There was a time when SEO meant just adding relevant keywords. Unfortunately, that day is long gone. Today, if you want your website to rank high on Google, you can’t just depend on creating good content and optimizing the website. You have to look beyond your webpage. You have to leverage off-page SEO as well. And, doing off-page SEO for small businesses is particularly challenging. Let’s delve deeper…
What exactly is off-page SEO?
While assigning a rank to a webpage, Google sees how many other websites are referring to that webpage by linking to it. According to Google, the more reputed websites link back to the webpage, the more it is of value. Logically speaking, this is true. Why would somebody refer to a website if it has no valuable information?
Now, this process of gathering the backlinks for a web page by an SEO company is what we call off-page SEO. Note – off-page does not just mean link building. We will come to that. But essentially, it means link building.
Performing off-page Activity for a small business
Doing off-page SEO for a small business requires skill. Small business means – it is relatively not so famous in the cyber-sphere. In that case, very few people would readily accept to link back to the website of that business.
Here’s how an SEO services company should approach the off-page SEO strategy for a small business-
1. Link Building Is Like Making Mates – It Takes Time
There are two ways of gathering links. The first is by spending some quick bucks and using shady websites that link back to your site. It’s a recipe for disaster. Very soon, Google will penalize you.
The second legit way is to reach out to the other website owners and request them to link back to your website. Why would they heed your request? What’s in it for them? Read on.
2. Utilize the Skyscraper Technique
Do you know Ricky Ponting scored the maximum number of runs for the Australian cricket team? Have you ever wondered who the second most scorer in Australia is? No! That’s not how our brain works.
This is exactly what Brian Dean suggests when he talks about the skyscraper technique. He wants us to look for content that is so awesome that people would take the trouble to link back to that content. How can you find such awesome content? Use any online SEO tool like – Moz or Ahrefs – and research the popular website in your industry. You will be able to find the most linked-to pages on that website.
That most linked-to page is what Brian calls link-worthy content. All an SEO company has to do is to create similar content that is more informative, more visually attractive, and more up-to-date.
Now, using the same online SEO tools (you can also take the help of an SEO services company), find out the websites that link back to that link-worthy content. Contact the owners or managers of those websites and say something like, “Hey I can see that you have linked back to so and so web page. I think you might want to update the link. We have written a similar article on that topic that is more informative and up to date.” (Of course, you have to write a full-fledged pitch). A small number of people will agree to link back to your website! Trust us, it’s worth the hassle.
3. Find Out Broken Links on Reputed Websites
You will find many reputed websites in your industry. Use this free Ahrefs tool that will show you the broken links on your website. If any of the topics of these links match any of the posts on your website, you can contact the website owner. Tell them about the broken link and make them aware that your website has a similar informative and well-written article. If you are lucky, the website owner might link back to your article.
| Pro-Tip |
| Don’t contact those website owners who are your direct competitors. Instead, contact those who work in your industry niche but don’t directly compete with you. |
Does off-page strategy involve link building only?
Off-page SEO essentially means Link Building. But any SEO work that you don’t do on the web page itself can be termed as off-page SEO. Going by this logic, social media marketing can be called off-page SEO – if the marketing intends to drive traffic to that particular web page. Even the traditional PR activities can be termed as off-page SEO if the intention is to drive traffic to the website.
However, it is the link-building strategy that’s termed off-page SEO by every SEO company. So, focus on it, and you will see results. Off-page SEO might seem daunting for a small business that might know the key people and key websites popular in the particular industry. However, you can take the help of a genuine SEO company that will follow the link-building best practices. So, let’s get started!