The first item you should focus on when working through the off-page SEO checklist for existing website content is to evaluate the page’s current backlink profile.
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Semrush not only uses infographics to summarize the key points in their blog posts to share with their audience on Twitter, but the company also embeds those graphics into the content to encourage other website owners to link to the page and/or embed the infographics in their own articles while crediting Semrush as the source with a backlink.
Audio files are another good asset you can use for off-site optimization and work similarly to the YouTube strategy mentioned previously. All you have to do is record an audio file of you reading the article content word-by-word, summarizing the key concepts, or exporting the audio version of your YouTube video to upload as a raw file to podcast sharing sites like Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Sound Cloud, etc.
This guide includes a complete off-page SEO checklist and template you can download, print, and use to keep track of your off-site search engine optimization efforts.
Ask yourself these questions when working through this part of the off-page optimization template:
- Do the top backlinking pages have their own internal links? (Backlinks from orphan pages do not pass as much PageRank for SEO.)
- If a backlinking page does not have its own internal links, can outreach be done to ask the website owner to create internal links to the backlinking page?
- Do the top backlinking pages have any of their own backlinks?
- If a backlinking page does not have its own backlinks, can a tiered link building strategy be set up to create incoming links to the backlinking page?
- Is referral traffic being sent to the page through the backlinks? (This metric is viewable in the Traffic Acquisition Report in Google Analytics.)
4. Fix Broken Incoming Links
This checklist item is important because you want the highest quality inbound links to your content to help increase its ranking positions in the SERPs. The best backlinks for off-page SEO come from URLs that are linked well internally, have their own set of incoming backlinks, and send referral traffic to your site.
Another common link building method you’ll find in the template file is the practice of creating a slideshow that summarizes the key points of the web page in a PowerPoint (PPT) or Google Slides and sharing it on presentation sites like SlideShare, Microsoft Sway, and Speaker Deck. See this list of PPT submission sites for more recommendations.
A good practice you should conduct on a routine basis for off-site search engine optimization is to monitor the 404 errors on your website. This will alert you to the broken links that are pointing to your web pages so you can take the necessary steps to fix them to reclaim the lost PageRank value that’s crucial for SEO.
Here’s what the reminder looks like in the cheatsheet file:
- Link has been sent to industry influencers for consideration to share with their audiences.
19. Contact the People Mentioned or Quoted In the Article
Note: It’s best to use a naked URL for the hyperlink in the PDF; not keyword-optimized anchor text. According to one report on Webmasters Stack Exchange, an online retailer created a PDF file that included anchor text rich links in a section at the end of the document to many of the category pages, and Google subsequently penalized the retailer for the practice.
17. Submit a Press Release About the Page
Therefore, you should identify and work to remove bad backlinks from your website’s backlink profile. The link to the list of backlink analysis tools in the previous checklist item for this off-page SEO list is a good place to start because any one of those tools can help you uncover low-quality, toxic, or spammy links pointing to your web pages.
Another important step you’ll find in the downloadable off-page SEO cheatsheet in the next section of this guide is assessing the link profile for the backlinks pointing to your web pages.
Analyzing the backlink data for the URL will give you a basic understanding of how that off-page SEO metrics compare to the top-ranking competitors in terms of the quality, strength, and number of incoming links. You can find a good backlink analyzer to use in our other guide with a list of the best backlink checkers.
The initial process for broken link building can be done with software like Semrush and Ahrefs by using their website auditing and broken link checker tools. Once the list of broken links has been collected for a target site, you can then reach out to the site owner to try and land a replacement backlink to a relevant page on your domain.
Social media link building is another good strategy to use for off-site optimization. Not only are these instant backlinks you can create for the target page, but these links also amplify the reach of your target audience.
Several SEO case studies have shown that if you can add at least five internal links to a web page, then it can see a ranking improvement in the SERPs. And the highest-ranking pages on Google for competitive search terms typically have 10 or more keyword-optimized internal links for SEO.
8. Add a Link to a Branded Google Site
Note: You can create more than one guest post backlink to the page; however, you don’t want this to be the only (or primary) method of link building for off-page SEO. Having too many guest post links can be a negative ranking signal because, technically, guest blogging for links violates Google’s Search Essentials Guidelines.
22. Conduct a Competitor Backlink Gap Analysis
Link decay is a natural part of the evolving Web that can harm the rankings of your content in the SERPs. As the number of backlinks decreases for URL, so does the Page Authority for the content; meaning it has less popularity according to Google’s PageRank algorithm and may drop in SERP positions.
