Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is the work done outside your own website to help it rank and help people find it. Moz, an SEO software company, also calls it off-site SEO, names the usual tactics as earning brand mentions, getting other sites to link to you and social media, and pairs it with on-page and technical SEO.
Source: Moz, What Is Off-Page SEO? (updated April 4, 2025), checked October 29, 2026
What Off-page SEO means for your business
Google's SEO starter guide calls this promoting your site, and warns you can overdo it: search engines may read some promotion as an attempt to game results. So we'd steer clear of bought reviews and paid posts made to look unpaid.
For a local business, we'd expect a lot of off-page work to be real-world work that ends up online. Your name on a where-to-buy page from a brand you stock, a write-up from a contest you entered, a review a customer left on an industry site. We'd count a mention with no link as part of it too, since buyers read it either way.
We'd skip anything sold as an off-page package of directory submissions or bulk links. Google's link spam policy names low-quality directory and bookmark links as spam. Our link spam entry has the rest of the list.
If your pages are in good shape but other sites rarely mention you, we'll find the places your buyers already spend time and help you earn a spot there.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview gave a short definition and cited Moz, Semrush, Yoast and several YouTube videos, with no Google page. ChatGPT listed tactics, including influencer marketing, and cited no sources.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
Related terms in links and authority
Find out where your brand stands.
Tell us what you're trying to figure out. We'll get back to you within one business day with a time to talk.