Workable Off-Page SEO Checklist: Tested Advice for Beginners and Self-Starters

SEO optimization is a must-have aspect for any business present online. Experts in website development claim it to be a vital component of website recognition by search engines. Still, the settings and outcomes after the application of SEO strategy actually depend on the nature of the business. Any SEO strategy should be tightened to this nature to be 100% workable.

Even if there are pretty enough variables, there are still 3 pillars of any SEO strategy. Off-site, on-site, and technical SEO are the exact must-have components to cover. In this article, we will speak in detail about off-site SEO, an aspect that is widely discussed in many sources yet with some important details omitted. 

In addition to giving the basic details and off-page optimization checklist, we will also review the types of links as well as share with you some recommendations on how to assess websites overall. Real-life examples are included in the review.

What Is Off-Page Optimization

Reviewing off-site SEO is actually impossible without on-site SEO. These are two sides of one coin. 

At a glance, off-site SEO covers any actions that are carried out outside of a website to enhance its rankings and overall visibility for search engines. Among others, these actions include link building, influencer marketing, and local SEO. These aspects confirm that it is necessary to elaborate on a personalized SEO strategy at all times and especially have a separate checklist of off-page SEO.

On the other hand, on-page SEO covers any actions to improve the website’s performance. They are mostly focused on bringing more organic traffic. Among others, such actions include enhancing page speed, internal links, keywords, etc. Improving the website content is a very distinct must-have of any on-site SEO. TOP-quality content matters at all times, with all links.

Take a more detailed look at both aspects considered. 

It may be surprising, yet off-site SEO is the key differentiator. While many businessmen are over-focused on the content, it is actually more valuable what is happening outside of the website. Thus, off-site SEO is extremely important for ensuring high rankings of any website, with no exception. 

Major Types of Links for Off-Site SEO

There are two major types of links used for off-site SEO: paid and unpaid. If we set aside skepticism, the latter category may also work in certain instances. However, if we speak about the niches with pretty dense competition, opting for the paid links is a must for a reason.

Paid Links

As the title suggests, paid links are provided for a fee. Overall, these links are of higher quality. Thus, they significantly bolster SEO for this reason. We highly recommend including them in your personal off-site optimization checklist always.

You may be surprised but it is possible to get pretty decent links without paying astronomic costs. However, ROI may impress you. SEO G.O.A.T. specialists can assist with picking the right links for your business. These can be the next types, for instance.

Paid Guest Posts 

This is one of the most effective ways to get workable backlinks. It’s also sometimes referred to as “outreach”, by the way.

Under these terms, you have to contact website and blog owners, offering to collaborate with you. Typically, this is made for a pre-agreed fee. However, a barter is possible sometimes as well. Anyway, this is an important part of any SEO off-page checklist.

Your goal is to create high-quality content that will be interesting for potential readers. There’s one important nuance that is pretty restrictive. You have to approve the content before the website owner will publish it. Still, this type of task always remains among the TOP ones in any off-page SEO checklist.

PBN 

The abbreviation stands for the “Private Blog Networks”. This is actually another effective solution that helps to get workable backlinks for your website. Once again, this is important since, in this way, it is possible to increase your website’s ranking easily. 

In this case, you buy dropped domains or acquire new ones in order to place the content that promotes your brand. You control the entire process for yourself and may easily align it with your needs. For this reason, this opportunity is a worthy one to appear in your off-page optimization checklist too.

There’s still one precaution to keep in mind. You can’t post “spammy” content merely to place another link to your website. It is possible to trigger search engines in this way. Thus, the effect may be adverse. If you want to omit it and maximize the benefits for your brand, create meaningful content solely that can actually bring value to the readers. This is very important.

We should note that despite its controversial nature, the tactic we consider still frequently appears in an off-page optimization checklist. It does guarantee maximal freedom, flexibility, and results, provided that it is tuned right. SEO G.O.A.T. specialists are ready to help you accomplish this SEO goal to further bolster your brand’s visibility and rankings. 

+1: Paid Link Insertions

Instead of breaking your head by convincing other website owners to place your content or arranging other facilities, making networks of blogs and websites, there is the simplest solution possible. You may easily find the content relevant to your niche and ask a website owner to insert your link there for a fee. 

In this section, we have highlighted only three of the most widespread ways of link-building. You may find more details about how they work in our detailed review of the matter.

Free Off-Page Links 

Yes, it is possible to get even free backlinks to your website. We will share some good strategies with you below. If you are limited in budget for now and scramble solutions, we can suggest the workable ones for your off-site optimization checklist.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

HARO is a well-known platform that allows journalists and experts in different niches across the globe to meet. Any member of this platform has an opportunity to discuss the subject matter of one’s expertise and share with others some experiences, useful information, and comments. If your response is chosen, your website automatically gets a valuable backlink. 

