In today’s world, having a website is not enough. It is important to make it visible to your target audience. Various methods are employed for this purpose, the most popular being Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO simply means using different techniques to improve the search ranking of your site on any search engine result pages (SERP). It can be further classified into two parts, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO. On-page SEO is related to the optimization you do on your website like improving content, meta description, title tags and user-friendly site navigation etc. Off-site SEO refers to all the steps that you take for the same goal, but outside the boundaries of your website. Let’s have a look at some good off-page SEO methods that could be of use to you:
Guest Posting
Some people may think of it as similar to blogging but guest posting is different from it. It involves writing blog posts which are shared on a website other than yours. This method helps in getting connected to another blogger and tapping into his reader base. The relationship you develop with the host blogger provides you with good exposure and visibility. Good, engaging content is the key here. A blogger will let you post on his blog only if he feels that the matter you are posting is adding some value to his blog. Webmasters who allow guest blogging are always in search of such written material that can attract more readers to their sites. As the user base of that site increases, so does your level of exposure to new potential clients.
Blogging & Article Submission
Fresh and unique content will always drive good traffic to your site. Create a blog related to your business and start posting readable material on it. It can prompt people to click your site’s link. When people have an incentive to come back, they will visit it regularly. Readers tend to share content that they like. As more and more people refer your links, the hits on your site will definitely increase. Search engine crawlers like Google and Yahoo will notice your site more improving your SERP rankings. Articles can also be written related to the business that you are promoting and submitted to various article-sharing sites. Infographics and lists make articles simple and easy to read and may attract a reader to your site.
Social Media Marketing
In today’s time, social media is an integral part of off-page SEO methods. It can be harnessed for improving your site’s ranking in different ways. First, ensure that your business has a presence across various social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Second, post useful content whether written or visual, related to your business. Take care that the tone is not overtly promotional. Third, join communities and groups related to your area of operations on such media and interact regularly with other members. Social media gives you increased visibility and exposes you to a vast untapped user base. Users influenced by your post can always be expected to visit your site. This type of backlinking can improve website SEO ranking.
Question/Answer (Q/A) Link Building
People browse the net looking for answers to their questions. This has given rise to Question/Answer forums like Quora where users post their questions and other users post the answers to them. Nowadays there are such forums which specialize in a particular area. These forums are ripe for off-page SEO. You can register on a forum related to your business and start answering questions there. Your answers should be correct and to the point. Do not hesitate in taking expert help for this purpose. Answering correctly on a regular basis will enhance your reputation and users will happily check out your website via links posted on the forum.
Video Marketing
The emergence of smart devices has led to an increase in the popularity of video sharing sites. The subscriber base of such sites can be targeted for directing more users to your site. Moreover, videos are being shared on social media as well. This makes the video a very powerful tool that can be used for improving your rankings. Mindless posting won’t do. Create best visual content related to your brand and upload it to sharing sites like YouTube. Your social media pages can also be used to display these videos. Just like with written content, viewers like to share good videos. Users impressed by the visual content can always decide to visit your site.
Conclusion
Apart from these, you can also employ other off-page SEO methods like social bookmarking, link building, directory submission, RSS feed submission, forum posting, blog comments to improve your SERP rankings. These methods, if implemented sensibly along with good on-page SEO techniques will surely help you in improving your site ranking and expanding your user base.
Brandon Graves is a champion of SEO and WordPress website development services and presently handling a project such as migrate website to wordpress, website SEO etc. To check his previous work, please follow on the Facebook.