To improve the search rankings of a website, it’s essential to not only provide quality content but also to enhance the external environment. The efforts to improve this external evaluation are known as off-page SEO tactics.

SEO strategies are broadly classified into two types: on-page and off-page. On-page SEO refers to content creation and system improvements, whereas off-page SEO involves acquiring backlinks and citations. By ensuring both these strategies are robust, the site’s evaluation improves, leading to higher search rankings. Achieving a top position in search results can ultimately benefit the company’s profits.

In this article, I focus on off-page SEO and introduce specific measures with examples. Whether you’re starting with off-page SEO or already engaged in it, keep reading till the end as a refresher. 

What is Off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to the strategies used to utilize the environment outside the website to enhance the SEO evaluation and reputation of your own site. It is also known as off-page SEO.

The Benefits of Implementing Off-Page SEO

Implementing off-page SEO offers the following advantages.

• Enhances the authority of your website
• Boosts the visibility of your website
• Leads to an increase in website traffic

The first two benefits elevate your site’s social presence and SEO rating . The last benefit, related to acquiring backlinks, helps secure more pathways for traffic to your website, potentially increasing visitor numbers.

Overview of SEO Strategies

SEO measures refer to a series of actions aimed at improving your website’s search rankings. SEO is divided into two main types: on-page and off-page.

  Related Article: What is SEO? A Beginner’s Guide to SEO Practices

Among these, off-page SEO is split into two strategies: backlinking and citation.

Importance of Off-Page SEO 

Backlinking is particularly critical as an SEO measure because Google’s search engine originally emphasizes backlinks.

Thus, the search algorithm incorporates backlinks as a significant factor in determining rankings.

Backlinks as a Key Element of ‘Google’s Ten Things

Google lists ‘Google’s Ten Things’ as facts the company holds true.

According to this, backlinks are “an important element representing the democracy of the web.”

“ 4. Democracy on the web works.

Google search works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting links on websites to help determine which other sites offer content of value. We assess the importance of every web page using more than 200 signals and a variety of techniques, including our patented PageRank™ algorithm, which analyzes which sites have been “voted” to be the best sources of information by other pages across the web. As the web gets bigger, this approach actually improves, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to be counted. In the same vein, we are active in open source software development, where innovation takes place through the collective effort of many programmers.

Citation: Google’s Ten things we know to be true

Off-Page Strategy 1: Backlinking 

A backlink is a link placed on an external site that leads to your site. Acquiring backlinks can enhance your site’s evaluation. The following methods can be used to gain backlinks.

• -Conduct interviews
• -Establish reciprocal links with other sites
• -Set up outgoing links
• -Create original content
• -Supervise or contribute articles to external sites
• -Disable low-quality backlinks

We will introduce these techniques along with examples from Tokyo SEO Maker (this site).

Related Link: What is a Backlink? Overview and Techniques to Acquire Them

Conducting Interviews 

By engaging in media interviews, you can acquire backlinks. This typically involves creating feature articles such as follows.

• -Interview articles
• -Collaborative articles between companies

Generally, these feature articles follow a process of ‘interview requests, conducting the interview, and requesting article supervision’ before being published. During this process, you communicate with the interviewee. You can express your wish for them to introduce the interview article on their website, which may lead to them placing a backlink to it.

At Tokyo SEO Maker (our site), we use such feature articles as part of our strategy. The following web page is one of those articles.

Citation: Exclusive Interview on Robotic Automation for Low-Cost SEO with President Tsuyoshi Amano of Admano Corporation

In this example, Tokyo SEO Maker is being interviewed, but the cited site includes a link to Tokyo SEO Maker.

Outgoing links to Tokyo SEO maker has been set up.

Citation: What Kind of Company is Admano Corporation? Thorough Investigation of Reviews and Basic Information

Establish Reciprocal Links 

By establishing reciprocal links between websites that your company owns, you can gain backlinks.

Nowadays, it is common for entities to own multiple websites. For example, a corporate site and owned media might be operated separately with different domains. Placing links to show that the same company operates these sites can be considered natural linking, thus effective as backlinks.

At Tokyo SEO Maker, we place links to our operated websites in the footer as below.

In the footer link collection of Tokyo SEO Maker, outbound links to corporate websites have been established.

Related Link: What is a Reciprocal Link?

Setting Outgoing Links 

Outgoing links are links from your site to external sites. Setting outgoing links can sometimes lead to acquiring backlinks.

Originally, outgoing links are meant to enhance the convenience for search users. For instance, in an article about ‘How to Use an iPhone,’ you might cite an external site. By including the URL of this external site (outgoing link), search users can verify the basis of the information.

Meanwhile, if the operators of the linked external site notice the link from your site and appreciate your article, they might reciprocate with a backlink.

