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Off-page SEO
On-page SEO represents factors directly related to your website’s content, which include things such as blog article quality, meta descriptions, keyword targeting and more. <anchor>Off-page SEO</anchor> comprises SEO factors that occur outside of your website, such as your overall backlink volume and quality. Finally, technical SEO represents your website’s overall performance and health, such as your desktop and mobile loading speed.
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# What Is Off-Page SEO? Definition & Best Practices

Evan Tarver

Evan is a writer and entrepreneur with a background in technology and content marketing. He is currently the Head of Growth at Sagetap.io. Previous to Sagetap, he was was co-founder & CEO of the online publication Selling Signals, which was acqui...

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Evan Tarver

Evan is a writer and entrepreneur with a background in technology and content marketing. He is currently the Head of Growth at Sagetap.io. Previous to Sagetap, he was was co-founder & CEO of the online publication Selling Signals, which was acqui...

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Evan Tarver

Evan is a writer and entrepreneur with a background in technology and content marketing. He is currently the Head of Growth at Sagetap.io. Previous to Sagetap, he was was co-founder & CEO of the online publication Selling Signals, which was acqui...

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Evan Tarver

Evan is a writer and entrepreneur with a background in technology and content marketing. He is currently the Head of Growth at Sagetap.io. Previous to Sagetap, he was was co-founder & CEO of the online publication Selling Signals, which was acqui...

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Kiran Aditham

With 20 years of experience, Kiran Aditham has navigated the field in editorial and writing, from working with major pubs like Adweek, AdAge and PSFK to now working at Forbes Advisor.

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Kiran Aditham

With 20 years of experience, Kiran Aditham has navigated the field in editorial and writing, from working with major pubs like Adweek, AdAge and PSFK to now working at Forbes Advisor.

Kiran Aditham

With 20 years of experience, Kiran Aditham has navigated the field in editorial and writing, from working with major pubs like Adweek, AdAge and PSFK to now working at Forbes Advisor.

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Kiran Aditham

With 20 years of experience, Kiran Aditham has navigated the field in editorial and writing, from working with major pubs like Adweek, AdAge and PSFK to now working at Forbes Advisor.

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Updated: Jul 24, 2024, 1:52pm

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What Is Off-Page SEO? Definition &#038; Best PracticesGetty

## Table of Contents

Show more

Off-page SEO is a key part of search engine optimization (SEO) that’ll help your website rank higher in search results and generate more organic traffic. However, few know how to do off-page SEO effectively, leaving a lot of opportunities on the table. This article discusses the ins and outs of off-page SEO, including how it works, why it’s important and the top off-page strategies for you. Use this information as the springboard for an integrated SEO strategy that gets results.

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## Off-Page SEO Definition

Off-page SEO, sometimes referred to as off-site SEO, is an SEO marketing strategy that represents all activities conducted outside of a website to rank higher in organic search engine results. The most important off-page SEO activity is link building, which is the act of getting other websites to link back to yours. The more third-party websites you have linking to your website, the higher your authority and the more likely you are to show up in organic searches.

Other important off-page SEO tactics include increasing your online brand signals that improve your website’s expertise, authority and trust (EAT). You can do this by improving branded search, increasing branded social media engagement, getting your brand mentioned on high-authority websites, generating positive online reviews and more. In total, these off-page tactics send signals to search engines such as Google that your website is authoritative and trustworthy.

## Why Off-Page SEO Is Important

Off-page SEO helps build your website’s reputation so that search engines recommend your content to relevant readers. One of the most important algorithmic ranking factors is “expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness (EAT).” The more trustworthy your website is, the more likely it is to show up in relevant search results. Off-page SEO’s primary goal is to increase your website’s EAT through activities such as link building, generating online reviews, increasing branded social mentions and more.

Benefits of off-page SEO include improved organic search rankings, increased brand awareness, more brand credibility and increases in relevant organic search traffic. If you aren’t implementing off-page SEO tactics as part of your overall SEO strategy, you’re likely not getting the results you want. This is because backlinks, among other off-page SEO signals, are a primary ranking factor for search engines such as Google.

