5 Clever Off-Page SEO Tips You Need to Do ASAP

Off-Page SEO are those elements that are invisible to the browsers to give your website the best chance of ranking on Google.

There are dozens if not more off-page SEO ranking factors that Google looks at to determine the importance of your site.

So, what’s ‘off-page SEO, apart from the well-known link building strategies, and why is off-page SEO so vital in your digital marketing?

You might also be interested in: Do You Make Any of These 9 Simple SEO Mistakes?

Off-Page SEO In Basic Terms

Ahrefs defines Off-page SEO as any efforts taken outside of a website to improve its search engine rankings.

So when Google ranks a website on position # 1 on Page # 1, their off-page efforts must be pretty dam good. Optimising your website off-page elements usually involves improving the sites’ relevance, trustworthiness, and authority for its customers and the search engines. And, the most common off-page SEO tactic is link building. 

Many SEO agencies will tell you that link building is dead and has no relevance to your off-page SEO. However, in 2021 moving forward, link building is still the cornerstone of any SEO campaign and is the best way to help improve your online visibility and rankings.

Also read: 10 SEO trends we are noticing for 2021

Is Off-Page SEO Important?

I don’t care what anyone says, but off-page SEO is the most critical aspect of your digital marketing. While Google will never tell us how they rank websites as it’s the world’s best-kept secret. But, if you check the backlink profile of many page 1 websites, you will see a common thread; that’s the backlink profile. This is because all their backlinks are from high domain authority sites, which is the foundation of their off-page SEO.

These websites have loads of backlinks, all pointing to their website. Use this backlink checker tool to spy on your competition’s backlinks to see their off-page strategy. Most of the websites with a high page ranking in the SERP’s will have lots of high DA inbound links, which is the most common way Google can determine trust and authority. Put simply, the more high DA links you have, the better the trust factor and, therefore, the higher your rankings. This is because Google will only display websites that they deem trustworthy, reliable, and informative. The only natural way to do this is via your backlink profile, which equates to your off-page SEO. 

Other off-page SEO ranking factors, such as reviews, are out of your control; however, for most businesses, you have to focus on the off-page SEO efforts that you can control and directly impact your rankings.

Off-Page SEO ranking factors to boost your website on Google

Following are some critical off-page SEO ranking factors you should know about and how you can incorporate them into your digital strategy.

1) Link Building

SEMrush tells us that If you want to rank a website on Google in 2021, you can’t ignore the importance of link building. 

Search Engines, especially Google, use backlinks as the main factor in determining a website’s importance. So, for example, if you have a website about home delivery meals and you have a backlink from a popular Australian cooking or health site related website, this is considered a good backlink and will increase the authority and trust of your website. The logic behind this is the more of these types of backlinks you have, the better your rankings.

What are common types of backlinks?

Natural links

Natural links are the best types of backlinks as these are created by other webmasters that love your content and want to link to it. You can see that I have done this exact type of backlink in this post to other sites if you click on a few hyperlinks. The best way to obtain these natural links is to write valuable, informative content such as statistics, industry insights, or current news topics.

Manually-built links

These are the most common types of backlinks built by SEO agencies and will drive your rankings. However, if you don’t have the time to craft creative blog topics and write news articles, then the only way to create an excellent backlink profile as part of your off-page SEO is to do this manually. Many dangers are associated with this type of off-page SEO, so be well aware of some of the cheap and nasty tactics many SEO agencies will use to fabricate backlinks to push your rankings. For example, private blog networks are widespread to build links but are fraught with dangers.

Self-created links

These links are created when you enter your details in directories or online platforms such as Google My Business. They do have some link grunt if you are looking for a local SEO presence ( for example, you’re a plumber in Bondi) and submit your website to a few local directories. But, they have limited value in terms of a holistic SEO campaign. So, never over optimise these links and only submit them to well-known directories and avoid those spammy emails asking you to submit your website.

SEO Sydney Experts tips for effective link building: 

While some people might feel that all link building is ideal, there are certain factors Google will look at to ensure that they rank sites that follow their strict guidelines to the T. Here are just a few.

i) obtain backlinks from other popular websites

ii) ensure that the blog posts content you are getting a backlink from has relevant content. Let me explain this in a bit more detail. So if you have a travel agency business, you’d only want relevant backlinks from other related travel sites. A link from a car mechanics website would look a tad dubious.

iii) vary the anchor text that links back to your site to create a natural backlink profile. Overuse of your primary keyword will look like your trying to manipulate page rank.

iv) all links should come from a reputable site and never dodgy sites that you just received an email. Any links to your site from these spammy sites violate Googles guidelines and will work against you. You may end up receiving a manual action from Google if you do enough of these.

v) take a close look at the other backlinks on the website you getting links to. Are there gambling or debt reduction links, or are there porn links? If you’re associated with this site and see any backlinks, you have to do anything you can to delete your link from this lousy neighbourhood.

The key takeaway for the best off-page SEO campaign is to get as many high-quality decent backlinks from really trustworthy websites.

 Some different ways to get backlinks to include:

• Influencer marketing is popular on Instagram, where you get an influencer to promote your product or service on their website.
• Blogger outreach, where you reach out to bloggers in your industry to publish content on their site and link back to your site. 
• PR campaigns to encourage media coverage which a PR agency best handles. Activities like this can get expensive and is generally reserved for larger companies.
• Guest posting on other related websites.

2) Maintain your social media

I used to think that SEO was the bee’s knees and the only way to generate genuine interest and traffic through your website. But, the tide has definitely turned with social media becoming a seriously viable alternative to Google. As soon as you start building a loyal customer base keen on hearing what you have to offer on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, you’ll see a whole new audience engaging with your website. Plus, as you build trust and authority via these platforms, you might get some natural inbound links as other businesses want to connect with you. At the same time, links from other social media platforms have not been proved to help with your SEO efforts; they are, however, another weapon in your artillery to get new clients.

Following are a few quick tips on improving your social media activity to drive better off-page SEO rankings.

• Communicate with your followers directly – when someone engages you with a comment, like, or hashtag, reach out to them as they might have a business where they can place a link to your site.
• Reach out to influencers and offer them a reciprocal product or service. Many influencers have a massive following, and if you can give them your product in return for a review on their website, this will provide you with a broad reach and boost in marketing.
• Offer something genuine on your social media – don’t post blogs willy nilly. Offer real promotions or exciting bites of information that offers value to your audience.
• Many people have forgotten about Pinterest but it’s a great platform for anyone in the design-related industry including architects, landscapers, builders, product designers to showcase their portfolio of work.

3) Become a Blogging Hero

I’ve always promoted blogging as the best way to build trust in your brand. It’s the best way to quickly get content out to the market, but this is an on-page component. To make it an effective off-page strategy, make sure you share your blogs on your social media. In turn, people ( if they like the content ) will share this and so on—a great way to build your reputation and hop[efully natural links.

Also, consider writing posts as a guest blogger on other reputable sites. It’s a fabulous way to build your brand as you share the knowledge with other industry folks. When guest blogging, consider the following:

i) write for their target market and not yours

ii) write from personal experience and try above all to be genuine

iii) add a brief bio and photo at the end of the blog with a link to your site. Don’t oversell yourself, as this might come off as too cheesy.

iv) never write for any old website. Instead, reach out to top quality industry-related sites that will enhance your brand, business or profile.

4) Be Active on Forums

Forums like Reddit, Quora, or industry-specific forums are great ways to show that you know what you’re talking about, but if you can genuinely help people solve questions, you may pick up a new client. You would be surprised by just how many people read these forums. If you can address the concerns of one customer and see their search query, savvy marketers will be able to tap into a new area to promote their business as they discover new pain points for customers.

SEO Sydney Experts Tip: Don’t rush into forums and try and spam your business with links and comments all over the place. For example, if you’re a builder in Sydney, you don’t want to promote yourself with a question like ‘ who are the best builders in Sydney?’ You want to get right into the nitty-gritty questions such as:

• best ways to build a retaining wall
• does the Waverley Council allow second-story additions?
• best practices to waterproof a bathroom

You get the idea. It’s best to answer more specif questions that people will find very helpful, and in this way, you become the go-to resource for handy tips. Never come off trying to sell your business and look to be as genuine and helpful as possible. A humble, sincere approach will bring in clients and is a fantastic off-page tactic.

5) Leave Comments

Leaving comments on other blogs or websites used to be common practice and was deemed spammy by many people, including Google. Over commenting with spammy backlinks to your site used to push juice and authority but has been outlawed by Google. Having said that, if you leave a comment and are genuine in your reply, it will have some merit if done on a rare occasion.

Can We Help?

SEO is not easy, and you have to be prepared to invest lots of time, energy, and, in some cases, money to help build your brand and trust online. Essentially, it’s a long term process where you have to be focusing your efforts on both on-page and off-page strategies. Therefore, it’s critical to temper your expectations with overnight success. Instead, moderate your midset and timeframes for SEO success and take a long term approach. Anything less will lead to disappointments.

If you want a helping hand with your entire SEO campaign, we can help at SEO Sydney Experts. If you want to learn more about our SEO services and what we can do to help, call our team at 02 9360 8514 for a chat.