Off-Page SEO: How to Improve Your Rankings – For Automotive

Off-page SEO refers to the actions that your dealership takes outside of your website to improve your rankings in Google and other search engines. While on-page SEO is focused on optimizing your actual website content and structure, off-page SEO deals with building links, generating brand mentions, and increasing authority. Mastering off-page factors is crucial for rankings, so here is a comprehensive guide…

Dealers United’s goal is to help dealerships master both on and off-page SEO. Click here to learn how Dealers United can help you with your off-page SEO.

Backlink Building

Building high-quality backlinks that point back to your website is one of the most important off-page ranking factors according to Google and SEO experts.

• There are various strategies for building links, including:
• Guest posting on authority websites in your niche
• Reaching out for backlinks from similar sites
• Creating link-worthy assets like guides, tools, and graphics
• Building cross links between pieces of content
• Promoting your content to achieve natural links

Social Media Marketing

Having an active social media presence and promoting your website content across networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can boost rankings. Social shares and embeds act as backlinks, plus the brand exposure and click-throughs also signal quality to Google.

Key social media SEO tips include:

• Share every blog post across your social profiles
• Run occasional social campaigns to boost key content
• Encourage followers to like, share, and comment on posts
• Use viral content formats like quizzes and listicles
• Leverage influencer marketing if budgets allow

Social media activity sends strong quality signals and referral traffic, builds niche links, and exposes your brand – all helping lift your pages in rankings over time. Maintaining an active presence across the top channels should be a key piece of any off-page optimization approach.

Press and PR Outreach

When your brand and content get mentioned by authority sites in your space, it signals trust and authority in the eyes of search engines. Conducting press/media outreach and securing coverage by news websites and journals related to your niche can thus elevate rankings.

Effective PR outreach strategies include:

• Building an editorial calendar and pitch list
• Crafting personalized story pitches to writers
• Offering relevant data, expert sources, and exclusive info
• Sending follow-up emails if no initial response
• Developing long-term relationships with press contacts

Maintaining an active PR and press outreach strategy focused on securing wins on reputable sites can be a highly effective use of time. Just a few great links and brand mentions from news or media publications can elevate your rankings substantially over time. Treat press relationships as long-term marketing investments.

Optimization Over Time

In the world of SEO, sprouting to the top of the SERPs is not an overnight endeavor. It requires diligent effort week after week to promote your content, nurture your backlink profile, engage your website visitors, and build trust signals.

Google wants to rank pages that will deliver substantial value to searchers for many months and years to come.

So take a patient, persistent approach – overtime, the compounding benefits of your optimization work will materialize through higher rankings.

The key is to keep innovating, promoting, improving your on-site and off-site factors, and providing usefulness – both for visitors and for Google bot. By understanding and respecting how search engines evaluate pages, over time your site will ascend.