The Search Engine Optimization AKA SEO has been around for a long time in the world of internet and digital marketing. If you are a blogger, a vblogger, an internet marketer, or simply own a website for your business, you would have heard the word and its magic by now. However, with little clarity and a lot of myths around the subject, you may still be wondering about what exactly is SEO and does it work? If you are the tech savvy person, you may be more interested in knowing about how it can be done rather than just what and why. To answer the first part of the question, I would reiterate to the most frequently used definition of the term that SEO is a digital marketing strategy to rank the website higher in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) and draw more traffic. To get an answer to your second question, I would suggest you read about its importance for small and medium businesses. Coming to how website optimization is done, there are two components to every SEO strategy, On-page SEO, and Off-page SEO.

On-page SEO includes all the on page strategies that can enhance website’s ranking, for example Content Management, internal linking etc.

Off page SEO includes all of the Off page strategies which increase the credibility and ranking of the website and include blogs, article submission, directories and so on.

According to the Search Engine Land, both the components make up a successful strategy, and the balance between on page and off page techniques vary from website to website. You can read more about On-page Vs. Off-page SEO. There is already so much said about On-page SEO techniques and how it can fetch desired results. So, I will directly jump to the off-page strategies. I have compiled a list of 15 off-page SEO hacks that are really helpful in improving the rank of the website, and I will discuss them one by one in this post.

• Blogging-the king of all:

Blogging is not only the best way to show off your talent, but it is also one of the best ways to improve the search engine ranking. Adding a blog page to your website and frequently adding valuable content on the page can help you to get visitor’s attention. Visitors come to your website for information and original content, and when you meet their needs, they are going to come back again. Other than this, the blog is an opportunity to update website’s content more frequently as the crawlers crawl new content posted in the blogs. Usually, website’s content is written once and is not regularly updated which can compromise website’s visibility in SERPs. Adding a blog page guarantees not only the attention of the reader but also the attention of the crawlers. You can write about the latest trends in the industry or can blog about information content consisting of pictures, videos, tutorials, and infographics.

The blog can further be submitted directories for niche blogging to develop a network of backlinks and get more traffic to your website. But, adding unique and original content is the key to successful blogging.

• Do-Follow blogs:

You want to build more on blogging for website optimization; blog marketing is the way to do it. You can write comments on others’ blogs within the same niche and paste the link to your website. Known as Do-Follow blogs, these blogs let you write your signatures with a link to your website. It works as back linking as the crawler can reach to your website and it also builds up your reputation in the field as a person of knowledge and authority which will help you to grow your readership.

• Social Media Websites:

Social networking websites mean real business these days. The internet world is almost taken over by social networking websites including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and so on. According to the Neil Patel, “the online marketing guru, more than 70% of the content sharing on the internet happens on social networking websites”. You can create your personal and business profiles on the social networking websites and simply signing up can open opportunities for connecting with people from your industry and grow your professional networks. The Social networking websites are also an excellent way to share and promote your website and enhance its online reputation. You can add links to your website in the tweets and posts and can share your blogs with friends and professional networks. If you are good with producing multimedia content, then you can get instant attention from hundreds and thousands of followers.

With minimum barriers and approval requirements, social networking is a great off-page technique to enhance your website’s ranking.

• Search Engine Listing:

Why wait for the crawlers to find you online when you can submit your website to the top rated search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing and so on. The crawlers can take up to days or even months in finding your website and listing it, but direct search engine submission is a good technique to save time and be recognized immediately.

• Local Listings:

The local listing is a great off-page technique to project your website in the local market and avoid the unnecessary global competition. If you are based in Los Angeles, then your focus also should be SEO company Los Angeles rather than targeting the Wales, England, or even Missouri. The search engines have already created local directories to help their users in accessing local results. You can catch up on the trend by listing your website in Google Maps, Yahoo Local or other such local directories. Using Google’s local listing is also a good way to begin the process. You can read more about the benefits of local listings and how it boosts the online presence.

• Article Submission:

It is one of the most commonly used off-page technique which works. There are some of the highly reputed article directories such as Ezine, Wikihow, Go-Article which draw millions of readers every day. Submitting the article on these directories with a link to your website can significantly enhance back linking and online reputation. However, these directories have their writing guideline which makes it difficult to publish the content. The approval process can also take days before final submission.

• Business Ratings:

It is an era of reviews and ratings. The readers and visitors have become smart enough to read reviews before visiting the website. So, a good off-page technique can be to write business reviews for others on the websites like RateitAll, Shvoong, Epinion or specialized consumer review websites such as Zagat for restaurant reviews or Outdoor Reviews for outdoor activities. You can ask others to write you reviews which can build your reputation in the industry.

• Link Baiting:

Link baiting involves exchanging of links between websites and attracting indirect traffic. If you are producing high-quality content generating readership, you can let other websites to place a link to your website. You can also do the same by placing links to other relevant and popular content that you find on others’ websites. It is kind of a goodwill gesture to enhance link mapping.

• Social Bookmarking:

Social bookmarking websites are used by individuals to save, edit, organize, and share websites, content, or blogs online. The websites like Twitter, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg, and newswire allow the users to share websites and content and project their website to people with similar interest and taste. The social bookmarking quickens the crawling process and results in deeper indexing which means more visibility and more traffic.

• Forum Marketing:

Building reputation in the online niche forums always pays off as a good link building techniques. You can answer questions, share information and can stay tuned to the latest trends by signing up niche forums. When you actively participate in these forums, you emerge as a person with knowledge and authority in the subject matter, and people want to read you more.

• Multimedia Content Sharing:

Even as a simple internet user with no previous experience in SEO, you would know about the virality of some photos and videos. Now and then a video or picture goes viral on the Facebook and Twitter resulting in instant recognition. If you can produce attractive, informative infographics, videos or even sarcastic memes for your website, you can share them on Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Vimeo and other such multimedia forums. If your website was only showing in web searches previously, it would start showing in the images and videos results. It means that people will have more ways to find you and visit your website.

• Answer Questions:

People are asking questions about your specialized field and it is good to answer them. On the websites like YahooAnswer and Ask.com, people ask various questions. By signing up on these websites, you can answer people and ask questions. You can also place a link to your website in the reference section which can navigate visitors to your website.

• Directory Submission:

Brian Dean from Quick Sprout pointed out that directory submission is an old school SEO strategy, but if done right it can get quality juice to your website. But, you have to put extra focus on the ‘done right’ part. The success is not in the number of the directories to which you submit your website, but the quality of each submission. You have to be extra careful in selecting the relevant category and locality. For example, if a Los Angeles SEO Company is listed in the Yelp’s Kansas directory, it means no quality leads.

So, it is time to get to work and use your tech-savviness to get higher visibility in search engine’s ranking.