SEO can be split up into two separate categories; On-Page SEO & Off-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO refers to all the things that you can do ON your website to help you rank higher, such as page titles, internal linking, meta tags & descriptions, etc.
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 Search Engine Optimisation
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. (See below)
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.