## How Off-Page SEO Works

Off-page SEO is one of three parts of a fully integrated SEO strategy. The other two components include on-page SEO and technical SEO. Technical SEO represents the technical performance of your website, such as page loading speed and more. On-page SEO includes all SEO activities related to improving the content on your website. The purpose of off-page SEO is to promote your website’s high-value content by generating positive ranking signals for the search algorithms.

The most important part of off-page SEO is link building. Search engines such as Google view backlinks from other websites as “citations” for your content. The more backlinks you have, a.k.a. citations, the more authoritative and trustworthy your content is perceived by the algorithms. However, both the quantity as well as the quality of backlinks are factors. Backlinks from websites with higher domain authority are viewed as more powerful than links from websites with low authority.

There are many ways to generate backlinks. One of the most common strategies is through direct outreach, where you contact relevant websites to see if they’ll link to a piece of your content. One tactic is to use SEO tools to identify broken links on other websites and reach out to suggest a replacement article from your site. Other strategies include leveraging the website Help a Reporter Out (HARO), which connects reporters or bloggers to experts in the topic they’re covering.

However, link building isn’t the only way to improve your off-page SEO. Anything that sends a positive signal to search engine algorithms should be considered. For example, increasing your social media following and engagement sends a signal that your brand is more authoritative. Generating five-star reviews sends a signal of brand trust. Search algorithms consider combined EAT signals such as these to rank the most relevant and reputable content.

## On-Page SEO vs. Off-Page SEO

While off-page SEO encompasses all SEO activities outside your website, on-page SEO represents all SEO activities on your website. The most important on-page SEO activity is creating relevant, high-quality content for your audience. Search engines are ultimately trying to find the most helpful piece of content for a specific search term. The more valuable your content, the higher likelihood it has of ranking for relevant terms.

Other on-page SEO activities include proper website structure, internal linking and image optimization. For example, your web content should be properly categorized as well as link to other pieces of website content. This makes it easier for search algorithms to crawl and understand your site. Ultimately, however, these on-page SEO activities improve your overall website content by making it easier for your reader to navigate your site and find other helpful pieces of related content.

## 12 Off-Page SEO Strategies

There are many off-page SEO strategies that improve your expertise, authority and trust (EAT) so your website ranks higher in search engines such as Google. To help, we’ve put together a list of the top off-page SEO strategies that generate more organic traffic. Many of the below strategies relate to link-building tactics, while others focus on increasing other brand signals that factor into your website rankings. Take a look at the full list below and choose the strategies most suited for your needs:

### Create Share-Worthy Content

To generate positive brand signals that build authority and trust, ensure that your content is compelling enough that other websites, influencers and your intended audience are motivated to share it. Creating share-worthy content starts with understanding your audience’s needs and then providing actionable information in a unique and engaging way.

Examples of share-worthy content include comprehensive guides, insightful industry reports or visually appealing infographics that provide value. The more your content is shared, the more backlinks you’ll build. Plus, you’ll also generate positive brand signals when people share your content across social media and more.

### Conduct Direct Outreach

One of the most common ways to build backlinks is through direct outreach. Direct outreach is the act of finding relevant websites with high domain authority, and then reaching out to them via email or similar medium to suggest a piece of your content that they can link to. When conducting direct outreach, it’s important to first identify authoritative websites that are relevant to your audience. Then, make sure you suggest a piece of truly helpful content that will help their website by linking to it.

### Perform Broken Link Building

Broken link building is a link-building outreach strategy where you use SEO tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush to identify broken links on relevant and reputable third-party websites. From there, you reach out to those websites, identifying the broken link for them and suggesting a relevant piece of replacement content from your website.

### Respond to HARO Requests

Help a Reporter Out ( HARO) is a website that connects journalists and bloggers with expert sources for articles they’re writing. Journalists submit a query for expert quotes and will choose the top responses to include in their content. Oftentimes, these journalists will provide a backlink to your website as attribution for the quote.

