What Is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO refers to actions taken extracurricular your website to amended its authority and trustworthiness, which tin amended your visibility successful hunt engines arsenic good arsenic your wide marque reputation.
Some off-page SEO strategies that tin thief build a beardown online beingness include:
- Building high-quality backlinks (links from different sites that constituent to your site)
- Getting your marque mentioned online
- Sharing contented connected societal media
In contrast, on-page SEO involves optimizing webpage elements (e.g., improving content, incorporating soul links, and boosting page speed) to get much hunt motor traffic.

Off-Page SEO Checklist
Follow these 8 steps to get the astir from your off-page SEO efforts.
1. Audit Your Backlink Profile
Auditing your backlink floor plan (i.e., each the backlinks to your site) helps you measure the value and relevance of the links pointing to your tract to uncover ways to fortify your profile—and that tin amended your visibility successful hunt results.
This is because backlinks are a key ranking factor.
Basically, backlinks awesome that your website is reliable and deserving of ranking (showing successful hunt results), arsenic agelong arsenic those links are from reputable and applicable websites.
To quickly audit your backlink profile, usage Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool.
Simply caput complete to the tool, participate your domain name, and click “Analyze.”

Next, you’ll spot a dashboard that contains a assortment of information points. Including:
- Authority Score: Semrush’s proprietary metric that measures the domain’s reputability. A precocious number indicates your domain is precocious successful quality.
- Referring Domains: The number of unsocial domains linking to your site. A higher number tin summation your site’s authority, particularly if those sites person precocious Authority Scores.
- Backlinks: The full number of links pointing to your site. Generally, a higher number is better.
- Overall Toxicity Score: A measurement of really patient your backlink floor plan is. A standing of “Medium” aliases “High” indicates there’s room for improvement.

- Top Anchors: Shows the astir communal anchor text different domains utilized to nexus to you. A earthy assortment is good, while overuse of the aforesaid fewer variations tin beryllium seen arsenic spammy.
- Referring Domains by Authority Score: Reveals really Authority Scores alteration among referring domains. The much domains pinch a precocious Authority Score that constituent to your site, the better.
- Link Attributes: Shows the section betwixt follow and nofollow backlinks. Follow links typically walk ranking authority, truthful it’s champion to prioritize them.

Consider these information points and what they indicate.
For instance, a precocious number of referring domains from reputable websites pinch beardown Authority Scores indicates that hunt engines spot your tract arsenic authoritative. And you don’t request to do overmuch to amended your backlink profile.
2. Analyze Your Competitors' Backlink Profiles
Analyzing your competitors' backlink profiles tin thief you find whether those profiles are giving them an advantage successful rankings—and supply valuable insights into their nexus building tactics.
For example, if they’ve secured galore high-quality backlinks utilizing infographics, you could commencement creating your ain infographics. Ideally, versions that are moreover amended than what your rivals are publishing.
Use Semrush’s Backlink Gap instrumentality to analyse your competitors’ nexus profiles alongside yours.
Simply participate your domain and the domains of up to 4 competitors, past click “Find prospects.”

On the dashboard, click the “Charts” drop-down to comparison your Authority Score and referring domains pinch your competitors complete the past 12 months.

If your competitors person importantly higher Authority Scores than you, it could beryllium because they’re getting backlinks from much reputable domains.
Below the charts, you’ll find the “Prospects for” section—make judge your domain is selected and click “Best” to make a database of domains linking to competitors’ sites but not to yours.
Click connected figures successful competitors’ columns to spot which pages pull backlinks from a circumstantial domain.
Like this:

Analyze this accusation to place high-value domains and the types of contented they thin to nexus to. And usage that to pass your link-building efforts.
3. Build High-Quality Backlinks
In summation to uncovering opportunities from your competitors’ backlinks, location are respective different nexus building strategies to see erstwhile moving done your off-page SEO checklist:
- Guest posting: Write useful pieces of contented for reputable sites successful your niche. These tin consequence successful backlinks to your site.
- Reclaiming surgery links: Find surgery outer links connected target websites and connection an replacement page pinch applicable contented from your site
- Skyscraper technique: Identify competitory contented different websites nexus to, trade an improved version, and promote those websites to nexus to your contented instead
- Unlinked marque mentions: Locate mentions of your marque that don’t see a nexus and petition one
- Linkable assets: Create contented for illustration investigation reports, infographics, tools, aliases guides that people pull backlinks
- Expert advice: Share your expertise done interviews, podcasts, aliases answering media requests. Publishers often supply a nexus erstwhile they mention you.

