What is Off-Page SEO?

Until a few years ago, SEO mainly consisted of integrating keywords into editorial content, so that it would reach the pole position of search results. This era is now over and SEO now includes two equally important parts: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. We are interested here in Off-Page SEO, some aspects of which are quite recent and give you our advice for optimizing this “invisible” part of natural referencing.

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-Page SEO, also called off-site SEO, concerns the “invisible” part of the SEO efforts deployed to allow a site to optimize its natural referencing. The “visible” part mainly concerns the writing of content but also their integration and enhancement, while the “invisible” part concerns the actions implemented to allow the site to acquire a certain authority and therefore a certain notoriety.

What is website authority?

Invented by the famous Moz SEO solution, the authority of a website is a score assigned to it according to its seriousness on a given subject and the quality of the information it contains. The authority index (being part of Google's EAT criteria) of a website guarantees its relevance, its seniority and the interest that a user may have in selecting it from a list of potential sites. to explore. The authority of a website is somewhat the equivalent of a letter of recommendation to integrate the university or the big schools: it is the guarantor of the seriousness of the subject and its implication as regards the quality statements collected. The higher theauthority score , the more reliable the site.

Off-Page SEO and technical SEO

Finally, we distinguish Off-Page SEO from technical SEO, which most often comes down to developers or UX designers, because it requires technical knowledge that not all SEO managers have. have not. Off-Page SEO is what is built around the site to make it known and promote it: it is in a way its e-reputation. Technical SEO, on the other hand, is more related to the problems of settings and site code (loading speed, hreflangs, sitemaps, canonicalization, etc.).

What are the different Off-Page SEO techniques?

There are different off-page SEO techniques to improve natural referencing.

The acquisition of backlinks

The method of acquiring backlinks is the best known Off-Page SEO technique, but certainly the most complex. This is to obtain incoming links from other websites: other websites must create a dofollow link to our website.

Recommendations and small history of the acquisition of backlinks

It does not seem complicated except when we learn that these links must have a certain relevance. This means that they must come from sites having a direct or indirect link with the website in question, which are therefore potentially competitors. In the eyes of Google, this amounts to declaring that a site is considered serious enough to recommend it. Here, the backlink acts as a recommendation and an introduction, like when introducing one person to another in reality.

Previously, Google did not impose this relevance rule between backlinks and referring sites. But some companies have taken advantage of this SEO technique to engage in the resale of backlinks at exorbitant prices, thereby creating link farms that pollute the web. This is why Google now monitors sites with too many referring domains and penalizes those whose links do not seem natural to it (read: those whose links seem to it to have been purchased).

Today, it is therefore a question of obtaining backlinks in a natural way, without exchanging them. Since it would be far too easy to carry out a simple exchange of links to gain authority, Google monitors mutual links and thus prevents “easy” acquisition, and acquisition by interest. Google only wants to see links made naturally, out of sheer disinterest.

And this is where the task gets tricky: to acquire backlinks recognized in the eyes of Google, you have to spend time, a lot of time.

The different techniques for acquiring backlinks

If this task can be the subject of a full-time job, it is not an impossible mission. Backlinks can be obtained by these different means, in particular (in order of easiest to most difficult):

• Application for integration with partners and customers,
• Registration (often paying) with online directories,
• Publication of press releases,
• Creation of highly informative visuals or infographics (the sites that reuse it are forced to credit you and can make a link at the same time),
• Proposal for writing a guest article (this involves writing an article for a site or a blog by only asking him to credit you in exchange),
• Spontaneous request.

Certified reviews

According to SemRush, reviews influence the buying decisions of 93% of users. According to TrustPilot: “Perhaps the most underrated benefit of collecting reviews is, when done correctly, that reviews can help Google understand your site better. The common view is that Google uses them to derive brand signals, which can boost your site's domain authority and ultimately your position in search results.”

To manage your e-reputation, it is therefore essential to pay close attention to the opinions received. For this, it is imperative to set up a rating system: Google reviews, TrustPilot, Verified Reviews, etc. The only obligation is to certify these reviews: they must be verified in one way or another. , in order to guarantee their authenticity. Paid solutions often only offer comments after a purchase, so the opinions are well and truly verified. But this last solution is only suitable for e-commerce and not for sites without transactional. If necessary, the Google solution is relevant and globally verified even if some false opinions lurk here and there.

Local SEO

Local SEO mainly concerns the existence and degree of precision of a Google My Business listing. The Google My Business file is the element allowing the Internet user to find his way among the various professionals on the market. It's like stepping into the real world. The Google My Business card allows you to leave opinions (verified by Google), but also allows you to enter an address, a telephone number, opening hours, and also to submit photos. The Google My Business sheet includes all the essential elements for a prospect to get an idea of ​​the company and allow him to take the plunge.

Sites with Google My Business listings are highly valued by search engine crawlers who see it as an additional facility for users.

Content marketing

Content marketing refers to all content created around the site. Their goal: to give it a brand image and allow it to gain in reputation and therefore once again, in authority. Content marketing allows the site to stand out by offering informational content that will allow it to become a reference in the eyes of users.

Even if the goal is transactional, a site has every interest in creating marketing content to inform users who will eventually buy and to be endorsed by Google as an authority on its subject. On the same principle as a doctor who participates in congresses and publishes studies regularly, the website offers qualitative content to gain relevance and demonstrate his expertise in a given field.

For example, a famous sporting goods site offers content related to the sports concerned with the items it sells. A site that sells furniture has every interest in offering decoration and layout tips. Content marketing is perceived as a vector of authority by Google and it makes it possible to become a reference in the eyes of prospects.

PR

Public relations is also an important part of Off-Page SEO. As you will have understood, Off-Page SEO essentially concerns the fame and reputation of a site. Also, public relations strategies help improve the natural referencing of a website. In concrete terms, PR translates into two events that allow the site to gain authority:

1. Link building: obtaining a link from a site of great authority, as well as an overall explanation of your activity which in fact gives it relevance;
2. The number of direct searches: the fact that an influencer talks about a website will generate many searches from users towards said website.

These two concomitant actions make it possible to optimize the indexing of a website while forging a good reputation for it.

Social networks

When we analyze a site's traffic sources, we find: organic searches, direct searches, referrals and… social networks. Social networks are a very important source of traffic acquisition and therefore authority on the net. It is then a question of communicating on its brand and its concept on the networks.

Each theme corresponds to its social network(s). For example, it is difficult to see a funeral home on TikTok. Conversely, a recruiting firm has its place on Linkedin, a news daily on Twitter, a photography professional on Instagram…it's all about consistency.

The traffic acquired on social networks is additional potential traffic for the referring website. Finally, posts on social networks have the advantage of being ephemeral when the pages of a website are not supposed to change every month.