The importance of search engine optimization cannot be over-emphasized. If you want your online business to expand and get fresh leads daily, SEO is the way forward.
But before you hire an SEO expert, spend some time understanding off-page SEO.
On-page SEO is easier to execute. The checklist is less complicated to work through—include keywords in the URL, write a meta description, add keywords to every page and make sure the alt-text is where it should be. After all, it is all inside your site and therefore easily doable.
Off-page SEO is harder to accomplish simply because it is outside your website.
Let’s look at a few easy to implement off-page SEO techniques that would help your site zoom past your rivals.
Simple off-page SEO techniques for 2022
- Guest Posts
This will always remain the best off-page SEO technique.
Your principal goal in off-page SEO is link building. Google believes your site is reliable and trustworthy when there are backlinks from high Domain Authority websites. Guest posting is the perfect opportunity.
Guest posts are blog posts that are published on another website. You won’t get paid for it and not receive a cent from the traffic it generates.
What you get is a byline that contains a link to your website.
How to achieve it? Quite simple. Find blogs in your niche and write to them to give you an opportunity.
The more well-known blogs might not respond until you have published several articles.
To find such blogs, use Google. Search for blogs that are related to your domain. There would be plenty of suggestions.
Most good blogs have a “write for us” section.
Remember, your articles have to be informative and well-written. It takes a lot of effort, but you get the coveted “guest post by” linkage that drives traffic and provides all-important link juice.
- Submit to directories
Surely you have heard of Craigslist. Started by Craig Newmark in 1995, the online classified search was at one time one of the most valuable digital properties.
Since then, others have joined in. Yelp, Google My Business, and Four Square are just a few of these. Many cities have their own business directory that lists local businesses. Usually, the local chamber of commerce manages the site.
Subscribing to these is a time-tested way to get increased visibility.
Of these, Google My Business works best. Given the vast reach of Google through the Chrome browser and Google Assistant, that is no surprise.
You can open a GMB account in a few minutes, fill in the requisite details (name of business, address, hours, and phone number) and watch it go live in a day or two.
Bing Places is something quite similar though less popular. But it does not hurt to cover your bases just in case someone is an MSN fan.
Then there are industry-specific directories like Zillow for real estate, Thumbtack for home services, Tripadvisor for travel, and so on.
Submit to as many as possible and ensure that the details are the same and always updated.
- Broken link building
A gold mine for those who have a bit of patience and the ability to persuade.
The first step is to find a website that has content about your domain. Next, use a broken link checker and find dead links.
Every site has several backlinks embedded inside the articles that lead to expired domains.
Write to the webmaster of the site and ask if he will replace the broken links with backlinks from your site.
Not everyone you write to will respond. But even if you can persuade one or two sites to accommodate you, it gives you plenty of fresh backlinks.
Remember, you are not looking for hundreds of backlinks, but maybe five at most.
Repeat every two months and in a year your site would have at least fifty top-rated backlinks from related sites.
- Create great content
How can you get the best backlinks? When someone likes what you wrote and quotes it. This is the way backlinks were originally intended to work, much like citations a publication receives.
The articles must have insightful commentary and present statistics to support your conclusions.
Not only do you get backlinks that matter but also earn a high reputation.
You have to make sure that you follow a checklist:
- Write for an audience, not just air your musings.
- Solve a problem instead of creating a word salad that means little.
- Promote your brand and how it outstrips the competition.
- Use good grammar and bond through the use of emotion.
- Include infographics that are easy to understand.
- Get on social media
Social media has changed the way we live. Not only can you connect with whom you shared a dorm room a decade ago in college, but use it to expand your business.
Every business needs to have a social media footprint. How big a footprint depends on the resources you can spare. At the very least, a page on Facebook and Instagram is necessary.
LinkedIn and YouTube are optional but have a fantastic reach among mature audiences.
Post relevant content at least once a week. If you are in a business where tutorials are possible (e.g. the fitness industry) create YouTube videos and provide a link to every one of your social media accounts in the description.
Engage with users through useful and positive comments. present behind-the-scenes look, tips and tricks, and expert advice.
- Ask influencers
No, we don’t mean asking Justin Bieber to recommend you. In each field, there are micro-influencers. With a fan following between 10,000 and a million, they do not compete with the marquee names, but their presence is just as important.
Reach out to them and ask for a mention. For example, if you own a travel agency, ask a YouTube travel vlogger to recommend your services or mention that he has used them.
There is another way that is gaining currency. Ask a vlogger if you can sponsor an entire episode on YouTube. that way you get more than a mention. many YouTubers are turning to sponsors and you could hop on the bandwagon.
- Answer questions
Quora is the best place for this. You can answer and also mention your business overtly. Quora does not mind if you get a few backlinks.
Doing the same on Reddit is a lot harder. Some subreddits allow promotion while others frown on it.
Take part in internet forums and try to drive the discussion with clear and concise replies. Though most forums do not allow promotion, they cannot ban a mention of your site on the Profile Page. If you write well and seem to have authentic knowledge, your fans are sure to pay your site a visit.
It’s important to remember that internet forums are rather volatile and conversations can get out of hand quickly. Be polite, courteous, and be above the fray.
Continue what you begin
By now you must have understood that off-page SEO is a harder nut to crack than its on-page counterpart.
The key is to be consistent. Don’t write a guest post and never engage with the responses. Don’t post thirty new posts on Facebook in January and forget to post till June.
Whatever you do, follow it up. Depending on your niche, one or other of the methods mentioned would bear fruit.
