In this post, we discuss Off Page SEO. Before starting first the definition of SEO. SEO (search engine optimization) is a method of changing the rank of a web page or a website in search engine results using keywords or phrases. Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. It is an approach of techniques to increase the number of visitors to a website.
What is Off Page SEO?
Off page SEO refers to the techniques that can be taken outside of a website, to improve its position in search engine results page (SERPs). Off Page SEO includes not only link building but also social media promotion, bookmarking, etc. It also was done with promotion works of a website. It is the best way to get more a website traffic.
The biggest off page SEO factor is the number and quality of backlinks to your website. Some examples of ways you can build links to your website are:
- Creating awesome content that people want to link to because it is valuable.
- Social media shares of your content that ultimately generate links.
- Outreach emails to influencers in your industry that ultimately link to you.
- Guest blogging on sites related to yours. These guest posts will have links back to your site.
Techniques of Off Page
1. Link Building
It is a popular Off Page SEO method. We mainly build a link for getting a good position in search engines. Search engines like Google treat a link from another website to your site as a confidence. By making links from other sites, it means your site is trustworthy and Google considers it as a vote for your site. For example, if someone likes this page and references it from his/her website or blog, then this is like telling search engines that this page has good information.
Link building is good, by getting the Good Quality link is better for your site. Which means getting so many links from with or without trustworthy is not a good method. All links are not equal, One link from a high authority site is much better than many links from a bunch of low authority sites.
Note: Try to avoid artificial link building methods, like buying and selling of links, use of automatic programs to create links to your site, etc. These techniques are all considered as ‘Black Hat‘ method by Google, which will be punishable to your site.
Some Link Building Methods are
Directory Submission: Nowadays, submission of website to a directory is a common method in SEO. The purpose of directory submission is to get back links. It is purely based on how effectively we are selecting those directories and how efficiently we are choosing the category for submission. Submit your websites to the topmost quality directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, etc.
Note: Nowadays many web directories may offer paid listings but don’t go for it. That sites may not be trustworthy.
Link Baiting: Link Baiting is used to get many inbound links pointed to your site. It is the practice of crafting content that is designed to get other content producers to link to it. Suppose you have copied/published another website’s news or content on your blog/website. Don’t forget to place their website link as a reference. Do it for others and, if your content is trustworthy, let others do it for you. This is another way to increase your link popularity.
Examples of link bait, include breaking news, striking images, controversy, humor, educational material, and applications. If your content has value for readers, they are likely to share the link.
Cross Linking: Cross linking is the process of linking between two sites. (Sites may or may not be owned by the same person). It allows users to reference sites with content similar to that which they are already viewing and may be of further interest to them. Link to internal pages within your site wherever necessary (Internal Linking). Through this, you can increase your link popularity. Which is another major factor of Google Page Rank algorithm?
Also, try to get a content link from websites/blogs that are related to your site theme. Try getting a link from within their site content using a targeted keyword as anchor text. Very good example for Cross Linking is Wikipedia. These types of links have more weight from a search engine point of view.
Link Exchange: Exchange links with service-related websites (this is commonly termed as Thematic Link Exchange) that can help increase your link popularity, which is a major factor of Google’s Page Rank algorithm. Beware of Black-Hats while doing exchanges. For example, I could link your website from mine and you could do the same.
Article Directories: An article directory is a website with collections of articles written about different subjects. By publishing your articles on an article directory you could get a link (or 2) back to your website. Some article directories accepted only unique content while other directories accepted anything from spin articles to already published articles. Sometimes article directories are referred to as content farms, which are websites created to produce mass content.
Search Engine Submission: Submit your website to the most popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Alexa, Alltheweb, Lycos, Excite, etc., to get listed for free.
Form Signatures: Many people were commenting on forums for the sole purpose of getting a link back to their website (they included the links in their signature). It is a great way to build backlinks for your site. Search for the forums that are suitable to your topic.
Comment Link: The same concept as forum signatures where you comment on some other website or blog in order to get a link back. Even worse, instead of using your real name you could use keywords so instead of writing ‘comment by safe’, you wrote ‘comment by How to lose weight’ or anything similar. Try to comment on the relevant website which is suitable to your website topic. Otherwise, it will become black hat method.
2. Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO exploits weaknesses in the search engine algorithms to obtain high rankings for a website. Such techniques and methods are in direct conflict with search engine guidelines.
Disadvantages of Black Hat SEO
- If Google detects website of link spamming, link farming, keyword stuffing, or any other illegal activities, it can ban your website from their search portal.
- Temporary high ranking switches to the low ranking.
- The quality of the website goes bad.
- Permanently banned from search engines.
Click here for Type of SEO (White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO)
3. To “FOLLOW” or “NOFOLLOW”
Nofollow is an attribute that can be added to links to discourage Comment Spam. Webmasters give a way to link to a website without passing any ‘link juice’ (for example in the case of ads), search engines introduced what is known as the “no follow” link. This is a special tag you can add to a link. Example: <a href=http://www.anysite.com rel=”no follow”>Any Site</a>) that tells search engines not to count the particular link as a ‘vote’ to the referenced website. Now you can link other websites from yours without taking the risk of being caught for selling or exchanging links.
4. Social Media
Social media is part of ‘off site SEO’ and it’s also a form of link building. It should be noted that almost all of the links you get from social media sites are “no follow” but this does not mean that they do not have any value. Try to become a member of the most popular social networking sites like Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Linked In, Ecademy, etc., and create a profile of your own. By doing this you can extend your network online, get connected with your friends, share things with each other, and promote your company/website to build an online reputation. You have to show your active participation on a regular basis. When you get involved with social networking sites you are stepping away from your website and putting yourself into internet’s vast community. It gives more opportunity to interact with customers, etc. Likes and Shares also boost the visibility of your site.
5. Blogging
This is one of the most powerful ways to promote your company/website online. Write a blog of your own for your company/website and include lots of unique content. Be precise in what you’re trying to convey to the users in your blog entry and promote your blog in blog directories and blog search engines.
You can also promote your blog/website by posting comments in other service-related blogs which allow links in the comments section that are crawlable by the search engines (these blogs are commonly identified as Do-Follow Blogs). If you’re not very good at writing content for blog posts, hire a guest blogger for your blog and ask him/her to write precise and unique content so that your blog can gain more credit from a search engine point of view. Never become a part of the black hat method.
6. Social Bookmarking
Social Bookmarking is yet another powerful way of promoting your website, but nowadays most people are spamming social bookmarking sites without knowing how to use them. Social bookmarking is a way to bookmark our favorite web pages online to read them anytime and anywhere if we are connected to the internet.
Do some social bookmarking in popular bookmarking sites like Delicious, StumbleUpon, Propeller, etc. You should be very careful while doing this and you must properly handle the tags which are very essential to broadcast your news on a wide area network. The web pages we bookmarked at social bookmarking sites is considered as a quality backlink in the eyes of search engines. This may increase your website traffic based on how effectively you have participated.
7. Photo Sharing
Publish/share your website product pictures and make them public. Let your friends see them and comment on them too, which will help drive traffic towards your website. Do this in major photo sharing websites like Flickr, Picasa, Photo Bucket, etc.
8. Video Promotions
Like with photo sharing, you can publish/share your product videos, expert opinions, and reviews of your product and make them public on YouTube, Metacafe, Dailymotion, etc.
9. Local Listings & Yellow Pages
Instead of going global and facing huge competition, make your website local so that search engines can easily view your website and fetch the content. This will help you to reach a targeted audience. Submit your website to Google Local, Maps, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages, Super Pages, Hotfrog, etc.
Benefits of Off Page SEO
Increase in Rankings: by getting more backlinks, a website will rank higher position in SERPs. Through this website gets more traffic also.
Increase in Page Ranks: Page Rank indicates the importance of a website in the eyes of Google. We know that, Page Rank values between 0 – 10. That’s why Google gives more relevant results to the searcher.
More Exposure: By getting higher ranks means great exposure. While getting in the top position (a website), it gets more links, more visits, more social media mentions, impressions, etc.
Click here for Types of SEO (White hat SEO and Black hat SEO)
This is all about Off Page SEO. Share your views, suggestions, and queries related to Off page SEO in comments.