Off-Site SEO

1.)    Off-Site SEO begins with Building backlinks to your site. Backlinks are achieved when another site puts a link back to your site.  This is like a vote for your float in the homecoming parade.  The more votes you get the more relevance in the eyes of the search engines.

If another site thinks that you have information that is helpful to them in some way, then their link to you is proof to Google and other search engines that you should be higher in the rankings.  It is based on the methodology that when authors cited text in their writing, it usually indicated a text that was relevant to the topic. The more citings the more relevant the text and the better it helps your off-site SEO. So when search engines see backlinks to a site they give the site more authority and rank it higher in terms of relevance to the word being searched.

2.) Don’t be fooled that more backlinks is better. Quality of backlinks is extremely important to off-site SEO. Think of it this way if an expert on a topic calls you an expert that is worth a lot more than if a hundred people who know nothing about your subject call you an expert. Therefore find sites that have high quality relevant material and get your backlinks from them.

Anchor Text for Off-Site SEO

3.) Use your keyword for your anchor text. Anchor text is the text that is clickable in a hyperlink that goes back to your site.  We have become trained to expect these to be in the color blue and many times underlined.  Besides getting your customer to click on your link and discover your site, Google has put a bigger responsibility on the anchor text.  They compare the anchor text in your link to the page where it takes the user.  If the landing page does not take the user to what they are searching for it is not relevant and will not give you the results you are looking for.  Google puts a lot of  off-site SEO weight in this when they are determining your ranking on the organic searches.  They want the user to find what they are looking for.  If your anchor text says camping gear, then it should take you to a page that has something to do with camping gear.  Keep the user in mind when you are using your anchor text, but also how this relates to your site.  Do you want to rank for your keyword “camping gear” or for “click here”? Here is an example of what anchor text looks like:

Continuing with your Off-Site SEO

4.) Off-Site SEO is not a flash in the pan job. In order to gain search engine ranking and maintain it, Off-Site SEO must be done on a continual basis. Do be fooled by the fact that you have moved up in the search results and think your work is done. You will move back down if you do not continue to created backlinks. If you continue you will also make it much more difficult for your competition to come out of nowhere and pass you stealing all of your traffic and customers.

5.) Don’t participate in “reciprocal linking” this is an old technique of trading backlinks and is very ineffective.  Reciprocal linking used to be a way to get backlinks, but is not recommended now an dd may actually harm your off-site SEO efforts.  It is far more important to get links from relevant sources that for you to chase links.   This is a very time consuming method and really doesn’t work well.

6.) Create videos about your business and post them on video sites is a great way to help with your off-site SEO. Then embed the code on your own site. This brings the authority of the video site and can even bring traffic if your video becomes popular.

If you would like help with your Off-Site SEO you can find out about our service at SEO-SEM Service