Off-Page SEO Checklist: 9 Critical Elements for Business Success

Off-page SEO is strategically highly significant as it informs search engines that your website is valuable to other websites on the web. In this blog post, we’ll be going to discuss 9 critical elements of off-page SEO checklist which is utmost essential for your business success.

Off-Page SEO Checklist: 9 Critical Elements for Business Success

Do you know that 75% SEO is off-page and 25% is on-page? Yes, but unfortunately the majority of online marketers and entrepreneurs paid their full attention to the on-page SEO optimization process keeping off-page SEO at the backburner.

Consequently, their struggle for the website ranking remains constant. Off-page SEO optimization is super-important as it assists to build website’s recognition and domain authority.

In this guidepost, we’ll be going to discuss 9 critical elements of off-page SEO checklist for the ultimate business success.

Let’s get into full discussion.

Table of Contents:

1. What is Off-Page SEO?
2. Few Important Statistics
3. Build Your Backlink Profile
4. Start Guest Blogging
5. Be Active in Social Media
6. Manual Outreach
7. Utilize the Broken Link Strategy
8. Develop Your Personal Brand
9. Analyze Competitor’s Backlink Profile
10. Update Your Internal Linking
11. Local SEO
12. Frequently Asked Questions

What is Off-Page SEO?

According to Moz, “Off-page SEO (also called “off-site SEO) refers to action taken outside of your website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs). Along with on-page SEO, these include several of the factors of basic SEO that help a site to rank.”

In simple terms, off-page SEO includes those activities which taken to establish the authority and trustworthiness of your websites in the search engines.

The comprehensive off-site activities range from link building, influencer outreach, forum submission, blog directory submission, content marketing, etc.

Off-page optimization techniques improve the overall outlook of the domain’s credibility, relevance, expertise, and popularity to the targeted user and search engines.

Off-page SEO strategy tells the search engine what others perceive about your website.

As Google is built on PageRank, its sophisticated algorithm evaluate a page’s backlink profile with quantity and quality.

Few Important Statistics

Please review below facts and figures which will define the importance of off-page SEO techniques more clearly:

· 66% of pages don’t use any backlink.

· 41% of online marketers assume link building is the most complicated task of SEO.

· 71% of clicks on Google search results originated from the first page.

· 68% of clicks got from the first five results from Google.

· 19% is the average CTR for the first position on Google.

· According to Google, 80% of its search algorithm involves off-page factors.

· The average conversion rate of local searches is 80%.

· 28% of local searches result in a purchase.

· 46% of Google searches include local search intent.

· 89% of consumers start their buying journey by using a search engine.

9 Critical Elements of Off-Page SEO Checklist

Now, look into extensively regarding 9 top elements of off-page SEO technique.

Build Your Backlink Profile

Backlinks are also known as “inbound links” or “internal links”. In general, the backlink is a process of linking or connecting one website to another.

In SEO, link building or backlinks simply defines the systematic practice of attaining links to your website with other websites.

Building a backlink profile is important for off-page SEO as they inform Google and other search engines that another website identifies your content as highly valuable which encourages them to link to it within their content.

In addition, acquiring backlink from high-authority sites can pass link equity value to your site as well as improve your ranking position in the search engine results. Building backlinks is the core function of off-page SEO techniques.

As Google’s complicated algorithm prefers to rank higher to all those domains and pages which proves their content is “thought-provoking” and “authoritative” to other audiences.

A backlink from a website is usually viewed as a vote of confidence as it displays the destination website as an industry expert.

A solid backlink profile always prefers to earn a quality link from high-authority sites.

Considering link building, there are few primary factors involved: They are:

Domain Authority (DA)

This search engine ranking score metric is created by software development company Moz.

Domain authority ranges from 1 to 100 and predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs).

This authority score shows the credibility of a site which provides you a clear idea about the quality of a backlink and its impact on your site.

Unique Domains

The number of linking root domains that refer to your website is another crucial factor of link building.

There is a close connection between the higher rankings and the number of linking domains. Hence, put your focus on domain diversity.

Relevance

It is the most considerable metric of building backlinks. Relevance means the close similarity in the context of the page or website that is linking back to you.