Prioritize techniques that look for illustration the champion fresh for your business.
For instance, if your marque is well-known and mentioned passim the web, pursuing unlinked marque mentions makes sense.
Or, if your institution employs starring manufacture experts, sharing their expertise pinch writers and journalists is simply a sensible attack for acquiring backlinks.
Semrush’s Link Building Tool tin thief you instrumentality these tactics.
First, caput to the instrumentality and adhd your domain.
Then, click “Start Link Building” to set up your campaign.

Once successful the tool, spell to the “Prospects” tab.

Here, you’ll find a database of promising websites to contact.
You whitethorn want to prioritize websites pinch precocious Authority Scores (listed successful the “AS” column). Because these reputable sites tin amended thief you build your ain authority.
Once you’ve selected immoderate websites and cognize which nexus building maneuver you want to use, cheque the boxes adjacent to those websites, prime the drop-down paper adjacent to the “To In Progress” field, and take the maneuver you’ll beryllium using.

Go to the “In Progress” tab—your chosen prospects now look here.
Click “Contact” to email a imaginable from wrong Semrush’s tool. Available email addresses will beryllium automatically added.

Once you get a backlink from a prospect, move that website to the “Monitor” tab by clicking the checkmark successful the acold correct column.
This way, you tin way if you suffer that backlink aliases if a referring domain is nary longer live.
4. Optimize for Local SEO
If you tally a section business, off-page local SEO efforts for illustration getting applicable citations and reviews tin summation your online visibility.
It helps you show up connected Google Maps and hunt results for keywords pinch section hunt intent.
Like “indian restaurants successful caller york”:

To look for section searches, instrumentality these tips:
- Create and optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP): An optimized floor plan tin make your business look much prominently successful section hunt and guarantee users person up-to-date specifications connected your business
- Get section directory listings pinch accordant information: Local directories (like Yelp, Tripadvisor, and industry-specific directories) are different measurement for customers to observe your business. And ensuring your name, address, and telephone number (NAP) accusation is accordant helps hunt engines verify accusation astir your business.
- Encourage reviews: Accumulating reviews—especially affirmative ones—can summation spot and amended section hunt rankings.
Also, make it a wont to respond to customer reviews.

Google encourages businesses to reply to some affirmative and antagonistic reviews. Because it helps to show that you worth feedback.
You tin respond to Google reviews utilizing your Google Business Profile account.
Or, usage Semrush’s Review Management instrumentality to respond to Google reviews. And get notified astir reviews successful different directories.
Head to the tool, find your business, and motion up for an account.
Once connected the main dashboard, you’ll spot an overview of your reviews. Including your mean rating.

Scroll down to spot your existent reviews.
To reply to a Google review, you tin type your ain response. Or click “Generate draft” to streamline your responses.
Click “Reply” erstwhile you’re fresh to station your response.

Further reading: Beginner’s Guide to Online Reputation Management
5. Earn Brand Mentions
Earning marque mentions involves getting your business sanction referenced astir the web, which whitethorn positively effect your SEO.
While Google’s John Mueller has clearly stated that marque mentions (without backlinks) don’t straight impact rankings, those references tin get you successful beforehand of caller audiences who whitethorn beryllium much apt to click connected your results successful hunt engines.
And we now cognize that Google’s Navboost algorithm considers click-related behaviour to power rankings.
Here are immoderate of the activities you tin transportation retired to gain marque mentions:
- Influencer collaborations: Partner pinch influencers successful your manufacture to create contented that showcases your brand. This tin beryllium merchandise reviews, unboxings, tutorials, aliases immoderate contented applicable to your business.
- User-generated contented (UGC) campaigns: Encourage your customers to stock their experiences pinch your products/services connected their societal media platforms. You tin moreover connection incentives specified arsenic giveaways aliases features connected your charismatic channels to motivate them.
- Press releases: Whenever you person thing newsworthy to share(like a caller merchandise motorboat aliases institution milestone), draught a property merchandise and administer it to media outlets
- Podcast and webinar appearances: Either big your ain aliases beryllium a impermanent connected celebrated manufacture podcasts aliases webinars
- Affiliate marketing: Start an connection programme that involves bloggers, influencers, and websites promoting your marque successful speech for a commission. You’ll request a dedicated fund for commissions, truthful scheme accordingly.
- Free education: Offer free workshops, seminars, aliases courses related to your industry. To position your marque arsenic an authority.

