Many aspects of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are technical and complicated, but it’s not the only way to achieve good rankings in Google and other search engines. In fact, some businesses achieve the top ranking positions with little to no knowledge of SEO.
How is that possible?
It’s simply because there are a number of things that you can do offline that directly and indirectly have a positive impact on Google’s top ranking factors.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways this plays out, so you can mindfully apply them to improving your website’s rankings and traffic.
Networking and building connections
Some people are natural connectors, they naturally build rapport with others and develop strong relationships. This can really pave the way for generating high quality backlinks – still the holy grail of rankings – to your business’s website.
This is a real advantage because backlinks can be so hard to obtain without relationships. It becomes like cold calling.
So, if you already have strong networks, consider leveraging them for backlinks or create collaboration opportunities such as combined YouTube videos to access each other’s audiences.
If you don’t have a strong network, try attending industry conferences, trade shows and any networking events related to your industry. Even a few backlinks from established suppliers or complementary businesses could be very beneficial.
Public relations
Good publicity also goes a long way to attaining those top few positions in the search engine results. The process is very similar to networking in that backlinks are often the result, but there are some differences.
PR works by creating a buzz or doing something “news-worthy” and gaining media coverage as a result. Media coverage is often in the form of online news articles and backlinks from these high domain authority websites can be quite a boost.
But with PR, it’s not just about the backlinks.
If enough publicity is generated about your business, the general public start searching for your business and Google take notice of these trends. If your brand is regularly searched alongside related keywords, it is likely to improve how you rank for those keywords.
PR can be achieved in a number of ways, you might have a high profile personality within your business, you could consider public speaking at events, or you could easily issue press releases when something newsworthy happens at your business.
Word of mouth
Just do what you do well, serve your customers and good word of mouth will grow. Your good reputation will then flow into online searches as your customers tell their friends.
For example, an Auckland based plumbing business “On Call Plumbers” has a great reputation. More and more people start searching “oncall plumbers auckland” and similar variants, perhaps 30 times per month and Google start to associate their brand and website with the Auckland plumbing niche.
The offline reputation leads to online searches and ranking improvements. Then those ranking improvements lead to more customers and even more positive word of mouth. A nice circular pattern!
Passion for area of expertise
Some people just love to share. They don’t know much about keywords and SEO yet they build a strong following based on the fact they are at the forefront of their field. Thought leaders as they say.
They might not be targeting keywords very well and their website could be slow and hard to navigate but due to the quality of their content they are still generating backlinks and consistently adding new pages to their website.
In this situation the business could be doing quite well in rankings already, but a bit of guidance on how to improve SEO could take the site and business to the next level.
Sponsorship
Not only does sponsorship create awareness of and goodwill towards your business, it will also generate backlinks and media coverage as already discussed.
This happens via links from the event or sponsor recipient’s website, or in the case of media, from local news website’s and social media.
Educational Outreach
It’s no secret that backlinks from educational organisations are of high value due to the authority assigned to their websites.
They can be hard to obtain by the usual online outreach, but offline actions can improve the odds. Some businesses may be able to offer guest lectures at universities, others could offer discounted products and services directly to students.
The likelihood of getting a mention and a link from the university website is then much higher.
Create your offline SEO strategy and integrate it
Obviously digital strategies are crucial for obtaining good search engine positions, but don’t overlook the power of offline actions.
The common themes are to build connections, help others, raise awareness and share.
If you combine that with your online SEO actions, making sure you leverage all that goodwill and publicity, then you’ll be well on your way to the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages).
If those more technical online SEO activities get your head spinning, then check out how we help businesses with their SEO here