Boosting SEO After Site Launch
Your website’s SEO foundation helps Google understand what you offer, off-page SEO signals to search engines that your business is reputable and authoritative. From earning backlinks to securing online mentions and reviews, these efforts can strengthen your rankings and help you stand out in competitive search results. By strategically increasing your online authority, you improve your chances of ranking higher and reaching more potential customers.
Quick Take:
Off-page SEO helps search engines recognize your business as a trusted authority. Earning backlinks, getting online mentions, and collecting reviews all contribute to stronger rankings. The more credible your business appears across the web, the higher your chances of outranking competitors and attracting more customers.
Yay! Your website’s SEO setup is done, creating the foundation for Google to understand exactly what you offer.
So, what do you do now? Just sit back and let Google handle the rest? No!
The foundation we set will help you move up slowly over time, but if you want to rank as high as possible and get long-term results, I recommend focusing on building more online authority for your business.
This is what the pros call “off-page SEO.”
What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO are actions taken other than on your website to boost your search engine rankings. This often involves things like earning backlinks, getting more mentions online, winning awards, and getting more reviews.
Simply put, off-page SEO includes everything you do to help search engines to view your business as credible and authoritative.
Why does Off-Page SEO exist or matter?
A long time ago, you really could just include strategic keywords on a website and Google would immediately rank it on Page 1.
The problem was… people started gaming the system. Scammers who were good at SEO could get a site to rank quickly, out-ranking more established and reputable businesses. So Google created a way to determine sites that were actually good, authoritative, and expert sources – factoring in where a business or website was mentioned online, not just the keywords used on their own website.
As a website owner, what does this mean for you?
If you want to rank for competitive keywords, you have to prove to search engines that you are more trusted than your competitors.
In this guide, I’m going to give you some guidance on how you do it.
Step 1: Backlinks
Backlinks are links to your website from other websites on the internet.
To rank your site, Google considers where your business and URL are linked across the web. Google treats links from other sites kind of like “votes” for your website’s quality.
If someone is willing to link to your site, they must have trust that your website is a good one to send their visitors to.
That’s a big deal to search engines and shows that your website is high-quality.
Why do backlinks matter
To give you an example, let’s say Google’s algorithm is trying to choose between two wedding planners’ websites to rank for the term “Raleigh wedding planner”
One wedding planner site has been linked by Style Me Pretty, BRIDES.com, a local North Carolina wedding blog, 25 other vendors, 6 venues’ preferred vendor lists, in a local newspaper article, and on the local Chamber of Commerce website.
The other wedding planner site has 2 links to it from local photographers’ blog posts.
Which do you think Google is going to judge as the better, more trustworthy business to drive traffic to?
The answer is site #1, which has more links overall and links from authoritative, high-traffic websites.
Examples of good backlinks
Building backlinks for off-page SEO is all about quality, not quantity.
If you want your links to boost your SEO rankings, they need to be quality links from related sites (not easy-to-get links you pay an “SEO guy” to build quickly).
Here are a few examples of high quality links:
Getting quoted in an article or publication as an expert source
Mentions in local news articles
Links from podcast show notes
Credits or mentions in other businesses’ blog posts
Listings in industry-specific directories
We acknowledge that getting high-quality links isn’t easy. It usually takes genuine connections, putting yourself out there, and generally marketing your business well.
Which is exactly why search engines think links are so useful.
Get more backlink ideas
To get more inspiration for backlinks, find out where your top-ranking competitors are linked!
Put a competitor’s website into Ahref’s free Backlink Checker tool, and you’ll see a short list of a few of their top backlinks. Then, work to get similar links to your site.
Step 2: Online Reviews
Beyond links, what other information can a search engine use to understand if your business does a good job?
Hello, online reviews— a pretty clear signal of your business’s reputation.
Google’s Quality Rater guidelines put a lot of emphasis on online reviews.
This makes sense: if customers hate your business, why would Google want to show your site to more people?
So, it can help your SEO to get more reviews. Focus on getting reviews on platforms your ideal customers actually use, like Google, Facebook, or industry-specific directories.
If your competitors have significantly more or better online reviews than you do, Google is likely to prioritize them in the search results.
If you don’t run a business that people review (like a blog or media site), Google relies more on mentions and awards you’ve won.
Step 3: Google Business Profile
If you have a local business that makes in-person contact with customers, you are eligible for a Google Business Profile.
(Online-only businesses are not eligible)
If you’re eligible, we highly recommend that you create a profile and fill it in completely.
This is a great way to communicate directly to Google who you are, where you’re located, where you serve your customers, when you’re open, what products or services you offer, and more.
This also creates the place for you to get Google reviews and possibly show up in Google’s map results. You won’t show up in the Google map links without Google Business Profile.
Learn more
These are big ones, but there are a lot more factors that search engines consider off of your website.
Want to get even geekier about off-page SEO? This off-page SEO guide includes a clear explanation of more advanced strategies.
Want help building a website or setting your SEO foundation? I create strategic, search-friendly websites that help businesses get found online. Explore my web design services and learn more about my SEO process, take a look at my website design portfolio, and get in touch to start your project.
ABOUT THE BLOGGER
Hi! I’m Taryn Schroder
I help small business owners ditch the DIY struggle and build custom brands and websites that look as professional as they are. My goal is simple: to create a brand and website that grows with your business and feels authentically you.
