Resources
While 70% of the work most companies do is On-site optimization, the other 30% is generally dedicated to the off-site optimization.
Factually, both are equally important and time should be split between the two.
This is the next article in the series we started at the beginning of the week regarding the Basics of Search Engine Optimization.
In this article we are going to cover the subject of Off-site optimization.
So…what is off-site SEO? Off-site are any actions taken to improve a business’ website that do not involve the website directly.
Link build is a massive part of this, but by no means the only part.
We generally break off-site SEO into two categories:
1. Off-site related links
Number of referring domains
Link authority
Anchor text
Relevance
traffic
2. Off-site non-related to links
NAP citations (Name, Address & Phone)
Brand mentions
Google My Business
Reviews
Social Signals
In this article we are going to break down each of these factors, so that people can understand what this is really all about.
Number of referring domains
This one isn’t rocket science. Every business is going to say they are the best or can absolutely 100% handle your problem or needs…otherwise, why are they even in business.
What search engines are going to look for, is other people saying you can do what you say you can do. They do this by analyzing your referring domains.
The more you have, the more search engines will see that other businesses, people, etc trust your business.
Here are a couple of things you can do to help build up links:
1. Outreach – Go out and communicate with people in your industry
a. People that have mentioned your keywords in their articles
b. People who’ve linked to articles related to what you are working on getting links for
2. Unlinked Mentions – Search the internet for articles relating to your keywords. Find places where links could be imputed. Contact the person handling the article and ask or offer to put your link there to create more engagement from internet users.
3. Stealing Links from Bad Content – Have you ever read content that is just bad about something in your industry? If you have something better, reach out to the person who posted the article and get your article linked instead
Link Authority
Link Authority is closely related to the number of referring domains. You want to have as many domains as possible linked to your website, but the higher domain authority they have, the more credibility they will lend to your business.
Ahrefs has a free tool called Authority Checker that anyone can use to determine the domain authority. It will help you determine what companies to go after.
Anchor Texts
What’s an anchor text? It is the clickable text used to link one web page to another web page.
When you create a link in just about anything, you can write whatever words you want to write. The words could say flying monkeys and the link can take you anywhere. If you actually click on this link, it will take you to our blog page.
Those blue words are anchor texts.
Search engines use these anchor texts to help determine relevance for a subject. To the best of your ability you want the anchor text to be tied to the keyword or keyword phrase you are trying to rank for…but be damn sure the page it does link to is relevant to the subject. Not doing so is a huge mistake.
Relevance
Having a lot of referring domains is important. We have already determined that, but those domains MUST be relevant to the industry your business is trying to rank for.
Example: Financial Consulting company gets a referring domain link from a florist shop on the best roses.
This is not going to help the financial consulting company at all. Factually it will look like they bought this referral and will most likely give you negative points.
So, when you do get a domain to linki with your, ensure that it is relevant to the industry or what you are talking about.
Traffic
Plain and simple. Referring sites that have a large amount of organic traffic lend more authority than those sites that do not have a lot of organic traffic.
Now to talk about off-site optimization not related to links.
NAP Citations
What are NAP Citations – Name, Address & Phone Citations are mentions of a business (with Name Address & Phone) that can be found anywhere on the internet.
They are generally created by setting a business up in many different Business Directories.
A lot of people would refer to this as Local SEO, but factually it is both Local and Organic SEO.
Some of the most known business directories are Bing, Yahoo, Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, 411.com, City Square, Yellow Pages, etc.
The more citations a business has, the better it is for their SEO.
Brand Mentions
Brand mentions are any time your brand is mentioned anywhere on the internet not connected to your own website.
There are multiple ways this can happen
Guest Blogs
Be a guest on a Podcast
Be a guest on a Vlog
Go viral on social media, Youtube, etc
In each of the above cases a name of a person or business will be mentioned somewhere on the internet which will cause a brand mention.
Google My Business
This is for Local SEO. Now, most businesses don’t want to do “Local” because that isn’t a wide enough range. SEO is SEO. Local SEO also helps Organic SEO.
But are you really saying you won’t take local business? I have never understood this statement. You should always be doing Local and Organic SEO.
Reviews
Since search engine optimization is connected with providing a user with the right content that is trustworthy…reviews make sense.
93% of consumers will read reviews before making a purchasing decision. That is a lot of people, so you can be sure search engines would work it into their algorithms.
Also, negative reviews will hurt you as well. It is a double edged sword. Just make sure you give good service and this shouldn’t be a problem.
Social
Search engines are trying to deny the fact that social media has anything to do with SEO. Why?… I have no idea.
Here’s the deal. People can buy likes and shares. Don’t do that. It has to be genuine likes and shares with people engaging in content release by your business.
If you are trying to buy your way to the top, you will be found out and you won’t like what happens. So don’t do it.
That concludes this article. I hope you found it helpful. If you would like to continue to get great content like this please subscribe to our blog or any of our social media accounts.
