What is Off-Site Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Why It Matters to Your Business?

Hello, you need to read this piece if you want to improve your keyword ranking and thrive (not just survive) in search engine marketing. Okay, you already have competitive keyword rankings. Congratulations. But, guess what? You can’t sleep with your two eyes closed because you need to stay on top of your game. How do you maintain competitive keyword rankings and maximize search engine marketing to reach your target audience? Keep reading!

In the 21st century, there has been a paradigm shift from the traditional media space to the digital media space. People and businesses now prefer to invest in digital marketing because it helps to reach the target audience they would never have met in such a short time. To maximize and leverage the marketing opportunities presented by digital marketing, you need to optimize your online presence. This brings us to the idea of search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

Search engine optimization which is a part of search engine marketing can be thought of as a complex, multi-piece puzzle – it may be tricky for a dressmaker who just wants her fashion website to appear in the top 10 searches when the keyword “dressmaking” is typed to understand how algorithms and search engines work. However, in simple terms, SEO is the art of “communicating” with the engines in a mutually understood language and providing them with more information concerning your site.

Another thing to note is that while some of those pieces are optimizing the content on your website, it is also important to make sure that content is accessed off-site. Both on-site SEO and off-site SEO are vital because while on-page SEO determines the content you rank in, off-page SEO determines how highly you rank in the search result pages. Yeah, this is why you have been experiencing low rankings even though you have used thematic keywords and your content is super- you have only worked on the online search engine optimization while you have neglected your offline optimization. Unfortunately, concentrating on only one of these forms of SEO means you are not exploring your search engine marketing opportunities which consequently means your digital marketing game isn’t “tight” enough.

What Exactly is Off-Page SEO?

Off-page SEO deals with augmenting your website’s authority by getting links through other websites. It also refers to all the activities you take asides the actual website to increase its level in search rankings by getting more backlinks (links that further direct people to your page). At BlazingBronco, we ensure that your website’s online authority can be boosted by making sure your content is on other places on the web. These include other websites, guest blogging sites, social media pages (social media marketing), and online publications.

• Why You Can’t Afford to ignore Off-Page SEO 

Even though the search and ranking factors change continually, the unanimity of the SEO community remains that the influence of an efficient off-page SEO is powerful in a website’s ranking ability. Your website can enjoy multiple benefits from a strategic off-page SEO campaign. While it is time-consuming and lacks instant return, off-page SEO pays off quite good in the long run. Backlinks serve the purpose of increasing the credibility of your site online. In all of our Kalamazoo SEO campaigns, we make sure to create an extensive backlink portfolio for our customers. This is also because the quality of your backlinks gives a clue of how people sense your website.

Working on your off-page SEO is, therefore, like you are working on perception management. When you get credible links to mention your brand and share your content, it means they can vouch for your content. They also serve as “votes of confidence” from other online locations to help you “overtake” other competitors and rank more prominently. It means you are getting someone else to blow your trumpet. At Blazing Bronco, we can help with the run-around of executing an effective off-page SEO plan and trust me; you would reap the benefits of the effectiveness of the off-page SEO plan.

Other benefits of a well-executed off-page SEO plan are below:

• Increased Rankings: your website will experience increased rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs) which translates to the increased stream of traffic.
• Increased Page Ranking: Since the page rank is a factor that Google uses to rate websites, it is important that you do all it takes to grow your page rank. Thankfully, a good off-page SEO plan does this for you.
• Increased Visibility: In the world of digital marketing, visibility is key. What is the point of being online if you are not visible? In addition to increased ranking, your website will get more coverage. This is because when you get your off-page SEO plan covered, your website will rank in top positions, and this means more clicks and more social media marketing benefits, including social media bookmarks (on social media, your website is highly likely to be shared among similar-minded users). It is like a ripple effect (one thing causes many things to happen). Visibility also means that when you search for an SEO-related keyword, and you live in Kalamazoo, BlazingBronco would rank high (we’re good like that!).

BlazingBronco Can Improve Your Off-Page SEO Game

You already know by now that your page ranking is determined by how many links your website has so let us get right to how to boost your off-page SEO game. This would definitely amount to squeezing the nutrients of search engine marketing, social media marketing, and digital marketing in general.

There are link and unlink-related ways to boost your off-page SEO. Three types of links exist, and they are classified according to how they came about: Natural links- these are given without the website owner making a move. This can be seen when a fashion blogger adds your link to a post that shows her best dress online store. Another link is the manually built link which is gotten through a deliberate act of link-building. An example is when you ask a customer or PR/social media influencers to share your website link or post. The last one is the self-created link whereby you add a backlink in an online directory, blog comment signature or forum. However, self-created link building point to black hat SEO (this involves buying links) and are not permitted by search engines, so you may want to tread on eggshells. Google now penalizes online users who buy links or submit links in a bid to boost website online authority or influence page rank as all these are attempts to tweak the search engine marketing techniques.  

In spite of how you earn these links, to get the utmost benefits of the links, ask yourself these questions: how popular is the linking site? What is the extent of the relationship between the topic of the linking site and the site it is linked to? Is the linking site credible? How many other links are on the linking page? By asking these questions, you already know how helpful a link-building activity would be to you.

 Here are other ways we go about acquiring backlinks to boost your business:

• Create “shareable” content: Off-page SEO shows that if a blogger likes your page and puts the link on his website, it sends a message to the search engines and bots that your page has beneficial information. No one would want to share a link that is not useful to people neither would they want to pass a “vote of confidence” in a “wishy-washy” post so make sure your content is good enough. Therefore, asides website design, which we also skilled in at Blazing Bronco, it is important that your content is super.
• Guest Blogging: A lot of websites let you post content such as guest blogs on their pages. Not only does it help you in establishing yourself as an expert on the topic, but it also gives your online reputation a boost. So, guest blog on sites that are also interrelated to your site as such posts will link back to your page.
• Using Press & Media: News and Media outlets might want to cover your business. Every time you’re mentioned on an online news source, it is a big plus because Google trusts these websites and the news they mention. Also, the online news agencies post very frequently, so they also come up in Google searches. Using press news and media increases your credibility and integrity in the online marketplace. So, start to take advantage of business interview opportunities. 
• Social Media: Everyone and their pet are on social media today. A social media account is as important as anything for an online business. The reason? For Google, social media is a direct ranking indicator for any website. For optimum Social Media Marketing in Kalamazoo, we use RSS Feed to keep your social media updated. This is why if you’re looking for someone to bake your birthday cake, you’d most likely click on the handle of the person who baked your sister’s cake to check out the baker’s page on Instagram. Now that you know this, do not spend data on Instagram’s “Explore” or Snapchat stories only, make social media work for you; invest in social media management so we can improve in your social media marketing efforts by contacting BlazingBronco. 

Here, the main point is to make sure that these actions act as a reference to your site from other web spaces (a sort of online referral).  

Note that I mentioned earlier that you post content that people would want to read and share. This means that before you dive into off-page optimization; make sure that your content,  keywords, and the website design are in order. On-page and off-page optimization should work hand-in-hand to improve your rankings.

You already know what you want to achieve by being online and causing creative disruptions in the digital media space- letting people know you exist and ranking high in Google searches. You also understand that you can’t rely on online optimizations only; you need to optimize off-page. Since you know this, what are you waiting for? Get up, get started, and reap your bountiful optimization harvest! To successfully carry out an effective SEO campaign, off-page SEO optimization is of the utmost importance. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation!