Successful search engine optimization (SEO) requires you to use both off-page and on-page SEO efforts. Combining the two techniques produces long-term sustainable results in search engines. This post explores the interrelationship between E-A-T and off-page SEO factors.
What is Off-Page SEO?
It refers to all the activities you do off of your website to increase its search engine rankings. These include encouraging branded searches, building backlinks, as well as increasing shares and engagement on social media.
Google still uses PageRank in its ranking, which means that backlinks still form the foundation of its algorithm. However, links are only one part of off-page SEO ranking factors that Google uses to size up websites. For instance, Google’s Quality Rate Guidelines mainly rely on a website’s off-site reputation to find out whether or not it is trustworthy. The Reputation Research includes looking at:
- Recommendations from experts
- Online reviews
- Mentions on authority news websites
What is EAT?
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It helps search engines to know if:
- You are a trustworthy blog or website
- Your industry and peers consider you an authority in your subject topic, matter, or area
- You provide high-quality content that users like and trust
E-A-T is now a critical off-page SEO ranking factor across all sectors but especially in the health niche. It refers to more than adding author bios to your website. Google and other search engines use signals that happen off of your site to measure E-A-T. The two primary focus areas are links and mentions in authoritative publications and websites.
Search engines take into account all on-site and off-site SEO factors to return the nest results for search phrases. Off-page SEO factors are essential because they show how the world perceives your blog or website.
How E-A-T Helps Website’s Off-Page SEO
There are several off-page SEO factors in existence, which vary yearly and by industry. As search engines change and improve their algorithms, so does what matters to SEO. Therefore, to stay up-to-date with what matters on off-page SEO, you must remain focused on traditional PR and marketing that provide a means to share what you have and know with your audience and community. These include:
- Guest blogging
- Brand citations and mentions on other articles, websites, and publications
- Social media profiles and activity
- Video websites
- User reviews
- Podcast interviews and appearances
- Forum posts and answer sites such as Reddit or Quora
- Local directories and listings
- Referring domains and backlinks
- Video websites
The above factors help search engines connect the online dots to discover how you interact with the community. The more the interaction you have, the more relevance and authority you get.
Search engines’ quality raters also emphasize online reviews. It makes sense because if people hate your business or website, why would search engines want to show it to more users? Reviews are huge for local SEO, but they also affect your website’s E-A-T significantly.
If you do not run a website or business that people review, such as a media site or blog, search engines rely on any awards you have won and how other experts in your industry or field feel about your website.
To build your off-page SEO, you need to stand out from the crowd and distinguish yourself from the millions of registered URLs competing for the same users’ attention daily. If you can share your knowledge and add value to your community consistently, you will develop and improve your E-A-T with search engines without even asking for mentions or backlinks.
Wrapping Up
It is easy to get caught up with on-page SEO techniques and overlook off-page SEO or vice versa. You need both to rank high in search. The former helps establish your blog or website’s SEO foundation while the latter validates your reputation and builds your E-A-T with search engines.
The trick is to find a balance that allows you to prove you have quality and valuable content that the world cares about significantly. Whenever you think about your off-page SEO strategy, focus on your purpose, passion, and community. Also, give back as often as you can.
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