What Is Off-Page SEO? Strategies Beyond Links

Written by Miriam Ellis. Updated November 8, 2024.

“Off-page SEO” (also called “off-site SEO”) refers to actions taken outside of your own website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs) and to influence how people discover and engage with your content. Off page SEO is important as a strategy for bringing attention and authority to your site, and when combined with on-page SEO and technical SEO, off-page SEO can help you meet your goals for search visibility, crawling, indexing, traffic, and conversions.

Off-page optimization seeks to improve the perception both search engines and people have of a site’s:

• Expertise
• Experience
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness
• Relevance
• Popularity

Effective off-page SEO activities, such as building backlinks and engaging on social media, are crucial for demonstrating a site's trustworthiness and reputation to Google and other search engines.

When reputable and relevant sites and people link to or cite your website’s content, they are effectively “vouching” for its quality. Search engines and the searching public can consider this akin to a vote for why your organization deserves to be visible on the web. You may have to work hard to earn these “votes” and some you may earn without even asking, but overall, the goal of your off-page SEO is to build an effective digital footprint that proves why you deserve to be surfaced by search engines and chosen by the public.

On-page SEO and off-page SEO are two essential components of a comprehensive search engine optimization strategy. While on-page SEO focuses on optimizing a website’s content, structure, and HTML elements to improve search engine rankings, off-page SEO involves actions outside a website aimed at building its authority, reputation, and visibility across the web.

On-page SEO includes techniques such as keyword optimization, meta tags, internal linking, and improving site speed. These efforts ensure that search engines can easily crawl and understand your content, leading to better rankings. For example, optimizing your title tags and meta descriptions can make your pages more attractive to search engines and users alike.

On the other hand, off-page SEO is all about building your website’s credibility and authority through external means. This includes earning backlinks from authoritative websites, gaining mentions and citations, and leveraging social media platforms to increase your online presence. For instance, when a reputable site links to your content, it signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant, which can boost your rankings.

Both on-page and off-page SEO are crucial for a successful search engine optimization strategy. While on-page SEO ensures your website is optimized for search engines, off-page SEO helps build your site’s authority and reputation, making it more likely to rank higher in search engine results.

The internet is a competitive environment, and your first step to being chosen by the public is to be found, whether right in the SERPs or via a link to or mention of your content on a third-party site or profile. Both search engines and people reach your content via links and mentions, making these pathways quite important.

A well-planned link building strategy is crucial for off-page SEO, as it can significantly enhance a website’s domain authority and search rankings through effective backlink acquisition.

When a searcher is looking for “wildflower meadow gardening ideas”, search engines like Google and Bing have to decide which results will best match the intent of their query. One of the ways they do that is by determining how many relevant and authoritative sources have linked to or cited each piece of content in their index.

If you use Moz tools, you can calculate the domain authority (DA) of an overall website. This well-known metric uses backlinks and other factors to predict how likely that site is to rank well in Google. You can do the same calculation at a single-page level to estimate page authority (PA). Each search engine has its own algorithm by which it determines which content deserves to rank for which queries, and these formulae are secret, but Google, in particular, has given us many clues over the years as to what they consider to be a high quality vs. a low-quality resource. SEOs study the following sources and events to learn more about these clues:

1. The Search Quality Rater Guidelines - Google utilizes a global workforce of Quality Raters whose job it is to evaluate whether current algorithms and experiments are delivering relevant results. The extensive guidelines they are given should not be directly equated with ranking signals, but reading them reveals a great deal about Google’s concepts of quality, expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Time and again, the document makes it clear that Google places a heavy emphasis on how many links and mentions a web page or piece of content has received, and this is a key reason why off-page SEO focuses on earning this type of notice.
2. Algorithmic updates - Google regularly releases acknowledged updates to algorithms, and you can see a recap of these updates here. Every few months, Google rolls out a core update, but they periodically issue other updates specific to some particular facet of search. By tracking and studying updates, SEOs have learned how much Google relies on links and citations to understand and rank results. They have also learned what Google doesn’t like when sites that engage in certain practices experience drops following an update that targets certain behaviors.
3. Third-party experimentation - Good SEOs continuously perform their own experiments, studies, and surveys in search of further insight into how to use the various types of SEO to influence visibility in the search engines and searcher behavior. Many SEOs regularly publish the results of their experiments, and a good place to start reading some of this documentation is the Moz blog. As you do your own reading and research, you’ll quickly see why off-page SEO places such emphasis on earning links and citations because of the impact that growth in these areas can have on search engine visibility and discovery by the public.

