Because of the importance of links in Google’s algorithm, link building should be the foundation of any off-page SEO strategy. However, it is important to understand how you should go about approaching link building as an off-page tactic in order to be successful.

One of the most important objectives of off-page SEO is to increase the authority of your company. Inbound links from authoritative websites help to establish your own website as an authority — they serve as a vote of confidence from one site to the next.

Obtaining high-quality links from authoritative websites should be the primary goal of any link-building campaign. It is always preferable to prioritise quality over quantity. It is critical to understand the nature of the link gap that exists between your own website and that of your competitors.

The act of link building as an off-page strategy, however, entails a little more than simply targeting authority websites (note: it is not easy to get authority sites to link to another, but with the right approach, it is absolutely possible).
The following are the three most important factors to consider when it comes to link building:

Authority

Hopefully, by this point, you have a better understanding of why the authority of links is so important. Using our own proprietary metric — Authority Score — you can determine the authority of any website from which you are interested in earning a link, as well as the authority of links that currently point to your domain. How does AS work and what does it measure, you might wonder.

The Authority Score is a composite domain score that grades the overall quality of a website and indicates how influential a backlink from that website can be. The following SEMrush data was used to calculate the score:

-The quantity and quality (authority) of backlinks pointing to a domain.

-The number of referring domains and the number of referring IP addresses.

-The difference between follow and nofollow links.

-Search engine traffic derived from organic search (from our Organic Positions report).

-The number of people who use the service (from our Traffic Analytics report).

Use the Backlink Analytics tool to gain insight into the authority score of current links and see how they relate to each other. On the ‘backlinks’ tab, you can see all of your site’s links, as well as their associated authority scores:

You will notice that the authority score is displayed in the first column header ‘Page AS.’ The higher the score, the greater the authority of the linked page is.

But what about when you’re looking for new links to build?

It is possible to run any domain through the Backlink Analytics tool, and the tool will display the AS for that domain, rather than just the AS for the domain linking to it. This information can be found on the domain’s overview tab

The goal of link building should be to obtain links from sites with a high Authority Score, and with the data available from these tools, you can incorporate this information into your prospecting process.

Unique Domains Linking
One of the most important indicators of link building success is the number of linking root domains that point to your website, which is even more important than the number of backlinks. Several studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between the number of linking domains and higher search engine rankings. As part of your overall strategy, you should place a strong emphasis on domain diversity.

The referring domains tab of the Backlink Analytics tool allows you to see the total number of unique domains that have linked to your site in the past.

 Website Topic Relevance

Always strive to obtain links from websites that are related to your own in terms of topical alignment. To give an example, if you run a travel website, you should strive to have the vast majority of the links that you earn come from other travel websites, such as blogs, online publishers (such as Lonely Planet), tourism boards, and other similar organisations. It makes perfect sense.

Sites typically link to other sites that cover a similar topic, rather than sites that are unrelated to the topic. Having said that, it is acceptable to have some links that originate from other topics if they are natural and make sense; however, the majority of the links should be closely related to the topic at hand.

The question is, what are the specific tactics that you can employ in order to build and earn authority links.

Check out our comprehensive guide to link building strategies that work in 2020 to gain a thorough understanding of the tactics that you could employ, but some of our favourites are as follows:

1. Public relations on the internet
2. Brand Mentions That Aren’t Connected
3. Creating a network of resource links
4. Newsjacking

Having said that, there are a variety of effective tactics you can employ to build high-quality links, and diversifying your link profile should be a primary goal of your efforts.

It is now widely acknowledged that Google rewards businesses for their efforts.
Furthermore, brand building activities should be a key component of not only your overall SEO and marketing strategy, but also of your approach to off-page SEO. And, once again, it all contributes to the development of your online authority, which benefits both users and search engines.
But how does brand building interact with your SEO strategy, and what are the key metrics for measuring success in brand building?

Searches for a Brand

An increase in brand searches is perhaps one of the most powerful indicators that you are progressing in the development of your brand.
More information about this topic can be found in our #SEMrushchat transcript.
This could include searches for your company’s name, products, or a domain name, among other things.
To see how your branded searches have evolved over time, go to the Keyword Overview tool and enter your company’s name in the search field. A ‘trends’ box will appear, which will show you how search volumes have changed over the course of the previous month.

