Off-Page SEO refers to all the things that you can do directly
OFF your website to help you rank higher, such as social networking, article
submission, forum & blog marketing, etc.
In today’s post we will be looking specifically at Off-Page
SEO and some of the most effective ways to increase your page rankings on
search engines.
Off-Page Factors :-
1. Social Networking Sites :- Social Networking is bigger than
ever these days! Sometimes known as “Online Reputation Management”, getting
involved with social media sites is the fundamental step with which you begin
to advertise, market and build your online reputation within your niche.
You need to sign up to the most popular social networking
sites, such as; Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, etc., and create yourself
a profile of your own. This allows you to extend your online network of
contacts, to connect and interact with your friends, to share things with each
other, and most importantly promote your website/blog and help build your
online reputation.
2. Blogging :- Blogging is one of the best ways to promote
your website online! By writing a blog for your website, you give a reason for
visitors to keep returning to your site and keep up to date with your latest
posts. It also helps search engines to crawl your site more frequently, as they
have to update your latest blog post entries, which ultimately helps you rank
higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
You need to produce and include lots of unique content for
your blog, such as; Infographics, Top Lists, How To…Tutorials, Viral Videos,
etc. Try to remember to be clear and concise in what you are trying to convey
to your readers within your blog posts, don’t waffle.
To help you promote your blog, submit it to niche blog
directories and blog search engines.
If you’re not very good at writing content for your blog, then
you could always hire a guest blogger for your blog and ask him/her to write
precise and unique content so that your blog can gain more credit from a search
engine point of view.
3. Blog Marketing :- Post comments on other blogs within the
same niche as yours, which allow you to add a link in the comments section.
These links can then be crawled by search engines, helping to point them
towards your site. These blogs are
commonly referred to as “Do-Follow” Blogs (Just like ours, where you can
comment below!).
4. Forum Marketing :- Find forums online that are related to
your sites niche and get involved within that community. Reply to threads,
answer peoples questions, offer advice, etc. This all helps to build up your reputation
as someone who is an expert within that niche. Try to use “Do-Follow” Forums so
that you can include a link to your site within your signature, which helps
search engines crawl your site.
5. Search Engine Submission :- Search engines will eventually
find your site online, but that can take a while. To speed everything up, you
should submit your website to the most popular search engines like Google,
Yahoo, Bing, etc.
6. Directory Submission :- Many people may say that directory
submission is dead! I believe that it isn’t as you are increasing the likely
hood of people seeing your website. It is purely based on how effectively we
are selecting those directories and how efficiently we are choosing the
category for submission. You could submit to general directories, but for
maximum effect, you are better off submitting to niche directories. Of course,
I agree that it gives quite delayed results, but it is worth doing it.
7. Social Bookmarking :- Social Bookmarking is another great
way of promoting your website. Submit your latest blog posts and pages to the
most popular bookmarking sites, like StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, etc.
Search engines really like these types of sites because the content on these
sites is updated very frequently.
You should be very careful while doing this and you must
properly handle the tags which are very essential to broadcast your news on a
wide area network. This may increase your website traffic based on how
effectively you have participated.
8. Link Baiting :- Link baiting is another popular way of
promoting your site. If you produce a really popular unique post for your site,
then other people may want to link to it. Perhaps you have copied/published
another website’s content on your site, don’t forget to place their website
link as a reference. Do it for others and, if your content is trustworthy, let
others do it for you. This is another way to increase your link popularity.
9. Photo Sharing :- If you have used any of your own photos or
images on your site, then you can share then on many of the major photo sharing
websites like Flickr, Picasa, Photo Bucket, etc. Other people will be able to
see them and comment on them, hopefully following a link to your site.
10. Video Marketing :- Just like photo sharing, if you have
any videos that you have used on your site, then you can submit them to sites
like; YouTube, Vimeo, etc. allowing people to find your content in other ways.
11. Business Reviews :- Write reviews about others businesses
or ask your friends/clients to write a review of your business in major
business review sites like RateitAll, Shvoong, Kaboodle, Stylefeeder, etc.
12. Local Listings :- Depending on your site’s niche, you
might find that listing in local directories may be useful. You may have a
website promoting your local business, therefore instead of going global and
facing huge competition, listing your website locally, so that search engines
can easily view your website and fetch the content, will be much better. This
will help you to reach a targeted audience. Submit your website to sites like;
Google Local, Maps, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages, etc.
13. Article Submission :- If you write your articles yourself,
then you can submit them to popular article directory sites like; Ezine, Go
Articles, Now Public, etc. This can help drive traffic to your site, whilst you
can also gain some links to your site from other people (though it’s usually a
slower process).
14. Social Shopping Network :- If you run an e-commerce
website, then a good strategy for advertising and branding your products for
free is to submit then to online shopping networks. By submitting your products
to sites like; Google Product Search, Yahoo Online Shopping, MSN Online Shopping,
and other major social shopping network sites like Kaboodle, Style Feeder, etc.
then you increase the likelihood of people finding the products that you are
selling.
15. Answer Questions :- You can actively participate in
answering questions on sites like Yahoo Answers. By answering and asking
relevant questions on your site niche, you help to build up your reputation as
someone that is an expert in your chosen field. You can place a link to your
website in the source section if necessary so that people can easily find your
site. If you don’t spam, this is another great way to increase your link
popularity.