Looking again at the search engine results for “wildflower meadow gardening ideas,” we can assume with some safety that the top result exists on a site that has built up a healthy profile of links and mentions/citations.

And, when we click through to the site in question, we can see, in action, how they are sharing a little of their domain authority and page authority by linking out from their page to third-party resources, like this nursery in Cornwall:

This link from an authoritative site like HomesandGardens.com to a relevant resource like the Duchy of Cornwall Nursery is doing the nursery good in two ways:

1. Equity is being passed from the gardening article page to the nursery website via that link, assisting the nursery’s ability to rank well for relevant terms in the SERPs.
2. The public is being exposed to the existence of that nursery by the mention of it in the article and could become visitors to its website and customers of its business.

And that’s a good illustration of the nature of off-page SEO! Now, let’s look at some further examples of how off-page SEO works.

Earlier, we made a guess that Homes & Gardens likely has earned a lot of authority to be so highly ranked by Google for our search of “wildflower meadow gardening ideas.” But SEOs don’t have to make assumptions - we can fact-check. By entering that domain name into Moz’s free Domain Authority Checker, above, we can see that this site has built up a fairly healthy DA of 60, has earned over 17k links from other domains, is ranking for nearly 190k keywords, and has a low spam score of just 1%.

Using tools like the Domain Authority Checker, Moz Link Explorer, and the Moz Competitor Analysis tool will help you understand the health of your current link profile, how powerful a link to your content from a third party could be, and who is linking to your competitors. There are three scenarios you need to understand when it comes to links:

1. In some cases, the strength of your content or the authority/popularity of the people in your organization may be so high that your website will earn links without having to ask for them.
2. In other cases, you may be able to proactively build links to your site by contributing to third-party publications. For example, you might agree to be interviewed by a third-party publisher or contribute a quote or article to one, earning links from your effort. You might publish traditional digital press releases that include links back to your site. You might sponsor third parties, as in the case of a software company sponsoring a seminar being conducted at a college and earning links from that sponsorship. And, in the case of local businesses, you might build links to your website by building out your set of local business profiles around the local search ecosystem. Broken link building is another technique where you identify non-functioning hyperlinks and reach out to website owners to replace them with links to your relevant content, improving site authority.
3. While you should strive to earn as many links as possible from the first two methods, website owners in competitive markets may need to grow their DA and PA by engaging in proactive outreach to third parties in hopes of winning further links from sites that are relevant to your topics and organization. Read all of The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building to consider the many different ways in which you might build relationships with authoritative site owners, write emails and social posts that result in new backlinks, and gradually grow your brand over time so that your ongoing content publication is enjoying fast crawling, thorough indexing, and better rankings. Guest posting is a strategic method for building backlinks and enhancing brand visibility by creating and publishing content on other relevant websites.

Regardless of how you win links, those that offer the greatest contribution to SEO efforts are generally those that pass the most equity to your content. There are many signals that positively contribute to the equity passed, such as:

• The linking site’s popularity
• How related the linking site’s topic is to the site being linked to
• The “freshness” of the link
• The anchor text used on the linking site
• The trustworthiness of the linking site
• The number of other links on the linking page
• Authority of the linking domain and page

But before you set out in search of backlink opportunities, be certain you have taken the time to understand which linking practices Google considers to be spam. To avoid negative consequences, stay within the webmaster guidelines of both Google and Bing, and don’t engage in the following link spam tactics:

• Buying links - never pay anyone to link to your site
• Injecting hidden links into a website you do not own by exploiting security flaws
• Overusing keywords in the anchor text of the links you build
• Engaging in large-scale link exchanges or link farming schemes

Earning citations/mentions

While both search engines and SEOs focus a lot of attention on links, acquiring them isn’t the only method of improving your off-page SEO. While Google’s John Mueller confirms that unlinked mentions of your brand or its content don’t pass equity the way links do, the Search Quality Evaluators’ Guidelines makes the following statement:

Educational degrees, peer validation, expert co-authors, and citations can be evidence of positive reputation information for professionals who publish their work.

It’s always a best practice to try to earn a link whenever your assets are positively mentioned, but even when that is not possible, an authoritative and relevant publication mentioning your name, brand, organization or business still contributes to search engines’ perceptions of the good reputation of your enterprise.