Brand searches for the latest trends
To keep track of how much interest there is in your brand, you should also check Google Trends.
Enter your brand name once more to see how interest has changed over time; you can go back as far as 2004 to see how interest has changed.
Google’s search trends for brands are depicted in the graph below.
There is another reason why it is so important to concentrate on brand-building efforts, and that is because brand SERPs are so important.

What exactly are brand search engine results pages? These are the search results that appear when someone searches for your company’s name on the internet.

According to Jason Barnard’s writing…

“Search queries for your brand name in the search engine results pages (SERPs) are critical touch-points for both people and machines, and are therefore absolutely critical to your business.

You should be tracking, evaluating, and improving your results on a consistent basis.”

At first glance, these may appear to have only a reputational impact; however, there is a significant SEO consideration as a result of this. Barnard goes on to say:

According to Google, “the first 2-3 pages of results for the search query Brand + review indicate how well Google understands your brand, and the first 2-3 pages of results for the search query Brand + review indicate how well Google understands your credibility.”

Jason Barnard is a writer who lives in the United States.

It is because of this that brand-building efforts assist Google in determining your credibility, which is why it has become such an important off-page SEO strategy. When you establish a brand, you will discover that you will naturally earn links and mentions across the web, even if you do not take any proactive steps to achieve this goal.

When we think of content marketing, it’s all too easy to think of it as a one-dimensional on-page SEO tactic — that is, the creation and publication of content that is only visible on your own website — and nothing more.

However, when viewed as a whole, content marketing encompasses both on-page and off-page strategies and tactics. Creating and publishing excellent content on your own website is only one aspect of content marketing; any content that you create and distribute anywhere on the internet falls under the category of content marketing.

In the event that you decide to write a guest post, you are engaging in content marketing. Is it possible to publish an infographic that is linked to by a major newspaper? That is what content marketing is all about.

In addition to the fact that great, engaging assets are created, content marketing as a tactic has the advantage of making it easier to concentrate on off-page factors. And this is typically derived from the promotion of the content that you are producing — publishing excellent, engaging assets that others will want to share and link to in their own websites.

The following are examples of content marketing tactics that are effective for promoting the development of off-page signals:

• Posts on a blog
• Infographics
• Surveys, studies, and research papers are all types of research.
• Whitepapers and e-books are useful resources.

Content marketing, as a strategy, is intricately intertwined with link building, social media, and public relations, and it also contributes to the development of your brand.

Simply put, if you have a fantastic piece of content, you should share it with others. Using our Content Marketing Toolkit, you can not only discover popular topics that are gaining traction online, but you can also identify the most relevant industry media to promote your content.

Acquire backlinks from high-quality websites,with the help of Semrush Link Building

Try it for Free if you like it.

For a long time, public relations and search engine optimization (SEO) were considered two completely separate marketing disciplines; however, in recent years, the lines have blurred and the two have become more integrated.
Because it is the most effective way to earn high-quality authority links at a large scale, digital PR has become the link-building tactic of choice for many SEOs. The promotion of a great storey and the associated linkable assets can be accomplished through the use of public relations tactics, which can result in significant volumes of links.

In fact, according to a recent study, the average campaign earns links from between 10 and 24 different linking domains on a consistent basis.

PR contributes to off-page SEO signals in a variety of ways other than simply by assisting in the creation of links. A successful public relations campaign can also accomplish the following:
Increase brand awareness and the number of brand searches that result as a result.

It brings your company’s name in front of your target audience and encourages them to talk about you.

Referral traffic is increased as a result of this.It establishes you as a thought leader in your field and aids in the development of trust signals.

However, while local SEO is an entire discipline of search engine optimization in and of itself, there are certain elements that are important off-page SEO tactics — two of which are Google My Business and citations.

Google My Business is a free service provided by Google.
Google My Business is extremely important for almost any local business’s online presence, and it is easy to forget that optimising your page and getting it to appear in the map pack is actually off-page SEO (search engine optimization off-page).

Keep in mind that Google+ is not your own website, and that any efforts that are directed at anything other than your own website are considered off-page.
Apparently, 46 percent of all Google searches are for local information, and four out of five consumers use search engines to find local information, according to a recent report. It is a simple fact of life that if your company’s name does not appear among the local GMB results, one of your competitors will.

