What is Off-Page Search Engine Optimisation?

Off page Search Engine Optimisation is the processes carried out, outside of your website to help it find the right people when they are searching or asking questions online, which your site contains the answer to.

Please remember that this isn’t just a bunch of techniques to try and manipulate the search engines. This is a list of suggestions that will help your site be easier to use and more relevant for the end user.

If you always keep the end users interest at the heart of your ideas then this will be a recipe for success, as this is exactly how search engines also like to behave.

1. Social Networking Sites

Social networking is becoming ever increasingly popular. Often refereed to as Online Reputation Management, becoming part of the vast array of social media sites is a great start to advertising , marketing and developing your online reputation in your field.

Signing up to as many of the biggest social networks, like; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus. Go ahead and begin to create your own profile online. This helps to grow your online network and helps build your online reputation.

Remember though, this is an ongoing process which will require time, effort and thought to maintain activity.

You should look to keep these sites updated at least weekly in order to keep your audience engaged. The more effort and energy you put in the better the results will be.

2. Blogging

Blogging is probably one of the best tools at your disposal for promoting your site online. Giving your visitors a good reason to come to your site and keep returning is key to a successful website, this is where blog writing is incredibly powerful.

Providing you write information that is either interesting or useful ( preferably both!) you can really engage with web users and gain an authority in your field of expertise.

I’d also like to note that with every blog you produce and publish , you are giving search engines another reason to read your website.

The more interest we can gain from search engines, providing we are publishing unique and useful content , will help them to decide on just how visible your site should be.

If writing isn’t your strength then there are plenty of copy writers online who are itching to help businesses like yours. This can work as a great way of getting started.

3. Blog Marketing

This is where you find blogs that are directed at your field and providing your website is able to offer further useful information, then leaving a comment in the comment section with a link to your site is a great idea. These are crawlable sites and are often called “Do Follow blogs”.

4. Forum Marketing

This is where you just get yourself involved in forum communities which revolve around your field of expertise, answering questions and providing useful information with a view to becoming a valued member of the community.

You are best advised to try and find ” Do Follow” forums which will allow you to place a link in your signature which helps search engines crawl your site as a result.

5. Search Engine Submission

This is just the process of submitting your site to all the major search engines , like; Google, Yahoo ,Bing etc.

Each will have their own web master tools to help with this process. Most websites will be naturally indexed over time but this will help the search engines speed up this process.

6. Directory Submission

Although it is thought to have been killed off a little with many search engines trying to ignore the process, we still believe there is a benefit to submitting to niche directories.

Choose your directory and category effectively and it may increase the amount of relevant users who see your website. This can offer slow results, but we still think its a benefit.

7. Social Bookmarking

StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Reddit etc are great places to social bookmark.Just simply post your most recent blogs to these pages. Search engines really like sites of this nature because of just how much content is published and how often too.

Be very wary however oh how you tag your post which is key to how the post his broadcast through out the network. Depending on your level of participation will dictate the level of traffic this generates , obviously the more the better.

8. Link Baiting

Link baiting put simply is the process of writing something of great interest and use , and having other blogs and site then place that content on their site with a link to yours.

This is proving to becoming a fantastic signal to search engines that there is great content to be found on your site and at the same time helping you to achieve great link popularity.

9. Photo Sharing

Photo sharing sites such as; Flickr, photobucket, picasa etc If you have images captured by yourself the these are a great place for you to publish your own images. this will hopefully lead to people commenting and following a link to your site.

10. Video Marketing

Much like Photo Sharing, if you have videos you have created then why not publish these on sites like; Youtube, Vimeo etc, giving people another way to land upon your site.

11. Business Reviews

Ask your clients to write a review of your business in major business review sites like Google Plus, RateitAll, Stylefeeder, etc.

12. Article Submission

If you publish your own content to blogs then submitting them to popular article directories like; Ezine, Go Articles etc. can offer a small benefit, although this is more often than not a slow process it may help you gain relevant links.

Don’t forget there are also many question sites online like for instance yahoo answers , which are a community of their own and quite an active one.

Try and get yourself into a habit of answering question well that you know the answer to. This can be a real benefit not only to the person asking the question , but can also help you build your reputation as an authority in your field.