Search Engine Optimisation or “SEO” should be an important part of any organisations marketing strategy. An estimated 8.5 billion search queries are processed on the Google search engine every day. This presents a huge opportunity for businesses that choose to engage with SEO.
SEO is typically split into three sections; Off-page SEO, On-page SEO And Technical SEO. In this guide we will focus on off-page SEO specifically, from a beginner’s perspective, outlining all the basics you need to know.
What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of improving your website’s organic search rankings without making changes to the website itself. The ultimate goal of off-page SEO is to send signals of trust and authority to search engines and users. This is primarily done through a tactic called link building. But, other strategies such as reputation management, Digital PR and social media marketing can play a role too.
Key elements for identifying good backlinks
No link is weighted the same in the eyes of search engines. With each link being unique in several different ways. Some of the key elements you need to assess when looking at the strength of a backlink include:
- Domain rating (DR)
- Referring domains
- Page rank of linking page
- Organic keywords & traffic
- Outbound links
- Do follow / No follow
- Link anchor text
- Link Relevance
Seems like a lot to take in right? Don’t worry, it’s simpler than it looks and we’ll break each one down below. A good way to find some of this information for domains is through tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush, an example is shown below.
Domain rating (DR)
DR, short for Domain Rating, is a metric developed by Ahrefs, you may have also heard of Domain Authority (DA) which is a similar concept developed by Moz. The metric evaluates the backlink profile of a domain on a scale from 1 to 100. With 100 being the highest possible score.
Typically, the higher the DR, the more authority the website has, which will make it more likely to rank in search engine result pages. As they are seen as authoritative and reputable sources of information.
However, since this is a metric developed by third-party sources such as Moz and Ahrefs – not Google. It can in many instances be easily manipulated, that’s why it’s always important to look at other metrics included in this list. A holistic approach will always be better than focusing solely on DR, this is where a lot of people go wrong.
Referring domains
Referring domains refers to the total number of unique websites that have backlinked to the target website. The more referring domains a website has then the better they are generally perceived in the eyes of search engines. So long as the majority of the referring domains are real genuine websites and not spam.
Backlinks can be acquired naturally, through the creation of high-quality content. To maximise your likelihood of acquiring natural backlinks, create linkable assets such as free tools, reports, course, etc. Alternatively, backlinks can also be acquired through paid link building services.
Page rank of linking page
Page rank is an algorithm used by Google to assess the quality and quantity of the links pointing to a page. There is also another term called “Trust rank” which is closely associated with this idea but looks specifically at the trustworthiness of the page’s backlink profile.
There is no definitive way of knowing the page rank or trust rank. However, by evaluating the quality and quantity of the links on the page we can make educated guesses. For example, a page with links from Forbes, Oxford University and the NHS will have a higher page and trust rank than one with 2 small businesses linking to it.
Additionally, Link Research Tools developed a Page Rank software tool that evaluates pages on “power” and “trust”. You can download it here.
Organic keywords & traffic
One of the best indicators if a website is genuine and authentic or simply leveraging spam techniques to inflate off-page metrics like DR and Referring Domains is to check their organic keywords and traffic.
Here are a few things to look for when checking this:
- The website is getting organic traffic from real keywords related to its niche.
- Organic traffic is either trending upwards or they are sustaining a high volume.
- The website has not been significantly negatively impacted as a result of recent Google algorithm updates.
Outbound links
Buying and selling links is a huge market that Google has frequently taken issue with. They try their best to limit this practice and advise against it. Buying links is definitely something that works for off-page SEO.
But, many websites are developed for the sole purpose of selling links, which means their outbound link profile can become spammy and signal a red flag to Google.
This is especially the case if a domain is sending a large volume of links to different niches. It wouldn’t make sense to see a fitness website sending backlinks to gambling or casino websites. So, where possible you should be checking the outbound links of websites that you want a link from and avoiding those that look spammy.
Do follow / No follow
Backlinks can be known as DoFollow or NoFollow based on the attribute they are given in the HTML code.
DoFollow is the default link so no additional code or classifier is needed to be applied to the HTML code. A DoFollow link will pass the full authority or power of the referring website/page to the page it is linking to. Therefore, this is the main type of link you want to be trying to acquire as it passes what is known as link juice. Signalling to search engines the page is authoritative and trustworthy.
To make a link NoFollow the HTML code must include rel=”nofollow”. This tells the search engine not to crawl the link and to prevent link juice from being passed to the target page.
