Essential Off-Page SEO Techniques: 7 Ways to Boost Your Rankings

Contact media professionals and bloggers

The "gold standard" of off-page SEO for many years was manual link building, which involved creating websites just for linking or contacting webmasters with the sole objective of obtaining inbound links pointing to your website.

In 2014, this tactic is ineffective. The majority of webmasters and bloggers have little interest in linking to your website out of altruism, and Google is smart enough to detect when links have been purposefully manipulated.

Try employing a fresh tactic: providing value first, in place of the direct, dated approach of email outreach to bloggers. Contact them with great deals, intriguing news, or anything else you believe will aid in the creation of engaging material.

This way, you’ll win over journalists and bloggers, encouraging them to link to your website naturally. Think of old-fashioned public relations as the foundation of your off-page SEO strategy and you’ll quickly gain valuable inbound links.

Create content for social communities

While social communities like Digg and Reddit may not pass PageRank directly to your website (most links a ‘no-follow’), they can be powerful tools for generating buzz and inspiring other people to link to your website.

Write blog posts and articles designed specifically for online communities like Digg or Reddit to generate social traffic. ‘Top 10’ lists, interesting facts, and other reader-friendly yet intriguing content is great for off-site social SEO success.

Guest blog (for traffic, not just links)

Guest posts with endless keyword-focused anchor text links pointed at your website are easy to spot, easy to penalize, and easy to regret. Instead of guest posting for the links, do it for the publicity – any links are just a nice, optional extra.

Write and distribute press releases

Press releases let journalists and bloggers know about your business, making them an important part of any successful off page SEO strategy. Timing a press release to showcase a new product is a great way to interest bloggers and generate links.

Instead of putting links inside your press releases – a spammy strategy that Google has been cracking down on since 2010 – design your press releases so bloggers and journalists will add their own links naturally.

Focus on building a memorable brand

The more powerful your brand, the more likely it is you’ll be mentioned by bloggers and online influencers. While manual link building can get you low-value links from small websites, the ‘big guns’ of off page SEO are reserved for established brands.

From media coverage on PR7 and PR8 websites to valuable write-ups by established bloggers, having a memorable brand helps a lot in off page SEO. The more reputable your business is, the more likely people will be to build natural links for you.

Optimize your titles for anchor text links

Google is increasingly cracking down on websites that generate their own keyword links. You’ll know these links when you see them, as they tend to use unnatural and obvious SEO keywords like buy shoes online or payday loans.

Instead of building keyword links on your own, you can optimize your titles so that people naturally build keyword links for you. Include your target keywords in your title and bloggers and journalists will naturally build links that include them.

This is also a good on page SEO tactic, as including target keywords in your titles is important for increasing your page’s relevance to Google.

Be active on forums and social websites

An active social media presence is one of the most important SEO assets. Towards the end of 2013, Google confirmed that social signals – factors like Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and so on – play a role in determining your search rankings.

This means your social media marketing efforts are achieving two goals at once – building a brand for your business and enhancing your SEO. In 2014, Twitter and Facebook are no longer optional for businesses – they’re an essential for SEO.

Creating an off-page SEO strategy

Improving your website’s search engine visibility is a gradual process, and it could take weeks – or even months – before you see any progress. However, once you’ve developed a strong off page SEO foundation, your website’s rankings will improve.