Off-page SEO refers to all the activities and strategies that you employ outside of your website to improve its search engine rankings. Unlike on-page SEO, which involves optimizing elements on your own website, off-page SEO focuses on building your website's credibility, authority, and relevance across the broader online landscape.
The strategies or tactics that are deployed to improve rankings take place outside of your domain. The goal is to enhance your website's reputation and trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines, leading to higher rankings.
Off-page SEO requires a broader, more holistic approach to SEO that bleeds into every part of marketing, not just a one-time set of tactics. These include known factors that contribute to higher rankings.
For example, a brain surgeon, while highly intelligent, probably wouldn't be the foremost expert on technical accounting matters. However, there may be a particular accounting topic that relates to his or her brain surgery practice of which he or she has knowledge, but normally you wouldn't go to a brain surgeon to get your technical accounting questions answered.
However, you might consult the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) website to seek out your answer. So, an accountant's website that receives a link from the AICPA referencing its site would be considered a quality backlink from an authority in the accounting profession.
So, your backlinks should focus on those persons, businesses, and institutions that are subject matter experts. Google ranks quality backlinks near the top, if not THE top, of ranking factors when it comes to site rankings.
Now you know not to go out to everyone you know with a website to start throwing links your way for backlink quantity UNLESS your friends happen to be foremost experts on the topic(s) they are referencing on your website. If they are, by all means, reference away! 😁