If you have any type of online presence such as e-commerce, online influencer, or even a brick-and-mortar store with an online presence, you have surely heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Of course, you know that SEO can be helpful to businesses, but if you’re like most business owners, you might not know exactly how.
It may seem easy to make a website but creating a website and optimizing a website for success are two vastly different things. You need to understand the fundamentals of SEO to capture what you seek from the online arena.
SEO includes two arenas: on-page SEO as well as off-page SEO. Today, we will discuss what off-page SEO is, why it matters and how it helps your business succeed.
The Basics
Every online presence needs a marketing strategy to improve and succeed. You can create all the content in the world, but if you don’t get enough eyes on it or enough interaction, it won’t matter.
SEO aims to get more traffic to your site, and you want that traffic to be organic. Organic traffic results from several factors, but SEO drives organic traffic through making your site easily found via related searches and links.
On-page SEO is everything you do within your website, while off-page SEO is everything you do outside your website to improve your rankings. Both are extremely important, but let’s focus on the off-page stuff for now.
Referring Domains
One of the ways to build your off-page SEO is through referring domains. Although you can create your website and content, you need to prove your website has relevance elsewhere. A referring domain is another website that has a link pointing directly to your site. This link is called a backlink, and the website it is coming from is called the referring domain.
It is helpful to have referring domains with your backlinks when their domain authority (DA) ranking is higher than your site. Often you don’t know how many referring domains you have to your site, but there are online resources that are free and can provide that information. In addition, there is a strong correlation between the number of unique referring domains and your site’s ranking, so building these backlinks is quite important to SEO.
Link Authority
Consider the referred domain’s weight – those with a higher ranking have link authority weighted more heavily. Thus, a link with higher authority is worth more to your ranking than a link with lower authority.
If your site has a DA ranking of 40, you would want backlinks from referring domains with rankings higher than 40, preferably much higher. The higher the DA, the more authority Google gives that link, thereby increasing your ranking.
Dofollow vs. Nofollow
Nofollow links do not contribute to page rank, while dofollow links do. Nofollow links are associated with paid, promotional links. For example, if you are an affiliate for an organization when you publicize their products or services, those links must be nofollow (and include disclosures).
Alternatively, if you write an article on your own and are not profiting from the content, you can include the links as dofollow links. Nofollow links can still send referral traffic, but they don’t have the same ranking value.
Anchor Text And Relevance
When a referral domain includes your link, the link ties to anchor text, the anchor text is the word or words that appear as clickable in the content. The actual link is the full URL destination. Therefore, the anchor text should have relevant ties to the URL it is directing visitors. The links and anchor text should be natural and appropriate.
The more relevant links you have to your site, the more opportunities for increased rank. The links improve SEO if they are relevant, but website relevance is also a consideration. There doesn’t seem to be a consistent determination of whether relevance or authority is more beneficial, but SEO experts agree that they are each helpful.
Traffic
Organic traffic to the referring pages helps to boost SEO. A strategy to improve SEO is to approach link building by seeking referral links from high-value websites. Even if the link has little or no traffic, it can still be beneficial in link building.
Non-Link Considerations
Not all off-site SEO considerations involve links. Remember, the goal is to get organic traffic to your site. This strategy works particularly well with local businesses who may care more about capturing local traffic rather than worldwide traffic.
Name Address Phone (NAP)
This NAP strategy works well when your business has a presence on Google Maps, Yelp, and more. These are considered citations that allow customers to find you locally. Search for where your local competitors can be found and employ similar citation strategies.
Brand Mentions
There are ways to obtain brand mentions without links through strategies such as guest posts, podcasts, partnering with industry bloggers and influencers, and even a little bit of viral marketing if you are lucky enough to time your marketing strategy just right.
Business Profile
Expanding your online presence is extra important when you have a physical storefront. Google’s business information tool, Google My Business (GMB) allows business owners to manage their online presence across Google, including Maps and Search. Ideally, you want your business listed with as much information as possible. This inclusion in GMB carries some weight in how Google ranks your online presence.
Reviews
Many businesses work with customers and online influences to get their brand out there and more visible online through reviews. The reviews must be valid to the user’s opinions and include appropriate disclosures.
Keep in mind positive reviews can increase rankings, but negative reviews can also have a negative effect. This is why review management is crucial to your success. Managing bad reviews and dedicating resources to service recovery for dissatisfied customers shows that your business is not only engaged, but also dedicated to backing up their products and services with action.
Partner Up for SEO Success
SEO can be a struggle when you’re going it solo.
Many businesses are wasting money on marketing and advertising, sending traffic to websites that don’t convert.
At KangoMedia, We design websites and digital marketing campaigns that convert website visitors into leads and paying customers so that you get a positive return on investment.
Clients that work with us often see dramatic results in the form of an increase in website leads, requests for quotes, service calls, and sales. Businesses choose to work with KangoMedia because of our focus on growing their business. We are more than a service provider, we are your partner in growth.
Give us a shout, and let’s talk about your business.