Off-Page SEO

Summary

The video discusses off-page SEO, emphasizing the importance of backlinks for improving search engine rankings. It explains how backlinks from high-authority sites significantly impact a webpage's rank and provides an overview of various link attributes like follow, nofollow, sponsored, and UGC. The video also highlights tools like SEMrush for analyzing backlinks and offers techniques for building quality backlinks, such as broken link building, using link building tools, and creating original content to attract links. The video concludes by encouraging viewers to apply these SEO strategies using SEMrush.

Takeaways

• 🔗 Off-page SEO, also known as off-site SEO, focuses on activities outside of your website that can influence your search engine rankings, with backlinks being the most significant factor.
• 🏆 Google uses backlinks as a key ranking factor, considering each backlink as a 'vote' for a webpage's authority. Links from popular and authoritative websites are more valuable.
• 📊 The SEMrush domain overview report includes metrics on backlinks and referring domains, both of which are crucial for assessing a website's authority.
• 🚫 Links can have different attributes such as 'follow', 'nofollow', 'sponsored', and 'ugc', which affect how Google perceives them. Nofollow and sponsored links are less valuable for ranking but still useful for other purposes.
• ⚠️ Buying or selling backlinks can lead to penalties from Google, including possible removal from search results. It's important to avoid link spam and ensure all backlinks are legitimate.
• 🔍 SEMrush provides tools to analyze backlinks, including identifying broken links, which can be opportunities for link building by offering your content as a replacement.
• ✉️ SEMrush's link building tool can automate the process of reaching out to relevant websites for backlinks, offering strategies like guest posting or directory listings.
• 📝 High-quality, original content, particularly content with original research or data, tends to attract more backlinks naturally and can be a highly effective link-building strategy.
• 📈 Conducting studies or research that fill a gap in your industry can lead to backlinks from authoritative sources, as journalists and bloggers often link to such data.
• 🎯 Focus on a few effective link-building strategies rather than trying to use all possible methods. Consistent and strategic efforts can help you compete for competitive keywords.

Q & A

What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO, also known as off-site SEO, refers to all the activities done outside of your own website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs). The most important aspect of off-page SEO is backlinks, which are hyperlinks from other websites pointing to your site.

Why are backlinks important in off-page SEO?

Backlinks are crucial because they are considered by search engines like Google as votes of confidence. The more quality backlinks a website has, the higher it is likely to rank in search results. Google also evaluates the popularity of the website providing the backlink, giving more weight to links from well-established sites.

How does Google view backlinks from more popular websites compared to less popular ones?

Google considers backlinks from more popular websites, which themselves have a lot of backlinks, to be worth more than links from less popular websites. This means a backlink from a high-authority site can significantly boost your website's ranking more than multiple backlinks from low-authority sites.

What are 'follow' and 'nofollow' links?

'Follow' links are regular hyperlinks that pass on SEO value from one site to another. 'Nofollow' links include the 'rel=nofollow' attribute in the HTML, signaling to search engines not to count these links as votes for the site they point to. Although Google treats nofollow links as hints, they do not carry as much weight as follow links.

Why do some websites use 'nofollow' links?

Websites use nofollow links to prevent link spam, reduce the number of people trying to get backlinks purely for SEO, and comply with Google's guidelines on paid links. Nofollow links are commonly used in user-generated content (UGC) like blog comments and forums to avoid endorsing potentially spammy links.

What is broken link building and how does it work?

Broken link building involves finding broken links on other websites and reaching out to the site owners to suggest replacing the broken link with a link to a relevant page on your website. This helps the site owner fix broken links, which is beneficial for user experience, while also gaining a backlink for your own site.

How can the SEMrush link building tool help in acquiring backlinks?

The SEMrush link building tool helps identify websites that are likely to link back to your site by analyzing competitors' backlinks and ranking keywords. It offers different outreach strategies, automates email templates, and helps manage the entire process of reaching out to potential backlink sources efficiently.

What type of content tends to get the most backlinks?

Content that contains original data, studies, and original research pieces tend to naturally attract more backlinks. This is because journalists and bloggers often link to such content as sources when writing their articles.

How can original research content be used to build backlinks?

Creating and publishing original research content, such as surveys and studies, can attract backlinks from other websites that cite your research. Reaching out to journalists and bloggers who have previously linked to similar studies can further amplify the reach and backlink potential of your research content.

Why is it important to avoid buying cheap backlinks from link building services or freelancers?

Buying cheap backlinks can be detrimental because these links are often of low quality and can be flagged as spam by search engines. Google has strict policies against paid links that manipulate rankings, and engaging in such practices can result in severe penalties, including removal from search results.