You’ll besides want a measurement to show whether these efforts are expanding your marque mentions. And whether those mentions person affirmative sentiment.
This is wherever the Brand Monitoring app tin help.
Head to the app, configure it to way your marque name, and participate the main dashboard.
You’ll past spot a study that lists various mentions of your brand.

You tin besides get daily, weekly, aliases monthly email updates connected caller marque mentions. Or group up civilization alerts based connected triggers for illustration an different spike successful mentions.
The app offers specifications connected sentiment, country, language, and much for each marque mention.
Further reading: How to Measure Brand Awareness
Promoting your contented connected societal media tin thrust much postulation to your site, summation the chances of much group discovering and linking to your content, and moreover lead to much searches for your marque later on.
Plus, societal media pages and posts tin look successful hunt results. Which is particularly useful if you syndicate contented connected platforms for illustration LinkedIn.
Like Andreessen Horowitz does pinch its newsletter:

Here are a fewer champion practices for sharing contented connected societal media:
- Choose the correct platforms: Focus connected platforms wherever your target audience is progressive and that make consciousness for your marketing strategy. For example, Instagram and Pinterest activity good for location decor companies.
- Repurpose your content: Use the aforesaid contented successful different ways to tailor it to the level and grow its reach. For instance, break a webinar into YouTube Shorts aliases move a blog station into Instagram posts.
- Encourage your team: Empower your squad to stock your contented connected their individual societal accounts. To summation its scope and present it to caller audiences.
- Engage pinch your audience: Respond to comments, inquire questions, and promote different interactions. Users who spot a marque actively engaging are much apt to interact and stock the contented themselves.
Planning and posting contented crossed platforms takes time, truthful usage Semrush’s Social Poster instrumentality to make things easier.
This instrumentality lets you schedule and people posts crossed different platforms. And you tin usage AI to thief draught your content.

Social Poster besides has an interactive almanac you tin usage to scheme months of societal contented successful advance.

7. Collaborate pinch Influencers
Partnering pinch online creators successful your niche who person a ample and engaged pursuing tin present your merchandise aliases work to caller audiences—and that tin perchance lead to much marque searches, marque mentions, and backlinks successful the future.
Just make judge to find influencers whose assemblage aligns pinch your target marketplace and whose contented reflects your brand’s values and goals.
You tin manually hunt for influencers connected various platforms.
For a faster approach, effort Influencer Analytics.
Just caput to the app and group up an account.
Enter a punctual that specifies the type of influencers you’re looking for successful the AI-powered barroom astatine the top.

Use the filters (to specify budget, subscriber count, etc.) if you want to constrictive your results moreover more.

Click connected an individual influencer’s floor plan to get further accusation and specifications connected really to interaction them.
And click “Add to lists” if they meet your criteria.

Once you’ve identified imaginable influencers, make judge they’re a bully fresh by looking into their societal presence.
Specifically, you can:
- Analyze top-performing content: Check what type of contented resonates astir pinch their audience
- Read assemblage comments: See what their followers opportunity and what they look to find astir engaging
- Check if they’re a marque fit: Make judge the influencer’s style and reside align pinch your brand
8. Be Active successful Forums
Participate successful applicable forums and online communities by sharing your expertise and responding to different users’ comments—doing truthful could lead to much visibility successful hunt results.
There’s been a noticeable summation successful Google rankings from forums for illustration Reddit.
For example, a Reddit thread appears adjacent the apical of results for the hunt “best task guidance tools”:

And if searchers click done to those discussions, they mightiness spot your valuable penetration and beryllium much apt to activity retired your contented later on.
Avoid being overly promotional and sharing links to your website unless they’re genuinely useful.
For example, the image beneath shows a personification sharing adjuvant resources for SEO beginners successful a Reddit thread:

Further reading: Reddit Marketing 101: How to Successfully Market connected Reddit
Track Your Off-Page SEO Success
Using an off-page SEO activities database to instrumentality changes tin lead to amended results.
Then, you tin show various metrics to guarantee your efforts are delivering results:
- Backlinks: Watch the full number of backlinks you person and really galore referring domains you have
- Brand searches: Monitor the measurement of marque hunt queries complete time, the regions wherever those searches are prevalent, and immoderate seasonality aliases event-driven spikes
- Social engagement: Keep an oculus connected likes, shares, comments, and mentions to spot whether users and connecting pinch your content
- Local rankings: Track your positions successful section packs arsenic good arsenic the measurement and sentiment of reviews
Get a free proceedings of Semrush to entree each the information and devices you request to execute this off-page SEO checklist and show your efforts.