Off-Page SEO Checklist for 2024: Boost Your Rankings
Last update: 27 August 2024 at 12:46 pm
4.50/5The world of SEO is made up of two things: what happens on your site and what happens off of it. The latter is called off-page SEO and it’s responsible for at least 50% of Google’s search results page ranking factors. This off-page SEO checklist serves as a starting point to master this art and increase your site’s organic traffic and sales.
Let’s get started!
What Is Off Page SEO?
When we talk about off-page SEO, we are referring to the various actions you take outside of your own website to improve your search engine rankings. Not only does this help more people discover your brand and business, but it also brings more organic website traffic to your site and helps increase your conversion and sales numbers.
Off-site SEO helps build your brand’s expertise, authority, trustworthiness, relevance, and popularity.
What Is Included in Off Page SEO?
Common off-page SEO techniques include
- Getting backlinks from high-authority websites.
- Getting brand mentions from influencers and thought leaders in your industry.
- Implementing a guest blogging strategy.
- Leveraging social media platforms.
- Executing an influencer marketing campaign.
As you can see, the whole goal of these SEO actions is for you to have well-known sites and people linking to your own website. The more you have, the more signals you send to Google’s algorithms about the relevance, authority, and trustworthiness of your content.
On Page vs. Off Page SEO
The main goal for on-page and off-page SEO is basically the same: to improve your search engine rankings. The difference lies in how you do it. As we mentioned before, off page SEO is handled with activities done outside of your site, while on page SEO is handled with actions done inside your page (keywords, meta descriptions, meta tags, image optimization, page speed, etc.).
Be sure to include both types of actions in your company’s website optimization strategy. They are necessary to significantly improve your search engine rankings and reach the top positions.
Off Page SEO Optimization Checklist for 2024
With these differences in mind, let’s dive deep into our off-page SEO checklist. It’s designed to guide you through the various actions that will help you earn more backlinks and brand mentions in the digital world.
1. Perform an Analysis of your Backlink Profile
The first step is to understand what your backlink profile is, or how many websites are linking to your site and what those websites are. Keep in mind that Google highly values backlinks as a ranking factor, so it’s imperative that you pay close attention to this process.
To perform a backlink audit, we highly recommend that you rely on tools like Ahref, Semrush, or Moz. There’s a cost, but it will save you hours of manual work analyzing your backlink profile.
If you prefer to do it yourself, you can use Google Search Consoleand follow these steps
- On the dashboard, click on “Search traffic” and “Links to your site”.
- You will see the total number of links to your site, as well as categories that show which pages are bringing you the most links.
- Visit each one and look for insights into their health and relevance.
Using Moz’s Link Explorer, you can see how many backlinks your site has, what they are, and the page and domain authority with just one click. You can also compare your profile to your competitors to see who is doing the best and what you can replicate from their strategies.
2. Analyze Your Competitor’s Backlink Profile
Now that you know where you stand in terms of backlinks, it’s always a good idea to see what the situation is for your main competitors.
You can do this analysis with Majestic’s tool:
- Go to their website: majestic.com
- Enter the domain of the site you want to compare yourself to.
- Click on the magnifying glass.
This will give you a full report that includes the number of backlinks, referring domains, backlink history, anchor text, and more. Don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of data, just focus on what will help you benchmark and improve your SEO.
3. Work on your Linking Strategy
At this point, you already have enough information to create a linking strategy that will help you earn high quality backlinks. While there are many different ways to do this, you should always prioritize those that your team knows how to do. That way you will see results faster and easier.
To earn backlinks you should consider some of these options:
- Fixing broken links: Tools like Ahrefs help you identify broken links with a single click. Once you have identified them, you need to contact the site owner or webmaster and ask them to update them to the correct ones.
- Write guest blogs: Reach out to relevant sites you want to get a backlink from and pitch them on content ideas that you or your team can write for them. Do it in a way that they can’t say no.
- Identify unlinked brand mentions: Manually reach out to websites and news outlets that mention your brand to add a link to your site. Share the link you want them to use, it can be to your home page or to a specific topic page.
- Share your expert advice: Reach out to websites, podcasts, YouTubers, and media outlets and share your expert advice on relevant industry/market topics.
Remember, your content strategy should include pieces that are sharable and tend to earn quality backlinks. This includes original research, infographics, in-depth guides, studies, and more.
4. Create a Guest Blogging Strategy
While we’ve already mentioned the need for a guest blogging strategy, it’s so important to off-page SEO that we wanted to make it a specific item on our checklist.
To implement one, please follow these steps. They are designed to help you write and publish articles on different websites, build your profile as an industry expert, earn authoritative backlinks, and improve your SEO performance.
- Set SMART goals.
- Choose topics that serve the goals you have set.
- Find reputable and authoritative sites to publish your content pieces. You can use advanced searches like “intext:submit a guest post” to find sites that accept guest posts.
- Start pitching your content ideas to the top priority sites you want to earn backlinks from.
- Write the content of the blog post and optimize it for search engines.
- Monitor and track the results.
5. Take Advantage of Social Media
While social signals aren’t considered ranking factors by Google’s algorithm, they still play a key role in driving targeted website traffic, improving engagement and click-through rates. It’s up to you to take advantage of them and use them to increase the chances of users finding your content.
Keep in mind that social media should be used strategically. We strongly recommend that you do:
- Choose the right platform to actively share content and engage with your audience. Choose the one where your target audience spends more time.
