Off Page Optimization

Who is Linking To You?

The answer to that question embraces the many aspects of Off Page Optimization. Unlike On Page which is pretty simple and mechanical, Off Page is ever changing, mysterious, ineffable, inscrutable and did I say ever changing? The reason Off Page changes constantly is because Google has to change its algorithm to thwart SEOs and Webmasters who are trying to game the system and manipulate the algorithm.

Its All About The Money

A lot of money is at stake here. If someone figures out how to manipulate the rankings they can mint money! Google is constantly working at keeping the organic rankings on the left side a Meritocracy. This is what Google is all about and why the government is allowing it to run a monopoly breaking a long list of anti-trust laws. Google and its practices are good for the country and the economy. But not so much if a bunch of greedy people are allowed to get the search engine to bring their own businesses up in the rankings when they don’t Merit the placement.

Building Your Linking Profile

Basically your search engine rankings depend on the strength and numbers of incoming links or backlinks. The better quality and more diverse your linking profile, the higher you will go in the SERPs (search engine results pages) If you have a gazillion links coming to your site, Google thinks your site must be very important and a contribution to the community (Meritocracy) and up you go in the rankings. Your link profile should be diverse with links coming from many different sources. Here are a few ways that we get incoming links.

Submit Your Site To Directories

This should come first. Submit your website or blog to the Top Internet Directories. this may cost a bit of money but worth every penny. Borrow from Ganny if you have to. I think the total cost of submitting to all these is about $1,000 but if you don’t do it your site will be far less findable on the web. And don’t forget the blog directories, here is 20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To. Many of these are free.

Article Marketing

Article Marketing is a basic technique for getting inbound links. Basically you write original articles in a very journalistic style and submit them to the Internet Article Directories. When someone needs an article on the subject you wrote about, they take a copy for their usage. The payoff is that each copy of the article you wrote will have a couple of links coming back to your website. So every time your articles get used your link profile is getting fatter and fatter.

Blogging/Social Media Marketing

This is no longer an option, its a must. Google loves to see a blog and when you post regularly and submit your posts to Social Media you go a long way in the meritocracy because you are contributing helpful content to the community. Google counts every post you publish on your blog as a page. So if you can find the time to compose two posts a week you have added 100 pages to your site in a year. Needless to say the content of the posts needs to be top drawer as Google can tell if its useless baloney. They have a BS meter in their algorithm so write content you are proud of and really helps the reader gain something valuable about whatever subject you are writing about.

Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal Linking was all the rage back in 2005 but has recently been devalued quite a bit by Google because, you guessed it, SEOs and Webmasters were overusing reciprocal linking with spammy links and link farms which are just pages with hundreds of links. Reciprocal Linking still works to expand your link profile but its important to link to services that compliment your niche. Only accept reciprocal linking requests if you have determined you can’t get a one way link from them. If they insist you link back to them make sure the link goes to a product or service your readers are likely to need. Your readers are likely to welcome the link to a related product or service in your niche. Make a special page for “Related Services” or “Other Helpful Services”

One Way Inbound Links Are The Most Powerful Links

And of course the hardest to get. Always try to get a company to link to you without you linking back. How you do this may take some imagination. Particularly valuable are .GOV or .EDU inbound links. Try to strike a deal if you can, just don’t get caught buying links. Google will come crashing down on your head. You may see many offers from outfits like http://www.textlinkbrokers.com/. Many SEOs will argue with me but buying these links is definitely playing fast and loose I don’t recommend using these, certainly not for a business I cared about. If Google catches you buying links you could find yourself on page 5 for a while. Google is already working on a search and destroy mission with purchased links. After all, you can’t buy merit. It might work for a while but in this ever changing eco-system that is the internet Google will figure out how to penalize those who buy links.

Fact: Creating Rankings Takes Time

Sure, you can rank for your keywords quickly (within a couple of weeks to a couple of months) for what we call low hanging fruit keywords, i.e., keywords that are less competitive and easy to rank for but typically have less search volume.

However, knocking out the more competitive broad level key phrases (which have millions of websites competing for them) takes time. How much time it will take to reach page one depends on two things (1) your competition and (2) your own website’s authority (meaning how authoritative or useful it is) which is decided by (a) the quality and volume of content on the subject present in the site and (b) how many other websites link to or cite your website.

“Popular keywords are more expensive
and more competitive than any other keywords”.

This is the unspoken truth of SEO and the primary most critical metric challenging anyone involved in an SEO campaign, particularly if the keywords they are targeting are “the most popular keywords” in a vast potential cluster of keywords that could all actually deliver traffic, sales or results.

SEO Services Company can do all your Off Page Optimization. We have a staff of 15 writers and linkbuilders who can build out your linking profile without you quitting your job to do it. Give us a try and like our guarantee says, if we don’t get you first page rankings we will just give you your money back.

Additional Reading:

The SEO-SEM Advantages Of Frequent Blogging

Boost Your SEO Using Social Media

For more information call Jeff Persons – 617-512-3443