Google Penalties for Unnatural Links
Backlinks are critical, especially if you want to maintain your site’s ranking position. However, we can’t talk about off-page SEO without touching on Google penalties and unnatural links.
In reality, links can influence search performance – for better or worse.
If you ask professional bloggers which factor has the most significant impact on search rankings, most will say “links.”
Link building is an essential practice for big brands, blog owners, and small businesses…pretty much any business with an online presence. Don’t believe me? Well, you should because 58.7% of businesses of all sizes spend at least $1,000 monthly on link-building!
You want to avoid incurring the wrath of Google at all costs since recovering from a penalty is daunting!
Past factors, such as links from high PR sites, no longer appease Google.
Google is now more concerned about user experience, search intent, and high-value content. It doesn’t care about the search phrases people use anymore. The search goliath now values the purpose behind the user’s search query.
Conducting a detailed backlink analysis will help pinpoint which inbound links help your site and which links harm your site. Conducting a backlink analysis is an effective way to avoid Google penalties.
Google hasn’t published any step-by-step process to avoid penalties thus far. However, there are numerous ways you can ensure that you’re site isn’t penalized.
Create User-centric Content
This may seem obvious, but ask yourself – are you putting your audience first?
If you’re truly putting your audience first, you need to forget about mentioning your keywords numerous times throughout your post. This is especially true if it interrupts the natural flow.
User-centric content extends beyond keyword usage. Sometimes you don’t directly target a keyword, yet somehow your content comes across as too promotional.
Users don’t like to be sold. Instead, provide them with meaningful and valuable content. You should aim to incorporate data into your blog posts and use visuals to convey a crystal clear message.
If your content helps answer their questions, they’ll want to know more about you!
Diversify Your Anchor Texts
Diversifying your anchor text can help improve your website’s search engine rankings and avoid penalties for over-optimization.
Incorporating a variety of anchor text phrases, rather than using the identical phrase repeatedly, signals to Google that your website is relevant to a wide range of keywords rather than just one or two.
Furthermore, using different anchor text can make your backlink profile look more natural and less manipulative, which can help protect your website from penalties.
Good anchor text accurately describes the content of the webpage to which it links. It should be relevant to the topic of the webpage it is linking to and the text surrounding it. Some examples of good anchor text include:
- Exact match keywords: Using the keywords you are trying to rank for can help signal to search engines what your webpage is about.
- Brand names: Linking to your website using your brand name as anchor text can help establish brand awareness.
- Generic phrases: Using generic phrases like “click here” or “learn more” can help make your backlink profile look more natural.
- Long-tail keywords: Using long-tail keywords, which are longer and more specific phrases, can help you rank for more specific search queries.
It’s important to note that over-optimizing anchor text can lead to penalties and can be manipulative. So, it’s recommended to use a mix of different types of anchor text to look natural to search engines.
Off-Page SEO Round-Up
What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO refers to the techniques used to improve the visibility and ranking of a website by increasing the number and quality of external links pointing to the website. Off-page SEO is a way of optimizing a website by working on external factors that influence the search engine ranking of a website.
Off-page SEO techniques include link building, social media marketing, and content marketing. Link building is the process of acquiring backlinks (links from other websites) to your website. The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more likely it is to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs). Social media marketing is promoting a website on social media platforms to increase visibility and engagement. Content marketing is creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a specific target audience.
Other off-page SEO elements that can help improve the visibility and ranking of a website include online reviews, directories, influencer marketing, brand mentions, and brand presence.
Off-page SEO is a continuous process; it takes time and effort to see the results. It’s also important to mention that having quality backlinks is more important than quantity, so it’s essential to focus on building relationships and earning natural links.
What are a Few Off-Page SEO Elements?
Several off-page SEO elements can help improve the visibility and ranking of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). Some of the most important off-page SEO elements include:
- Backlinks: Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links from other websites to your website. The number and quality of backlinks are essential factors in determining a website’s search engine rankings.
