In the previous chapter, we discussed on-page website optimization, including content. However, success isn’t solely determined by the content that users see in the SERPs or on your website.

Today, we’ll attempt to do a study of what’s going on beyond the borders of your site itself. We’ll talk about a topic that’s equally important: identity. In other words, we’ll look at how to make your company more recognizable on the Internet.

CHAPTER 4: OFF-PAGE SEO

Spotlight: BACKLINKS

Backlinks are exactly what your website needs to become popular and authoritative. 

Backlinks are links to the pages of your website from other websites.

The more good backlinks a website has, the more authoritative and trustworthy it is. Backlinks from websites with a bad reputation: spammy, full of ads, irrelevant and untrustworthy ones are an exception. Backlinks of this nature are harmful. Users will not click on them since they are untrustworthy. Google will decrease your rankings if you don’t disavow them. Webmasters know that backlinks are one of the most important Google ranking factors. Check all of your backlinks, linking domains and their clearness with WebCEO’s Backlink Profile tool. You’ll quickly discover which backlinks are from hazardous pages that are harming your website’s rankings. You can add them to the Google Disavow Links Tool directly from the WebCEO interface.

The WebCEO My Backlinks Tool

The Google Disavow Links Tool allows webmasters to block low-quality websites. This tool is used when spammy and toxic websites link to you. Thanks to WebCEO’s smooth interaction with Google Services you can effortlessly add damaging backlinks to the Google Disavow Links Tool.

When working with backlinks, you must prioritize: proper link building. It’s an important part of gaining authority on the web. The number of backlinks to your site will have a positive impact on the search engine’s “opinion” of it: the more backlinks you have, the more credible your site is. One of Google’s algorithms, Page Rank, examines this.

HOW TO GET MORE BACKLINKS TO A WEBSITE?

Google offers a universal instruction: the better content you create, the more sites will link to you. One more element joins the game: your authority as a specialist. Your reputation plays an important role.

Besides letting webmasters find you themselves and link to you, you can build backlinks using certain strategies and ways to get links. Here is a list of strategies you can use:

  1. Skyscraper Technique
  2. Interviews
  3. Scholarship Campaigns
  4. Link Round-ups
  5. Broken Link Building

Read up on the many more ways to build backlinks that are available inside the WebCEO platform. Use them freely after free signing up to THE WEBCEO SERVICE, where you can garner link building ideas, explore SEO Checklists and guides. 

There are two major backlink data providers: ahrefs and Majestic. WebCEO integrates with Majestic with no additional charges from users. You will get a full profile on your backlinks. 

Backlinks build your reputation among other websites from your niche, show Google how cool you are, and claim your credibility. People come for fresh and unique content. Don’t try to buy cheap irrelevant links because Google doesn’t like it and “Penguin” can recognize them easily. 

Google Penguin is the code name for the Google Algorithm Update which was released in 2012 and focuses on punishing manipulative link building.

The best strategy to obtain links and earn Google’s respect is to get them solely via your content: write well and draw the attention of other webmasters. 

Remember to keep an eye on competitors. You can make use of them to your advantage. Simply examine who links to them and create superior content. With WebCEO’s Competitor Backlink Spy, you can keep track of your competitors’ backlinks and learn everything there is to know about the websites that link to them:

The WebCEO Competitor Backlink Spy Tool

It’s important to monitor all of your backlinks, as well as those of your competitors and your agreement links.

Agreement links are links that you and other webmasters have agreed on.

Monitor such links with WebCEO’s Partner Links Watch Tool which provides statistics on all mutually agreed to links as well as their current status such as if they are still active or have been removed.

The WebCEO Partner Links Watch Tool

Another way to check the status of a link is to use Google Transparency Report:

Google Transparency Report

Spotlight: BRAND MENTIONS AND CITATIONS

Brand mentions are references to your business without a link, for example, the name of your company mentioned in the article. Such a small thing can bring some value and affect your rankings. Google sees and links everything. Furthermore, such mentions boost your popularity on the Internet.

Citations or NAPU (name, address, phone number, and URL) are a way of confirming your identity. Put your name and other details about your business in local directories to give users more information about your firm.

HOW DOES ONE INCREASE THE NUMBER OF BRAND MENTIONS AND CITATIONS?

Popularize Your Brand Name with Outside Activities:

  • Take part in conferences and other types of events on behalf of your company to help people acknowledge your existence and authority;
  • Run active social media campaigns to extend the circle of your followers;
  • Create content for other websites (i.e. guest blogging) and introduce yourself to a brand new audience;
  • Use social bookmarking websites: communicate with members of different communities, make statements about your business, etc;
  • Take part in popular challenges so people will see you under well-known and trendy hashtags;
  • Start your own challenges or auctions to draw attention to your activities and business.

Make Your Citations Work with Local SEO Tools:

The team at this service will submit the information about your company by hand choosing only top-notch websites to get citations from. 

This tool will help you build citations on the most beneficial websites, helping you manage all existing citations and even get rid of duplicated ones. 

Synup will help you manage your local listings and analyze them along with your NAPU data. 

This will help you submit data about your website to different directories and spread your name over the Internet.

