We’ve talked a lot about what we can do on your own website to build great SEO results, but did you know that there’s a lot you can do ‘off-site’ too?
In other words, this is everything going on outside of your website online to help search engines build a better picture of your product or service. Here are the keys ways you can do this:
1. Link Building
This is getting links from other websites back to your own website. Links are one of the top SEO ranking factors and search engines use them to gauge the relevance of your website. By way of an example, perhaps an online newspaper has written an article about you – you should ensure that wherever they mention you, they are also providing the reader with a link to your own website.
Links can also fall into one of these main categories:
- Internal links – from one of your pages to another, such as ‘click here to view our services’
- Outbound links – links from your website to other website, perhaps you work with a regular partner?
- Inbound links or backlinks – links from other sites to yours
2. Brand Mentions
If you can have just a few people talking about your brand online, then you’re on to a winner! Mentions on social media, through good website content and backlinks mentioned above will all help to build an online reputation for you when it comes to search engines.
3. Influencers
This won’t suit every business and choosing the right influencers can be a time-consuming task. However, you might be familiar with food bloggers (just as an example), they usually have a high social media following of their own or a really well-read online blog. You can usually invite them into your business to try a meal ‘on the house’ in exchange for a review, social media coverage and a blog post all about them. If you’re going down this route, you should ensure you agree fees, freebies and what you get in return up-front. But it could be the start of a blossoming relationship all designed to help your SEO.
4. Social media
Every social media channel has its own preferred content, photos for Instagram, Twitter for expressing opinion, etc. What you should consider here is how you share content across all of the channels that you operate and make it relevant to that audience. The more ways you can share good branded content from your website (perhaps an article about why they should work with you?), then the wider audience you’ll reach beyond just how many likes or followers you have.
5. Email newsletters
An excellent way to create links back to your website! Have you launched some exciting new products? Have you written a new blog post? Then your database of clients are probably keen to hear from you if they’ve signed up to your mailing list. Make sure you fill them with links back to your website to drive that all important engagement.
