We understand SEO in three steps: keyword research, on page efforts & off page efforts. 

We have begun to describe the subjects of keyword research & on page efforts in blog posts up until now, however we have yet to begin to answer the question: what is off page SEO in simple words - let’s see what happens. 

Off page meaning

When searching for an off page meaning you may, similar to us, find wave upon wave of conflicting information and different ‘best off page activities’ but ultimately off page SEO can be reduced to the following: the efforts that you put forward off-of-your-webpage can all be considered off page SEO. 

How we understand it - within search engine results page (SERP) rankings - across the same keywords, with all else held the same, it can be the number of quality backlinks to your website which can be the deciding factor between a page ranking badly and not connecting with anyone or ranking well and broadening your audience.

What are off page factors

Ok, so that’s the meaning of off page SEO, but what are off page factors and what are some off page SEO tasks that are immediately applicable to help us rank better for the existing keywords that we rank for? 

Provided that you have good internal linking within your website, backlinks can be counted fairly similar whether they come from blogs being shared or your homepage - it’s the quality and the total number of unique referring websites that we’re interested in. 

The biggest factors that contribute to an off page SEO strategy are: the state of the website’s current backlink profile, link building efforts, content marketing efforts and social media efforts.

Link building is an entire subject of its own which we will break down in blog posts to come.

List of off page SEO activities:

Below you will find a list of off page SEO activities that may be worth taking a look at and implementing depending on the markets you are targeting as a business.

1. Off page analysis

Off page analysis is the place to start - specifically we’re looking at a few things, first we need to take a look at all of the domains referring their audience to our website. We should think about how relevant the referring domain is to our website and our own audience. 

What we’re looking to see is relevancy of what we’re doing and who the audience to those things are. 

2. Business directory citations

Business directory citations for off page SEO purposes are key. Whatever your niche, if you are selling a product or a service there are likely some relevant, well trafficked, business directories that are worth registering with. 

There are a number of possible fruits that registering with a business directory can bear, including but not limited to, a ‘follow’ or ‘nofollow’ backlink from a unique & new referring domain, partnership enquiries and perhaps maybe even a direct customer enquiry in due course. 

It’s also not the worst idea to look at other directories which are relevant to your niche. 

3. Off page link building

As you have likely guessed, we prioritise the link building part of off page SEO because link building/backlinks are metrics which are measurable (through backlink analysis tools) and which seem to play a factor in deciding SERP rankings when keyword research and keyword positioning are both done well.  

Important disclaimer - off page link building should however still be understood as part of a well intended wider SEO strategy and can by no means solely be relied on as a determining factor in successfully connecting with audiences through search engines. 

After business directory citations we target another relevant set of potential link building partners: Potential customers and sales partnerships.

If a commercial plumbing firm who targets office buildings reaches out to office building managers with the idea of creating an article of ‘realistic bathroom etiquette standards’ for the office building to refer tenants to on their site and specifically within onboarding, this may lead to the office building giving the plumber a backlink and it has set up a nice landscape for the plumber to begin to offer wider services to those office buildings in due course.

4. Off page SEO content marketing

This brings us onto number 4, off page SEO content marketing - what is it and how is it done.

It may be worth remembering that the things we are doing off-page are also efforts to engage audiences off page, all whilst we build up a volume of backlinks to engage audiences directly through search engine results pages. 

With off page SEO content marketing we have one thing that we aim for and two things that we may achieve, if we’re fortunate. 

The thing that we aim for is to engage people within, primarily, our niche with the thought of making some content together. Content that we can make, individually or together, which may be of interest to their audience. 

The two things that we may achieve, if we’re fortunate, are a backlink from the link building partner and a nice landscape to be able to escalate the relationship further by offering to help out for free (paying it forward as many put it) or discuss something more commercial perhaps. 

Begin with drawing up a list of all businesses that look like your ideal customer profile or businesses that seem like they work with your ideal customer profile; then think of some useful content ideas for their audiences. 

After a concise and to the point email has been carefully drafted, find the decision maker (through LinkedIn or companies house or the team page on the website) and send the email with the content suggestion. 

If it’s a positive response, get to the content written and send it across for them to edit/make suggestions. If it’s a negative or no response, keep going. You may be surprised at how relevant some content can be across most audiences.

5. Off page seo and social media

Social media was always bound to make an appearance here. It is where we can engage our audience on, sometimes, a granular level. For some D2C businesses social media can play a larger part than for other B2B businesses, however, there is usually benefit for most niches owing to the fact that regardless of industry, there are likely targets which fit your ideal customer profile that exist on LinkedIn. 

At its core social media is somewhere where you can share existing content, off-page. Social media is where you get to grips with reviews and customer queries.

The first of our off page blog series

Thanks for reading the first of our off page blog series. In due course we hope to shed further light on the subject of off page SEO and all of its quirks. 

If you are looking for free and no-obligation chat about off page SEO, please reach out to us our free SEO quote form or email us directly at info@pomegranate.marketing.