Outlines

00:00

🔗 Importance of Off-Page SEO and Backlinks

Off-page SEO, or off-site SEO, involves all SEO activities that take place outside your own website, with the most important element being backlinks. Backlinks, or hyperlinks from other websites to your own, are crucial because they act as votes of confidence for your site. Google uses backlinks to determine the popularity and relevance of web pages. Backlinks from high-authority sites are more valuable than those from less popular sites. Studies have shown that backlinks significantly impact a webpage's ability to rank well in search engines like Google and Bing. Tools like SEMrush's domain overview report help analyze backlinks and understand a website's ranking power.

05:03

⚖️ Understanding Link Attributes and Their Impact

Link attributes such as 'follow', 'nofollow', 'sponsored', and 'ugc' play a significant role in how Google values backlinks. 'Follow' links are regular hyperlinks, while 'nofollow' links tell Google not to count them as votes for the linked site, though they are still considered hints. 'Sponsored' and 'ugc' links are treated similarly to 'nofollow' links. These attributes help prevent spam and manipulation of search rankings. It is essential to avoid buying backlinks, as it can lead to severe penalties, including removal from Google search results. Tools like SEMrush's backlink analytics report provide insights into the types of backlinks a site has.

10:04

🔍 Techniques for Building High-Quality Backlinks

Building high-quality backlinks is crucial for improving search rankings. One effective method is broken link building, which involves finding and fixing broken links on other websites by pointing them to relevant content on your site. SEMrush tools can help identify these opportunities by analyzing competitor domains and broken pages. Another method is using SEMrush's link building tool to find and reach out to relevant websites for link requests, such as guest posts. Crafting personalized and professional outreach emails increases the chances of securing valuable backlinks. These strategies help build a robust backlink profile, enhancing your site's SEO.

15:04

📊 Creating Link-Worthy Content Through Original Research

Creating high-quality, original research content is a powerful way to attract backlinks. Content that includes unique data and studies naturally garners more backlinks, as it is often cited by journalists and bloggers. An example is a study on top-level domains that gained significant attention and backlinks from major sites. To replicate this success, analyze competitors' top-linked pages using SEMrush tools and create updated versions of popular studies. Reach out to the same journalists and bloggers who linked to the original studies. This approach not only builds backlinks but also establishes your content as a credible source in your industry.

Keywords

💡Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to all the optimization activities that take place outside of your website to improve its ranking on search engines. This includes strategies like backlink building, social media marketing, and influencer outreach. In the script, it is highlighted as a critical component of SEO that can significantly boost a website's visibility even without on-page or technical SEO.

💡Backlinks

Backlinks are hyperlinks that point from one website to another. They are crucial for off-page SEO as they are considered votes of confidence by search engines like Google. In the script, backlinks are discussed extensively as a major ranking factor, with emphasis on the quality and quantity of backlinks a site receives from other reputable sites.

💡Authority score

Authority score is a metric that indicates the overall strength and ranking power of a website based on various factors, including the quality and quantity of backlinks. The script mentions SEMrush's domain overview report which includes the authority score to help users analyze a website's ranking potential.

💡Follow links

Follow links are regular hyperlinks that allow search engines to pass ranking credit, or 'link juice,' from one site to another. In the script, follow links are contrasted with nofollow links, emphasizing their importance in boosting a website's SEO by passing more value.

💡Nofollow links

Nofollow links are hyperlinks with a 'rel=nofollow' attribute, instructing search engines not to pass any link juice to the target site. Although they carry less weight in SEO, they are used to prevent spam and indicate non-endorsement. The script explains that while Google still sees them as hints, they are less valuable than follow links.

💡Anchor text

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. It helps search engines understand the context and relevance of the linked page. The script describes how anchor text with relevant keywords can enhance a page's SEO but warns against over-optimization, which can lead to penalties.

💡Link spam

Link spam involves creating or purchasing links purely for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings, which is against Google's guidelines. The script cautions against engaging in link spam practices, such as buying backlinks, as they can lead to severe penalties, including removal from search results.

💡Broken link building

Broken link building is an SEO strategy where you find broken links on other websites and suggest your own content as a replacement. This helps the website owner fix the broken link while providing you with a backlink. The script outlines this as an effective method to gain high-quality backlinks.

💡Guest post

Guest posting involves writing articles for other websites in exchange for a backlink to your own site. This not only helps in gaining backlinks but also in reaching a wider audience. The script discusses using SEMrush's link building tool to facilitate guest post outreach by automating email templates and contact information.