- Create content specifically for social media. Consider the tone of voice, style, and type of content that users are most likely to engage with.
- Quality always trumps quantity. Make sure that each piece you share aligns with your audience’s needs and goals.
- Actively engage with your followers. Respond to their questions and comments, and encourage them to keep the conversation going.
- Run social media advertising campaigns. This will help you reach a wider audience and increase your reach.
6. Manage your Online Reputation
A key part of this checklist is learning and managing your online reputation. This is the process of monitoring what users are saying about your company in the online world and carefully neutralizing negative comments. In short, you want to influence how people perceive your brand, products and services.
You can do this by
- Developing a set of policies that govern how you manage comments, reviews, and mentions.
- Monitoring and tracking negative brand mentions through Google Alerts and a social media management tool such as Hootsuite.
- Responding quickly to and addressing reviews, comments, and mentions.
- Correcting misinformation that may be circulating on social platforms, forums, and websites.
- Encouraging happy customers to share good reviews online.
What are your customers saying about your brand?
7. Use Local SEO Tactics
This step of our free SEO checklist is important if you have a local business or serve a specific location. It refers to the process of optimizing your website to reach people in a specific geographic area, show up on Google Maps, and for keywords with a local focus.
Your off-page local seo activities should include:
- Creating a Google Business Profile.
- Getting your business listed in online directories like Yelp and others relevant to your area.
- Getting online reviews.
- Leveraging local influencers to promote your brand, products, and services.
- Participating in local community events.
- Sponsoring events relevant to your business and community.
Keep in mind: Local SEO is relevant if you have a brick-and-mortar store or are targeting a specific geographic area.
8. Run an Influencer Outreach Campaign
Working with relevant influencers can give your off-page SEO efforts an extra boost. Google highly values people and brands, with a significant number of followers and relevance, mentioning your brand, products, or services.
To work with influencers, we recommend that you:
- Find influencers who already post about topics similar to yours and have worked with similar brands.
- Set a budget and create a template to help you manage your spend.
- Define your campaign goals and key messages.
- Start reaching out to your chosen influencers.
- Share a campaign summary, a posting timeline, and a full description of the type of content you want them to share and link back to your brand.
Who would you like to work with?
9. Take Advantage of Forums and Community Participation
Another must in your off-page SEO efforts is to have your team actively participate and contribute valuable content to online forums.
Ask them to constantly monitor mentions of topics relevant to your target audience and engage with them by sharing:
- Data
- Opinions
- Insights
- Anything else that will help build a deeper connection with readers.
Make sure the profiles you create for the various online forums include a link to your website. These efforts will go a long way toward building brand awareness and loyalty.
How to Track your Off Site SEO Activities
The best way to track your off page SEO efforts on a month to month basis is to work with a checklist. This way you can quickly understand what metrics to look for and whether or not they are improving from the previous month.
Some of the KPIs you need to track and analyze are:
- Brand searches: Helps you understand how brand searches are trending over time and where they are coming from most. Be sure to track event-driven spikes.
- Backlinks: It’s important that you have historical analysis of backlinks, referring domains, and the authority score of those domains.
- Social media engagement: Keeping track of likes, shares, comments, and mentions will help you get a clear picture of your engagement levels and the virality of your content.
- Local rankings: A must-have that gives you insight into how your site ranks in local packs, user reviews, and search queries, and overall online presence.
Conclusion
Today, with advances in technology, there are many different ways to improve your website’s search engine rankings and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
It all starts with a clear understanding that off-page SEO. This refers to the various actions you take outside of your website to improve your domain authority, page authority, and search engine rankings. This includes earning backlinks, working with influencers, using social media, and optimizing for local SEO.
A quick Google search will help you find several paid and free tools that can help you analyze and monitor your metrics.
Whether you choose to work with an SEO agency or an in-house team, you need to ensure that your efforts are aligned with your on-page SEO activities, your technical SEO tasks, and your overall marketing goals.
Key Takeaways:
Off-Page SEO Overview:
- Focuses on actions outside your website to improve search engine rankings.
- Increases brand visibility, organic traffic, conversions, and sales by enhancing expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Essential Off-Page SEO Techniques:
- Backlinks: Gain links from high-authority sites.
- Brand Mentions: Secure mentions from influencers and industry leaders.
- Guest Blogging: Publish articles on other websites.
- Social Media: Drive traffic and engagement.
- Influencer Marketing: Collaborate with influencers.
On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO:
- Both aim to improve search engine rankings.
- On-page focuses on internal actions (keywords, meta tags).
- Off-page focuses on external actions (link building, brand mentions).
Off-Page SEO Checklist:
- Backlink Analysis: Use tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to audit and compare backlink profiles.
- Linking Strategy: Fix broken links, guest blog, secure unlinked brand mentions, and share expert advice.
- Guest Blogging: Set goals, find reputable sites, pitch ideas, write optimized content, and track results.
- Social Media: Choose the right platforms, create tailored content, ensure quality, engage followers, and run ads.
- Reputation Management: Monitor and respond to reviews, correct misinformation, and encourage positive feedback.
- Local SEO: Optimize for local searches with Google Business Profile, directory listings, reviews, and local influencer partnerships.
- Influencer Outreach: Find relevant influencers, set a budget, define goals, and manage campaigns.
- Forums and Communities: Engage in relevant forums, share valuable content, and include site links.
Tracking SEO Activities:
- Use a checklist to track KPIs: brand searches, backlinks, social media engagement, and local rankings.
