Off-page SEO refers to all the things you can do outside of your website to promote and increase traffic. Statistics from leading website analytics companies show that 50 percent of a site’s ranking is due to off-site SEO factors.
Although many marketers think of links when they think of off-page SEO, off-page strategy is much more than that. For many, link building has gotten a bad reputation because many marketers used link building for its perceived SEO value, not for the value it brings to the web visitor. But Google rightly sees built links as a sign of a website’s authority, trust and value.
So far, we haven’t brought up the white hat – black hat conflict since we’ve been teaching white hat promotion and web SEO methods. What do we mean by these terms?
Black hat methods are only used to increase SEO as believed. They do not value the web visitor. (They are called black hats in old westerns for villains who were identified by black hats. The hero wore a white hat.) Link building is an area that is often closely related to black hat methods. Examples of black hat methods include buying links, link farms, automated link building tools, and PBNs (Private Business Networks). Using black hat methods never works long-term—it’s always discovered by Google because you haven’t really created value. This can result in Google either dropping your website ranking quickly or banning your site. Don’t do it – no matter how tempting it sounds.
Not all links are created equal. Sites that are popular, that command a flow of authority and trust, are worth more than sites that have no traffic and no authority. Links to real academic organizations and government organizations are (or at least used to be) more valuable because they are perceived as credible and have authority. Their value has been somewhat tarnished because some marketers have purchased .edu domain names and created “fake” educational institutions to gain SEO value from the .edu link.
There are several different types of white hat links:
Those created through deliberate link building activities, such as guest blogging and getting other webmasters to post links on your site that they think their visitors will find valuable. You can also use social media (covered in Chapter 9) to build connections by creating forum pages with active interactions and discussions. You provide links to content you think they’ll find valuable, and if they do, they can post a link recommending your site.
Natural links are where other webmasters visit your site and you get links without any action.
Auto links where you add your link to directories, forums, blog signatures, etc. Sometimes this self-build link technique gets colored into black hat practices and can get you into trouble. Auto links are the least valuable.
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