💡Original research

Original research involves creating content based on unique data or findings. Such content tends to attract more backlinks because it serves as a credible source for others. The script uses an example of a marketing blog that gained significant backlinks by publishing a study on top-level domains, highlighting the effectiveness of this strategy.

Highlights

Off-page SEO is a critical component of SEO, focusing on factors outside your website, primarily backlinks.

Google counts hyperlinks as votes, with links from popular websites being more valuable.

Backlinks significantly impact a webpage's ranking ability, as confirmed by various SEO studies.

Google uses the anchor text of backlinks to determine a page's relevance for specific keywords.

No follow links, while less valuable for SEO, can still provide referral traffic and reduce spam.

Google has strict policies against paid links and considers them link spam, which can lead to penalties.

The SEMrush domain overview report provides essential backlink metrics, including the number of backlinks and referring domains.

Broken link building is an effective technique where you replace broken links on other websites with links to your content.

SEMrush's link building tool helps identify and reach out to websites for backlink opportunities.

Creating original research content is a powerful way to attract backlinks naturally.

Surveys and studies are particularly effective in earning backlinks from larger websites and journalists.

Competitor analysis using SEMrush can reveal top-linked pages, providing inspiration for your own backlink strategies.

The backlink gap tool in SEMrush shows sites linking to competitors but not to you, highlighting potential link opportunities.

Effective link building strategies can help you compete with larger websites for competitive keywords.

SEMrush offers various tools to simplify the backlink-building process, making it accessible even for beginners.

Transcripts

thank you

[Music]

