Off page optimization is largely about building website and brand awareness on the internet from sites other than your own.
It mainly consists of link building through the use of other websites and social media marketing.
Many of these methods described can be used to help you increase your ranking in the search engines and help you build links from other websites which attract readers and customers.
In a sense you can also think of it as a form of advertising for your website.
There are many different ways to go about using off page optimization that will help you build your business, and this list that I’ve put together that are some of the most popular methods website use to get noticed and rank well.
I began this series teaching you about SEO and On page Optimization.
The next step once you have all of your on page optimization in place is using off page optimization to increase link building, build your brand, create social networks and increase your awareness.
Link Building
Link building is a method of getting links to your website from other websites and internal pages in order to drive traffic and increase search engine ranking.
You can either link internally by linking from one post or article on your site to another or by using external linking methods including linking from outside of your site from other websites such as on other blogs, forums, social networking sites or articles that you have written for other sites and directing those links back to your website.
Building links helps create awareness of your site, both to search engines such as Google, and to people who are browsing other sites.
Over time having lots of links back to your site can increase your authority, traffic and ranking in the search engines.
Be careful when linking building not to use sites such as link farming sites that promise to get you thousands of links over night.
This will undoubtedly raise a red flag to search engines and do nothing but hurt your ranking in the long run.
Guest Posting
Guest posting on other sites can be a great way to increase awareness of your website as well as increase your authority, especially when you first start building your website.
This is an excellent off page optimization method because people who aren’t aware of you but read other popular sites may find a post or article an on the site they are browsing and really enjoy the content and information you provided and follow your link back to your website.
If you find a website that you really enjoy you can see if they offer guest posting.
Guest posting on popular, informative blogs can also help you stand out as an expert in your niche.
(Remember that when you are guest posting you want to provide some of your best content in the format that the individual/s running the site want on their website.)
Some websites are very strict about guest posting so make sure you know the rules.
It also doesn’t hurt to share the love with less popular sites. Build a network of friends.
You never know where they may be in the future.
Blog Commenting
This tends to be one of the most popular methods that people use to increase their link backs.
This can be an effective method when used correctly.
This may not drive thousands or even hundreds of visitors to your site, but it will increase your awareness and over time people who regularly visit these sites will begin to take notice as well as the individual/s running the site.
When you do post comments it is important that it is relevant to the post you read.
Going off topic not only looks bad but it also makes it look like you didn’t even read the post. Some say being controversial can increase traffic, but this is one place you definitely don’t want to be controversial in the wrong way.
Asking good questions and responding to other people’s comments can help you stand out, and being helpful to others by providing answers to their questions will likely garner a few visits to your site in the process.
Some sites really enjoy when you help out and may even provide a link to you in their own links or may even contact you directly.
While there is no guarantee it is a possibility that may be worth investing in.
Forums
Joining forums is a great way to become part of a community.
It can help you make adjustments to your site by getting good constructive criticism, get great answers to questions that you may have, and build a network with people related to your niche as well as individuals who may have certain talents you may be struggling with .
You also never know who might be on the forums.
It could be someone with big connections, the site owner or someone who could point you in the right direction for resources and/or traffic.
Becoming friends with others on the forums is a great way to help build friends and a community of your own.
Did I forget to mention you can also build links on some forums as well which allows people who like to read but not participate to also find your site?
Article Submission
Article submissions to sites such as Ezine, go articles, and info barrel are great ways to create brand awareness and links.
Since these sites tend to have a lot of readers, a good page rank, and authority they also provide a good, relevant link back to your website.
Some of these websites also provide an instant source of income by using Google ad sense and giving you a percentage of the profits.
While these profits are far from significant, having a large number of articles can over time create a nice little cash return for your investment of time, as well as the fact that the income is passive and continues well after the article is posted.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn are large networks that are designed specifically for social interaction.
These websites can be very powerful for getting your website noticed and building a fan base.
Many popular blogs have started implementing this off page optimization method for keeping readers engaged in their content even when they aren’t on the website itself.
The networks also help spread awareness.
For example one individual may choose to like your page on Facebook or share it with a friend, who in turn shares it with another friend, and so on.
It allows you to spread the word fairly quickly over a short period of time.
Many popular blogs suggest picking one or two and sticking with those because it can easily get overwhelming trying to manage so many networks at once and also because the further you stretch yourself the more your content can begin to suffer due the lack of time and energy put into your own site.
Social Bookmarking
These include sites such as twitter, Digg, and Reddit, which use bookmarking to share resources and information.
Providing relevant, useful content and resources is a great way to get your site bookmarked by others.
You can also submit your links to these sites yourself by creating an account with these websites.
Among these and at the current moment twitter is considered one of the best bookmarking sites you can use to spread your information.
Giving readers short yet useful information to links that are relevant to what they may have a need for is what these services are all about.
Video Websites
Websites such as YouTube and daily motion have helped many bloggers as well as non bloggers spread the word.
This off page optimization method is extremely useful for those who aren’t the type to read or are simply looking to obtain information in a different format.
It’s also a great way to demonstrate products and services that you use which can be hard to translate over text.
Because of the viral nature of these types of websites they can create word of mouth very effectively, especially since video is a very viral format to begin with and since search engines such as Google now include video in their searches this can help increase awareness as well.
Some tips on off page optimization
In the beginning off page optimization may be one of the best methods for attracting readers/customers.
At least until your site starts to rank well with the search engines.
Having various sources where people can find out about your site and obtain information they are looking for can greatly enhance your web appeal.
It doesn’t mean to forget about the on page elements though. Both have their place as important SEO methods to help your website become more relevant, informative, and enjoyable to both people and search engines.
When you provide link backs to your website remember to make sure the links are pointing to pages that are indexed by the search engines.
If you send links to a page that is not indexed it most likely won’t be counted as a link by the search engines.
Also make sure the link points to your site or a relevant page on your site.
Having a lot of links that say “Error page not found” doesn’t help you or the reader, or the search engine for that matter.
Tip: If you are a little savvy you can 301 redirect your 404 error page not found page to the page it was supposed to present to the visitor.
If it is a page that isn’t meant to be on your site anymore you can also choose to request a page removal through google webmaster tools.
This will help you keep your site clean and possibly improve your ranking as well
While implementing these techniques can help increase your page rank and traffic it is very easy to get overwhelmed by all of these methods.
Especially when people may leave comments or ask you questions on each of these social platforms.
(You can imagine trying to keep in touch with all of your twitter friends, Facebook friends, and Guest post readers while at the same time trying to manage 8 other sites and your own.)
Using a few of these methods is well worth the effort, but overdoing it is not.
Try to choose two to three methods that you will regularly use. Research what works and what doesn’t.
If one method doesn’t work out and you’ve tested it in different ways, scrap it and move on to another.
Not all methods will work equally for different websites.
What challenges are you facing with off page optimization?
Tip: Don’t forget to check out how multimedia can help you grow your audience.
This post is part of the seo school series.