See our comprehensive guide to Google My Business for 2020 to learn the best practises for optimising your listing and how to make the most of the platform as part of your overall off-page strategy. Interested in learning more about Google My Business?

Citations

A citation is a mention of your business on the internet that typically references not only your business name but also your NAP (name, address, and phone number) (name, address, and phone number). Consider them to be similar to business directories.

Because citations are considered to be one of the most important off-page ranking factors, if you are a local business trying to rank for geographically targeted search terms both on the standard SERPs and as part of the map pack, you simply cannot ignore the importance of citations.
However, consistency is one of the most important aspects of citation success.
Citations that are not consistent with one another demonstrate a lack of coherence, and it is critical that you take the time to ensure that all of your NAP references are consistent.

It is possible to use our Listing Management Tool to audit your citations, identify new business opportunities, eliminate duplicates, and manage reviews.
Statistics for the Citation Listing Management Tool

It is the year 2020, and we live in a world where social media comes first. To be more specific, 97 percent of digital consumers have used social media during the previous month.

Social media has played a significant role in the way we, as consumers, interact with the internet and seek answers to our questions. Consider the following: social media platforms are being used as a type of search engine (or answer engine as we are often now referring to them as).
And let’s be clear about something: social shares are not a ranking factor in and of themselves.

Remember to think of social media platforms as search and discovery platforms, and to recognise that having a strong social media presence can help you get in front of potential clients and customers who are looking for answers to their questions or who are looking to engage with relevant brands on the social networks that they are currently utilising
Social media is also frequently used as a platform for providing customer services

A customer wishes to communicate with your company in order to raise a query or question? The majority of your customers will contact you via social media as their first point of contact.

It is critical that you maintain a strong presence on social media, communicate professionally, and treat social media as a separate brand channel that both existing and potential customers will discover at some point during their sales journey.

As an off-page SEO tactic, you may be surprised to learn that forums are recommended. Why?

Because for years, SEOs have spammed forums, comments, and other user-generated content (UGC) platforms in order to generate links (as a way to build not very good links).

As a result, many people’s attention has been drawn away from forums entirely. But, let’s go back to one point: off-page SEO is about much more than just links, as we’ve seen.

When used as part of a larger marketing strategy, forums can add significant value to your overall marketing strategy. Instead of approaching forums (including both niche forums that are specific to your vertical and larger platforms such as Quora and Reddit) as a means of building links, approach them with a different mindset in mind.

Consider using forums as a way to get directly involved in conversations that are relevant to your expertise, to position yourself as an expert, and to quickly rise to the position of being recognised as a specialist or an expert in your field.
Rarely do you have the opportunity to engage in open discussions with potential customers who are already asking questions about what you have to offer, and this is a fantastic way to begin building relationships and trust with your customers.


With a little time and effort, you can relatively quickly establish a strong community and a high level of trust among your target audiences on discussion forums. Although large-scale platforms such as Reddit and Quora are important, forums specific to your niche can be just as effective.
In recent years, forums have seen a decline in popularity, making it more likely that your competitors will not be present, which makes it much easier to cut through the clutter of other conversations.

Influencer marketing will take on a variety of shapes and forms in the year 2020. If you go back a few years, the strategy was all about bloggers writing sponsored posts for brands. Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are the most popular social media platforms today.

If you are planning to use influencer marketing to build links, make sure that the links are nofollowed first. Links within sponsored content are in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

There’s a recurring theme here: off-page SEO isn’t just about building links.

Influencer marketing has the potential to be a fantastic tool for growing your brand, amplifying your content, and reaching new audiences.

We’ve already talked about how social media sites can function as search engines in their own right. Despite the fact that they are used in a different way than Google, they are a type of search engine in which users are actively looking for content to consume.

It is possible for influencers to go a long way toward ensuring that your company is present on these platforms as a result of their efforts.

The use of events in marketing strategies is making a comeback, and, believe it or not, they can contribute to the success of your off-page SEO strategy as well.
The number of online events, such as webinars, is increasing at an alarming rate, and they can be extremely beneficial in terms of building your company’s brand.

Not only will they assist you in engaging your audience, but you will also benefit from a genuine buzz surrounding your company, which will drive social engagement and even links to your website and blog.

Is it possible to host your event through Meetup.com? This is yet another search engine for local niche meet-ups and social gatherings.

