What is Off-Page SEO: The Complete Guide [+Free Checklist]

Search engine optimization, with its many pitfalls and constantly shifting goalposts, is hard. So, understanding off-page SEO is a must.

Sites that do well need more than the occasional good post and a well-optimized site. They succeed through efficient off-page strategies such as backlinks, social networking, and PR.

Added up, this full-scale strategy tells search engines your website is a source of authority.

What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO encompasses everything done outside your website to grow its authority and ranking on the search engines. It is about boosting your site’s authority and generating more organic traffic.

Link building is one aspect of the picture. But off-page SEO goes way beyond that. It’s also SEO-friendly PR for your brand, community engagement in forums, relationships with influencers, and more.

All this helps reinforce your site and sends a message to search engines about its trustworthiness. This increases your ranking by building your site’s engagement with current and future users and solidifies it as a top authority in its niche.

Why does off-page SEO matter?

Regarding visibility, your site’s success largely depends on your online reputation and traffic. These strategies connect your site to high-authority websites.

Off-page SEO also strengthens E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness). Building quality backlinks and engaging with trusted platforms show search engines that your site is credible and reliable.

Accumulating a steady base of backlinks, networking with key influencers, and encouraging user interactions are all critical parts of off-page SEO. Together, these strategies boost your site’s authority and help establish it as a trusted resource.

Differences between on-page SEO and off-page SEO

For one, understanding SEO includes both on-page and off-page factors because they help improve the site’s visibility together. While both SEO types are focused on getting website traffic and high ranking, they take different routes.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO is done directly on your website. It consists of making content more concise and helpful, loading photos in the fastest possible way, putting metadata together to make it more understandable by Google, creating better URLs and site structure, improving internal links, and optimizing Core Web Vitals.

Such efforts focus on providing an effortless user experience, adhering to the web’s basic norms, and improving the website’s performance and presence.

Off-page SEO

This considers the outside factors that affect your website’s reputation and rankings. It starts with a good backlink profile, improving your domain’s authority and extending the impact of your content online. Backlink checkers, for example, are the most important tools for analyzing your backlinks’ credibility and validity to ensure they come from reputable and relevant sites. With an effective offsite strategy, you reach a wide audience, establish authority, and scale beyond your web pages.

What should be done first? Off-page or on-page?

A common SEO question is whether to start with on-page or off-page SEO. In reality, they work best together and support each other. As you build a strong foundation of content on your site, you should also work on off-page efforts.

While it can be tempting to focus only on on-page optimization at first, remember that SEO is ongoing and it’s best to start both as soon as possible. Make sure your site is well-optimized to benefit from off-page strategies, but know there’s no one-size-fits-all solution—optimization is a continuous process.

A “good enough” approach is practical because SEO is about steady improvement rather than a final goal. A balanced mix of on-page and off-page strategies is key for growth and progress.

How to do off-page SEO

Having a strong online presence isn’t just about optimizing your website’s on-page content. From earning quality backlinks to using social media, there are several ways to improve your website’s credibility and presence. Now let’s find out the key off-page SEO actions you can take.

Use outreach to get new backlinks

Outreach is the process of researching websites with relevant content to your product and contacting them, with the objective of getting more backlinks to your site. Letting these websites know about your content — for example, deep research with data — can naturally show value, and draw in backlinks.

High-quality backlinks are considered the approvals that bolster a site’s trust and relevancy. However, you must also be aware that not all backlinks are created equal and manage your outreach effectively by choosing to contact high-quality, relevant domains in your niche. These websites can provide you with higher-quality backlinks thanks to their increased relevancy to your business.

With niche focus, you can zero in on content that appeals to your target audience. This raises your chances of securing backlinks that help you establish a strong SEO base. Spreading this data out through social media makes it more appealing and shareable, strengthening your SEO plan.

Pro Tip 1: Include interesting new statistics in your materials and share them across social platforms. Good data attracts the audience’s attention and solicits shares and backlinks.

Pro Tip 2: Not sure which sites to zero in on to get backlinks? Try backlink gap analysis with our backlink tool! Finding the right sites to target for backlinks can be challenging, but our backlink gap analysis tool simplifies the process. Here’s how you can use it effectively:

• Identify Competitors: Start by inputting your website and those of your competitors into the tool. The tool will compare backlink profiles to identify gaps—links your competitors have that you don’t.

• Analyze Backlink Opportunities: The tool generates a prioritized list of potential link sources based on relevance and authority. Focus on domains with high Domain Trust Scores (DTS) to maximize the impact of your efforts.
• Plan Your Outreach: Use the list to contact these high-quality domains. Tailor your pitch by referencing how your content aligns with their audience or complements their existing resources.

