Off-Page SEO – 5 Effective Tactics B2B Businesses Can Employ Today

Off-Page SEO – 5 Effective Tactics B2B Businesses Can Employ Today

Off-page SEO represents the flip side of on-page SEO. Essentially, off-page SEO deals with those tactics you can employ external to your website. You’ll find many articles and books explaining how to do both on- and off-page SEO. This article, however, focuses only on B2B businesses.

Popular advice about off-page SEO mentions social media, social bookmarking, and other tactics that pertain more to business to consumer (B2C) businesses – For businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B), some of that advice just doesn’t apply.

Additionally, I assume you’ve done the basics. You’ve submitted your website’s URL to search engines like Google. And you’ve already submitted to directories. That said, here are five effective tactics that B2B businesses should employ to improve their search engine rankings.

Off-page SEO Tactic #1 – Blog Commenting and Forum Posting

Blogging is probably the most effective way to enhance your off-page SEO. It’s interactive. It’s updated often. And it’s fast. That translates into effectiveness. Specifically, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than companies that pass on blogging.

Forum posting also helps improve your overall SEO because it builds inbound links to your website. Google evaluates your website, in part, on the number of “quality” links from other sites. As you comment on forums, your presence there will generate links as you become a trusted contributor. This takes more time, but it’s worth the investment.

Off-page SEO Tactic #2 – Content Sharing

A year ago or so, content marketing created a big buzz in marketing circles. Today, content marketing is more than just buzz. It’s part of mainstream marketing. Content marketing includes article marketing, web content, white papers, case studies, etc. So how does that impact off-page SEO?

It’s one thing to create content, it’s another to curate it and share it. Share content using these three methods: (1) Social media such as LinkedIn; (2) Video – You Tube, in particular, and (3) Presentations like SlideShare. Highly consumable and shareable content drives traffic to your site quickly.

Off-page SEO Tactic #3 – Link Building

Link building sounds more technical that it is. Here, too, you should emphasize quality rather than quantity. Google assigns Page rank based on authority. So if you have external links linking to your website, Google recognizes that and give you a higher page rank. But how do you get links from authoritative sites?

The answer is creating relevant and useful content. Nothing draws viewers to a website than unique content. It can be text, audio or video. But original and highly shareable content will increase the number of inbound links.

Off-page SEO Tactic #4 – Article Submission and Press Releases

Article marketing and press releases are two proven tactics to improve your of-page SEO ranking. They take longer, as you develop a reputation and a following, but they’re effective. You get inbound links by posting your articles and press releases to other sites that distribute articles. You’ll see an increase in traffic and qualified leads over time as you build your brand.

Off-page SEO Tactic #5 – Yellow Pages

Don’t overlook the Yellow Pages. This is clearly “off-page” and “old school” – but it works. Yellow pages helps promote your business locally. And you can list your business free of charge, making this an inexpensive way to build your business. The modern-day versions are Google Maps and Yahoo Localworks. Exploit these offline and online methods to prime your SEO standing.

Off-page Tactics That Work for B2B Businesses

The five off-page methods explained above represent tactics that B2B businesses can employ today. They’re not technical, and they’re not expensive. They do, however, take time, in most cases. The results speak for themselves, as longs as you implement these diligently.

Focusing on these five methods allows to you enhance your SEO rankings without being overwhelmed learning about social media tactics meant for B2C businesses.