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Off-Page Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Definition
"Off-Page" SEO refers to the text and "inbound" links from OTHER web site pages to your web site pages. Off-Page SEO is very difficult to establish and maintain, but is critical in order to achieve top rankings on all of the popular search engines.
Off-Page Factors
Off-Page Factors are factors outside of your normal control of the content of your site. They are often referred to by search engine optimization experts as the "inbound links" to a given web site from OTHER web sites. The more inbound links to a site, the higher its ranking will be on most search engines.
For example say an ecommerce catalog site sells golf clubs online at BobsGolfShop.com, and a well-regarded Golf magazine web site "linked" to BobsGolfShop.com as a recommened reseller for golf products. The next time that the search engine analyzes the golf magazine website and notices the link to the BobsGolfShop.com website, then BobsGolfShop.com gets credit for an inbound link. Google makes it easy to determine the number of inbound links to a site by searching for links: - for example MSN has over 28,000,000 inbound links: http://www.google.com/search?&q=links: msn.com.
Techniques to Avoid:
There are some Off-Page SEO techniques used by some SEO consultants that should be avoided. Using these techniques may result in your site being penalized and or banned.
Negative Off-Page Techniques May Include:
- Avoid using "Free - For - All" link directories , Link Farms, or any other type of directory or service that provides unedited and unverified links. These links are generally penalized by search engines.
- Do not spam your link on any blog, guestbook, feedback page, or any way to artificially insert your site URL links in any way that hurts the content and disrupts the service of another web site. For example you "Spam" your web site URL on a guestbook of someone else's home page. This technique not only will likely get your site penalized and banned by search engines, but also disrupts the web sites of others.
- Avoid excessive "cross-linking" between different web sites that you own in order to inflate your inbound links. Cross-linking multiple sites that you own is a natural means to serve the visitor relevant content. However, excessively cross-linking all of your sites to one another and not much else will likely result in your site being penalized.
In Summary "Off-Page" SEO is an important tool that when combined with On-Page SEO determines the rank of a given website in search engine placement. Building effective Off-Page relevancy requires an examination of all inbound links and a plan to develop and maintain relationships that foster good inbound links.
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