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Turn Off-Page SEO On, With these 7 Tactics

By NIIT Editorial

Published on 10/04/2021

8 minutes

Organizations that were the first to break out of the fold as technological leaders have been fidgeting with complex AI algorithms for a long time. At Google, this is an ever-evolving process where its algorithms continue to refine the search engine results page based on thousands of parameters. Off-page SEO is an important component of this cycle and in this article, we’ll be highlighting why you should be paying a closer look at it.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing a website as per the guidelines of search engines. The right form factor, font size, design essentials direct readers towards their intended search. Miscellaneous factors such as the content quality, sectional header tags, and the use of bullet points, uniqueness of the information along with backlinks also make an impact.

The practice of streamlining website architecture to fit into the right mix of things is referred to as search engine optimization.

Types of SEO Techniques

Following are the 3 types of SEO techniques:

White Hat - These SEO practices are channeled by the search engine. E.g. making the site mobile-friendly, increasing its load-time, etc.

Gray Hat SEO - These are shady practices that could get your website penalized but not banned. Examples include link buying, content duplication, and purchasing old domains for ready-made domain authorities.

Black Hat - These practices violate the suggested practices otherwise used to better a website’s rank, hence the infamy. Keyword stuffing, content automation, and cloaking are considered black hat SEO techniques.

While the above segregation focuses on the kind of SEO practices, we would now shift focus towards the kind:

On-page SEO
Off Page SEO
Technical SEO

On-page SEO - On-page optimization practices are limited to fine-tuning the content that correlates to the search query. For instance, articles could be modified in relation to specific keywords. Legitimate, and proven methods include keywords optimization, encasing the right meta tags, shortening the URL and so on.

Off-Page SEO - Such techniques contribute from the background and are not visible to on-screen viewers. A website’s off-page linkages signal to the search engines the common reception of the audience.

For instance, the nature of backlinks and their respective DA could point to your own standing in the industry. A common myth associated with off-page SEO limits SEO deliverables to just link building but that is only half the truth.

Here are a couple of off-page techniques for you:

Create value-adding backlinks
Social media marketing (yes!)
Guest posting your content
Local listings

Is Off-Page SEO Important?

As per Backlinko, Google relies on a combination of 200 factors to rank its search results. Also, around 60% of the results that appear in the top 10 positions on Google, are at least 3 years old. Ranking organically without a future-headed off-page SEO strategy is practically impossible.

Off-Page SEO Techniques for Maximum Benefits

Acting on the following pointers would help create lasting success through off-page SEO:

Assess Your Backlinks

Begin with the basics first. To assess the amount of work involved in improving the ranking of the website, you need an exact view of your website’s backlinks health. The questions that need to be addressed include:

Which sites have linked to your content
What anchor text has been used
What is your domain authority
Which site pages are getting the maximum links

The Google search console, Ahrefs backlink checker, Moz, and SEMrush are popular tools used for this purpose. Although Moz and Ahrefs specify metrics such as domain authority (DA) or domain rating, these are not factored by Google into its algorithms.

Next in your off-page SEO checklist, you should analyse the competitive landscape.

Evaluate Competitor’s Backlinks

The same tools we’ve mentioned above can demarcate the total backlinks, as well as their sources for your competitors. Alongside finding some mutual websites that you might have linked to, you can discover new web sources, with high domain authority linking to whom gets the juices flowing to your digital assets.

As you create a high quality portfolio of backlinks, the website will begin faring better against competition driving more organic traffic.

Work on Internal Linking

Typically, to link your content to internal sources, you need a variety of it in the first place. The more pages you have, the more sources you can link to.

This also helps in getting more backlinks.

Internal links act as a resourceful medium to guide users to high-performing website pages. With the right call to action buttons, you can encourage users to hit the buy-button and become a customer.

As an example, when it comes to articles, you can use internal linking as section breakers and slide in a banner for redirection.

Webmasters also use the tactic of internal linking through related links in case they do not have a matching anchor text. How you can increase internal linking, is really up to your creativity then but keep in mind the following:

Each page that you plan to link to, must have a minimum of 3 interlinks.
Website footers should be used to guide users to relevant pages for further reading
Never force-fit internal links

Get Rid of 404 Errors

404 errors are like black holes waiting to suck your traffic to obscurity. When a page-code spells 404 error to the search engines, it means that that particular page does not exist. In other words, search engines don’t crawl broken links.

Broken links can cost you business.

How?

If an external source links to your website on a 404 page, competitors can reach out to such vendors offering active pages, thereby stealing traffic and customers from under your nose.

There are 2 major causes of broken links:

Deleted pages without any redirects
Misspelled in the URL
Server downtime
Page not loading fast enough

A simple way to rectify 404 errors is to clear all the cache and cookies. If that doesn’t do it check if the URL is typed the way it should be

Use relevant digital marketing tools such as Semrush, Screaming Frog, Wordpress plugin, or Ahrefs to create a website report and mend such issues.

Undertake Link Building Exercises

Link building consumes the majority of time in off-page SEO efforts. Bear in mind, only internal linking is something you can control, but you need partnerships with third-party website owners to get quality redirects from. This doesn’t come cheap and agreements take time to formalize.

While at it, try out the following permutations and combinations of link building:

Outreaching and contracting with high DA websites to give you backlinks
Grab local citations
Invest in promoting content through paid advertising to reach out to target customers
Initiate guest blogging
Share and spread your content on social media platforms

Leverage Local Citations

Online yellow pages directories are a smart way to boost your off-page SEO workings. People search for businesses nearest to them in which case a Google My Business (GMB) listing, powered by genuine reviews, can put you in touch with interested customers. B2B Business listing websites are another alternative.

Commonly used information for such listings include:

Operation hours
Business centers
Branch locations
Contact information

While it may sound straightforward, it is often challenging keeping this information updated.

If you are a product based company, merchant listings on e-commerce websites will help massively.

Continue Guest Blogging

Guest posting your content on other websites is an area you must tick-off in off-page SEO practices. The same tools that presented you the backlinking sources of competitors will share this knowledge.

Pick and choose websites with a high DA, and more importantly, related industry because remember, the search engines will be crawling them as well. Ideally guest bloggers can publish their work under the hood of an author bio that links back to the original website.

If you do not want the search engines to crawl through the links then mark them as no-follow.

Final Thoughts

Off-page SEO is a sure-fire way to leapfrog competitors and push organic rankings upward. But that is just one aspect of digital marketing. NIIT’s Post Graduate Programme in Digital Marketing and Branding offers a long-list of areas to focus on. With experienced faculty and capstone projects, students get a taste of a digital marketer’s life. To top it all off, NIIT offers placement assistance to students for a smooth inlet in the industry.

Enrol now and learn digital marketing the way you should!