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Finally! Your website is “on fleek,” your pages are getting crawled. Everything seems to be on track, but your site is still not ranking.
Why? You have done NOTHING but work hard on having a fully optimized website. Well, my friend, that could be the exact reason.
Your existence as a person is not limited to your house, neighborhood, and city. In the same way, the presence of your brand online is not confined only to your website. Your business has to expand through different channels beyond your site’s URL to get the exposure it needs.
While most use Google or any other search engine to look for a business, that’s not the only source at a user’s disposal. Your potential customers can find you in other places (i.e. web directories, social media, etc.), which means you must set your brand in those places too. This is where Off-Page SEO comes into play.
Master Listing: Google My Business
In a world where most online searches are done through Google, using their listing platform to build your brand is essential.
Google My Business will place your business all over the Google platform including Search, Local Search, Maps, and Google Plus. This will make it easy for their crawler to understand that your website is related to a business and that it serves a specific area, which you will show up for.
Besides a 4-in-1 listing, Google My Business provides insights regarding the number of views, clicks, website visits, phone clicks you receive and also manages reviews that you can read and reply to.
By the way, did I mention it was free?
Use Social Media To Connect With Your Audience
1.19 billion internet users are on Facebook – you are probably one of them. It is the 2nd most visited website in the United States. If your business is not yet on Facebook, what are you waiting for?
With that kind of reach, there is no doubt it will increase the popularity of your brand and connect with the people that “like” you. Just like Google My Business, Facebook pages offer insights that help you better approach your clients, as well as manage reviews.
Oh, and it’s free, too.
Get your business promoted in 140 characters or less, share relevant content from your website via Cards – all to create a closer connection with your target audience.
Start using #hashtags where they were first created and set new trends. You could even go viral.
This is what Twitter says: “With hundreds of millions of users and over 500 million Tweets being sent each day, there is a great opportunity for businesses to reach a global audience of new and existing customers.”
A company page on LinkedIn is a great way to connect with a specific set of users. Business professionals, potential partners, and other brands make their way to LinkedIn for the same reason. If you are a B2B company, this is the place to be.
Depending on your target audience and industry, you may want to look into other social networks as well, such as Instagram o Pinterest.
Instagram allows you to tell a story through visuals. Use it to give a personal approach to your business. Show your product or service in action by posting short videos or stunning photos.
A great example of how your brand can benefit from this outlet and one of my personal favorites is Sugru. This company uses its account to present its products in a fun, more personable way, give tips for product usage and promote the latest offers.
Is your business into fashion, art, design, real estate, or does it have a lot of visuals? Then you should be pinteresting.
Think of Pinterest as a way to make your brand fit into your customer’s life. According to Pinterest, “66% of pinners (myself included) reported that they use the platform to save and collect the things that inspire them.” You can also use it to identify new trends in the fields of fashion, home, garden, food, and design.
Your Business On Local Listings or Local Directories
Listings place your business with other important pieces of information such as your phone number, address, website, or a combination of them. Due to its relevance, appearing in a directory related to your industry can help you with your online rankings.
There are many listings available, but not all may fit your particular industry. Selecting the right platform will attract the type of customers you are waiting for. This tool from Moz will help you with that task.
One of the things you should keep an eye on is the listings that report user reviews, as those are a huge selling point for your business.
Earn Trust By Earning Links
Backlinks come from other sites directing their visitors to specific pages on your website for more information. Through this, your brand gets more recognition from search engines.
A solid backlink profile will help your business become more authoritative and rule the search results page. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, “a good backlink profile makes your website more authoritative as this means that your pages are relevant enough for other sites to link to them.”
Proceed with caution, though. A lot of black-hat tactics and misleading tips are available online. Google has penalty algorithms to flag websites that use these and remove them from search results. If you want to get links, get them the right way.
On-Page and Off-Page: The SEO Bros
While on-page SEO enhances your website’s “crawlibility” from search engines, off-page SEO makes your site (and your brand) visible to everyone else. If you want to have a successful strategy, these two have to work together.
Do you know any other ways of building an off-page presence? Share them with us.