Broken link building

It goes unnoticed, but broken link building is one of the most powerful off-page SEO techniques. Basically it’s looking for dead links in your field and suggesting your article as an alternative. These tactics not only fix issues on third-party websites but also create opportunities for your own.

Using Similarweb’s Site Audit tool can show you broken links or 404 errors on similar sites that may benefit from your content. After you find such broken links, contact site owners and recommend your relevant content as a perfect replacement. You solve their problems and make your site known as a reliable authority and thus gain a higher ranking.

Unlinked brand mentions

Discovering unlinked brand mentions is an important off-page SEO tool that can open many doors. Every time your brand appears with no link, it’s an SEO opportunity gone. You can profit from this, so watch for such mentions through monitoring platforms and contact the author of the content to ask for a link back to your site. This small gesture brings in a better link profile and helps your site perform well in terms of search engine results.

To find unlinked brand mentions, you can use the search operator: site: and “” (quotation marks) in the Google Search Box.

For example, search site:example.com “[add your brand here]” to locate mentions of your brand specifically on a website.

The ‘site:’ operator restricts the search to a particular domain. The quotation marks ensure you’re finding exact matches for your brand name.

When you convert these unlinked mentions consistently, not only do you strengthen your online presence over time, but you also increase search rankings. These opportunities are a constant reminder to check and engage with, which widens your scope and builds relationships with your audience.

Positive reviews and rankings

Customer reviews and rankings can assist SEO strategies success. This type of feedback increases the online reputation and positively affects how the search engines interpret your website.

Our LifeCycle Marketing Manager, Eyal Bonneh (below), outlines the benefits of advocacy programs where users can exchange points for gift cards. Tools like G2, Trustpilot, TrustRadius, and Google My Business play a significant role.

It’s about seeking and managing reviews and constantly refreshing profiles to remain trusted and visible. Engaging more with comments creates connections, builds trust, and improves your reviews, leading to increased search ranking and more prospects.

Pro-tip: Answering feedback from commenters on sites that allow interaction builds strong relationships with users and could encourage better reviews and recognition.

Online PR

Online public relations aren’t only about generating links. It’s about communicating your brand narrative and successfully demonstrating its value.

Press releases, interview requests, and sharing your story get you in front of users and connect with them. They help your brand reputation and indirectly help your SEO through more visibility and credibility.

You attract potential users and customers when you showcase your achievements and plans for online PR.

This allows you to influence your company image and make your brand the leader in the industry. By employing internet PR as part of your campaign, you can also establish yourself and create connections in your niche market.

Guest-posting

Guest posting is a common strategy for gaining authority and generating relevant backlinks. When you share your thoughts in trusted industry platforms, you make your presence felt and expand your reach. When done correctly, backlinks generated by guest posts can improve your ranking and traffic. This also brings you more visibility and a unified sector presence.

As you craft your contributions, keep in mind that they should be for the host platform’s audiences. Offer insights, tricks, tips, and other valuable content that is useful for the intended readers. This will not only give you credibility but will help you build your brand and a create good reputation in your industry, as well as inspire readers to check out your content and see what else you have to offer.

Guest Posting – do your research on the site

Guest posting offers valuable benefits like increased authority and relevant backlinks. But guest posting on the wrong site can damage your reputation. So keep an eye out for content farms, especially when asked to pay for the post.

What are content farms? These are sites that prioritize quantity over quality. They may have a high DR, usually from an expired domain, but publish vast amounts of low-quality content to generate revenue from guest posts. Many exist solely to sell guest posts in return for a link. Your success is not their concern and the link may have a negative effect on your SEO.

How to recognize a content farm:

Poorly written articles. Keyword stuffing. Duplicate content. Clickbait titles.

The dangers of content farms:

Damaged reputation. Wasted effort.  Worthless backlinks.  Penalties from search engines.  Buying guest posts from these sites can actively harm your SEO.

Before you guest post:

Analyze the website. Check author bios. Look for an “About Us” page. Choose wisely. Select sites that align with your brand.

Help journalists

Offering professional expertise to journalists is a great way to get valuable media coverage. Social Media platforms such as Connectively and hashtags like #JournoRequest allows you to spread knowledge in your field.

You can get backlinks and turn your brand into an authoritative partner by answering journalist questions with true and useful information. That makes you an authority and expands your reach in the industry.

While regularly seeking out opportunities through hashtags with keywords associated with your field, you can make meaningful contributions to different channels. Tools such as Journorobo also help bring your knowledge closer to journalistic needs and can even open the doors for possible partnerships and other opportunities.

However, be aware this is highly competitive. It requires a separate report in itself. But look into creating a basic pack, including a profile of your expertise and a professionally shot picture. Basic moves like this can put you at the top of the pack.