off-page SEO is the last major component

of SEO but that doesn't mean it's not

important some people have built large

businesses or very successful careers

based on off-page SEO alone without even

touching on-page or technical issues

off-page SEO which is also called

off-site SEO is just what it sounds like

it's all the parts of SEO that aren't

actually on your own website in practice

the most important part of off-page SEO

is backlinks meaning hyperlinks that

point from other websites to your own

when Google was first created it was

competing with lots of other search

engines but one of the ways that Google

was able to provide better search

results was by taking links into account

basically Google counted every hyperlink

as a vote so a web page that had 100

links pointing back at it from 100 other

websites would rank better than a web

page that only had 10 links pointing

back at it from other websites

Google also considered links from more

popular websites which themselves had a

lot of links pointing to them to be

worth more votes compared to Links from

less popular websites so imagine website

a with 10 million backlinks pointing to

it and website B with only 10 backlinks

pointing to it

getting a link from website a to your

own website would be worth a lot more

than getting a link from website B and

that's still true today Google has

confirmed that backlinks are a ranking

Factor they won't tell us exactly how

important they are but studies that

different seos have done over the years

have consistently shown backlinks make a

huge difference in a web Page's ability

to rank and just like pretty much

everything else we've talked about in

this course that's also true for other

search engines like being so backlinks

are incredibly important

that's why semrush's domain overview

report includes several important

features related to backlinks which you

can use to analyze any website

at the top left is the website's

Authority score which is an overall

measurement of how strong a website's

ranking power is it's based on backlinks

as well as a couple of other factors

then over to the right are the backlinks

metrics this shows the raw number of

backlinks and below that it shows the

number of referring domains which is how

many different websites those backlinks

are coming from

there's nothing wrong with getting more

than one backlink from a single website

in fact it's helpful but generally

speaking a higher number of referring

domains is more important than a higher

number of individual backlinks and of

course you can click on either of those

elements to see all the backlinks or

referring domains let's click on the

backlinks number to see the full

backlink analytics report

the backlinks tab of this report gives

us some new information about the links

pointing to this website the link

attributes section here on the right

shows follow nofollow sponsored and ugc

these are important to understand

follow links are just regular hyperlinks

no follow links look like normal

hyperlinks to users but if you look at

the HTML they include the Rel equals

nofollow attribute like this

Google recommends using nofollow where

you want it and link to a page but don't

want to imply any type of endorsement

the nofollow tag basically tells Google

not to count this link as a vote for the

site it's pointing to

in reality Google has said that it still

considers nofollow links to be hints but

they aren't weighted as heavily as a

regular follow links

because nofollow links are less valuable

for SEO purposes one reason websites use

them is to produce spam issues for

example the comments section of most

blogs automatically adds the nofollow

attribute to all the outbattle links or

else it uses the ugc attribute which

Google treats similarly to nofollow

comment spam is still incredibly common

but it would be even more common if the

links were followed

lots of large websites also know follow

their outbound links by default

especially when they have many

contributors like Wikipedia and Forbes

this helps reduce the number of people

trying to write for them simply for link

building purposes it's also important to

nofollow any links that were paid for

you can do this either using the

nofollow attribute or the sponsored

attribute which Google treats similarly

this is important because Google has

strict policies against paid links that

are followed Google considers buying or

selling any links for ranking purposes

to be link spam and websites that engage

in linkspam can be severely penalized

including potentially being removed from

Google search results entirely by the

way that's also a good reason not to buy

the cheap backlinks from most of the

link Building Services or Freelancers

you might see online those backlinks

will pretty much always be worthless and

they may even get you penalized

so the link attributes section of the

backlinks report shows how many of the

links are followed and then how many are

instead marked as nofollow sponsored or

ugc all of which carry less weight with

Google

and then underneath that we can see the

full list of backlinks that are pointing

to the Investopedia website including

the pages they're pointing from

the target URL they're pointing to

and the anchor text they're using

the anchor text of a link is simply the

text that is actually linked from

sometimes it's just the URL of the page

it's pointing to like this

other times it just says click here

and often the anchor text will say

something descriptive about the page

it's linking to

anchor text matters because Google uses

it to determine what a page is about if

your web page is targeting the keyword

best dog food and it gets a bunch of

backlinks that say best dog food or

related phrases like dog food or Purina

dog food these links are basically

telling Google that your page is

relevant for those keywords in a minute

we'll look at some specific link

building techniques you can use but

before we do let's quickly sum up what

you've learned about backlinks so far

getting backlinks helps web pages rank

better on Google especially if those

backlinks are high quality meaning they

come from web pages and websites that

themselves have a lot of backlinks

pointing to them

backlinks with relevant anchor text can

have an even bigger effect but it's

important not to over optimize for this

or Google may see it as link spam and

penalize your site another dangerous

type of leak spam is buying and selling

backlinks which you should avoid

backlinks with the nofollow sponsored or

ugc attributes are worth much less from

a ranking perspective than regular

follow backlinks but they can still be

valuable for other reasons like referral

traffic

you can use semrush's backlink analytics

to see the backlinks pointing to any

website

for very low competition keywords

backlinks may not matter much but when

it comes to moderate or difficult

keywords you're going to have a lot of

trouble ranking without some solid

backlinks so now let's cover a few ways

you can build backlinks

there are actually almost an infinite

number of ways to do this some are

effective and some not so much here are

a few techniques that you can use the

first is broken link building

with broken link building you can find

outbound links on other websites that

are pointing to a page that got moved or

deleted in other words those links are

broken because they point to error pages

you find those broken links and then you

reach out to the webmaster to ask them

to link to your site instead as a way to

fix them this works because website

owners don't want to have a bunch of

broken links on their site it's a bad

user experience and it doesn't take a

lot of effort for them to fix those

broken links by pointing them to your

site instead as long as you give them a

relevant web page to point them to of

course

semrush makes this whole process pretty

simple

first look at a competitor's domain in

the backlink Analytics tool then click

on the index Pages Tab and click on the

broken Pages at the top

here's a list of broken pages on this

site sorted by the number of domains

that are linking to them