Relevance metric is extremely important for backlink profile as it sends a signal to Google algorithm about the justification of linking to other sites and establishes your qualifications in any subject matter.

Anchor Text

One of the most fundamental factors in determining the value of the link is anchor text. Anchor text or link text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink.

Google notice closely to anchor text and try to recognize the context of web content. The strategic keywords you use for your anchor text help your keyword rankings.

Using a targeted keyword as anchor text in your link allows you to pass link equity value between websites. Your anchor text should follow below properties:

· Relevant

· Specific

· Using keywords

The Positioning of a Link

In terms of SEO, the position of your link in content really matters. It impacts the number of impressions and potential traffic you can receive from your link.

According to most industry experts, as much the higher position of a page link, there is more chance of Google crawling.

So, the positioning of a link either in the footer or website sidebar creates a negative consequence for the overall ranking.

Page Rank

The ranking position of a website is typically determined by the multiple factors. In simple terms, page rank is a metric used by the Google algorithm to measure the authority of a webpage.

A website ranking position always influences the quality of the backlink profile. A web page with a poor ranking position contains a lack of authority which justifies no reason to target for a backlink.

Follow vs No-follow Link

Do-follow links are those that permit Google and other search engines to point back to your website and blog.

A no-follow link that contains an HTML code rel=”nofollow” attribute. The “no-follow” attribute in the HTML tag guides crawler not to follow the link.

A follow link always positively impacts the page rankings of your site.

A no-follow link usually doesn’t influence the search engine rankings of the destination URL because Google doesn’t transfer Pagerank and anchor text across them.

It is suggested that you should have a consistent amount of both follow and no-follow links to your website.

Off-page SEO Factors

Start Guest Blogging

It is one of the oldest techniques of the link-building process. Till date, the demand for high-quality guest blogging is huge as it is highly effective.

Generally, guest blogging is when you offer someone from outside of your company to write a blog or content that will be published on your website.

When a blog or article is crafted according to the requirements of a certain blogger, the main author is rewarded with a backlink.

In addition, guest blogging strategy assists the website to earn exposure which establishes their authority which is the key element of the search engine optimization process.

This tactic also helps to increase subscribers as both hosting websites and guest authors as both combining their audience through building content.

How do you find a good guest blogging website?

Well, the most common practice of searching potential prospects for guest blogging is using Google search operators. You can follow the below format to find relevant opportunities:

· [your_topic] “write for us”

· [your_ topic] “guest post”

· [your_topic] “guest article”

· [your_topic] “become an author”

· [yout_topic] “inurl:contribute”

Be Active in Social Media

If you’re building your brand without involving in social media then it seems you’re missing great marketing opportunities.

Social media marketing is a big factor for digital engagement. Link building is all about cultivating relationships and social media is a great tool to enhance this goal.

By sharing highly demanding & value-added content on different social media channels will boost your overall engagement.

Consequently, your brand and website will get more familiarity with the target audiences. When you share useful and in-depth content on a social media platform and direct traffic to your website, it appears to Google that you’re gaining traffic from several sources and your skills are worth considering.

Even, the potential audience will share your valuable content with their followers. This mutual transaction will upgrade your backlink profile.

Manual Outreach

Manual outreach is one of the significant link-building strategies. In laymen’s terms, manual outreach is known as the process of personally introducing yourself and making rapport with the relevant bloggers, journalists, news sites, businesses, and organizations.

Manual outreach is always an effective off-page SEO tactic of link building campaign which facilitates long-term business results. The few key benefits of manual outreach are as below:

· Increase brand awareness

· Upgrade search engine ranking position.

· Boost organic traffic

· Increase sales and revenue

· Save times.

Through manual links build effort, you have full liberty to whom you choose to build links for you and how those links are created.

You can brainstorm and research relevant websites for your blog or content. And then you make contact with those similar niche-based blog owners.

Manual link building techniques can be combined with the below steps:

· Building Mutual Relationship

· Guest Blogging

· Writing testimonials and reviews

· Make connection with social media influencers

Utilize the Broken Link Strategy

The broken link method involves finding out dead external links on other websites in your niche and connecting out to webmasters with your recreated content to replace this inactive link.