NON-SEO PROMOTION: INTERNET MARKETING

Spotlight: SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Posting on social media tends to get you more traffic. It works differently in comparison to SEO practices. With proper optimization, these platforms fulfill their duty well. Nothing will be completed successfully if there are no attempts to make your social media accounts great places for ordinary people who are interested in your services to follow. 

WHAT BENEFITS CAN ONE GET FROM SOCIAL MEDIA?

  1. You are getting easier to find.

On social media keywords (hashtags) are more recognizable than on websites. They are literally everywhere and are not hidden.

A hashtag is a tag that works as a keyword or a key phrase on social media by which people can find posts they are interested in. 

Hashtags are everywhere and are clickable. As a result, any person can click on them and find thousands of posts on the same topic. Your main task is to properly choose hashtags for your posts to reach a wide audience. 

  1. You are using effective advertising. 

A lot of companies who have started business profiles on social media promote their products and get better revenue. This is the right way to use social media platforms. They are highly populated. Ads can give a company a powerful start and set up the right way to make a statement about it on social media. 

  1. You are promoted by real and authoritative people. 

Social media is more about active interaction in comparison to websites. The account owner is involved in constant communication with his or her audience. The public tends to believe this person a lot more than a regular ad. It is a popular practice to ask a blogger to promote your business on his or her account. However, you should take into consideration your niche and target audience, so your product will be seen by relevant eyes. 

  1. You are increasing your brand awareness. 

Updating on social media is easier because you can’t post long-form content there. People chill out on social media. Your main goal is to be fresh, trendy, engaging, and bright. People will notice you and share you. The more frequently you update, the better people will remember and recognize you. The main points to perform:

  • more content (especially images);
  • more interaction with your audience;
  • more cooperation with other brands or bloggers.
  1. People from social media will equal a great amount of traffic to your website as they are always curious about products they like. 
  2. Social media participation can greatly help win the selling game. 

Social media platforms are extremely convenient for commerce. Due to their layout (especially mobile versions), it has become easier to shop and advertise your products. Platforms such as Instagram have created all the needed conditions for such businesses. People appreciate comfortable design and fast feedback from shop masters. Don’t miss your chance. 

 IMPORTANT!  Before starting any activity on social media make time for social media optimization!

Don’t forget to use the WebCEO Social Analytics Tools to be aware of your social media performance and develop a successful social media marketing campaign: WebCEO’s Web Buzz Monitoring Tool will help you keep track of everything that is written about your company or product on Twitter, news websites, or blogs.

The WebCEO Web Buzz Monitoring Tool

WebCEO’s Social Engagement Tool will help you analyze the level of engagement, citations and traffic you will get from social media. 

The WebCEO Social Engagement Tool

WebCEO’s Facebook Insights Tool will help you conduct an in-depth analysis of your Facebook performance, track your rankings over time and develop new strategies for Facebook promotion.

The WebCEO Facebook Insights Tool

Spotlight: EMAIL MARKETING

This method will work if you have a list of emails from people who have agreed to receive newsletters about your products. For example, you have a blog that updates often and you want people to know about each post you’ve made (or the most interesting ones). Maybe, you sell some services and are running a seasonal discount and you want your subscribers to know about it. There are a lot of scenarios you can apply to attract your audience. 

Email marketing can bring a lot to your house. You just need to manage it well. 

WHAT MUST ONE REMEMBER ABOUT EMAIL MARKETING?

  • Think about your customers: don’t overload them with newsletters almost every day because they will find this tiring and annoying. Decide on a time and day which will be a perfect match for your current and potential audience. Conduct research on your customers’ places of living to be aware of time zones and the peak times for emailing. 
  • Think about the type of letters: what appearance they will have and what words you would like to use. The design should be relevant to your website’s style. Your texts should be understandable at any age and entertaining. 
  • Think about an offer you are going to make: it should be interesting and short enough for a person to click on the link and learn even more. 
  • Do not forget about a CTA: your offer has to have a powerful ending so that people will be sure they desperately need to read your new article, browse some of your new products or buy the stuff you sell at a discount. 


Tools to use for Off-page SEO:

The Google Disavow Tool will help you block harmful websites that are linked to you. 

Google Ads (for Google) / Microsoft Advertising (for Yahoo! and Bing) are tools that provide a user with paid advertisements above the organic search results on the SERPs for the specific keywords. 

The Google Safe Browsing Tool will help you learn whether a website is safe or not. 

WebCEO SEO Platform:

The Backlink Profile Group of Tools will help you see and analyze all the domains linking to your website, which of them bring you the most juice, and domains linking to your competitors. You will be able to easily monitor links you have agreed upon with other webmasters.

The WebCEO Social Analytics Group of Tools will help you monitor the results of your social media promotion if you decide to engage in the various non-SEO ways of attracting new audiences to your website. 



CONCLUSION OF THE FOURTH CHAPTER

We’ve gone through the details of how to promote your website and services. Congratulations on completing this section! We’ve already covered half of the distance on our long voyage. We’ll get into more complicated topics in the next sections. Stock up on excellent coffee and food!

See you soon in the next chapter!