For example, even if our example Homes & Gardens website had only mentioned the Duchy of Cornwall Nursery instead of linking to it, this citation would still count towards the positive reputation of the business and its SEO strategy. And not only do such unlinked citations have value in the eyes of Google and Bing, but they can also build brand awareness amongst the public and bring traffic to your site.

In the local business medium, brands should strive to both build structured citations in the form of local business listings on platforms like Google, Yelp, Apple Maps, and other aggregators and directories across the local search ecosystem as well as earning unstructured citations on blogs, news sites, and other third party platforms. These activities are core to the off-page local SEO strategy of most local brands.

Earning social mentions

Social media goes hand-in-hand with off-page SEO in a variety of ways.

Firstly, Google will directly surface the latest tweets from brands and people within the organic SERPs for some queries, as in the case of this Twitter carousel from the outdoor outfitter brand, Patagonia, shown above. Meanwhile, Google also allows direct links to social platforms within the Google Business Profile listings of local business:

And, of course, when your social media campaigns become popular and you earn a good amount of followers, your social profiles become a central off-page driver of brand awareness and traffic to your site:

Beyond using social profiles to build links to your own content, your off-page SEO efforts can get a real boost when influencers (people or brands that have developed a large amount of social media popularity) link to or mention your organization, members, or content.
 

In the following example, the influential brand, Patagonia, is linking to an institution that is holding a large-scale bird counting event. Patagonia’s willingness to share a third party’s content with their followers means they are sharing their influence with a third party, which can result in traffic, links, and increased brand awareness:

For brands like local businesses with physical locations, off-page SEO can also encompass offline marketing efforts designed to drive online awareness, traffic, and conversions. Additionally, virtual brands may invest in localized advertising campaigns designed to bring attention to their online offerings, as in the case of billboards or local radio and TV advertising.

Any type of in-store or local signage or word-of-mouth marketing campaign that contributes to online traffic, online reviews, or increased social followers can be considered part of your off-page SEO strategy, as can any traditional loyalty campaign that results in online benefits, such as an online birthday discount or online store credit for referring other customers.

Off page-SEO can be different for each unique organization, but this process will apply to most cases:

1. Identify your goals - Are you seeking to achieve more brand awareness, more links, more traffic, higher or broader rankings, more reviews, more time spent on your website by visitors, or something else? Be specific about what you want to achieve to measure whether your efforts are succeeding or need to adjust your campaigns, goals, or expectations.

Off-page SEO techniques such as social media marketing and influencer outreach are essential strategies for boosting website authority and visibility.

1. Implement tracking - Apply analytics to any aspects of your campaign that can be tracked.
2. Identify your assets - Assess what you are offering that deserves to be linked to, socially shared, or acted upon by the public.
3. Activate your asset - Whether this is publishing a new article, emailing a link request, pitching to be a podcast guest, outreaching to a social influencer, or hanging a new sign in your shop front window asking for reviews, document the starting date and nature of your campaign.
4. Measure results - Benchmark success at different points in time. The results of some forms of off-page SEO can take months or even years to develop. Learn from your experiments and document your successes and further learnings.

To get better at doing off-page SEO, check out this chapter in the Beginner’s Guide to SEO.

Content marketing

Content marketing is a crucial off-page SEO technique that involves creating and publishing high-quality, relevant, and valuable content to attract and engage a target audience. By publishing great content, businesses can earn backlinks, gain media attention, and demonstrate their expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

Effective content marketing can take many forms, including blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and social media posts. For example, a well-researched blog post on a trending industry topic can attract backlinks from other websites, while an engaging infographic can be widely shared on social media platforms, increasing your content’s reach and visibility.

By consistently producing valuable content, businesses can establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. This not only helps in earning backlinks but also builds trust with the audience, making them more likely to engage with your brand and share your content.

Local SEO

Local SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s online presence to increase traffic, visibility, and brand awareness in a specific geographic region. This is particularly important for businesses that rely on local customers, such as restaurants, retail stores, and service providers.

To improve local SEO, businesses should focus on creating location-specific content, building high-quality local citations, and optimizing their Google My Business listing. For example, a local bakery can create blog posts about community events, list their business in local directories, and ensure their Google My Business profile is complete and up-to-date.

By optimizing for local search, businesses can appear in local search engine results pages (SERPs), making it easier for potential customers in the area to find them. This can lead to increased foot traffic, online visibility, and ultimately, more sales.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is an essential off-page SEO technique that involves promoting a website’s content and brand on social media platforms to increase its online presence, engagement, and visibility. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram offer businesses the opportunity to share content, engage with followers, and build relationships with influencers and other businesses.