As all marketers and entrepreneurs have limited time to compose content, so broken link method can be quite a straight-forward tactic to build a backlink profile.

Broken link building technique can be divided into three steps:

· Analyzing and identifying broken links from relevant web pages.

· Developing or recreating content that is valuable to link with.

· Starting outreach program to approach website owners to replace the dead link on their page with yours.

Develop Your Personal Brand

From link building perspective, having stable and consistent personal branding is quite handy to earn a quality link.

In a simple explanation, personal branding is a process of promoting your skills, experience, and personality that you want the world to recognize you.

Personal branding is a conscious effort to influence public perception by demonstrating your uniqueness, credibility, and authority in your industry.

In the link-building process, if you have sound and solid personal branding, the high authority page will naturally link to you.

There is no paid ad or sponsorship program associated with that. If you prove yourself as a master and expert in your field then the natural link will automatically come as recognition due to your personal brand.

You can grow your personal branding in the following manner:

· Select your niche

· Analyze your target audience

· Grow your brand personality

· Generate unique and fresh content

· Build your social media presence

· Expand your network

· Speaking engagements

Analyze Competitor’s Backlink Profile

If you want to outsmart your competitor in the search engine ranking then must investigate their backlink profile.

A competitor backlink analysis gives you the total picture of all strategic keywords they are ranking for and from where their best links are coming.

Once you analyze your competitor’s backlink profile, you can now develop your own site’s digital strategy to get more backlink and leverage guest blogging opportunities from those relevant sites.

You can utilize the following tools for examining your competitor’s backlink profile:

· Ahref

· Ubersuggest

· LinkResearchTools

· cognitiveSEO

· Majestic SEO

· Linkody

· SEMRush

· Moz Pro

Update Your Internal Linking

As part of off-page SEO checklists, optimizing your website’s internal linking is very important. An internal link is a hyperlink that refers to pages of the same domain.

Though improving internal linking is an on-page SEO task, it is also significant for off-page SEO optimization as it helps with content discoverability.

There are many advantages of developing the internal linking structure of SEO:

· It improves user navigation and redirection to proper articles by using relevant anchor text.

· It increases page views and conversion rate.

· It helps to circulate your link juice to other pages of your site.

· It makes easier for search engine bots for frequent crawling and indexing,

· It retains customers to stay on your page for a longer time and reduces bounce rate.

· It improves the website’s ranking position in the SERPs.

You can follow the below steps to improve your internal linking architecture:

· Allocate three internal links to every page

· Use relevant and strategic keywords for anchor text when linking to the next pages.

· Integrate a website footer with the appropriate page’s link.

You can analyze your internal link structure with the following tools:

· Internal link finder

· Interlinks manager

· Internal link juicer pro

· Link whisper

· Rankmath

· SEO press

· Screaming frog

Local SEO

Generally, local SEO is a off-site SEO optimization strategy that involves optimizing your website for better visibility in local search results on Google.

It is estimated that 46% of all searchers on Google are made with local intent. Local intent means the desire of the consumer to find products, services, or information within their geographical location.

As local SEO is an effective off-site SEO tactic, so follow the below steps to expand its visibility:

· Create your company profiles to local and national business directories, such as Google My Business.

· Use strategic keywords in Google My Business profile.

· Build your reputation

· Optimize your website

· Make your listing in a review site, like Trip Advisor and Yelp, and reply to reviews.

· Ask the customer to provide positive review and testimony

· Quantity of “check-ins” at the location.

· Building citations

· Provide similar and detailed contact information across all-digital platforms.

Try to be conscious while submitting your profile in spammy and untrustworthy directories in name of link building.

Frequently Asked Questions

What comes under off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO consists of those tactics taken outside of your website to influence the search engine ranking. Link building is regarded as the core off-page SEO tactic. Apart from that, content marketing, social media, local SEO, brand mentions, commenting, etc are also important tactics under off-page SEO.

How do I get backlinks?

· Backlink through infographics and other visuals.

· Spy on your competitors.

· Use Google search console report to get the backlink.

· Use broken link method

· Promote your content

· Connect with journalists and bloggers

· Write review and testimonials

· Start guest-blogging

· Participate in an interview.

· Involve in different forums.