Top 9 Off-Page SEO Ranking Factors

The concept of search engine optimization (SEO) is not new to the marketing world. By now, most online businesses should understand what SEO is and how it can help their relationship with search engine results pages (SERPs). However, many companies don’t realize that there are two types of SEO – on-page and off-page. On-page SEO is the more commonly known and understood, involving all the elements on your website that you can control and optimize to influence your ranking. This includes your website’s code, tags, content, design, and structure. Off-page SEO is the often overlooked but equally important strategy.

Without having a firm understanding of both, it isn’t easy to achieve long-term success with your SEO strategy. This could explain why your website isn’t getting the results you want, even though you feel you are doing everything right. With a better understanding of off-page SEO, including how it’s evolving in response to AI-driven discovery, and the search engine ranking factors involved, you can ensure your website gets the credit it deserves from Google and other search engines.

What Is Off-Page SEO?

Off-page SEO techniques optimize your website through external measures that influence your ranking in search engine results pages. These external or “off-page” factors are less under your direct control than on-page SEO elements, but they are just as essential to determining your website’s success. Because they are not immediately obvious or easy to manipulate, many business owners and website developers overlook off-page SEO when formulating their marketing strategy. This can be a costly mistake, as off-page SEO plays a critical role in achieving a high ranking.

Some of the most important off-page SEO ranking factors include:

• Number of Referring Domains
• Link Authority
• Anchor Text
• Link Relevancy
• Social Shares
• Reviews
• Brand Mentions
• Google Business Profile
• Citations

Diving into the Off-page SEO Ranking Factors

Number of Referring Domains

One of the most influential ranking factors for off-page SEO is the number of referring domains – that is, the number of websites that link to your website. Google and other search engines view each referring domain as a vote of confidence in your website. The more votes you earn, the more likely you rank high in SERPs. However, it’s not just the quantity of referring domains that matters – the quality is just as important. A link from a high-quality website that is relevant to your industry, like a guest blog link, will carry more weight and SEO value than a link from a low-quality website.

Link Authority

Another crucial ranking factor in off-page SEO is link authority. It measures the quality of a website based on factors like age, popularity, and number of inbound links. A website with high link-building activity is more likely to rank high in SERPs than a website with low link authority and no sign of SEO or guest posting for building quality links.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is whatever word or phrase is hyperlinked on a webpage. It is important for off-page SEO because it gives Google an idea of what the linked-to website is about. Using relevant keywords in your anchor text can help to improve your ranking for those keywords. For example, if you have a website about plumbing, using the anchor text “plumbing” in links to your website will help you obtain higher SEO rankings for that keyword.

Link Relevancy

Link relevancy is another useful factor in off-page SEO activities. Google looks at the content of the websites that link to yours to determine if those backlinks are relevant. If you have a website about plumbing and you get a natural link from a website about cooking, that backlink will not be as valuable as a link from another plumbing website. Google considers links from relevant websites to be important in determining the value your website offers to searchers.

Social Shares

One of the most important off-page SEO factors is social media engagement. This includes everything from how often your content is shared on social media platforms to your posts’ level of engagement (likes, comments, etc.). Google and other search engines place a high value on social media engagement because it is a strong indicator of quality content. If people regularly share and engage with your content on social media, it is a sign that they find it valuable and worth reading. This, in turn, tells Google that your content is likely to be of high quality as well, which will help to improve your search engine ranking.

Reviews

The review section of any website is one of the most important aspects of off-page SEO. This is especially true for businesses that rely on local search traffic, such as restaurants, hotels, and other service-based companies. Search engines use reviews as a way to determine the quality of a business. The more positive reviews a business has obtained, the more likely it ranks high in SERPs. Reviews can also help to improve click-through rates (CTRs) and conversion rates.

Brand Mentions

Google uses brand mentions to determine the quality and popularity of a business. The more times you find your company referred to through brand mention monitoring, the higher your ranking will be. You can create brand awareness campaigns or partner with other businesses and websites in your industry that will mention your company on their websites to get more brand mentions.

Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business) is a free digital listing allowing businesses to share their names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, and other important information. Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile is one of the most important things you can do for your company, and it is a crucial part of off-page SEO. This is because Google Business Profiles are one of the first things that show up when people search for businesses in their area. Having a claimed and optimized Google Business Profile will help you to rank higher in SERPs and get more clicks and calls from potential customers.

Citations

Citations have a significant impact on off-page SEO. Local citations are listings of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites. Google uses these listings to verify your NAP information’s accuracy and determine your business’s quality and popularity. The more local citations, the more it indicates to Google that your business is legitimate, and the higher you will rank in SERPs.

How Off-Page SEO is Affected by AI

While traditional off-page SEO relies on signals like those mentioned above, the rise of AI-powered tools has introduced new ways content gets discovered, and this often happens without a single click. Tactics like Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and LLM seeding for example, are not traditional off-page ranking factors. They won’t directly impact your position in Google’s organic results the way those tactics mentioned above will. However, they are becoming increasingly critical to modern off-site visibility, especially as AI reshapes how people find and interact with information.

These strategies help your content appear in AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overview, where visibility often happens without a single click. Understanding how they work can help extend your brand presence beyond the search engine results page.

How Generative Engine Optimization Supports Off-Site Visibility

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of shaping your off-site content in ways that help large language models reference it when generating answers. While it doesn’t influence search engine rankings directly, GEO plays a growing role in how brands gain visibility across tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

These platforms rely on trusted, clearly written content from external sources to form their responses. Publishing on high-authority domains, using structured data, and formatting information in plain, scannable sections can improve the chances your content is pulled into AI outputs. GEO works hand in hand with traditional off-page efforts by reinforcing your brand’s authority where it matters most in AI-powered discovery.

Why LLM Seeding and AI Citations Matter for Brand Exposure

Large Language Model (LLM) seeding involves publishing content in places and formats that are likely to be ingested by large language models. The goal isn’t entirely to earn backlinks, it’s to ensure your content is cited, paraphrased, or mentioned when AI tools generate responses. That said, being referenced in AI outputs can lead to organic backlinks over time, as other publishers or content creators look to cite authoritative sources they’ve seen mentioned in AI-generated content.

Citations from trusted third-party domains, unlinked brand mentions, and well-structured external content all contribute to this process. As more discovery happens through AI rather than direct search, these off-site signals can raise brand awareness and influence perception, even if they don’t lead to a visit or conversion immediately.

Using AI Tools to Support Off-Page Strategy

While AI is reshaping how users discover content, it’s also transforming how marketers execute off-page SEO. Tools like ChatGPT can accelerate backlink research, automate outreach personalization, generate topic ideas for guest posts, and help identify unlinked brand mentions across the web.

Instead of replacing human strategy, these tools support it, speeding up manual tasks and helping teams scale their off-site efforts more efficiently. When used thoughtfully, AI enhances both the quality and quantity of off-page initiatives, making it easier to build the authority signals that still matter in search.

Lean On Us, The Off-Page SEO Experts

Off-page SEO is a critical part of any successful SEO strategy. You can improve your SERP rankings by focusing on the factors that Google and other search engines use to determine rankings. If you need help with your off-page SEO strategy, reach out to the digital marketing experts at Zero Gravity Marketing. We are a full-service digital marketing agency specializing in SEO services and can help you to improve your ranking and visibility for search engine results pages. Contact us today to learn more about our digital marketing services and how we can help you to grow your business.