How to Use Off Page SEO to Make Your Site Rank Higher

Written by Dorothy Williams Wednesday, 13 April 2011 08:07

Search engine optimization has to be done both on page and off page, the latter referring to factors that are done outside your actual site. For many new Internet marketers, this term may seem to be confusing, but in actuality, it's not. We'll now take a look at some principles of off page SEO that will make it easier to get your site ranked highly by the search engines.

Search engine optimization has to be done both on page and off page, the latter referring to factors that are done outside your actual site. For many new Internet marketers, this term may seem to be confusing, but in actuality, it's not. We'll now take a look at some principles of off page SEO that will make it easier to get your site ranked highly by the search engines.

Examine the structure and lay out of your website. Does your site directory have a proper tree structure? Google loves websites that have a logical structure that is designed conventionally. Many people miss this important factor when creating their site but it shouldn't be ignored. Your website has to be organized in a logical manner so that the search engine spiders have no problem crawling through your site and finding the content. So before your site goes live, make sure you're familiar with this structure.

One type of practice you should definitely avoid are deceptive strategies such as gateway pages or cloaking, in which your actual site is hidden from the search engines. This can attract a severe penalty from the search engines and get you banned, which is why the best way to deal with off-page optimization is to do it ethically. Think in terms of building a real business and work towards increasing your ranking honestly rather than trying to achieve everything immediately. As you apply your off page optimization techniques, it's a good idea to read Google's Terms of Service (TOS) so you know what is and isn't allowed. Certain tactics can backfire and lower your ranking, or even get your removed completely, and the TOS can help you to understand this. The more familiar you are about what Google likes and considers valuable, the easier it will be for you to raise your ranking in a way that's permanent.

The final factor we'll be exploring is the traffic that comes to your pages, which is something that the search engines observe when ranking your site. A site that gets regular traffic is going to be considered more important to the search engines than one that hardly gets any visits at all. The fact that visitors are coming to your site is important, though they have to be actual visitors rather than clicks you get from bots, and the length of time visitors stay on your pages is also relevant. That's why you have to consider all of this if you want your site's ranking to improve.

As you can see, off page search engine optimization requires you to focus on the littlest details to get the best results. You'll see a definite change in your rankings as soon as you start applying the above tips.