Sales & Marketing Playbook
Off-Page SEO:
What it is & Why You Should Do it
Most small business owners have a website and use a digital marketing partner to optimize it for search engines like Google. Search engine optimization (SEO) can be done internally with the help of software like Yext, which offers suggestions for optimizing pages and posts, but having an outside agency handle your on-page SEO (meaning content on your website) can be very helpful with their level of expertise.
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That said, on-page SEO is not the only way to boost your search engine rankings. You can also use off-page SEO to get more organic views of your website and thereby generate more leads.
Since on-page SEO refers to the website that you own, off-page SEO means everything else, including your Google Business Profile (GBP), your social media accounts, ranking sites, local community pages, and websites owned by other visitors.
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While many digital marketing agencies provide off-page SEO services, your team may be better positioned to perform this work, since your employees are on the front lines in working face to face with customers, able to listen to their stories and take photos and video of the moves (with permission). Your team lives in the community, so you know what types of stories will resonate best with your audience, and you have insight into which community websites, radio stations, etc., will have the most impact on your audience. Your staff also should be the ones with the connections to make guest posting happen, with the sales team’s focus on networking with other businesspeople in the area, including referral partners such as senior move managers and real estate agents.
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Use your resources wisely when it comes to SEO; spend your money on having an agency perform the on-page SEO and allocate your time internally to boosting your off-page SEO. Use the below as a blueprint for getting started.
Off-Page SEO
Getting your website up higher in search rankings in a way other than adding content to your site
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Increase the number of (and quality of) links elsewhere on the internet that point to your site through:
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Article marketing / guest posting
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Link building: natural (gained from other sites linking to you without you asking for them), manual (links you’ve intentionally asked for), self-created (links you’ve published in press releases and online directories)
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Social media engagement
Off-Page SEO builds authority, can contribute to keyword rankings, improves click-through rates, and builds brand awareness and reputation, but keep in mind that it is STEP TWO. You have to have a compelling site with interesting content before you start off-page SEO or you won’t have anything to link to – all your efforts will do is create a higher bounce rate.