2024 Off Page SEO Strategy. How Accurate is Yours?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing the website to push it up in SERPs. It can be divided into two areas, on-page optimization and off-page optimization. While on-page optimization involves anything to do with the changes to the website, off-page SEO strategy involves the tactics outside the scope of the website.

Many in the SEO world consider off-page synonymous to link building but they have to realize that it goes much beyond that. Let us delve into what matters the most in off-page and why, before diving into the strategy one has to undertake in 2024.

Off page optimization is about the number of times you are mentioned by others, with or without a hyperlink to your website. Though all the mentions from websites of any quality comes under off page optimization, getting a reference from a website with authority higher than yours will serve the purpose by returning maximum on your investment. But why do you need to look for the links/mentions?

Why Backlinks and Brand Mentions Matter

Expertise

Imagine you are a start-up looking for some advice on raising funds, your hunt will be for a CEO or founder of a successful start-up rather than an employee in some organization. Similarly, Google or any search engine scouts for experts when it needs to find answers to a query. The label expert is conferred on a website based on several on-page factors and how many high-quality websites refer their visitors to your website. Google’s search quality raters evaluate a website based on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness), rating on Expertise depends on the quality and quality of backlinks and brand mentions to your website. These mentions and backlinks are important as they signal search engines that a high-quality website finds your content valuable and supportive to your visitors.

Visibility

Visibility is one of the most crucial factors for any business whether online or offline. The goal of every brand in the world is to fall in the eyes of its potential customer. Brands without deep pockets to spend on advertising find it difficult to gain that visibility. Backlinks and mentions are here to rescue such brands. Making a room for yourself on the website which has higher number of visitors than yours will help you get a share from their visitors. This can happen only when they advocate for your brand by referring their visitors to yours. This visibility helps you increase the visits and also engagement on your website.

Off-Page Techniques and Strategies for 2024

Link Building

Influencer Outreach

Gone are the days where websites submit their links in hundreds of websites. We are in a phase where scoring 50 against tough opponents is highly valuable than 200 against weak opponents. 20 high quality backlinks are much valuable compared to 100 low quality backlinks. Influencers and industry experts are those who have been in the industry since sometime and has a robust understanding of the industry. Securing a vote from these people can help you improve authority.

Steps for Influencer Outreach

1. Research on the industry analysts. This can be done through identifying authors in top industry blogs and research publications.
2. Prioritize the analysts based on their expertise and influence.
3. Every analyst has a specific way of writing and working, so customize the engagement channel and messaging based on their style.
4. Engage with the analysts on a regular basis to build rapport, send updates and request for a mention about your brand.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is writing a blog or article on someone’s website. The benefits of this technique are multi-fold. This helps you tap the audience of a website other than yours, establish yourself as an expert and generate a backlink to your website. Many websites offer a backlink to your website in exchange to valuable content provided for free.

Here are the steps to become a guest blogger or guest author.

1. Identify the list of websites accepting guest authors by searching on Google using the following searches
   • Keyword + Guest Blogging
   • Keyword + Write for Us
   • Keyword + Become a Contributor
   • Keyword + Contributor
2. Make a list of blogs based on their authority and reach.
3. Reach out to them about your interest to become a guest author. Include a sample article

Forums and Q&A Websites

Forums and Q&A websites are great channels to gain visibility and also generate backlinks. These are the destination to anyone facing with some professional issue. If your product or service can resolve the issue you can make preparations to welcome a lead. If that is not the case and if you have content which can help them in guiding to the solution, you can leave the page link. You have to remember that you don’t have to leave a link always, you can just provide any kind of supporting information. A genuine help will work in many ways, not all conversations need to target link generation.

Publishing Research Content

Why do you have to chase the websites? For a change, make them find you. This can happen when you publish research content which is worth sharing. Ensure that the content is very well researched and relevant to the current industry trends.

Social Media

One of the major off-page strategy for 2024 is social media engagement. Not just post once or twice a day, engage with the audience by responding to their comments and addressing their queries. The engagement part is applicable on other companies’ social media pages also. Engaging in conversations on analyst pages helps you to be identified as an expert and on competitor pages it helps their followers recognize you as an alternative to the service/product your competitor is offering.

Many websites still fall prey to the agencies which sell link building packages by believing the widespread SEO myths. The number of links generated for a specific price seems attractive, but they not only ruin the brand image but also create unnecessary task to stop links being created on mirror websites. Off page optimization strategy if created by putting quality at the center of it can do wonders.

Let me know how your strategy has been working for you.