Off-Page SEO describes a series of optimization techniques that happen off your website. These techniques, like building links, earning social media shares, and disavowing links, can improve your ranking in search engine results. In many ways, off-page SEO promotes your site.

You can separate off-page SEO (and link building) into three types:

• Natural: A natural link happens without any action on your part. For example, an industry blogger may find your post about the different types of roofs and link to it on their post about choosing the right roof type.
• Manual: A manual link happens with action on your part. For example, you may reach out to an industry blogger, cite their post about choosing the right roof, and share that your post about the different types of roofs may serve as a helpful reference to readers.
• Created: A created link happens with action on your part, but with spammy tactics. For example, you may visit an industry blog and leave a comment with a link to your site. Or, you may add your website to a directory. These tactics aren’t overly successful or recommended.

If you’re starting off-page SEO or researching off-page SEO services, aim for natural or manual links.

Off-page SEO, whether managed in-house or provided by an SEO agency, focuses on several to-dos:

• Conducting link analyses
• Monitoring brand or company mentions across the Internet
• Researching respected bloggers, journalists, and industry influencers
• Developing original and optimized content for earning natural or manual links
• Building relationships with bloggers, journalists, and industry influencers
• Conducting outreach for website content

For many, off-page SEO requires a tremendous time investment, as well as patience. You won’t find immediate success. That’s the challenge of off-page SEO and why many businesses invest in off-site SEO services.

The difference between off- and on-page SEO is simple:

• Off-page SEO: Any SEO efforts that happen off your site, like conducting outreach, qualifies as off-page SEO. Off-page SEO is usually outside your control too. While you can reach out to bloggers, you can’t force them to link to or share your content.
• On-page SEO: Any SEO efforts that happen on your site, like publishing a new blog post, qualifies as on-page SEO. On-page SEO is within your control. You choose your title tags, keyword targeting, and site design.

In most cases, agencies will include on- and off-page SEO with their SEO services. That’s because on- and off-page SEO serve as critical components to SEO. If you optimize one, but not the other, you won’t achieve the rankings you want.

Yes!

Off-page SEO factors serve as a massive trust signal to search engines like Google. That’s why external links (or links to your website) act as one of the most important ranking factors. You must build a backlink profile if you want to succeed with SEO.

Even if you follow best practices for on-page SEO and create the best website experience possible, you will not rank where you want without off-page SEO. You need endorsements (or links) from other trusted sites to earn a position at the top of results, especially for competitive keywords.

The role of links makes it even more critical to use non-spammy methods for attracting links.

Adopting black-hat tactics to build links fast won’t benefit your company in the short- or long-term. For search engines like Google, this approach seems sleazy. Your website won’t appear trustworthy or worthwhile for users to visit.

For the best results, use non-spammy tactics, whether in-house or via off-page SEO services.

Companies and SEO agencies use a variety of off-page SEO techniques. The best, however, include:

• Focusing on quality, versus quantity when it comes to links
• Using off-page SEO tools, like Ahrefs, to analyze websites, spot brand mentions, and more
• Creating original, user-focused content with a hook to drive natural and manual links
• Building and maintaining relationships with bloggers, industry influencers, and journalists
• Writing guest posts on industry blogs and sites
• Finding broken links on external sites that your content can replace

Off-page SEO takes time, so don’t expect immediate success, even with these strategies. While some webmasters will like your content and link to it, others may not see your outreach email. Expect to earn some links, but not every one.

You can work through these techniques by following our off-page SEO checklist.

Whether you outsource your off-page SEO depends on several factors, including:

• Your time
• Your budget
• Your resources
• Your experience
• Your responsibilities

In some instances, you may not have the time or resources to do off-page SEO, but you do have the budget to hire an SEO that specializes in off-site SEO. If you can’t hire an SEO, however, you may have to take the lead on off-page SEO.

Overall, whether you outsource off-page SEO depends on factors specific to you.

Prices for off-page SEO services vary from as little as $5 to as much as $2000 per month.

If you’re outsourcing off-page SEO, make sure you choose a reliable provider and genuine services. While you may find ultra-low rates for link building (think under $100), these providers often use black-hat tactics to create your backlink profile.

In comparison, trusted and genuine providers of off-site SEO services will build your off-page SEO using white-hat, spam-free tactics. That’s why they often charge a higher rate for their services. For the best results, they usually combine off- and on-page SEO services into a single SEO service.

How much your company invests into off-page SEO services depends on several factors, like your available budget and off-page SEO needs. As you browse providers, though, remember that what you pay is what you get when it comes to SEO.

When hiring an off-page SEO service provider, you want to look at several features, including:

• Reviews
• Testimonials
• Portfolio
• Price
• Background
• Strategy

You also want to meet or chat one-on-one with the potential provider and ask questions like:

• What kind of off-page SEO techniques do you use?
• How soon can I expect to see results from your work?
• How often will you update my team about your progress?
• What do you need from my team?

Asking these questions can provide insight into how that SEO provider, whether a freelancer or agency, works. You can also see how they would fit or work with your team. Plus, you can gauge their experience when it comes to not only SEO but also off-page SEO.