Off-page optimisation
Off-page optimisation is an area of search engine optimisation (SEO). It covers all measures outside your own website that aim to improve its reputation, profile and thus its ranking. The counterpart is on-page optimisation, which focuses on the website itself.
Why off-page optimisation?
The content and technology of your own website are the foundation for good rankings. But Google also evaluates how a website is perceived on the rest of the web: who links to it, who mentions it, how is it rated? These signals show whether a website is considered a trustworthy source. Important areas of off-page optimisation are:
Link building
Mentions, reviews and reputation
Brand building
The goal: to make a company better known, give the brand a presence on the web and thus gain trust, traffic and better rankings.
What off-page factors are there?
Off-page factors can only partly be influenced directly. But if you know what matters, you can work on them in a targeted way.
Link building
The most important off-page factor is backlinks. A high-quality link profile should increase a website's visibility, trust and rankings. These factors matter:
Number and quality of links: a link counts as a recommendation. Many links from different, trustworthy websites strengthen a page. Because sheer quantity is easy to manipulate, quality counts above all: the authority of the linking website, its topical proximity and whether the link was placed editorially.
Topical relevance and naturalness: links that have a content connection and offer the reader further information make sense. A natural link profile also grows steadily. A young website that receives many strong backlinks within a few days doesn't look as if it has been recommended voluntarily.
Link text and link position: backlinks should have naturally phrased link texts – brand name, URL, descriptive phrases and only occasionally exact keywords. Too many identical keyword link texts look manipulated. Position also counts: a link in the body text of an article is more valuable than one in the footer or in a long list of links.
Link, domain and IP popularity: a healthy link profile contains links from many different websites and domains. The more varied their origin, the more credible it looks.
Targeted link building should ideally be preceded by a backlink analysis that shows where the website stands and where the risks lie. Off-page optimisation is time-consuming because trust can't be built overnight.
Links from link farms, unlabelled paid links or mass entries in forums and directories, on the other hand, bring nothing or even do harm.
Mentions, reviews and reputation
Off-page optimisation also includes brand mentions without a link, reviews on platforms such as Google, Trusted Shops or Trustpilot, and activity on social networks. According to Google, social signals such as likes and shares are not a direct ranking factor.
They do have an indirect effect, however: content that is shared and discussed reaches more people, brings visitors and often leads to links and mentions. Good reviews strengthen trust and click-through rates, and consistent, positive mentions on trustworthy sites increasingly also influence which brands AI search systems such as ChatGPT recommend.
Brand building
Brand building also strengthens off-page optimisation. Good marketing and PR increase awareness. The more often a brand is searched for and mentioned on the web – in specialist media, industry portals, press articles – the more trust and authority it is credited with. Brand searches and mentions are considered important signals, including for E-E-A-T. Brand building should therefore not be underestimated.
Off-page signals still have a major influence on rankings. Many of them can only be influenced indirectly. The best lever therefore remains creating helpful, unique content and positioning the brand so that others recommend it voluntarily.