Off-page SEO – Optimizing Your Search Results Rank from Outside Your Site

Social bookmarking, backlinks, directory submission, blogging, article submission and link exchange are some of the more popular techniques used for off-page search engine optimization. Over the years, on-page SEO has evolved into such a science that it is often used to manipulate search results. Because of this, many search engine sites are now giving more priority to how web pages are linked to external pages. SEO experts quickly picked up on this and the industry of off-page optimization exploded. A recent search for directory submission services pulled up 5,900,000 results.

Although techniques vary, they are all focused on the primary goal of showing the search engine spider crawlers that your page is linked to quality, well visited sites that have similar content to yours. A secondary, but still important goal is driving traffic to your site. Of course, you don’t get one of these without the other. If your pages are well connected to high traffic, quality external sites, you will get traffic. If you have high traffic, external sites will want to link to you.

A link exchange is when two websites mutually link with the goal being to benefit each. This can be a valuable off-page SEO technique. It can also be over used. Exchange links with websites that share common content. Refrain from exchanging with any and all askers. Also resist the temptation to give priority to the number of exchange links you have connected to your site. Quality and similarity of content are more important than quantity.

One way, inbound links are more valuable than exchanged links. A quality connection is made when anchor text from an inbound link contains keywords from your site. A little time and effort researching keywords for each page could result in large dividends.

As mentioned the SEO market is inundated with directory submission services, some of these provide free service and some charge a fee. These service providers will ask for information about your site and help with placement into proper categories. Being placed in categories that best represent your content is critical. Using proper anchor text will also be a benefit.

Blogging and article submission are great off-page SEO techniques. If you’re an expert on the content of your pages, write articles and submit them to online magazines, blogs and newsletters. It’s a simple matter to develop your own blog, and doing so creates several SEO opportunities. Find your market and become known for your expertise. Hire a writer if you aren’t comfortable in that role. Hire an expert if you are not one. Hire both if needed. This entire process, including submission, can be contracted through service providers. Be sure to include links back to your page when submitting articles.

There are a number of social bookmarking services on the web. These sites store and organize web page bookmarks. Users can search social bookmarking sites similar to using a search engine. Posting your articles on these sites may boost traffic and create more links to your site. Save time by doing some research before posting. Bookmarking your work to “nofollow” sites will create few benefits. As with all SEO techniques, choosing an appropriate keyword phrase is critical to success. And, if allowed, create a backlink to your page.

Contact a Macomb County SEO Expert from Spyder Byte Media

If you are ready to generate more online traffic through on page and off page SEO techniques, contact our Michigan SEO firm, Spyder Byte Media today at: 586-260-1344.