Off-site SEO – p2 | on-site vs. off-site optimization

April 24, 2013

On-site SEO, albeit important, is the easy part of online marketing. The more tedious (and expensive) way to grow your website is with off-site SEO.

Once all the on-site SEO work has been completed, you should have a solid website that can be found on search engines, user friendly and with great content.

What’s next?

Instead of waiting for users to find your website, how do you grab your target users and direct them to your website?

Social Media:

Arguably the most effective way to market your website off-site is through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Not long ago did we live in the age of the internet – but now we live in the age of social media.

Generally, most (if not all) of your target users have a Facebook or Twitter account. Your company should be visible to these users by creating and constantly maintaining a social media page. The secret to a successful social media presence is staying active – comment on other company pages, respond to other social media users and post interesting information that people want to read.

Link Building:

Getting your website’s link displayed on other relevant websites shows search engines that you have a very authoritative website – but more than that, it also directs your target users to your website. Make sure the page linking to your website is a relevant with content that compliments your link.

Great places to post links are on relevant forums, directories and blogs. Getting your link displayed on a website that also links off to SPAM is a big no no. This rule also works reversely – make sure you don’t link share with a website that is connected with SPAM.

Blogs and Articles:

Create your own company blog. People love blogs when they are constantly maintained with good quality content. Make sure you are constantly active on your blog, otherwise people will think you don’t care – which will actually hurt your online brand. Two great websites you can use to start your own blog are WordPress and Blogger.

Along with having your own blog, you should also post relevant articles on websites like Buzzle. This will add an authoritative link to your website, as well as provide users with good content that will direct them to your website.

Pay Per Click:

This is the most expensive option, but can also be very effective when executed properly. My two favorite pay per click services are Facebook Ads and Google’s Adwords program. Just like it sounds, you pay a few dollars for every time someone clicks on your ad. Even though this sounds counterproductive, make sure your ads are as specific to get as few clicks as possible. Your goal should not be to get the maximum clicks – it should be to get the maximum conversions. Only target your specific demographic with very specific keywords, so every click will be a new potential client.