Comprehensive SEO Checklist 2021 (Updated) – Off-Page SEO

If you’re seeking SEO checklist which can allow you to expand your website’s organic traffic and ranking on Google, then you’ve just discovered it.

We’ve assembled the ultimate checklist which you will need to drive SEO achievement in 2021, covering best practice points and activities you will need to learn about.

In the search engine optimization fundamentals to must-knows when assessing your off-page signs, use this as a reference point for making sure that your website is sticking to best-practice which you are not being held back by problems you have missed.

Listed below are the main categories I will cover in this series:

• User Experience SEO Checklist

• Performance SEO Checklist

• Technical SEO Checklist

• Content SEO Checklist

• On-Page SEO Checklist

• Local SEO Checklist

• Off-Page SEO Checklist

Off-Page SEO Checklist

As the name already says, Off-page SEO is the opposite of On-Site SEO.This section addresses all SEO activities and practices around your website.

Make sure you have a thought-through link building strategy in place

Whenever it comes to SEO we know that one of the most crucial factors determining “rank worthiness” is the number of backlinks pointing to a site. It is hence crucial to have a link building strategy in place instead of just hoping for the best.

The ultimate goal of each link building strategy is to create and publish content that people will share organically with further ado. However, this sounds easier than it is – creating outstanding content that earns links on its own is very hard to do.

But no worries, we put together a series of suggestions on how to proactively build links ethically:

• start with creating the foundational links (more on that in the next paragraph)
• try to create outstanding content that earns backlinks on its own
• proactively reach out to industry related sites to place links on meaningful pages (trade links, get featured, etc.)
• proactively reach out to people you’ve been collaborating in the past to get featured
• repurpose the content of your site and update/improve older publishments

Keep in mind that link building is a long-term and continuous process that requires strategic effort over time. If you try to build links within a week then forgetting about it you won’t be successful. You have to be consistent to see results. Also, when building links, don’t forget that it’s crucial to keep your link profile natural.

Invest time in building foundational links

The first thing that should be on your agenda when you build up a new website should be to build foundational links. What are foundational links?

Just think of it like a house – you will always need to build a solid base before working on the actual building. Equivalent to that foundational links can be seen as the supporting framework for your organic growth. These links include:

• Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Vimeo, YouTube, etc.
• High-authority directories: Yelp, BBB, YellowPages, Expertise, etc.
• Niche-specific directories: TheKnot, WeddingWire, FearlessPhotographers, etc.

Make sure that you have a business name, address and contact details in place before working on these links – many of these refer to your business without much content to it so you will have to be consistent with the fundamental information before setting up profiles and spreading the word.

Place links between different Social Network Platforms

Normally, social networks have a section for you to add links to other social platforms. Always make sure to use these sections and to interlink your different profiles as this will help search engine spiders to reach your website more often and quicker.

On top, the authority of your social pages will go up as well which means they will rank higher. Hence, when someone searches for your brand name, the first result page will be a mix of your website and your social accounts. This is great as it increases the trust of your brand.

Publish guest posts on related blogs in your niche

Guest posting has always been (and still is!) one of the most effective ways to increase any website’s authority, trust and in return, its ranking.

As mentioned before and to maximize the effect, guest posts should be part of a long-term strategy.

Here are a few tips to consider when planning a guest post:

• do your homework – make sure you research and choose blogs which are strongly related to your own niche and are read by your target group
• before proposing a topic, connect with the site owner to understand which topics they are genuinely interested in featuring. The reason for this is that many people simply use a template to apply – and site owners are tired of these “blind” applications. Our tip: Connect with them on social media first, exchange some messages and build a loose After building this foundation you can ask for a guest post – and trust us, the chances of them saying yes will be a lot higher
• pick a winning topic to write about – once again ,do your research first and pick a topic that strategically fits the blog you are targeting
• create high-quality content, format it correctly and make it look appealing for example by adding images and links to both your site and other useful resources
• let people know who you are by including your bio. This also is another opportunity to place a link to your website as well as to your social media accounts.

Approach people from former work relationships

The success of this approach highly depends on your niche. If you have worked with people in the past, you already have a great base for placing a backlink.

Here is an example:

• Let’s say you’re a wedding photographer. At each wedding there are usually many other people and vendors involved: Florists, bakers, hairdressers, make up artists, DJs, wedding planners and so on.
• Now find your former co-vendors and check out their websites
• Now reach out and send them a couple of the shots with their work on it (for example the wedding cake or the bride’s make up) and ask them to add these pictures to their portfolio – but not without linking back to your website. Or you ask to do a guest post on their wedding blog. You see – there are many ideas out there!

Detect brand mentions and turn them into backlinks

What is a brand mention? It’s simple: A brand mention means that your brand is mentioned somewhere in plain text – however, without a backlink to your website. They pose a perfect backlink opportunity so your goal should be to find and to convert them!

There are several tools which can help you here:

• Ahrefs – they also have a great step-by-step guide on the topic
• Brand24
• BrandMentions

The success of this tactic, however, depends on how established your brand is. If you are just getting started with your business, your brand is probably not well-known yet and your online footprint is most likely rather small. In return means that you won’t find many brand mentions – yet. In return if you have been out there for quite a while, these brand mentions are low hanging “backlink fruits” that can be converted with little efforts.

Use Social Signals to boost your page rankings

According to the tech company Bigcommerce, “social signals refer to a webpage’s collective shares, likes and overall social media visibility as perceived by search engines. These activities contribute to a page’s organic search ranking and are seen as another form of citation, similar to backlinks.”

This means that these so-called Social Signals, aka shares or likes are perceived by search engines which means they have a positive impact on your ranking.

What does that mean for you? Basically, it means to push your social interactions by posting and promoting your new pages on social media.

Plan and pre-schedule social media postings

Posting regularly and promoting your content on social media requires a steady posting rhythm and can be costly in terms of time.

However, there is no need to set the alarm at a certain time every day – there are various tools and programs out there that allow you to plan and schedule all your postings in advance:

• Missinglettr – this tool transforms your blog posts into social media campaigns for an entire year
• Buffer – this tool lets you create, schedule and publish your content for social media in advance
• Coschedule – this is a full toolbox covering various parts of automated marketing
• NelioContent – this is WordPress plugin which serves as an editorial calendar as well as a social automation tool

This Off-Page SEO checklist can help your business get started with SEO.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy to implement on SEO checklist on a site. It requires time, dedication, and some background SEO knowledge. At Pacelab, our team can help you check-off every to-do on your checklist.

Request a free quote online today or call us at +919717778130 to start using SEO for your website!