My Site's Been Optimized - Now What?
OFF-PAGE OPTIMIZATION -
Backward Link Building

The Importance of Inbound Links:
Once I've completed on-page SEO for a client, they inevitably ask now what can I do?  The answer is off-page optimization.  Off-page SEO is basically everything you do to help promote your site that is done off site.  It mostly equates to backward link building and is crucial to ranking success!  Inbound links help your site rank high and stay high in the search engines.  Google sees every QUALITY link to your site as a vote for your site, which increases its measure of importance or PageRank (PR).  Bottom line, the more quality links you have, the better your site will do in the rankings.

Backward links are also called ‘back links’, ‘inbound links’, ‘incoming links’ and ‘one way links’. They are simply links from other sites coming in to yours. When a site links to you, it is sharing part of its PageRank with you, which is how it helps build your PR and popularity.  So, likewise, when you link to a site, you are sharing some of your PR with them... this basically causes the benefit to be weaker, or cancelled out all together, unless the site linking to you has a significantly higher PR (more to share) than you do. The best links are one-way, and triangular links if you are are having to give a link in return. An example of triangular linking is: Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, Site C links to Site A.

Here are some off-page SEO tips to help boost and maintain your PR and rankings.

1) Get listed with Google Places and Yahoo Maps - Local Business Results.  It's free and easy!

Google Sign-up:
http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter

Yahoo Sign-up:
http://listings.local.yahoo.com

Bing (formerly MSN Live Search):
https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

2) Submit your site to DMOZ.org - Read and follow the instructions carefully.  First check to make sure you are not already listed.  It is very hard to get in though, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t.

3)  Submit your site to the Yahoo! Directory.  This is not a listing on Yahoo Web Results, their main search engine, but is a paid inclusion only search engine.  The biggest value in joining it is that Google sees it as an important inbound link. Even though I hate to pay for it, I do, just to know I am doing everything I can to stay at the top!  The cost is $299 per year. 

4) Sign up with Universal Business Listings to get high quality inbound links from top business directories starting at $75 and a $56 annual renewal fee. https://www.ubl.org/index.aspx

5) Get linked in as many of the best directories as you can... some are free, others fee based.  Ignore the services being sold on the page and just scroll down to the list and use it as a reference.  Sign-up for each individually, on your own.  Also check this list: Strongest Directories  - some may be repeats from the list above.  In addition, list your site on YellowBot, Hot Frog, Twellow, and City Data.

6) Create free classified ads for your products or services anywhere you can.  Here are some I know of:

a)  http://dallas.backpage.com/online/classifieds/index
b)  http://www.hoobly.com 
c)  http://us.pressmania.com
d)  http://dallas.craigslist.org

7)  Create an AboutUs.org wiki page - and a Corporation Wiki page -  http://www.corporationwiki.com - they're free!

8)  Create a channel and upload videos about your company at YouTube.com using your keywords in the title and description of your site and videos.  Videos can rank all on their own giving you even more exposure.

9)  Consider using an article submission service.  This is a great way to build backward links.  If your keywords are very competitive and you are trying to rank nationally or globally, this is very important.  Here's a good one that does it the right way:  http://www.fastsubmitarticles.com

10) Participate by posting on industry blogs and forums... But don’t just go spam their sites with your link.  Answer questions being asked as a professional - join in discussions by providing quality, expert advice and link back to your website for more information. Yahoo Answers is a great example: http://answers.yahoo.com. Just go there, register, and then click on Answer, and search for open questions related to your expertise. Be sure to review the community guidelines before posting.

11)  Create an online Forum and/or Blog and link it to your website.  The best free blog site is WordPress - http://wordpress.org.  I recommend, instead of using their free hosted version, that you install and host your blog on your own website hosting account. FYI – It is pointless to do either one of these unless you are willing to really work at it by adding new topics, articles, and keeping it up to date.

12)  Social Networking: Create a business profile and submit articles to Digg.com - It's supposed to be the most worthwhile social networking site to join for business because the links are actually followed by the search engine spiders. Many social networking sites have their robot crawl tags set to "no follow" the links, so the search engines don't follow or count them as links.  You can create a Facebook Business Page with followed links.  Joining and posting on Twitter is a great idea.  Here's a link for LinkedIn. Be sure to use your keywords when you link back to your site with keywords in any profiles and articles your create.

See my Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, and Twitter Profiles for Example:

Conclusion: Doing all of the above, plus on-page SEO, will have your site well on the way to the top, and you may even see dramatic results as soon as 60-90 days.