How does off-page SEO affect your rankings?

Off-page SEO relates to factors that contribute to your SEO and page ranking, but that occur off your website. Google has many clever algorithms designed to track the online presence and reputation of your clinic across the Internet. This is just as important as on-page SEO and is a great long-term strategy for improving your rankings. In this article, we have a look at some of the important off-page SEO factors that can affect your search engine rankings.

Relevant backlinks.

A backlink is a link from another website pointing towards your website. It acts as a positive signal that another website thinks your site is worthy to link to. Google doesn’t want you to abuse this opportunity and it could penalise you if they think you are buying or exchanging links or get a lot of backlinks from low-quality websites. A backlink is only valuable to you if it comes from a relevant, trustworthy, and popular website. You could ask for backlinks from partners, write guest blogs on relevant websites or write high-quality original content on your website that others want to share. Building good quality backlinks is an advanced SEO skill, so it is best to get professional advice on how to do this properly.

Social media attention.

By creating and posting high-quality content for your social media channels you can increase your SEO. When people click or engage with your content it sends signals to Google that more people are accessing your content. If social media followers share your content, then your reach will increase further allowing people outside your networks to see and access your content. You can also use social bookmarking to help boost your off-page SEO for your web pages. Sites such as Reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg are social bookmarking sites that allow you and others to bookmark your web pages and blog posts. Always remember to focus on high quality and good user experience. No spamming!

Online reviews.

Many of us have left an online review of some type before. As a business owner, you now need to encourage others to leave good reviews about your service. Don’t try and short cut the system with fake reviews, it will only harm you. By collecting authentic reviews from satisfied customers, you will again send signals to Google that you are trustworthy and have authority. Google has also confirmed that responding to reviews also improves SEO. If you do receive a bad review, then handle it professionally and see if you can resolve the situation and ask them to amend the review. Either way, your customers and Google will judge you on how many positive reviews you have and how you deal with negative ones. Concentrate on getting your best customers to leave you online feedback.

Directory listings.

Directory listings offer several benefits that will help you improve off-page SEO. Firstly, they will allow you to be found by prospective new customers. They can also increase your online reputation and increase customer confidence if your company is listed in reliable and trustworthy directories. Finally, they provide you with backlinks which can improve your SEO. It’s important to choose high-quality and relevant backlinks, this is because cheap and spammy directories could harm your SEO. Choose well-known directories or good-quality ones from your local area or relevant to your industry. Some directories may be free, but you should also consider the benefits of paying for premium listings.

Email marketing.

Whilst Google won’t directly rank your email marketing campaigns, they can still have a positive indirect effect on your SEO. By sending emails to previous website enquiries and customers, you are encouraging them to return to your site again. You can also use your email marketing to signpost people towards your most important content. Both of these factors send signals to the search engine that will improve your SEO. Email marketing is a great long-term form of marketing which can provide excellent results as your contact base grows.

A fresh approach to SEO.

FreshOnline offers SEO services to help small businesses climb up the search engine rankings. We offer a holistic approach to SEO covering all on-page, off-page and technical factors that will impact your scores. Every business is different and we work closely with customers to understand their business and goals so we can maximise results. If you have any questions or would like to find out more. Please get in contact with the team.