Off-page SEO represents the flip side of on-page SEO. Essentially, off-page SEO deals with those tactics that you can employ outside of your website. You will find many articles and books explaining how to do SEO on and off the page. This article, however, focuses only on B2B businesses.
Popular off-page SEO tips mention social media, social bookmarking, and other tactics that relate more to business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses. For businesses selling to other businesses (B2B), some of that advice just doesn’t apply.
Also, I assume you’ve done the basics. You have submitted your website URL to search engines like Google. And you’ve already submitted to the directories. With that said, here are five effective tactics that B2B companies should employ to improve their search engine rankings.
Off-Page SEO Tactic #1: Blog Comments and Forum Posts
Blogs are probably the most effective way to improve your off-page SEO. It is interactive. It is updated often. And it’s fast. That translates into effectiveness. Specifically, B2B companies that publish blogs generate 67% more leads than companies that broadcast blogs.
Forum posting also helps improve your overall SEO because it creates inbound links to your website. Google evaluates your website, in part, based on the number of “quality” links from other sites. As you comment on the forums, your presence there will generate links as you become a trusted contributor. This takes more time, but is worth the investment.
Off-Page SEO Tactic #2: Content Sharing
About a year ago, content marketing created quite a stir in marketing circles. Today, content marketing is more than just rumors. It is part of conventional marketing. Content marketing includes article marketing, web content, white papers, case studies, etc. So how does that affect off-page SEO?
It is one thing to create content and another to curate and share it. Share content using these three methods: (1) social media like LinkedIn; (2) Video – You Tube, in particular, and (3) Presentations like SlideShare. Highly consumable and shareable content drives traffic to your site fast.
Off-Page SEO Tactic #3: Link Building
Link building sounds more technical than it is. Here, too, you need to emphasize quality rather than quantity. Google assigns page rank based on authority. So if you have external links linking back to your website, Google recognizes that and gives you a higher page rank. But how do you get links from authoritative sites?
The answer is to create relevant and useful content. Nothing draws viewers to a website more than unique content. It can be text, audio or video. But original and highly shareable content will increase the number of inbound links.
Off-Page SEO Tactic #4: Submitting Articles and Press Releases
Article marketing and press releases are two proven tactics to improve your off-page SEO ranking. They take longer, as you build a reputation and following, but they are effective. You get backlinks by posting your articles and press releases on other sites that distribute articles. You will see an increase in traffic and qualified leads over time as you build your brand.
Off-Page SEO Tactic #5 – Yellow Pages
Don’t skip the yellow pages. This is clearly “off page” and “old school” but it works. The yellow pages help promote your business locally. And you can list your business for free, making it an inexpensive way to build your business. The modern versions are Google Maps and Yahoo Localworks. Take advantage of these offline and online methods to improve your SEO ranking.
Off-Page Tactics That Work for B2B Companies
The five off-page methods explained above represent tactics that B2B companies can employ today. They are not technical and they are not expensive. However, they take time, in most cases. The results speak for themselves, as long as you implement them diligently.
Focusing on these five methods allows you to improve your SEO rankings without feeling overwhelmed when learning about social media tactics intended for B2C companies.