Off-Page SEO - Impact Your Website From Outside
Did you know there are ways to boost your SEO without even logging in to your website? This is called off-page SEO, and it includes everything you can do outside your website to impact your rankings on search engines. Great news for anyone who feels they need to be more computer savvy to edit their site's content or structure and for anyone looking for ways of optimising their website even further!
Remember that On-Page SEO still plays a vital role in your rankings, so I suggest contacting an SEO specialist to optimise your website.
1. Post on Social Media, Pinterest & LinkedIn
Let us begin by saying that posting on Social Media does not directly impact your SEO but builds brand trust, customer loyalty and brand awareness. When people comment, like and share your content, you are more likely to drive traffic to your website. Direct traffic is crucial to your ranking since it signals to Google that your domain has high value and authority.
DO THIS:
• Post high-quality content on a regular basis on the Social Media platforms where your target audience is likely to be active.
• Add call-to-actions in the captions - ‘head over to my website to learn more’
• Drive website visits by offering free downloadable content that your ideal client would find valuable.
• Remember - people are lazy (especially Online!). Add links to make it easy to find your website. You can use tools such as Linktree to collect your most valuable landing pages on one single link that you add in your bio.
2. Run Google Ads & Social Media Ads
While SEO is a long-term investment, digital ads will give an immediate effect. Therefore, the two are a great complement to each other. You will drive more traffic to your website when you run paid ads such as Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok ads.
Keep in mind that the bounce rate (the number of people who leave your site after viewing just one page) matters - you don't want to drive irrelevant traffic to your site just for the sake of driving more traffic, but you'll want to attract potential customers who will stay on your site for longer. They will spend more time and view multiple pages if they find your content valuable to them. Therefore, by creating ads targeting your audience, you are more likely to get a low bounce rate and improve SEO.
DO THIS:
• Allocate some of your marketing budgets to paid ads. Make sure to measure the outcome, perform A/B testing to pinpoint which words or creatives are more successful and direct the visitors to high-performing landing pages.
• If you aren't confident enough to create your ad campaigns, contact digital ad experts. They know how to reach your target audience and tweak and optimise the ads for a successful outcome.
• Read our article SEO vs SEM (search engine marketing) to learn more about the difference between the two.
3. Ask Other Sites to Link to Your Site (Backlinks)
When another website has a link to your website, it is called a backlink. Backlinks from sites with a high authority score will be considered as evidence for Google (and other search engines) that your website content is valuable.
DO THIS:
• Ask your clients, friends and family who own a business, to link to your site. You can link to their site in return, as long as it looks natural on your site.
• Some websites have a resources page where they keep all the links to other sites.
• There are a lot of Online directories where you can add information about your business, including a link to your website. Some of these sites have a very high authority score and can have a very positive impact on your SEO. In New Zealand, some of these sites are Neighbourly, Yellow Pages and Finda.
• Backlinks from sites with low authority scores can negatively affect your SEO. You (or your SEO expert) should remove these backlinks, as weakened SEO will result in less organic traffic and fewer leads.
4. Guest Blog
We have already talked about the impact of website traffic and backlinks on SEO, and when it comes to guest blogging, you can achieve both of these! If you write high-quality articles that cover relevant topics within your industry, other sites are likely interested in posting them on their platform. This typically includes a backlink to your site, which can drive traffic to you.
DO THIS:
• Do a Google search for ‘submit guest blog post + [your industry]’ or “write for us” + “[your industry]”. You'll find many options - check them out and track down the professional ones. If you can access SEMrush, Moz or another SEO tool, you can compare the authority scores, backlinks and traffic these sites have.
• Don’t submit guest blog posts to spammy sites since this will create toxic backlinks and weaken your SEO.
• Most serious pages that accept guest blog posts have set rules for the post structure - ensure you respect and follow these before submitting your article.
• Not sure what to write about? We have written an article on how to come up with great ideas and topics for blog posts.
5. Drive Traffic Through Google Business Profile
Lastly, we recommend you frequently upload posts on your Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business) and always include a link to your website. Posts on GBP are visible seven days after publication, so make sure to add new posts multiple times a week.
DO THIS:
• Learn how to post on Google Business Profile
• Not sure what to post? We have put together a list of 28 Post Ideas for Google Business Profile
• Read our article about how to optimise your Google Business Profile.
