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A lot can be derived from the name itself, off-site SEO (also called “off-page SEO”) refers to the external factors that affect the search engine ranking of a website. Most commonly, the term off-site SEO is thrown into the same category as link building, but in fact, there is more at work than just backlinks.

Google uses more than 200 factors to determine its ranking algorithm. Optimising your website for off-site SEO involves creating a profile for your website that improves its popularity, trustworthiness, relevance, and authority. Search engines interpret off-page SEO as a vote of confidence from other web users.

According to SEOmoz, off-page SEO related factors likely account for more than 50% of a website’s ranking. Addressing off-site SEO is a vital step in creating a holistic SEO strategy.

There are over 200 ranking factors that impact SEO. That number is very intimidating, especially for those who are trying to handle SEO on their own. Happily, not all factors are weighted evenly, which means that you can achieve a lot by focussing on the most important off-site SEO factors.

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Off-Site SEO Ranking Factors Include:

  • DoFollow vs. NoFollow Links: Not all links are created equally. Links including the nofollow attribute (rel=nofollow) do not count as links to your page. That being said, there is a growing belief that nofollow links are still valued (in a limited capacity) in determining your site ranking. A natural link profile will include a mix of dofollow and nofollow links.

  • Number of Linking Domains: All thing being equal, having 200 links from 200 unique domains is more valuable than having 200 links from the same domain. A strong link profile will feature a diversity of domains.

  • Domain Authority of Linking Domain: The term ‘domain authority’ is thrown around a lot by SEO experts. The term is actually a proprietary system that SEO Moz uses when ranking the strength of a domain. Whether you refer to it as DA, DR or whatever else, the strength of the domain linking to you will affect the weight and value of the link.

  • Link Relevancy: Link relevancy is used by Google and other search engines to determine the legitimacy and relevancy of links pointing to your page. Generally speaking, you want your links to be coming from someone within the same industry as your business.

  • Link Diversity: The source of your links matters. Ideally, sites should aim to build links from relevant industry pages. Sites which feature a large number of links from irrelevant sites or sites which are known for spam may be penalised.

  • Anchor Text: Having a link that is hyperlinked with the keyword of the page you are targeting is much more powerful than having a link that says “Click Here for more”. Like everything, anchor text is best used in moderation. If search engines notice a large influx of links all using the same anchor text, then you can be penalised.

These are just a few of the most important off-site SEO ranking factors. If you want to find out more about the other areas of your site that are included in a holistic SEO strategy, you can contact Safari Digital SEO Company for a no-obligation discussion about how SEO can grow your business.