By actively participating in social media, businesses can drive traffic to their website, increase brand awareness, and build a loyal following. For example, sharing a blog post on Twitter can attract readers who may then share the post with their followers, amplifying its reach. Engaging with followers through comments and messages can also foster a sense of community and trust.

Social media marketing can also help businesses build their brand and online reputation. By consistently sharing valuable content and engaging with their audience, businesses can establish themselves as industry leaders and trusted sources of information.

Brand building

Brand building is a crucial off-page SEO technique that involves creating and maintaining a strong brand identity to increase a website’s authority, reputation, and visibility. This involves creating a consistent brand message, visual identity, and tone of voice across all online platforms, including a website, social media, and content marketing channels.

A strong brand can differentiate a business from its competitors and build trust with its target audience. For example, a company with a well-defined brand identity and consistent messaging is more likely to be recognized and remembered by potential customers. This can lead to increased brand loyalty, more traffic to the website, and higher search engine rankings.

By investing in brand building, businesses can enhance their online reputation and authority, making it more likely that other websites will link to their content and that search engines will rank their site higher in search results. This, in turn, can drive more traffic and conversions, contributing to the overall success of the business.

​​Link building

Link building is a cornerstone of off-page SEO, vital for enhancing a website's authority and search engine rankings. It involves acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own, which act as endorsements of your content's credibility and relevance. The process of link building includes various strategies such as outreach to relevant sites, creating compelling content that naturally attracts links, and participating in industry-specific forums and discussions. By focusing on quality over quantity, you can build a robust backlink profile that improves your domain authority and visibility in search engine results.

A successful link building strategy requires identifying authoritative websites within your niche and establishing relationships with them. This can be achieved through personalized outreach, offering valuable insights, and collaborating on content that benefits both parties. Additionally, monitoring your backlink profile and disavowing any harmful links is crucial to maintaining a healthy link ecosystem.

Guest posting

Guest posting is a strategic off-page SEO technique where you contribute high-quality content to other authoritative websites in your industry. This approach not only helps in building backlinks but also expands your reach to new audiences, enhances your brand authority, and fosters relationships with other industry leaders. By providing valuable and insightful content as a guest author, you can position yourself as a thought leader and drive traffic back to your site.

To maximize the benefits of guest posting, it's important to target reputable sites that align with your brand's values and audience. Crafting engaging and informative articles that resonate with the host site's readership can lead to increased visibility and credibility. Additionally, maintaining a consistent guest posting schedule can help establish a strong presence in your industry.

Broken link building

Broken link building is an innovative off-page SEO tactic that involves identifying non-functioning hyperlinks on other websites and suggesting your own relevant content as a replacement. This technique not only aids website owners in maintaining a seamless user experience but also provides an opportunity for you to gain high-quality backlinks. By offering a solution to broken links, you can improve your site's authority and visibility in search engine results.

The process begins with researching websites within your niche to find broken links. Once identified, you can reach out to the site owners, offering your content as a suitable alternative. This mutually beneficial approach helps both parties, as it enhances the user experience on the host site while boosting your backlink profile.

Digital PR

Digital PR is a dynamic off-page SEO strategy that focuses on gaining exposure and backlinks through online public relations efforts. This involves creating and distributing press releases, engaging with journalists, and securing coverage in reputable publications. Digital PR helps build your brand's reputation, attract high-quality backlinks, and increase your site's visibility in search engine rankings.

To succeed in digital PR, it's essential to craft compelling stories and pitches that capture the attention of media outlets. Building relationships with journalists and influencers in your industry can lead to valuable media coverage and backlinks. Additionally, leveraging social media platforms to amplify your PR efforts can further enhance your brand's reach and authority.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a powerful off-page SEO technique that leverages the reach and credibility of influencers within your industry to promote your brand and content. By partnering with influencers, you can tap into their established audience, earn social mentions, and gain backlinks from their platforms. This technique not only boosts your site's authority but also enhances brand awareness and drives traffic to your website.

Collaborating with influencers involves identifying those who align with your brand values and have a genuine connection with their audience. Crafting authentic and engaging campaigns that resonate with both the influencer's followers and your target audience can lead to increased visibility and credibility. Additionally, tracking the performance of influencer campaigns can provide valuable insights into their impact on your SEO efforts.

• Backlink Basics - Moz Academy
• The Beginner's Guide to Link Building