### Guest Blog on Relevant Websites

Guest blogging is a great way to improve your brand signals by building off-page brand authority as well as generating additional backlinks. To guest blog effectively, find relevant and reputable websites that accept guest blog submissions. From there, write a high-value piece of content for that website and submit it along with a writer bio that mentions your brand. Many guest blogging sites will often let you insert one link back to your website.

### Find Unlinked Brand Mentions

There are many cases when a website or social media profile mentions your brand without linking to it. While even brand mentions can be a positive ranking signal to search engines, it’s important to identify these unlinked brand mentions and ask for a link back to your website. One of the best ways to find brand mentions is to create a Google Alert for your brand. That way, you can get daily updates on who’s mentioning your brand, reaching out to those who may be unlinked for a backlink.

### Use Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is an effective way to increase brand mentions and social media interactions, both of which are positive off-page ranking signals for search engines. Make sure that you only engage with social media influencers who have relevant audiences for your brand. Work with them to create an influencer marketing campaign that promotes your brand and its value proposition, providing links to your website or social media profiles where applicable.

### Increase Your Social Media Engagement

In addition to influencer marketing, focus on increasing your engaged social media following by posting relevant content on your social channels consistently. An engaged social audience that interacts with your brand regularly is a positive ranking signal to search engines such as Google that help build brand authority and trust.

### Distribute Press Releases

Press release distribution is a great way to generate organic backlinks since many online publications will automatically pick up relevant press releases. Within each press release, you can typically provide one to two links to your website. The best approach when using this strategy is to work with a press release distribution company such as eReleases, which can not only help you write your release but also get it picked up by reputable publications.

### Submit Your Website to Online Directories

There are many online directories that aggregate lists of websites across a variety of topics with links to each website in the directory. This is an effective way to build backlinks initially since you can often submit your website for free or for a small fee. However, make sure you verify the reputability of the directory before submitting. For example, some organizations such as the Better Business Bureau or your local Chamber of Commerce have more powerful directories than others.

### Generate Online Reviews

Online reviews provide a strong signal that’s taken into account when ranking your content online. They can build a lot of credibility and trust since they’re submitted by third parties who’ve interacted with your brand. Focusing on generating positive five-star reviews from legitimate customers can help your off-page SEO tremendously. You can generate these reviews on third-party review sites such as G2 as well as your local Yelp page.

### Optimize Your Local SEO

In addition to online reviews, it’s important to optimize your local SEO pages such as your Yelp page or Google Business Profile. By optimizing your pages with the most relevant brand information, you send additional ranking signals to search engines regarding your reputation and trust.

## Bottom Line

Off-page SEO is an integral part of your overall SEO strategy. The most important aspect of off-page SEO to focus on is link building. You can build links through a variety of methods, the most common being direct outreach to relevant websites. However, there are other important off-page SEO activities, which include things such as social media engagement, online reviews, brand mentions and more. Each of these sends positive ranking signals to search engines that build trust.

## Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

### What is off-page SEO with an example?

Off-page SEO represents all SEO activities conducted outside of your website in order to rank higher in search results and generate more organic traffic. An example of off-page SEO is broken backlink building, where you find broken links on relevant third-party websites and reach out to them with a suggested replacement article from your site.

### What’s the difference between off-page and technical SEO?

Technical SEO represents your website’s technical performance, which includes things such as page loading speed, mobile usability and more. All of these technical website aspects affect the overall user experience. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, encompasses SEO tactics that happen outside of your website in order to increase search rankings.

### What is better, on-page or off-page SEO?

Both on-page SEO and off-page SEO are important parts of a successful SEO strategy. On-page SEO refers to all SEO activities done on your website while off-page SEO refers to all activities conducted off your website. However, if you can only focus on one to start, focus on on-page SEO because it will improve the overall quality of your content while off-page SEO is meant to promote that high-quality content.

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Evan is a writer and entrepreneur with a background in technology and content marketing. He is currently the Head of Growth at Sagetap.io. Previous to Sagetap, he was was co-founder & CEO of the online publication Selling Signals, which was acquired in 2022, and served as General Manager for the online publication Fit Small Business.

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