there are multiple pages on this one

site that have backlinks from hundreds

of other websites pointing to them

every one of those is a broken link

building opportunity

you can look to see if you have any

pages on your site that would make sense

for these links to point to instead and

if not you can build new pages on your

site that would make sense

for now let's imagine we have a page on

our website that's similar to what this

one here used to be

we could even use archive.org to see

exactly what was on that page before but

in this case let's just assume

we click on the number of backlinks that

are pointing to that page and that takes

us to the list of those exact backlinks

and the pages they're coming from this

is sorted by the pages Authority scores

so the most powerful backlink sources

are at the top and then we can click

through to each of these find the

contact information for the websites and

reach out via email social media or

contact form to tell them about the

broken backlink and how they may want to

fix it by pointing to our page instead

there are a lot of broken links out

there and this can be a pretty effective

way to build backlinks to your site

another way you can build backlinks is

through semrush's link building tool

this tool makes it super easy to find

and reach out to lots of relevant

websites with different types of Link

requests via email

start by clicking on the link building

tool in the left nav menu

enter your own domain for example

investopedia.com

it will automatically fill in some

keywords that it thinks you might care

about We'll add a few more like Roth

401k how to invest and stock market Roi

and we'll delete some of the ones below

that don't seem relevant

then on the competitors step

these look good so we'll just continue

it will take a few minutes to collect

and analyze the data and then it will

show you a list of prospects

these are websites that are currently

linking to your competitors and or

ranking for the keywords you chose

in other words these are websites you

might be able to get some relevant

backlinks from

click on the blue button next to any of

these to add them to your in progress

list you can add as many as you want

then pop over to the in progress Tab and

it lists them out

in the Outreach strategy column click

the down carrot to see the different

types of Outreach strategies you might

use the one you choose will fill out an

email template for you based on that

strategy

for example the directory slash catalog

option is for asking to be added to a

directory style page

and the guest post option lets you ask

them if you can write a guest post for

their blog since guest posts usually

come with a link back to the author's

website let's click this guest post

option and then click contact

this shows you the email addresses of

some contacts that semrush automatically

found for the website it also has some

placeholders which are variables that

you can use to add domains or URLs to

your email automatically instead of

manually typing them in over and over

again

and then it has some very basic

placeholder language in the subject line

and email body that you should

definitely replace in this case we might

use a subject line like do you accept

guest posts

and then in the email body say something

like hi I'm Kyle Byers I've been working

in blank industry for 10 years and I'm

currently the VP of XYZ I would love to

write a guest post for you covering the

topic of ABC

would you potentially be interested if

so I'd be happy to send a writing sample

and some topic ideas for the Post

best Kyle

then you can save it as a template to

use again and again

and you can send the email directly from

here with the green button below

semris makes this easy to do over and

over again for a lot of different

websites

the last link building technique is a

little more passive but it's actually my

favorite it involves building an awesome

piece of content and then reaching out

to the right people to get it to spread

excellent content in general tends to

get many more backlinks than average

content does which makes sense right

you're much more likely to link out or

share to a great page than to a bad one

but beyond that there's one type of

content that gets even more backlinks

than almost any other content that

contains original data studies and

original research pieces tend to

naturally get a lot of backlinks because

journalists and bloggers link to them as

sources when they write their articles

for example I used to run a marketing

blog called growth Badger it was just a

little hobby site that I used to test

different marketing strategies and talk

about them now the marketing industry is

really competitive it's hard to stand

out because you're competing against

world-class marketers so building

backlinks to a marketing blog can be

pretty difficult

one day I decided to run a study about

top level domains people have been

arguing for years about whether having

a.com domain really mattered or if you

should use a DOT IO or net or dot org or

whatever people felt very passionately

about it but there wasn't any hard data

that they could point to I thought if I

could find a way to prove their point

one way or another I could get a ton of

backlinks and attention for my little

blog

so I set up a test and I paid some

Freelancers to take it it was basically

just a survey but it asked people how

much they would trust different made up

websites using different top level

domains like.com dot IO and so on then

it also tested how well those people

remembered those websites addresses and

a couple other things

and I compared the results based on top

level domain

I also asked some SEO industry experts

to add commentary to the post this was

to help give it a little more

credibility and also because I knew they

would share it with their social media

followers if they contributed

then I published the results on my blog

the post got a lot of attention just

like I'd hoped first on Twitter then on

blogs and articles it got backlinks from

much larger websites like the Shopify

blog GoDaddy Wix Mashable aweber and

More in fact it's still getting

backlinks today years later

there are lots of opportunities to

create your own original research piece

like this one and earn it a lot of

backlinks in the process one way to get

ideas is by looking at your competitors

top linked pages in The backlink

Analytics tool for example two of

upworks top linked pages are survey

results they're good studies but they're

both years old at this point and they

both have thousands of backlinks

if I was working for one of upworks

competitors like Fiverr or

freelancer.com I would make it a

priority to launch our own freelancer

survey I would probably even use a lot

of the same questions that upwork did

and after publishing the results I'd

reach out to the same journalists and

bloggers who linked to upwork studies

before because that they linked to

upwork's Old studies they'd probably

link to my up-to-date one too

this approach blurs link building and

digital PR and it's a great way to

attract high quality backlinks passively

over time as I mentioned there are lots

of other ways to build backlinks also

semrush even has more tools for that

that we didn't talk about

for example the backlink Gap tool lets

you see what sites are linking to your

competitors but not to you that's a

great way to find things like comparison

pages and directories where you can get

your site added to a list of others in

your industry

but you don't actually need many link

building strategies in order to be

successful just one or two that you can

use effectively can help you compete

with much bigger websites for some

pretty competitive keywords and that

wraps up this lesson and also this

module

you're now equipped with SEO knowledge

to help you get started so why not put

your new understanding into practice by

heading over to the semrush platform to

try out your new skills thanks for

watching and I really hope you enjoyed

it if you have any questions or comments

please reach out to me on Twitter or

LinkedIn

[Music]