You can check out our guest posting sites list with more than 100 opportunities for this type of targeted off-page optimization. Some site owners will allow both contextual links and a homepage link in your author bio.
Google’s algorithm, in particular, measures the importance of web pages on a domain based on the number of internal links they receive. That’s why orphan pages with no internal links can have a difficult time ranking for their target keywords.
Professional link builders understand the importance of following a good anchor text ratio when conducting a link building campaign. If a web page’s backlink profile is over-optimized with exact match anchor text for the main SEO keywords, then the links may be tagged by ranking algorithm systems as unnatural links, which can cause a ranking penalty.
This is a more time-consuming strategy for off-page optimization, which is why it’s listed further down on the cheatsheet:
- Broken link building outreach has been performed and successfully obtained links from dead links on other sites.
25. Find Relevant Resource Pages for Backlinks
The next step you to follow for improving off-page SEO for your web pages is to remove any low-quality links that are pointing to the page. Even though search engines like Google are good at ignoring toxic backlinks, there are still many instances where spammy and low-quality links can harm your keyword rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Ask yourself these questions when analyzing the anchor text percentages for over-optimization:
- Does the page have 5-10% exact match keyword anchor text in the backlink profile? (This is a good percentage to aim for to get the keyword signals without seeming unnatural.)
- Does the page have 50-60% phrase match and/or partial match keyword anchor text in the backlink profile? (This percentage helps keep the backlink profile from being over-optimized for the primary keyword.)
- Does the page have 30% branded, natural, and/or the naked URL as the anchor text in the backlink profile? (This is a good percentage that represents a page having organic backlinks.)
Therefore, you should consider making this item high on your priority list inside the off-page SEO cheatsheet:
- Create a relevant video and share it on YouTube with a link in the description.
13. Record an Audio File for Podcasting Sites
Broken link building is when you find broken links on other websites related to your niche and report them to the owner. You also mention a good link replacement that leads back to your website.
The template file includes this item for you to mark off:
- PDF created summarizing the key points along with an embedded link and shared on document sites.
Some slideshow sharing sites even provide dofollow backlinks that can transfer the most PageRank value for SEO to your target URL.
A basic checklist to use for quick and easy links for every page you publish includes:
- Sharing the link on Flipboard.
- Sharing the link on Scoop.it.
12. Produce a Relevant Video for YouTube
If the web page you published warrants some publicity, then you should consider writing a press release about it, including a backlink, and sending it to any one of the top press release submission sites to gain more exposure for off-page optimization.
When working through the checklist, make sure to focus your efforts on getting at least one backlink to the page through a guest post to help round out the backlink profile as mentioned below.
- Guest post has been published with a backlink.
You can easily find respected professionals in your niche, grab a quote from their website, and include it in one of your articles. You can also copy snippets of content from their blogs or reference case studies they’ve published while adding a backlink to the source.
Ask yourself these questions when performing a web page analysis:
- Does the page have broken 404 backlinks pointing to the wrong URL?
- Have all broken 404 backlinks been fixed with a 301 redirect to the correct URL?
5. Check the Anchor Text Link Ratio
HARO is a great resource to use for off-site optimization because it can land editorial links for your content from major brands with high Domain Authority scores. Some high-profile sites that use HARO include Business Insider, American Express, and Reader’s Digest.
And, in our opinion, every business should have its own branded Google Site that acts as an extension of the organization to capture more organic search traffic and expand the company’s digital footprint. Additionally, you, as the Google Site owner, have complete control over the content and links that are added to the online property.
Google Sites are like any other type of website that’s built with a content management system (CMS), like WordPress and Wix, which can be optimized for SEO and ranked in the search engines for relevant keywords.
This is the final element in the list of off-page SEO strategies you’ll find in the template:
- Resource page link building outreach has been performed and successfully obtained links on relevant sites.
Download the Free Off-Page SEO Template
Here’s a summary of this item that can be found in the cheatsheet:
- Infographic created summarizing the key points and shared on infographic sites with a link in the description.
15. Create a Slideshow for Presentation Sites
The Editorial Staff at SEO Chatter is a team of search engine optimization and digital marketing experts led by Stephen Hockman with more than 15 years of experience in search engine marketing. We publish guides on the fundamentals of SEO for beginner marketers.
