Off-page SEO, also known as off-site SEO, describes optimization techniques that can improve your ranking in search engine result pages (SERPs).
Off-page SEO techniques happen outside of your site and normally outside of your control. It involves attracting backlinks from other websites, shares on social media, and mentions across the web.
Working on your Off-Page SEO is tremendously valuable because it tells search engines that your website is important to others on the web. Every link that you receive acts as an endorsement from another source that your website is quality.
These external endorsements act as tie-breakers for websites that have the same quality of on-page SEO. Search engines will use this knowledge for ranking websites in a certain order. Link juice & social shares can mean the difference between page 7 and page 1 of Google.
For example, let’s say that one web page includes all of the necessary on-page SEO. Each page is optimized for keywords, and the back-end code includes the appropriate tags, page titles, and more.
While web page TWO has the same amount of on-page SEO. However, other authoritative websites have linked to this webpage, it has active social media accounts, and its CEO has been featured as an expert in the industry by other websites that link back to the “About Us” page.
As search engine crawlers run through their checklist, website ONE will come back with positive on-page SEO results, but note that the off-page SEO is poor. Website TWO, on the other hand, will earn a higher place in search engine rankings with its multiple backlinks, brand mentions, social media, publicity, and more.
And that’s what makes off-page SEO essential to any web page.
External links are a critical component of off-page SEO.
Before you start building or earning backlinks, it’s essential to understand the different types of links, as well as the factors that influence the equity of a link to your website.