Social media

Social media is deeply significant for brand growth. Our Social Media Manager, Italy Gross, also highlights its power to increase brand awareness through impressions, reach, views, and follower acquisition.

Well-managed content campaigns on social channels can greatly help drive inbound traffic and conversions. Staying active on social media will also increase your site visibility.

As a result, your search engine rankings will improve because you can have organic user engagement. It gives you a direct channel to connect with your audience, learn about their interests, and modify your strategies accordingly.

This is what builds community interactions and helps to reinforce your brand on the market. Keeping an active feed with interesting content is how you maintain interest and engagement.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a strong strategy for scaling your brand effectively. By inviting influencers to promote your products, they spread your brand to a wider audience by tapping into their personal endorsements.

Partnering with niche influencers also benefits both of you. You introduce your brand to a whole new set of consumers more personally than with conventional ads.

With the right influencers on board who share your brand philosophies, genuine partnerships are created. This makes you more visible and gets more attention towards what you have to offer. These partnerships reinforce confidence in your offerings or services so that they’re perceived in a way that people understand and are comfortable with.

Forums

Online forums remain a valuable space for sharing insights and connecting with like-minded individuals. Following Google’s August 2024 core update that values authentic, user-generated content over polished and traditional articles, platforms like Reddit and Quora have recently gained massive popularity.

With its rich conversations on endless topics, Reddit’s forum-based content now dominates search results, and it comes in third place in the U.S. behind Wikipedia and Amazon. This is a reflection of a wider trend over the years with Google’s algorithm changes, as they increasingly highlight user-generated, human-level feedback. Similarly, Quora, known for its structured question-and-answer format, continues to thrive as a hub for exchanging knowledge and building credibility. This makes it an ideal choice for users seeking reliable community-driven content.

As Google prizes community-based contributions, it is rewarding online forums such as Reddit and Quora, where users share honest insights and suggestions. Providing valuable content and engaging in discussions within these high-authority linking channels will bring more traffic to your website and will help you establish yourself as an authority. Connecting with fellow professionals in forums builds valuable relationships and encourages continuous improvement.

Content repurposing

You can increase your website’s reach by using content in other mediums. For example, you can convert articles into visual infographics or audio podcasts to connect with new users. This raises the content’s value, reaching a broader group of visitors and building SEO by generating more exposure.

Different formats allow you to appeal to a wider range of audiences and build-up your brand across multiple channels. Repurposing also adds fresh insights to the content to reinforce its relevance and standing in your industry.

Downloadable assets

Providing download guides and checklists helps your site gain trust and credibility. These useful articles get people on your website for their perceived value. They also help increase organic traffic, increase site authority, and aid SEO, making your site a trusted resource.

Downloadable materials offer users a tactile way to experience your knowledge and are especially useful to those needing more detailed instructions. Including these assets into your plan will increase engagement and conversion rates, since users understand the concrete benefits that these assets offer.

Similarweb’s free off-page SEO checklist

Remember to copy our free checklist to help you turn the principles into action items. It has tasks by category, recommended frequencies to keep your efforts consistent, and more.

Start improving your site’s off-page SEO

Off-page SEO goes way beyond just seeking the highest rank. It develops a lasting online presence for your website. With some careful work, such as building systematic backlinks and topical authority, your site will certainly be seen. The only way to do that efficiently is to use the right tools to test and optimize such tasks in light of the changes in search algorithms.

Learn more about Similarweb’s SEO capabilities and how it can help you with insights and tactics for off-page SEO improvements. You’ll enjoy the benefits of a planned approach that adds value to your website’s digital position.

FAQs

How does off-page SEO complement on-page efforts?

Off-page SEO complements the action of on-page activities by increasing trust and authority. While on-page marketing targets pages to be optimized, off-page tactics draw quality links and visitors, which improve the rankings of the website.

Can social media influence off-page SEO?

Yes, social media does contribute to off-page SEO activities. Sharing content on multiple platforms increases visibility, encourages user engagement and indirectly helps to get decent backlinks, all which makes your site authoritative.

What role does content sharing play in off-page SEO?

Content sharing is very important for off-page SEO since it can help spread your content through different platforms and bring you more exposure and potential backlinks. It is a way to grow and attract audiences beyond your website.

Is guest blogging considered part of off-page SEO?

Guest blogging really belongs to off-page SEO. Publishing content to other sites builds connections, brand awareness and will almost certainly provide you with backlinks which are important to your site’s success.

How do online reviews impact off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO can be also aided by reviews because they give brand value and influence local searches. Credibility increases with positive reviews which translate to better rankings on Google.