Write for Us

Actually, many websites are open to cooperation and enable the “Write for Us” option. This opportunity allows them to get valuable content. And it can also benefit your business as well.

However, we should note that this method rarely works and requires significant time investments. Fewer website owners would like to place promotional materials that belong to someone else for free, especially if they have popular websites.

Web 2.0

Another way to get free backlinks sometimes works rather well. Platforms of this kind allow users to create and run their own websites with minimal overall costs. 

Since such web resources are created artificially, they rarely have high authority and they definitely fail to make a brand stand out. Also, be ready to devote enough time and effort to this endeavor to make it work.

Forums

You may be surprised yet this is also an effective way of getting free backlinks. Still, as you may guess, it also requires enough time and attention. Here is how it works for SEO.

Forums are places where typically users discuss different topics, share with other experiences, and exchange opinions on the matter. When you do any of these, it is pretty possible to insert your link somewhere organically. The members of the forum may easily become interested in the tips or other useful information you have shared with them. So, they can be open to finding out more about what you are doing and what you suggest and click the link to your website. Thus, it may also be reasonable to add this assignment to your SEO off-page checklist as well.

Company Profiles

You may use different platforms and directories to create company profiles and descriptions, placing there the link to your website. Such platforms and directories have enough authority for search engines. Thus, the backlinks from there will also have a positive impact on your own rankings. 

This is a way not to bolster your website only but also to find new customers. People who are interested in some services will pass to your website with a specific purpose – to find the services or products they are interested in. 

In this case, it is really important to keep the information about your company up-to-date. This will only strengthen the trust in relation to your company. So, it may be useful to diversify your off-site SEO checklist by applying this approach as well. 

Link Exchange

We have already touched on this topic slightly. The link exchange is sometimes referred to as the “barter” or “reciprocal links”. This SEO tactic envisages the link exchange between two companies in the same, similar, or somehow related fields. It is crucial to keep it as close to your niche as possible, otherwise, the users may be not interested in clicking the link to the irrelevant content.

We have described all the most popular ways how to get useful backlinks for free in a separate article. Look through it to find out more details on the matter.

Off-page SEO Checklist: Must-Have Points You Need to Know to Do It Yourself

The first warning we would like to make – never neglect creating your personalized off-page SEO checklist. Overall, it is not a good idea to neglect elaborating on a personalized SEO strategy. The haphazard effort with a great degree of certainty will bring the same results. So, we would like to offer you some basic workable SEO tips you could adapt for your own use.

1. Review your current backlink profile 

When it comes to off-site SEO, quality prevails over quantity. At this stage, your goal is to detect low-quality and toxic backlinks. In the first turn, remove broken, spammy, and otherwise suspicious links since they are especially harmful. In fact, we recommend carrying out such an audit periodically to make sure your backlink profile is workable.

In addition, understand what kind of links you need. Take into account two major factors – the niches you are working with and the type of website you have. Make your effort maximally precisely. For more details, refer to our separate article on the matter.

2. Analyze competitors and their backlinks

This is a possible and must-have point in any off-page SEO checklist because you merely can’t perform worse than your major competitors.

It is possible to assess how many backlinks they have each month and what types of backlinks these are. Your goal is to make more links of the same or even higher quality. It actually only seems to be complicated. We have described all the most important points on how to analyze the backlinks of your competitors in a separate article. 

The best option is to take up to 10 websites, no more, and analyze their backlinks. This is a time-consuming job yet it is very important to make your brand distinct from the similar ones of competitors. 

3. Filter websites

Not all backlinks of your competitors will work equally well for your business. You have to be selective while formulating your off-page SEO checklist. Before making a more precise assessment, make sure you apply general filters, for instance:

• Avoid gov. and edu. websites. These types of resources are not open to cooperation on commercial terms.
• Skip Blogspot websites for a reason – they are over-spammed. 
• Don’t use directories since they typically have no to minimal value. 

4. Group websites by their types and reachability

The easiest way to do this is to divide all of the opportunities into paid and free. There are specific signs that a website is open to placing backlinks for a fee – it has the Advertising section or Contact Us. You can use some of the outreach templates to discuss the terms. Make only sure that the website is somehow relevant to your niche. 

Expand your checklist of off-page SEO with some free options also. These may be social media, review websites, or any resource where you can see the “Write for Us” option. As discussed, directories sometimes also can bring some minor value. 

5. Look through the free websites in detail 

The task is to highlight and use the most promising options in your SEO off-page checklist. Here is how we do that:

• Draw attention to traffic – (1) it has to be at least 10,000 with (2) Domain Rating (DR) > 50 according to Ahrefs or Domain Authority (DA) > 50 according to MOZ.
• Review the terms of placement on each shortlisted free website, for instance, whether you need registration for that purpose. 
• If you notice a promising and easy-to-take opportunity, place the appropriate information with the backlink to your website. 

We have a bonus for you. Below, you may look through the list of free websites that we tested and recommend to try. They are free, so, you may use them without restrictions.

• producthunt.com 
• crunchbase.com 
• rentry.co
• payhip.com 
• influence.co 
• printables.com 
• medium.com 
• substack.com 
• github.com 
• webflow.io 
• pubhtml5.com 
• longisland.com 
• gitlab.com 
• behance.net 
• creativelive.com 
• goodreads.com 
• patreon.com 
• hackmd.io 
• f6s.com 
• evpost.com 
• read.cv

Still, it is very important to note that achieving some visible results with free backlinks is hardly possible. This endeavor takes lots of time and effort overall. If you operate in highly competitive niches, this can be really challenging. Thus, we would recommend free links for the start or to expand your link profile by mixing them with paid ones. 

6. Review paid options in detail

Of course, even if you pay for the placement, this doesn’t guarantee you the effect. In order to actually see it, we advice to apply these parameters while assessing the paid option on the table:

There is also one important aspect we can’t omit. Most paid websites indeed ensure better results. It’s estimated that paid and organic search drive more than 70% of revenues for B2B!

However, there is no need to overpay. Basically, it is possible to find really good options for $200-300. Occasionally, you may be lucky enough to find more or less decent opportunities for around $100. There is no sense in paying for the options that cost less. Otherwise, you may have no money and no results. So, we recommend cleaning up your off-page SEO checklist slightly.

6.1. Arrange Outreach for Paid Links 

It is actually easier to outreach than you think. The main point is to negotiate beneficial terms further. 

At the beginning, you need to find the feedback form or contacts. The latter may also be placed on the About Us page. For your outreach, you may also prepare a template that sounds natural. These templates again may serve well for inspiration. Simply say that you would like to place an article, whether they are keen on the idea, and, if yes, what are their terms. 

Some companies render services of this kind on a permanent basis, so they have an Ads section or similar. You can get the precise contacts you need there. In any case, don’t forget to update your checklist of off-page SEO to prevent missing some important contact details. 

6.2. Proceed with the Placement and Payment 

After sending a request, it takes some time to get the replies. Usually, it takes around 1-3 business days to receive them. But, if you are waiting for a response for more than one week, it is better to move on with other opportunities in your off-page SEO task list.

At this stage, your goal is to pick the offers that are the most balanced from the price-quality perspective. The conclusion about the quality you can easily make based on your previous assessment results.

We will share with you one secret here for your personal checklist of off-page SEO. It is possible to cut 20-30% of the price suggested initially. Once you have negotiated the price, agree on a topic with the website owner. This also can take some time, don’t worry about that.

After all the most important terms have been agreed, prepare high-quality content according to the content plan. Later, send it for placement and pay for their service. It is important to note that in case you are using PayPal make sure you indicate in the comments what services you are paying for. This will ease the refund if required. Remove any insufficient option permanently from your off-page SEO task list later.

The final stage – assess the indexing of the placed article. It is important to make sure that any other links haven’t been added to your article. For this purpose, you also need to use specialized software – we use it for ourselves and recommend it to you. 

Complete the same process per each shortlisted option you have. Even if this is a time-consuming endeavor overall, the gains from the potential customers you can obtain afterward are much higher. Form a precise and workable off-page SEO checklist to follow only. SEO G.O.A.T. specialists possess sufficient expertise and experience to help accelerate the process while maximizing the ROI at the same time.

6.3. Assess the Results of Paid Placement

It is important to know that you shouldn’t expect super-fast results. Changes after the first paid placement occur within the first several weeks. Sometimes they need several months to show the results. Again, it depends on the quality of the chosen backlinks.

If you don’t see visible results, you have to alter your plan. For this purpose, you can test other types of content, choose other anchors, switch to other types of websites, and, otherwise, update your off-site SEO checklist.

Once you feel you have got stuck, we are always ready to help you with picking the right websites and types of articles that align with your current budget and goals. SEO G.O.A.T. professionals have all of the necessary tools, tactics, and even contacts with many service providers. Reach us with your preferences and we will elaborate on workable SEO solutions.

Off-Site Optimization by SEO G.O.A.T.

You have faced one of the most challenging tasks in SEO – creating a personalized off-site SEO checklist.  It requires time by default but it takes far more time when it is done without having enough experience. SEO G.O.A.T. specialists are ready to share with you their best expertise on the matter and elaborate on the strategy tightened to your specific business needs.The tips and tactics described in this article will perfectly suit a new company and a self-starter. However, if you want to accelerate your website promotion, we recommend discussing the goals with our professionals. We are open to communication and are ready to consult you for free. Book a call and let’s create a winning off-page optimization checklist that will work for your business!

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