In the previous post 'Use the Power of On Page SEO to Generate Traffic: Basic SEO Strategies 2' I talked about the importance of completing some basic on page SEO techniques when you are putting together your affiliate site and today I will be talking abut off page SEO.

When people try doing a little SEO to their sites they will often complete some on page SEO using some good SEO techniques but then not benefit themselves because they neglect to complete good off page SEO. Overall, it is just as important to complete good off page SEO as it is to complete good on page SEO, you need to find a good balance.

Again, the techniques for good off page SEO are not that hard but they will be more time consuming than on page SEO. Off page SEO will happen over a period of time and the key is that you cannot complete it all at once, you have to take your time to complete it steadily and in stages. Some of the basic off page SEO techniques are:

• Use a mix of link directories and related sites to get links back to your site. Submitting your site to 1000 link directories is NOT the way to go, never submit too quickly. The key is to complete a few directory submissions each day to slowly build up backlinks to your site. The real benefit in link building is seen where you get one way links back to your site which are from related, and if possible, authority sites. Some of these links should contain the keywords you are trying to rank for but again you shouldn't overdo it.

• Try to use one way links and not reciprocal links, whilst reciprocal linking is sometimes the only way to get people to link back to your site it does reduce the power of the links built to your site.

• Build an external site yourself which is relevant to and links back to the site you wish to promote. Squidoo, Hubpages and Wikidot are all great sources of traffic and will allow you to build a mini site/lens completely free, they are often underestimated greatly.

• Use article marketing to write relevant content about a particular topic of your site or products on your site, slowly submit these articles over time to article directories. You should include your site link in the resource box linking directly back to your site or to a page on your site using one of your keywords in the anchor text if the directory allows.

• If your site has an RSS feed then add your site to the RSS directories, you may think only the SE's will see your link but you would be surprised the amount of 'real' visitors who may reach your site through an RSS directory. Melissa Eaton has created a good, comprehensive RSS directory list right here :

• If you are using WordPress then your site is automatically pinged each time you add new content, the Max Blog Press Ping Optimizer plugin is a must to ensure you are not banned by the pingbots because of excessive pinging. If you don't use WordPress then ping your site manually using http://pingomatic.com every time you add new content, again don't ping too often as it will be detrimental to your site.

• Add social bookmarking buttons to your site such as those available at addthis.com , there are also many WordPress plugins which will allow you do this automatically such as sociable.

• Add decent, unique and keyword rich content to your site which IS readable by humans and not just written for the SE's.

All of the above strategies are essentially getting backlinks to your site but the really important thing is that you don't do this part too quickly. If you do undertake this process slowly, thoroughly and in the right way then it can make your site, do it too quickly and irresponsibly and it WILL break your site. The off page aspect of SEO is something you are not going to achieve overnight, it will take months and it should continue throughout the life of the site. Always continue to build links and think of new ways to keep your visitors coming back for more.

Remember don't just think of the search engines, people have to use your site as well.

Similar Posts Which May Be Of Interest:

• Use the Power of On Page SEO to Generate Traffic: Basic SEO Strategies 2
• Use the Power of SEO to Generate Traffic: Basic SEO Strategies 1
• Use the Power of Social Networking to Generate Traffic
• Link Building – The Right Way & The Wrong Way!
• Use the Power of Blog Commenting For Web Traffic