You might pride yourself on having the most optimized web page in your niche. Perhaps you have taken SEO work into your own hands and put a concerted effort into remaining high in organic search. You have kept up with all the specifics of on-page optimization (image alt tags, url naming, internal backlinking, etc.) and made a concerted effort to only use a particular keyword density in your monthly blog posts.
That’s great, and I’m sure you are seeing a nice increase in traffic from your painstaking work. But have you done all you can to ensure your business gets maximum exposure in organic search? The answer is NO! You have forgotten about the myriad off-site features that are key to SEO.
It would not be a surprise if this news has caught you off-guard. Many people who manage their own SEO often overlook off-site features. Part of the reason is that on-site features are a hot topic. Countless articles are written about on-site SEO techniques every day, and they are given more emphasis by SEO analysts because it requires a bit of technical skill.
However, the reality is that on-site and off-site optimization are of equal importance because they are interrelated. They work together like a husband and wife do every morning to make sure their kids get to school on time. The husband might be responsible for making the breakfast and packing the lunches, while the wife has the job of dropping the kids off at school each morning.
Without either one of these roles being filled the entire operation falls apart. It’s the same with your site – if you have low off-page optimization scores then how can you expect to reach your conversation rate goals?
Here are 5 of the most important off-page optimization features for SEO that you should already be working on:
An Off-Site SEO Checklist
1. Get Listed In Local Directories
The most important off-site SEO feature is getting listed in local directories, or directories that provide customer reviews of your business. That means optimizing your Google information with up-to-date opening hours, a full description of your products and services, and a link to your homepage. It also means looking up relevant local directories that appeal to your niche. Yelp and Facebook are the obvious ones, but there are more – you just need to do some research!
2. Generate Positive Reviews
If your company does not have a solid reputation from customer reviews, then you need to generate some. Put out an email campaign that directs customers to a review site and send out enough emails to generate 20 + reviews. This will have an immensely positive impact on your SEO score because it’s much more likely Google bots will find your site if people are speaking positively about it.
3. Reach out to Niche Relevant Bloggers for Guest Blogging
The key with off-page optimization is to get enough people talking about your site (which includes backlinking to it) that you begin to see an increase in conversion rates. In measuring performance metrics, on-page SEO analysis can often place too much emphasis on pageviews. While pageviews are important, they are not as important as CTR (which Google ranks highly) or conversion rates. CTR and conversion rates are representative of more interested viewers who are closer to becoming customers than someone who browses over your homepage for 10 seconds and then leaves.
The best way to get people talking about and linking to your homepage is to place yourself at the centre of your niche. How is this accomplished? Reach out to expert bloggers in your niche and offer them a chance to write for your site. Incorporating the knowledge and networking capacity of an influencer in your niche will bring countless high-quality visitors to your page without having to lift a finger (or, in some cases, paying a cent).
4. Start Blogging On Authoritative Publication Platforms
Once your guest blogger starts driving high volumes of organic traffic to your site, it’s time to take things into your own hands. Start publishing on one of the many publication platforms that make sense for your business. Peruse through medium.com, LinkedIn Pulse, Entrepreneur.com, or Inc.com and read their guest posting guidelines closely before contacting them.
Influencer marketing is a real deal because it can drive thousands of people to your site from wherever they read your insights. On-page SEO work is not likely to drive traffic out of thin air – but what it will do is ensure people find your site first when they make a general Google search. Publishing blog articles on authoritative platforms will induce more people to trust your brand and take action when they see it in a search. This is one of the most clear examples of how on-page and off-page SEO work in tandem to great effect.
5. Make Sure Your Site Content Is Digestible
The rise of mobile is inevitable. One study has projected that video content will be present in close to 85% of all search traffic in the US. That’s astronomical, and you don’t want to be left behind. On-page SEO is the structure behind your content – but is your content as digestible as it can be? If you have not experimented with images or video on your site, perhaps it’s time to make the jump and test the results.
SEO Is A Two-Way Street
The great thing about all forms of SEO is that it’s a two-way street. You try something on your site, see how search numbers change in relation to it, and then make an assessment. With off-site SEO and link building, the key is making sure your company develops a strong identity across as many digital platforms as possible. That way, when people find you in an organic search, they are more likely to spend some quality time on your site.
For more information on how off-site SEO can make a big difference in your overall SEO strategy, contact SEO expert Paul Teitelman today. Paul is a Toronto-based SEO consultant that takes the time to figure out how to make your digital identity flourish.
