Discover the best off-page SEO checklist for link building without harming your website ranking and credibility. The truth is if you build the wrong backlink or engage in black hat SEO activity. You might end up getting penalized by Google.
So in this article, you will see the best off-page SEO factors that will help you drive more traffic and boost your site ranking.
You will also find out some of the beginner’s SEO mistakes you might be doing. When it comes to link building. When blogging was not that popular, you can build any type of off-page SEO backlink. And you will start seeing a huge amount of traffic on your website.
But these days, Google is issuing over 400,000 manual action penalties on websites. With low-quality off-page SEO activities.
So when engaging in any off-page SEO activity. Make sure to focus on links that will help your website rank. And don’t involve in off-page SEO tactics that will destroy all your hard work.
Off-page SEO checklist
Now let me walk you through the off-page SEO checklist practices that will guarantee you success in link building.
#1 – Focus on relevance
Relevance is so important when it comes to off-site SEO. It is good for your link to look natural. If the links you are getting from a relevant website look spammy and unnatural, you might receive a Google penalty.
Focus on getting backlinks from websites that are relevant to your industry. For example, if your website is talking about digital marketing. You can get links from other sites that are not far from this niche.
Your site cannot be posting about blogging. And you are getting a link from a site that is writing about “weight loss”. This SEO practice is unethical from a search engine optimization point of view.
Getting this type of link is unnatural and it’s a low-quality backlink. Make sure to avoid links that are not relevant. There are two types of relevance.
- Contextual relevance: Getting links to the topics that are relevant in your industry.
- Local relevance: Links from a relevant website in your industry located within the same geographical area.
These two types of relevance is an essential factor to consider when building backlinks.
#2 – Organic traffic
Most times you will find out that the Google search engine favors some websites. And does not like some. This happens when a website is not getting organic traffic.
These websites may have over 100 pages but none of them is ranking in search results. So before getting backlinks from any website, check their organic traffic.
If their organic traffic is zero or less than 100, then there is no need to reach out to such sites for backlinks. It shows that Google does not like the site and is not ranking their contents.
This means the site has zero authority and it’s a spammy website. So any link from such a website is low quality and may affect your site ranking.
#3 – Website authority
Basically, all website links are not equal some have more authority and credibility than others. For example, getting links from a site like Forbes.com is way better than a website with less popularity.
Getting links from authoritative websites will be more effective, Than websites that have no reputation. Before getting a link from any website, it’s important to check the domain authority.
So how do you check if a website is authoritative?
You can use tools like Ahrefs domain rating checker for finding out the domain rating of the website. And use Moz domain analysis tool to check the domain authority.
Note: Domain rating and domain authority is not an important metrics for ranking on Google. But it some factors that help determine if a website have other strong domains linking to it.
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DA and DR metrics help you to know if the website is worth getting a link from it. So your link-building outreach will not be a wasted effort.
#4 – Backlink Profile
Before you approach any website for a link. Check their backlink profile, and find out if the website has some spammy or dubious website linking to them.
Check who they are currently linking to. Know if they have done something wrong in the past. You can go to Google and then type site:website.com “casino”. You can enter other keywords like gambling to see who they are linking to.
If they are linking to a suspicious website you don’t want to be associated with. Then don’t get a link from them. Getting links from sites with bad backlink profiles will make Google see you as a spammy website. Always keep your backlink profile clean.
#5 – History of organic traffic
Apart from checking the backlink profile of a website. Another crucial things to look out for are the website’s history of organic traffic.
Check the organic traffic performance to know if they have been penalized by Google. Or how to were able to get out of the search engine penalty.
The best way to check a website’s history of organic traffic is to use Ubersuggest to check the website’s organic traffic metrics.
When you see a huge drop in the website’s organic traffic. Then you will know that the site has been penalized by the Google search engine. So if you see a website that has been hit by Google penalty, don’t get a link from them. It might hurt your backlink profile.
#6 – Do-follow / No-follow backlink
Even if you have secured a backlink from an authority website. You have to check the type of link you are getting from them. Is it a Do-follow or No-follow link.
If the link you are getting from them is No-follow then it will not pass any authority to your website. Which is useless for your backlink profile. Google also made it clear that No-follow links are not included in their ranking factors.
If you are getting a backlink that look like this. Ask the webmaster to remove the No-follow and make it Do-follow.
<a rel=”nofollow” href=”https://yourwebsite.com”>your website</a>
Do-follow links help to increase your website ranking. So always avoid no-follow links because they do not help your site to rank in search results.
#7 – Content quality
Most bloggers focus only on getting backlinks but they don’t check the content quality of the website they are getting links from. This very terrible because you might not know if the site is built for real people.
Sites with crappy content are not genuine and will not pass good authority to your website. Such websites look unnatural and might get a Google penalty. So avoid getting links from them.
When doing link building, reach out to websites with quality content and good domain authority. This type of site will pass authority to your website.
#8 – Link selling
Stay away from websites that are openly selling backlinks. It is against Google webmaster’s guidelines. Check if the site has banner ads asking website owners to buy backlinks from them.
Those types of sites may be cashing out at the moment. But in the long run, they may get penalized by Google and your website might also be affected.
This type of site receives an outbound penalty, which means that the links to pass to other websites have no authority.
#9 – Anchor text
Anchor text is what determines the quality of a backlink. The words you click from one website to another via a link are the anchor text.
Over-optimizing your anchor text may make it look spammy in Google’s sight. And Google’s algorithm might penalize you. Avoid over-optimizing your anchor. Check out the best anchor text practices.
Allow the owner of the site you want to get a backlink from to decide where to place the anchor text. So that it will look natural and not spammy.
Final thought on the off-page SEO checklist
Focusing on this off-age SEO checklist will help you build quality backlinks. And rank your content higher in search results.
A lot of webmasters may see an increase in their organic traffic after some months of building backlinks. But may later see a dip in their traffic.
Getting links from bad websites may cause your organic traffic to drop. So follow the instructions on this Off-page SEO checklist to be able to build quality backlinks.
So let us know which off-page SEO activities have you tried that work for you.
Have you ever experienced a rise and fall in your organic traffic after building backlinks?
How were you able to solve your bad backlink profile issues? let’s hear from you in the comment section
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