Why is winning friends and influencing people such an important skill these day? In their shift from ‘on-page’ to ‘off-page’ factors being the determining influence on search engine ranking, the search engines are taking search engine optimisation (SEO) and relevance factors beyond the direct control of web masters and SEO professionals, placing them in the hands of third parties, other website owners, SEO experts and marketers. It’s not how you see your site that’s important, it’s the assessment of your site’s worth by others that really influences relevance and subsequent rankings.

Their measure of worth? Top of the list is links. Who provides them, how many you receive, how they are labelled and where they go on your site. Google says, “In general, web masters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages”.

How are links generated? Through a combination of strong website site development incorporating powerful, fresh content, structure and keyword analysis with an active, ethical and creative ‘off-page’ SEO. Compelling websites inspire high quality inbound links, and it’s the role of SEO professionals to nurture the site then let the world know about it in the process evolving a strong inbound link base. As the weight of links from authoritative and trusted sites builds, so PageRank and search engine rankings increase.

Off-page optimisation is the process of improving website ranking through factors NOT located on the webpage.

There are numerous off-page factors included in search engine algorithms including:

• The number of websites providing inbound links.
• The Google Page Rank of the websites providing inbound links.
• The theme and subject matter of the providing inbound links
• The page title of the webpage providing inbound links.
• The anchor text used linking to you.
• The number of outbound links on the website that is linking to you.
• Total number of links on the website linking to you.
• Trust, rank and authority enjoyed by the website linking to you.
• The IP Address of the websites linking to you.

Knowing the destination and what needs to be achieved is one thing. Having a clear and knowledgeable method by which to get there is another. Fortunately SEO Consult apply a dedicated team of ‘off-page’ SEO specialists to help develop the ‘off-page’ component in our client’s SEO and web marketing campaigns. We closely integrate our ‘off-page’ marketing efforts with the ‘on-page’ side of the campaign, aligning and factoring in keywords and keyword phrases as well as addressing appropriately themed link partners.

With a new site or campaign, it’s important to engage in a link building campaign to build exposure and profile. As sites mature, developing more content and establishing a foothold in an industry or community, other sites will start linking without solicitation. There are numerous ethical link methods that we employ to generate traffic and build SEO listings at the outset to get a reputation up and running. It is, however wise to continue optimisation as an ongoing basis. Link development is a long-term process and evolves over time. The Internet is a dynamic environment and what might once have been strong authority links may change diminish in value. It’s sensible to protect against situations like this and keep ahead of the game.

Most links are good, though some are better than others. Preferable to a large volume of links is quality – you’ll need some link juice. ‘Link Juice’ refers to the quality of links that a website has to it, and plays a vital role in getting better ranking for the website. Listed below are just a number of strategies that we employ to develop our client’s online profiles and reputations.

Article Submission

One of the most effective methods to attract high quality inbound links is by developing well-written, interesting, informative and optimised articles. A tried and tested component of SEO and search engine marketing, when applied properly they can have very powerful and long-term benefits. Often articles will remain ‘live’ on line far longer than press releases or news, and can prove essential in generating links, boosting search engine rankings, establishing new prospects and delivering targeted traffic direct to your site.

Project-specific keywords are mapped to articles in the same way as they are applied to content titles, subtitles and body copy.

Blogging - An incredibly powerful way to promote your website. Freshly updated, highly relevant content - concise and precise. People like people, and people become passionate about passion. Blogs can reveal a human side to an organisation. If people can care about and genuinely empathise with you, then they will naturally share their experience of you. Online this often equates to lots of juicy inbound links. At SEO Consult we like to integrate compelling, engaging, relevant and intelligent content, to share information, tips, advice, wisdom and opinion. We encourage participation and attempt to establish authority in your given subject area turning your blog into a resource for others.

Internal Linking – sounds a little ‘on-page’, but strong internal linking using appropriate anchor text is as powerful a factor of Google PageRank algorithm as inbound links. Just look at Wikipedia’s search listings! The themed anchor text factor is also particularly relevant when it comes to inbound links as well.

Link exchanging - Many web site masters will be happy to link to your site if it is thematically similar, has quality content and is useful to their audience. If you respect their site, solicit a link and reciprocate. Be sure to format your requested link to conform to the format published on the target link page, and apply your key phrases whenever descriptions are published next to links.

Keyword-rich anchor text from related authority sites work wonders for off-page optimisation. Thematic Link Exchange with service-related sites that can also help increase your link popularity and Google PageRank, though stay clear of exchanging with Black-Hats.

RSS news feeds - publish company news though RSS syndication. Other websites pick up the RSS feed and publish your news story (which can include a link back to your site, of course).

Directory Submission is considered one of the most important and basic marketing strategies of online marketing, providing an effective and rapid way to get new links to a site – ‘link juice’. Its effect is largely dependent on how well you select the directory and category. Results aren’t necessarily rapid, but quality and paid directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, ZoomInfo, One Mission and Pegasus offer solid long-term benefits.

Contact us now to discuss our complete range of ethical, off-page SEO – a surefire way to generate additional high quality traffic and search engine profile for your site.