Related Article: What is an Outgoing Link?

Creating Original Content 

Producing high-quality original content can lead to its spread by site visitors. Specifically, original content includes the following.

• Articles on unique achievements or research results of your company
• Articles with innovative and engaging perspectives
• Breaking news articles

Overall, original content refers to material not currently available on the web. Such information is also valued in industries beyond the web as primary information . The key to creating original content is to reflect your own or your company’s experiences in the content. For example, at Tokyo SEO Maker, we incorporate our own success stories, such as ‘Success Cases of External Strategies at Tokyo SEO Maker ,’ as unique information in our articles.

Continuously producing unique content can inspire readers to quote or refer to your articles. This can lead to opportunities for others to create backlinks to your articles on blogs or other platforms.

Related Article: What is Original Content? How to Create Unique Articles and What to Consider

Overseeing and Contributing to External Sites 

Posting supervised or contributed articles on external media can help you acquire backlinks for your website.

Typically, for supervised or contributed articles, the author or supervisor’s information, including an icon image or manuscript prepared by them, is featured. 

Therefore, in consultation with the host media, it’s possible to introduce your site.

Related Article: What is Article Supervision?

Disavowing Low-Quality Backlinks 

Low-quality backlinks are those from sites or pages with poor SEO ratings that link to your page. These can negatively impact your site’s rating and might even result in penalties. A viable technique here is link disavowal.

Disavowing backlinks makes them ineffective. This can be set up using Google’s Search Console disavow tool .

Related Article: What is the Disavow Tool?

Off-Page Strategy 2: Citation Tactics 

Citations refer to external reputations about your company or site. For instance, when external media mention your company, you can benefit from the citation effect. There are techniques to encourage citations including the following.

• Conducting public relations activities
• Placing advertisements
• Offering related merchandise
• Defining your company information using structured data

Related Article: What is a Citation?

Conducting Public Relations Activities 

Advancing public relations activities can spread your company’s information across both web and mass media, creating opportunities for citation effects. Various methods are used, including the following.

• Distributing press releases
• Spreading information through social media
• Gaining exposure in mass media

For instance, Tokyo SEO Maker utilizes press release distribution and social media to disseminate information. We have frequently employed press releases, and in February 2024, we distributed a press release about our ‘SEO Services for Foreign Companies (Thai language support)’.

Citation: ‘New Thai language page for foreign companies now open! Tokyo SEO Maker, a leader in SEO technology, added Thai language support on January 20th.’ – Admano Corporation press release.

Additionally, we have set up accounts on various social networks, including X (formerly Twitter), to share our company information.

Placing Advertisements 

Advertising increases exposure for your company and site, which is crucial for enhancing citation effects. These ads are not limited to web advertisements but also include mass media and outdoor advertising.

Innovative ads can capture attention and become a topic of discussion as below.

• Being featured in the media
• Being picked up as a trend on social media

Especially the latter can create buzz on web media, thus expecting citation effects.

Offering Related Merchandise 

Selling merchandise related to your company can help increase awareness of your company and its services. The type of merchandise depends on the genre your website handles, which could include the following.

• Media image character accessories (eg, keychains)
• Discount tickets for products or services featured on your website
• Books related to your website’s genre

For example, at Tokyo SEO Maker, we engage in authoring books related to SEO and marketing. Through book sales and promotional campaigns, we aim to expand awareness of our company and services.

Citation: Amazon

Defining Company Information Using Structured Data 

Structured data is a technique that defines the information posted on a website to communicate it more effectively to search engines. Using this technique to define proper nouns related to your company can facilitate easier citation effects.

At Tokyo SEO Maker, we use structured data for various elements for the following features.

• Company information
• Blog post information
• Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

For example, in ‘company information,’ we convey that the provider ‘Tokyo SEO Maker’ is ‘Tsuyoshi Amano, CEO of Admano Corporation.’ And in the FAQ section, we define the headings ‘Q:—’ as ‘FAQ content.

Tools for Off-Page SEO 

I’ll introduce some tools that are useful when implementing off-page SEO strategies.

• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs
• MOZ SEO

Related Article: Introducing Backlink Check Tools! What are Essential Backlinks for SEO?

Google Search Console 

Google Search Console is a site analysis tool that facilitates communication with the Google search engine. It allows you to check backlink information for your website.

Citation: Google Search Console

It also offers a disavow links feature. If you find spam links, you can set up disavowal using the following page.

Tool URL: Disavow Links

Tool Name: Google Search Console 

Related Article: What is Google Search Console? Explaining How to Set Up and Use It

Ahrefs 

Ahrefs is an SEO tool that allows you to analyze competitor sites. It lets you assess domain ratings and factors contributing to those ratings, including backlinks.

