We understand it seems counter intuitive that SEO success depends mainly on what happens off your page, but alas; it’s true. Search engines have been weighing the value of off-page aspects more heavily as this is a much simpler way to find out to determine the authenticity and value of a page.

Think about it, doesn’t it make so much sense that the search engines think this way? If you have numerous reputable sites saying that your page has a certain kind of content, this is a hundred times more credible than you claiming that about your own site.

Heavy use of off-page factors to regulate page ranking is vital for search engine users who are trying to find useful and relevant information. However, for a baby website, it can be a huge downfall on the way to SEO success. One can set up on-page factors in just a day, but getting those off-page factors to the level you want will take much more time. But fear not, with some determination and elbow grease, you can achieve the page rank you deserve using the following tactics.

Quick NavigationInbound Traffic & BacklinksRelevance of Linked TextLink AgeWhat Can You Do?Building ProfilesBloggingPressAvoid These ThingsMeasuring ProgressWhat Should I SeeKeyword Inbound Traffic IncreaseGeneral Traffic IncreaseLowered Bounce RateBring On The CustomersDon’t Give Up!

Inbound Traffic & Backlinks

In search engine algorithms, backlinks are very important on account that they determine credibility for your site. You should jump on any opportunity you have to be linked from a credible site.

When your site has been linked, there are a few things search engines consider:

Relevance of Linked Text

What’s more important than the actual link, is the text that the link is attached to. Many content creators use “learn more here”, or “click here” to link text. When you use these ambiguous text to link it doesn’t benefit your SEO as much as if the link was on a word or a phrase that directly describes what’s being linked.

For example, let’s pretend you have a page on how to care for small dogs. Here are two ways you could link to that page:

• Click here to discover more tips on training, feeding and taking care of small dogs.
• Taking care of a small dog is the best thing you will ever do.

Any time you can, try and make sure that people are linking to your page in the most efficient way they can. Your page ranking will be forever thankful.

Link Age

If the link has been around forever are given more emphasis than brand new links. According to search engines, links that are over 3 months old are much more credible than new ones.

What Can You Do?

There are several things you can do to up the amount of inbound links to your page. Some are super easy, while some are more challenging.

Building Profiles

Links from directories and profile pages you may have set up on various social networks are an awesome idea when accumulating backlinks. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google Places are all an absolute must.

There also exists a handy tool called namechk.com that enables you to look for your favoured username amongst many social platforms and directories. The best thing about it is you can register as many as you feel are relevant. Use it!

Depending on what industry you’re in, that are generally lots of directories that could be worth your while. Some of them are paid, like Angie’s List. But with others it’s free to get a listing, but you may need to e-mail the site moderator.

Blogging

It takes a lot of effort to create and run a successful blog. The creator must write unique content and keep blog posts interesting, getting users to actually read them as well as link to you can be a huge challenge! However, a compelling blog tactic is an amazing way to improve your SEO skills and boost your inbound links.

Writing guest posts for other blogs in your industry can also be a very useful blog tactic. Blogs seem to always be looking for new content and new contributors, which means there is a lot of opportunity to plug your business! It is pretty much expected in these cases. make sure you link back to your site in an appropriate way that supports your SEO strategy.

Press

Another great way to get reputable backlinks is from press. Connect with people at your local newspaper, news station, or any and all relevant industry publication. The press is almost always interested in new content, concepts and stories. The key to getting press is to approach them with an idea you believe will get their readers interested, and at the same time promote your business.

Let’s say you own a pet store. What about approaching your local newspaper with a story on the increase in animals up for adoption and how this relates to our present economic struggles. Make sure you actually read and get to know the publications that you’re interested in connecting with. This way you can get an idea of what kinds of content they consider newsworthy and figure out how to pitch your story at a comparable importance level.

Avoid These Things

You might think that the easiest way to acquire a series of backlinks, is to buy them. This is actually referred to as “link-farming”, which is technically considered a method of tricking the search engine algorithms. If you choose this method, you run the risk of getting disciplined by the search engines. “Link-farming” is completely different from SEM, as SEM is a reasonable method of buying links to your site.

Measuring Progress

Much like anything you’re trying to improve, it’s so important to keep track of your progress. This is very easy to do, thanks to the Google Analytics tool. It’s free, it’s available to anyone, it’s easy, it comes with it’s own analytics package, and it is very much a vital tool in measuring your progress. The approach you take in acquiring data is not what’s most important here, it’s how you gather and monitor it.

What Should I See

In the case that you’ve been successful, and carried out various of the focus areas we went over at the beginning of this guide, there are many things you might start to notice in your analytics.

Keyword Inbound Traffic Increase

Given the keywords you optimized for, you may notice your analytics report showing much more traffic coming through your site. In the case that it’s been several weeks and you have not noticed an substantial growth, you might want to consider rethinking your SEO strategy. Perhaps your keywords are not being used to their optimal potential, maybe the keywords you chose are too common and therefore too competitive, or it could even be that you need to work more on getting more of those backlinks.

General Traffic Increase

The overall traffic to your site should escalate from new backlink traffic as well as keyword searches that result in more visits to your page.

Lowered Bounce Rate

The bounce rate is determined by how many users visit your site and then leave immediately after. If you have an appropriate SEO strategy, the users are more prone to be interested in your content, and therefore stay on your page. The next step is getting more customers, and a lowered bounce rate is very vital for this step.

Bring On The Customers

For small businesses, this step is what SEO strategy’s are all about. It’s the goal in creating your website, and the reason you optimize for those search engines. You should be asking your customers (or trying to figure this out with the help of analytics); how they found you. Nothing compares to the feeling of knowing your customers found you due to your SEO strategy. Those customers are alert, and were also rather inexpensive to market to!

Don’t Give Up!

If you’re not seeing immediate success and results, don’t worry! SEO strategizing takes lots of effort, and also requires some fine-tuning off the bat to find you reaching your maximum ability. The trick is the keep on keepin’ on, and acknowledging your successes when your SEO tactics come through, even on a small scale. Continue learning and hustling and the big results are sure to come!

Managing the data of short-tail and long-tail keywords can be challenging at scale. Linkio.com is like a J.A.R.V.I.S. (stands for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System) that gives you the exact link building game plan for any target webpage

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