Northern Ireland, which is a part of the United Kingdom, is bordered to the south by the Republic of Ireland, which is not part of the United Kingdom. Now, this was never a problem because while they’re not part of the same government, both are still part of the European Union, which makes traffic, both for the people and the goods traveling between the 310-mile-long land border easy. This is also true for all countries within continental Europe, which is why the idea of backpacking throughout the continent is so attractive.
Now that the UK’s days in the EU are numbered however, this border has become such a sticking point within the Brexit negotiations that no one has any idea on what to do about it, including those who proposed Brexit in the first place. In fact it’s as if everyone conveniently forgot about the land border until after the Brexit referendum was well over. It’s not just the British, people have a way of overlooking things and SEO services tend to do the same when it comes to their off-page SEO effort.
Only the forgotten are truly dead
Prime Minister Theresa May was originally against Brexit. She pointed out, rightfully I might add, that the UK shared a border with the Republic of Ireland, which could make Brexit a nightmarishly impractical proposition, if not downright impossible. Not enough people apparently hear her warning because as we all know, the leave campaign garnered 52% of the vote. Interestingly enough, May studied Geography at Oxford, which might’ve explained why she was the one who pointed out in the first place.
If you’re tempted to make fun of British lawmakers who for some reason seem foolishly oblivious to such a stunningly simple fact about their own country, don’t. I’m pretty sure that most of us are guilty of similar blunders. I was in a serious relationship with a person once for two years but to this day, I don’t even know what her birthday was, which might explain why we’re not dating anymore now that I think about it. Anyway, I digress but the point is that people tend to overlook things that aren’t outwardly visible and off-page SEO is one of them.
Okay, when it comes to SEO, it is usually divided into two categories, on-page and off-page SEO. The page here comes from webpage, so on-page SEO details the things you do and/or change on your actual webpage for the purpose of SEO while off-page SEO details the things you do outside of your webpage. Even from this definition, you can easily see why on-page SEO can be easier to deal with while there are elements in off-page SEO that can easily be overlooked, which is the point of this discussion.
It’s about the quality, not the quantity of links
Backlinks are indeed the backbone of off-page SEO but as search engines become increasingly sophisticated, they’re getting better at identifying which backlinks are more ‘worthy’ compared to others. You could spend days on obscure, low-traffic blogs posting links to your website and generate less result than if you spend just one day trying to get just one quality link from a high-profile publication.
One way of achieving this is by partaking in the practice of guest posting, where you write something to be published on another publication. Inc.com and Huffington Post for example allows the general public to pitch high quality pieces to their site. These two examples have a global audience and the requirement (and your competition) is going to be quite stringent. If you’re looking for something simpler, I’m sure there are other similar, more local sites that share the same purpose.
Use social media to expand your reach
For a relatively more organic way of building your brand, the various social media platforms available could be used as a point of outreach. I’ve had several ads on Instagram that I find interesting enough that I ended up checking on the actual website. What’s interesting about Instagram is that their Explore tab is based on a user’s preferences so if a user has a history of interest on your field of business, your posts might appear on their Explore tab as well.
For additional ammunition, you can try cooperating with influencers or other influential figures within your industry and get them to mention your product. The trend right now is by using an organic approach to influencer marketing. Instead of paying them to promote your products and/or services, consider asking them to do an honest review of your offering. This is obviously more risky, but if the stars are aligned, it could provide you with a bigger boost than just a simple mention.
Answer questions on Quora or be active in a community
This strategy is quite narrow in scope but if your line of business is niche enough, this is something you’d want to consider. For the unfamiliar, Quora is a Q&A website where users are free to ask a question and answer anything that’s been posted. If nothing else, giving a proper answer on Quora can help you establish credibility and position you as a figure of authority in your field of business.
One additional approach is to register on industry-specific forums or sites like Reddit where you can partake with other enthusiasts in your industry. Reddit might often be painted as a cesspool of the internet but there’s actually a very passionate community there if you know what to look for. I’ve had some very illuminating conversation with fellow booths enthusiast within the goodyearwelt subreddit for example so you might want to take a look at relevant subreddits to see if there’s anything you could work with.
Use e-mail marketing
Yes, it might seem quaint to still use e-mail as a marketing platform but e-mail newsletters is actually where I was introduced to some delightful reading materials and promotions. As more contents get uploaded more and more into the internet, I found e-mail newsletters to be somewhat refreshing since they’re delivered straight to my inbox where I don’t have to scour the internet just to find something I’m interested on. If you’ve been skipping on e-mail as a form of marketing up until now, give it another look.