Do not, under any circumstances, rule out the use of events in your marketing strategy in 2020. Certainly, they require a significant amount of effort to run properly, but the buzz they generate is difficult to replicate in other ways. They are also a fantastic way to garner some excellent public relations coverage.

Guest posting, when done correctly, can contribute significantly more to your marketing strategy than simply serving as a link-building tool — it is all about writing as a guest for someone else’s website and providing value and information to their audience, not just building links.

However, there is no denying that it continues to be one of the most widely employed link-building strategies, as demonstrated by our 2019 study of 850 SEO specialists, which found it to be the most effective strategy.
Analyze the link-building strategy

When done correctly, guest posting can assist you in putting your brand in front of a targeted audience, sending targeted traffic, and establishing yourself as an authority in your field of expertise.

Furthermore, the reality is that links should not be the sole reason for guest posting; rather, they should be considered an added bonus if they do occur.

It is important to remember that your primary goal in guest posting should be to reach a new audience, get in front of the traffic of a related site, and build your brand. When you approach the tactic with this frame of mind, you will discover that it can be extremely beneficial.

At the moment, podcasts are wildly popular, and their audience is growing by the month, according to the latest figures. As a result, 44 percent of Americans have listened to a podcast at least once in their lives, with 73 million Americans listening to them on a monthly basis.

They are extremely important, and if you are not incorporating them into your marketing strategy, you could be missing out on significant opportunities and revenue. Keep in mind that podcasting is a labour of love; see this guide for more information on what it entails.

Let us take a look at the advantages:

The fact that the majority of businesses are still not utilising podcasts as part of their strategy means that it is an excellent way to gain a competitive advantage.

In addition, they are an excellent way to reach new audiences, share your expertise, and increase your visibility on search engines other than Google.

It is still a search engine, albeit one that allows you to find relevant podcasts by using keywords in Apple’s Podcasts.

Another option is Google Podcasts, which also includes Listen Notes.

As an illustration, listen notes can be used as a search engine.

Business owners who recognise that SEO should include more search engines than just Google will ultimately be the ones who are successful in building their brands as well as identifying ways to reach their target audiences on whatever platform they choose.

Your online reputation has never been more important than it is right now.

Isn’t it true that 93 percent of people say that online reviews have an impact on their purchasing decisions? Comments on websites are important, and they are a massively underappreciated off-page SEO tactic. Online reputation management is something that no company can afford to ignore.

In the words of TrustPilot, “Perhaps the most underappreciated benefit of collecting reviews is that, when implemented properly, reviews can assist Google in better understanding your website.” The general consensus is that Google employs them to derive brand signals, which can help to increase your site’s domain authority and, ultimately, your ranking in search.”

After a brief hiatus, we’re back to discussing brand signals once more. When it comes down to the bare essentials, off-page SEO is all about building your brand and generating signals that portray you as someone who deserves to be at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs).

A company that has amassed a large number of positive reviews on third-party platforms is attempting to establish itself as a brand. Conversions and, once again, trust are increased as a result of positive reviews.

Occasionally, a publication will look to syndicate content from other sources in order to supplement their own original article content. They do this because it is less time-consuming than creating new content on a consistent basis.

Many times, content is syndicated across websites that are part of a network owned by a television or radio broadcasting company. Publishers, on the other hand, are beginning to use this to increase the amount of content that is published on their site on a daily basis.

Yahoo! is perhaps the most well-known of the many platforms that regularly syndicate content from third-party sources.

You might have also considered syndicating your own content to other publications in order to broaden your audience and readership reach even further.

However, how does this work as an off-page SEO strategy?

Take a look at what Google has to say about it…

If you syndicate your content on other websites, Google will always show the version we believe is most appropriate for users in each search, which may or may not be the version you prefer. In order to maximise the effectiveness of your content distribution, make sure that each site where your content is syndicated includes a link to your original article. If you have syndicated content, you can also request that those who use it use the noindex meta tag in order to prevent search engines from indexing their version of the content.

Even though syndicated content is frequently not indexed by Google, for obvious reasons relating to the fact that it is a duplicate of the original, this does not imply that it should be avoided at all costs.

While content syndication can help you increase the reach of your content, the increased number of eyes on your published work can have a positive impact on brand signals, even when it results in URLs that canonicalize to the original; something that has been discussed in depth here.