It rates sites using a unique metric known as Domain Rating (DR), based on the quality and quantity of backlinks.

Tool Name: Ahrefs 

Related Article: What is Ahrefs? A Comprehensive Guide on How to Use It and What to Watch For

MOZ PRO 

MOZ PRO is an SEO analysis tool provided by MOZ.

In addition to backlink information, MOZ PRO offers a unique metric called Domain Authority (DA), which assesses SEO valuation based on the number of keywords ranking in Google searches.

Tool Name: MOZ PRO 

Related Article: What is MOZ’s SEO Tool? How to Implement Effective SEO Strategies with Moz

Successful Case of Off-Page SEO in Tokyo 

SEO Maker At Tokyo SEO Maker, we have provided services to over 2,000 companies in Japan. Generally, we tailor our services to each client’s website, combining content SEO, technical SEO, and off-page strategies.

Here, I will introduce a case where we combined off-page tactics with content SEO to enhance SEO effectiveness.

Related Articles:[Case Study Interview with BtoB SMEs] Achieving Annual Sales of 100 Million Yen with SEO!

Related Articles:Achieving Annual Sales of 100 Million Yen with SEO: A Case Study from Shigen Corporation on Rising from Outside Rankings to 5th Place with Content SEO and Backlink Acquisition

Client Challenges and Implemented Strategies 

The client faced the following challenges.

• Keywords were ranking below 100th place, completely outside search rankings.
• The website was not attracting any visitors.
• The client wanted to manage their business in-house as they had web development staff.

The strategies proposed by Tokyo SEO Maker included the following.

• Formulating a keyword strategy.
• Conducting an SEO site audit for internal corrections.
• Creating SEO-focused articles.
• Implementing off-page SEO (link building).

Effects of the SEO Strategy 

The strategy began in January 2021, and within about a month, the keyword ‘kitchen car manufacturing’ rose to the 30th position from previously being unranked. Once we gathered about eight high-quality backlinks, the ranking steadily improved, reaching 7th place by the end of June that year.

Furthermore, not only did the search rankings improve, but the monthly sessions and conversions on the site more than doubled. As a result, the client company achieved an annual revenue of 100 million yen.

As of February 2024, ‘kitchen car manufacturing’ ranks 4th, maintaining its first-page status for over three years.

Frequently Asked Questions About Off-Page SEO 

Here are some common questions related to off-page SEO.

Q: How long does it take for off-page SEO to show effects? 

A: Off-page SEO, particularly strategies that increase backlinks, typically requires a long-term commitment. Generally, it takes several months to start noticing the effects.

Q: Is backlink strategy risky? 

A: Backlink strategies are not inherently bad. However, incorrect practices can lead to penalties for spamming by search engines.

Historically, Google has emphasized backlinks, leading to abuse of spam tactics. Consequently, Google has imposed strict penalties for practices such as buying backlinks or increasing them unnaturally.

Due to these developments, the notion that ‘inbound link strategies are risky’ has become widespread. However, there is no issue with implementing inbound link strategies correctly.

Q: Has off-page SEO declined? 

A: As of 2024, the importance of content SEO has increased compared to before, relatively diminishing the impact of backlinks. Nevertheless, the quality and quantity of backlinks remain crucial for SEO evaluations.

Q: Which is more important, off-page or on-page SEO? 

A: Both are important. Each type of SEO plays a different role, but a website needs both to be fully optimized.

Related Article: What is On-Page SEO?

Q: What is MEO off-page SEO? 

A: It refers to strategies that register your company information to enhance citation effects.

MEO (Map Engine Optimization) aims to rank your site highly in map searches. There are the following MEO strategies.

-Registering a Google Business Profile

-Unifying company information

-Setting structured data for company information

Related Article: The Difference Between SEO and MEO: Which Should You Focus On?

Summary 

Off-page SEO is a vital technique for improving your site’s search engine rankings, particularly through backlinks. However, excessive or low-quality links can lead to penalties, so it’s crucial to naturally enhance site evaluations. Also, leverage the effective tools introduced in this article to optimize your off-page SEO efforts.

Author Profile

Mr. Takeshi Amano, CEO of Admano Co., Ltd.

Mr. Takeshi Amano is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Nihon University. With 12 years of experience working in the advertising agency industry, he discovered SEO and began his research during the early days of SEO. He self-taught and conducted experiments and verifications on over 100 websites. Using this expertise, he founded Admano Co., Ltd., which is currently in its 11th year of operation. Mr. Amano handles sales, SEO consulting, web analytics (holding the Google Analytics Individual Qualification certification), coding, and website development. The company has successfully managed SEO strategies for over 2000 websites to date.

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