Off-page SEO refers to the optimization techniques implemented beyond a website to enhance its search engine rankings. These methods usually involve link building, guest posting, social media marketing, and other tactics.

The ultimate objective of off-page SEO is to make search engines and users view a website as more trustworthy and authoritative.

On-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO are the three main categories of SEO tactics that are essential for achieving SEO success.

On-page SEO encompasses the tactics you can control on your website to help search engines rank and comprehend your content better, such as content, title tags, keyword usage, URLs, and internal links.

In contrast, off-page SEO refers to activities carried out outside your website, like backlinks and mentions on other sites. Technical SEO encompasses activities that directly impact how search engines index and crawl your website, such as site speed optimization and structured data.

Off-page SEO is crucial as it is equivalent to building a website’s reputation. Search engines tend to rank highly reputable websites better because they are considered to possess more Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). Backlinks, reviews, and recommendations are some of the off-page SEO factors that best demonstrate E-A-T.

To boost a website’s authority and organic search traffic, there are five different off-page tactics one can use:

Link Building
Content Marketing
Local SEO (GMB and Citations)
Reviews
Events

Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to pages on your own site, and the more backlinks from high-authority sites a page has, the more authoritative it may seem to Google.

Content marketing is another vital off-page SEO tactic that involves publishing great content to earn backlinks, gain media attention, and demonstrate E-A-T. By distributing the content across multiple channels like social media, PR, forums, podcasts, content syndication, and guest posting, one can boost off-page signals.

Social media, influencer marketing, and guest posting are other off-page tactics to consider. Influencer marketing is a strategy that involves collaborating with popular bloggers and social media creators to promote your products or services. Guest posting gets your brand in front of a different audience and signals search engines that you’re an industry expert.

To find guest blogging opportunities, you can try searching on Google with search operators such as “your target keyword” + “this is a guest post by,” “your target keyword” + “guest post,” and “your target keyword” + “contributing writer” among others.

If a website has accepted guest posts before, it may accept your post too, and you may include a link to your site in your piece. For instance, if you are writing about affiliate marketing, search for “affiliate marketing” + “this is a guest contribution.” After publishing on another site, keep track of its performance to determine which sites are worth reaching out to again and which to avoid.

Podcasts are highly popular and can offer SEO benefits by providing backlinks to your site if you are a guest or if the podcast refers to your site. Additionally, they provide a great way to share your expertise and reach new audiences. You can find sites in your niche and reach out to them about syndicating your content on popular content syndication platforms like Medium, LinkedIn, Outbrain, Taboola, Business 2 Community, and Quuu, but be sure to link back to your original content and configure your canonical tags properly.

Although dropping links in forums will not improve your Google ranking, you can use forums to engage in conversations that align with your expertise to position yourself as an expert and build trust. You can use platforms such as Reddit and Quora for this purpose, or forums within your niche.

Local SEO refers to optimizing your online presence to increase local traffic, visibility, and brand awareness. Key off-page SEO tactics include Google Business Profile and NAP citations. Optimizing your Google Business Profile is critical to your local SEO success, and NAP citations are crucial to ensuring your business information is accurate and consistent across all sites. Reviews are also important to your local SEO success, and Google recommends responding to all reviews. Lastly, events can create a buzz around your business and attract links and social engagement.