- Social signals: Social signals, such as shares, likes, and mentions on social media platforms, can indicate the popularity and relevance of a website. Search engines may use social signals as a ranking factor.
- Brand mentions: Mentioning a brand or website name on another website without a link can also be taken as a signal of recognition and authority.
- Online reviews: Positive online reviews of a business or website can help establish trust and credibility with users and search engines.
- Directories: Submitting a website to online directories can help to increase visibility and backlinks.
- Influencer marketing: Building relationships with influencers in a particular niche or industry can help increase website visibility and backlinks.
- Brand presence: A solid online presence can help establish trust and credibility with users and search engines.
It’s important to note that Off-page SEO is a continuous process, and it takes time and effort to see the results. It’s also important to mention that having quality backlinks is more important than quantity, so it’s essential to focus on building relationships and earning natural links.
What is the Relationship Between On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO?
On-page SEO and off-page SEO are two sides of the same coin. They work together to improve the visibility and ranking of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs).
On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It includes title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, keyword usage, and content quality. These elements can be optimized within the website’s source code, and content and are under the website owner’s control.
Off-page SEO, on the other hand, refers to the techniques used to improve the visibility and ranking of a website by increasing the number and quality of external links pointing to the website. Off-page SEO techniques include link building, social media marketing, and content marketing. These elements are typically outside of the website’s control and are dependent on the actions and decisions of other websites and individuals.
On-page SEO and Off-page SEO are important, and they work together to improve a website’s search engine rankings. On-page SEO focuses on optimizing the website’s internal elements, while off-page SEO focuses on building relationships and earning links from other websites. A well-optimized website with high-quality content and good on-page SEO will be more likely to attract backlinks and social shares, and a website with a robust off-page SEO will be more likely to rank well in search results.
How Do Keywords Impact Off-Page SEO Linking?
Keywords play an important role in off-page SEO linking. The keywords used in the anchor text of backlinks (the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink) can indicate to search engines the topic and relevance of the linked-to content.
When building backlinks, it’s important to use relevant, descriptive keywords in the anchor text. This will help search engines understand the content and context of the linked-to page and can improve the search engine rankings of the linked-to page.
For example, if you have a webpage that sells “organic dog food” and you want to build a backlink to that webpage, using the anchor text “organic dog food” would be more beneficial than using the anchor text “click here”.
It’s important to note that using exact match keywords in the anchor text too frequently, known as keyword stuffing, can be seen as spammy and negatively impact your website’s search engine rankings. Therefore, it’s important to use a mix of keywords and phrases in the anchor text, including branded, long-tail, and generic ones.
Also, be sure to diversify the types of links you get. It’s essential to have a mix of do-follow and no-follow links and links from different sources such as social media, directories, blogs, and more.
In summary, keywords play an essential role in off-page SEO linking. Using relevant, descriptive keywords in anchor text can help search engines understand the topic and relevance of the linked-to content. Still, it’s critical to use a mix of different keywords and phrases and diversify the types of links you get.
Closing Thoughts on Off-Page SEO
In conclusion, off-page SEO is essential to any comprehensive SEO strategy. It refers to the techniques used to improve the visibility and ranking of a website by increasing the number and quality of external links pointing to the website. Off-page SEO techniques such as link building, social media marketing, and content marketing can help boost a website’s search engine rankings, drive more relevant traffic to a website, and increase brand visibility.
It’s important to note that off-page SEO is a continuous process that takes time and effort to see results. Building relationships and earning natural links is crucial, as well as diversifying the types of links you get. Also, having quality backlinks is more important than quantity, so it’s cital to focus on building relationships and earning natural links.
To sum up, off-page SEO is a powerful way to improve the search engine visibility of a website. It can significantly drive more relevant traffic, increase brand visibility, and drive conversions. It is an essential part of any SEO strategy and should be an ongoing effort.
