What is Off-Page SEO?

• Self-created links are the links present in pages created by a website owner. An example is when a business creates a business profile on local directories, social media pages, etc. When they create their business profile and add their site’s URL they are setting up a self-created link.
• Natural links are links given without the page owner needing to do anything. An example would be a blogger that links a social media post containing a link to a business product or service.
• Manual links are obtained via actions the owner of the website takes to promote linking to his website. For example, the site owner asks a partner to link to their website when mentioning it online.

Your SEO should be on point. Remember even if you bring traffic to your website it won’t stay if the content is not optimized.  Work on your SEO it’s important. It will help search engines to know what your content is about and rank you better on search results.
Check our article on SEO here.

You should check all the links on your website to make sure they are working. If there’s a link that’s not working anymore you can update it. This also includes deep links, make sure that every deep link on your website is working properly. 

Broken link building is another aspect you can work on. Every day a link that was previously shared in a blog article or on a social media post stops working and all the visitors that click on it get instead a 404 error page with no content.

While that is a bad situation for whoever shared that link, it is a golden situation for you.

Keep a lookout for broken links and when you find them, if you have the right content for that spot, contact the administrator of that blog, website, or social media post and offer them the chance to fix that link by adding your link instead.

 

Social Media Optimization

Social media optimization is the process of using your social media to promote and optimize the online presence of your website. 

Different elements can help you to optimize your social media, let’s start with the first: Keyword research.

Keywords research in social media optimization is similar to the keyword research we’ve seen in SEO. You need to find the topics your target audience is looking for and use them to create relevant content on your social media. Knowing the right keywords will allow you to know what hashtags to use to attract traffic interested in your content.

 

Another important step is to have an optimized profile on social media. 

You need:

• A Good Profile Photo. Ideally, your company logo would be best. But if you don’t have one, a headshot will still be ok.
• Find the right Username. If you can, use your company name. Visitors must know that they are on your social media page. If your username is different from your company name it will confuse them.
• Write a nice Bio. Here’s where you can introduce your business. Make sure that what you offer is clear to visitors and add a link to your website.

Here's a tip: add as much information as possible. This will help your profile to stand out on social media.

Once your social media profile is ready, start posting content. There are two types of content: original content and curated content.

Original content is what you create yourself and post on social media. It could be to promote your services or a product you offer but like mentioned earlier it’s original content you created yourself. 

Curated content on the other hand is the process of identifying content posted by other people and, if interesting for your audience, it can be shared on your social media as well. With this type of content, you need to make sure that what you share is interesting for your audience or they will not engage with it.

When posting use images to convey your message. Post images in the right size. If you need to resize them do so. It’s best to post a high-quality image and if possible one that’s original. The Job of your image is to attract attention to your post. Be creative.

Don’t forget your #hashtags.  Here’s when the list of keywords you found previously can help you out. Hashtags increase the reach of your posts. People can find your page via the hashtags you put on your social media posts. Here are some tips to help you choose the right hashtags for your posts:

• You’re not alone in your field, check what types of hashtags your competitors are using and use them as well
• Trends come and go but if you can find a way to connect them to your business you can add a trendy hashtag to your post and attract huge amounts of visits right away.

Other useful tips for your social media optimization are:

• Have a posting schedule - don’t post only once a month or you’ll soon be forgotten. Have a schedule of posts you post every week and if possible daily.
• Find out the best time to post - depending on where you live and who your target audience is, there are specific times in which it’s perfect to post. If you post on those times you will get the best results. Find out when is best to post by checking your analytics on your social media
• Track your performance, find what works and post more of that - use your analytics to optimize your posts. Initially, you’ll see that not everything you post gets you a lot of engagement. You need to find out why, and identify what catches the interest of your followers and give them more of that. Analytics can show you how visitors reacted to each of your posts and help you make the right decisions.

 

Brand mentions

Make your brand a household name.
When you’re still new in the market people will not be familiar with your brand. This can make you lose many potential customers. How do you fix that?
Simple, with brand optimization.

When you can optimize your presence online not only on your website but also on social media and local directories and make sure that every mention of your business is a positive one it will create a positive first impression for your brand. Optimizing your brand mentions will increase sales. 

 

Trust building

Another good tip is to focus on your online reviews. 

“People trust what other people say way more than what a business is saying about itself.”

Check our article on online reputation management (ORM) here.

 

People know that no matter how unbiased you try to be when it comes to your business you’ll always try to put it in a positive light. That’s why you should let your customers do the talking for you. Collect the positive reviews you got and showcase them on your website. Have a dedicated section where you post reviews and testimonials. After every purchase, give your customers the chance to share their experience by leaving a review. If you get a very positive review consider asking that customer to leave a testimonial you can post on your website. If possible you can also post some video testimonials.

 

Having good reviews on your website will help customers to trust you and your brand.

 

Off-Page SEO is based on these main aspects:

• Link Building: It’s when you have a link to your website on another site online. 
• Social Media: It’s when a link to your website is being shared in form of a social media post
• Reviews: When a customer shares a review of your product and/or service and adds a link to your website
• Brand mentions: When your business is being mentioned online,  in an article for example and there’s a link to your website.

The reason why this is important is that traffic is a ranking factor for Google. By sharing a link to your website you promote traffic to it and this gives more authority to your website.

Off-Page SEO might seem difficult compared to SEO because some factors aren’t entirely up to you but exactly because of that search engines will value it more because it’s more authentic. Remember, for search engines the harder something is to earn, the more reliable it’s considered as a ranking factor.