You should always aim to prioritise DoFollow links, especially from powerful authoritative sites in your niche. However, a good mix of the two helps to diversify your backlink profile, helping it to appear natural to the search engine. Additionally, NoFollows can still provide value as a source of referral traffic, directories are a perfect example of this as they are typically NoFollow links.
Link anchor text
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink, that is usually highlighted and underlined. In SEO there are different types of anchor text that you can and should use to diversify your anchor text profile on a page and domain level.
The different types of anchor text include:
- Brand – Variations of brand name. E.g. “Lewis Mould” or “LewisMould”.
- URL – Variations of the website URL. E.g. “lewismould.com” or “www.lewismould.com”.
- Exact Match – Exact keyword the page is targeting. E.g. “off-page SEO guide” or “SEO services”.
- Partial Match – The target keyword for the page is partially or fully included in the anchor text. E.g. “Check out this off-page SEO guide” or “Learn more about the SEO services on offer”.
- Topical (or LSI) – The anchor text is topically relevant to the target keyword. E.g. for a page about off-page SEO, anchors could include “marketing” or “link-building”.
- Generic – Doesn’t include any keyword or brand/url mention. E.g. “click this link” or “learn more here”.
- Brand + Keyword – Anchor text includes the brand name and a target keyword. E.g. “lewis mould SEO” or “lewismould off-page SEO guide”
- Generic + Brand – Anchor text includes the brand name with generic text surrounding it. E.g. “visit lewis mould now” or “learn more about lewis mould”.
- Generic + URL – Anchor text includes a URL with generic text surrounding it. E.g. “lewismould.com to learn more” or “visit www.lewismould.com to discover more”.
When it comes to selecting anchor text, the easiest way to do it is to keep a diversified profile, using a varied range of types and not repeating the same keywords excessively.
If you want to get more advanced with it you can analyse the top 5 or 10 pages in Google for your target keyword. From this, you can work out a percentage split for the different anchor types they use and replicate it with similar anchor text.
Link Relevance
The topical relevance of backlinks is also another important factor that search engines will investigate. The more relevant a page or website is to the page or website it is linking to the better.
For example, a website about puppies linking to a website about dogs makes sense and is topically relevant. Whereas a website about SEO linking to a website about dogs doesn’t make much sense for this to occur naturally as there is no topical relevancy.
Other important elements for Off-page SEO
Brand Searches
Websites that get a good volume of branded searches signal you have a genuine brand that people are interested in.
“Brands are the solution, not the problem… Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”
Former CEO of Google – Eric Schmidt
Branded searches refer specifically to the number of times your brand name is searched in Google. This includes different variations of your brand or your brand with an additional classifier. Some examples would be:
- “Lewis Mould”
- “LewisMould”
- “Lewis Mould SEO Services”
- “Lewismould.com Contact Info”
You can find impression and click data in Google Search Console. The higher your impressions and clicks the better the signal to Google and other search engines.
Increasing this number is all about building a brand. Create engaging content that makes users want to come back to your website. Be active on as many different channels as you can including social media, email and YouTube.
Reviews
Getting more reviews (positive ones) on your Google Business profile can help signal trust both to your customers and search engines. If you’re a physical business it can help your local SEO efforts, driving more people to your store. However, online businesses can also see a boost in their rankings from good reputation management. Make sure you don’t neglect other review platforms like Trustpilot or Tripadvisor.
Company Information
Getting your company’s information listed in directories can help signal your business as authentic and real to search engines. As it shows your business has a reputation and is listed in a variety of places across the web.
Additionally, companies that are well-known and established have the opportunity to get their own knowledge panel. This will show to the right-hand side of the search results when you search the brand name. An example of a knowledge panel can be seen below.
Videos
Video-based content can be posted to multiple different platforms, with YouTube being one of the best currently. You can embed backlinks in these and the engagements found on the video can often be a signal of popularity for the search engine to see. The videos can also be used to improve your on-page SEO strategy, by offering more context to written content.
Social Media Profiles & Sharing
Social Media isn’t something that directly impacts your rankings. However, it can be a super useful tool for getting your content out there.
Active social media profiles allow you to build up an engaged audience of people who visit your website. This can result in two big wins for SEO which are branded searches and backlinks which can help boost your off-page SEO performance.
Additional Learning Materials
Off-page SEO is an enormous topic and something that is constantly changing and evolving. As such, there may be some factors or smaller considerations that slipped through the cracks in this article. You can learn more about off-page SEO with the following resources: