What is off-page optimization?

Search has moved far beyond blue links and basic ranking signals.

People now discover information on Google, TikTok, Pinterest, Amazon, YouTube, and an expanding layer of generative AI platforms that synthesize answers from trusted sources.

As SERPs shift toward rich results and AI summaries, users often get what they need without needing to click at all.

In this environment, brand authority isn’t just tied to your domain. It spans platforms, formats, and the systems that learn from your content.

Modern off-page SEO must support both search engines and the AI models that evaluate and surface your expertise.

This off-page optimization guide breaks down what works now – the tactics, measurement frameworks, and best practices that matter in 2026.

What is off-page SEO today?

Off-page SEO covers every action you take outside your website to improve its search rankings and overall visibility.

Off-page strategies for acquiring inbound links, citations, and brand mentions boost your authority and, in turn, maximize your ability to rank well organically. 

Early algorithms relied almost exclusively on inbound links (commonly referred to as backlinks) to determine the authority of a given domain. 

But today, Google evaluates websites based on a range of more sophisticated factors, including experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). 

Optimizing E-E-A-T involves:

• Creating content with real subject-matter experts.
• Being transparent about your information, sources, and company details.
• Earning citations and mentions from authoritative sites that are relevant to your industry and offerings.

Backlinks vs. inbound links

In this article, I’ll use the term “inbound link” instead of “backlink,” which has a negative connotation due to its association with manipulative tactics.

“Inbound links” is a more modern, strategic term that highlights quality and intent.

This shift reframes off-page SEO around earning genuine connections from authoritative, relevant sources that provide real value to users.

It also reinforces that link building is part of a broader, content-driven strategy – rather than a manipulative shortcut.

How important is off-page in your overall SEO strategy?

Off-page SEO is essential for building your site’s credibility and trust.

Think of every link or mention as a brand endorsement.

Just like word-of-mouth recommendations, these digital endorsements shape your online reputation.

The more high-quality, relevant endorsements you earn, the more search engines view your site as trustworthy and relevant.

Off-page and the rise of answer optimization

In an AI-driven search world, off-page SEO matters more than ever.

AI systems don’t just index content—they interpret it, summarize it, and generate answers from the sources they trust most.

Because of this shift, off-page signals like brand mentions, links, citations, reviews, and social sentiment now shape more than Google rankings. They influence how AI models learn your brand’s authority and credibility.

Structured data, a consistent brand identity, and authoritative third-party mentions help AI connect your content to relevant topics and entities.

Building your reputation across platforms isn’t just good for visibility. It’s essential for helping AI recognize your expertise and feature it in the answers users see first.

How is off-page different from on-page or technical SEO?

On-page SEO ensures your content is optimized for search engines, and technical SEO strengthens your site’s backend for usability, speed, crawling, and indexing.

Off-page SEO, meanwhile, shows search engines that others view your content as valuable and trustworthy.

All three are essential to a balanced SEO strategy, but off-page SEO is the backbone of your site’s authority and trust in the eyes of search engines.

Off-page SEO drives the authority you need to earn visibility in search results.

Key components of off-page SEO

Off-page SEO has always centered on building credibility beyond your website.

Now that same credibility shapes how AI systems learn and represent information.

Search engines and AI assistants rely on external signals to decide which brands and voices to trust.

Here are the key off-page components to strengthen your presence in today’s landscape.

Link building

Link building remains one of the most important parts of off-page SEO.

Inbound links still play a major role in how search engines judge your site’s authority—as long as they’re relevant, which Google has confirmed.

As AI shapes ranking and discovery, the context around your links matters even more.

Search engines and AI systems look past link quantity or raw authority and evaluate the semantic and topical relevance between linked entities.

Quality beats quantity. A few links from reputable, relevant sites carry far more weight than dozens of low-quality ones.

Consistent off-page work is essential for growing visibility and building a reputation that improves your visibility.

Social signals

Social signals (e.g., shares, likes, comments) may not directly impact rankings, but they boost visibility and increase your chances of earning inbound links.

A strong social media presence is essential for brand exposure and complements your off-page SEO efforts.

Content on social media – your profiles, engagement, user-generated content (UGC), reviews, and mentions – acts as powerful social proof.

Social engagement also trains AI recommendation models. 

Consistent brand mentions and engagement patterns on platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit, and TikTok help AI systems associate your brand with expertise and popularity, indirectly shaping visibility in generative search results.

This content is especially persuasive because it comes from real users, showing others that people already value your product or service. 

Active social media marketing boosts awareness and strengthens your site’s authority.

Brand mentions

Even without a hyperlink, brand mentions signal relevance and authority to search engines.

Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines treat these mentions as “implied links.”

When your brand appears consistently on credible sites – even without a direct link – those mentions show search engines that you’re established in your industry. That visibility can increase your search visibility.

Brand mentions also help strengthen contextual relevance and entity recognition.

When a brand or website is frequently associated with specific topics or keywords, search engines take notice. These associations help them understand your topical authority and how your brand fits across different contexts.

This clarity boosts your visibility in search results, especially for personalized or knowledge-driven queries.

Entity recognition and AI trust signals

AI is also changing how search engines evaluate brand mentions and authority.

Search systems use these associations to gauge topical expertise and credibility within a niche.

The goal is earning association – not just links.

When your brand consistently shows up alongside authoritative sources and within trusted conversations, you strengthen your position in the broader knowledge ecosystem that fuels both traditional and AI-driven search.

Dig deeper: In GEO, brand mentions do what links alone can’t

Content marketing

We all know the value of high-quality, informative content that resonates. But effective content marketing for SEO reaches far beyond your website.

Again, it’s about prioritizing quality over quantity. Focus on what actually serves your audience – it doesn’t always mean creating more content.

While it might seem logical that publishing more articles leads to better results, in SEO and content marketing, quality is what truly drives success.

High-quality content resonates deeply with your audience, builds trust, and produces sustainable, long-term results.

Publishing content such as blog posts, guest blogs, infographics, or videos on third-party platforms can improve your inbound link profile and drive traffic to your site.

AI-driven discovery also surfaces original perspectives and human insight. 

Prioritize authenticity, depth, and data that AI can’t replicate.

This is what gets cited, summarized, and shared by AI-powered systems.

Dig deeper: SEO in the age of AI: Becoming the trusted answer

Reviews

Online reviews and testimonials can significantly impact your off-page SEO efforts. 

Positive reviews on platforms like Google Business Profile, Yelp, or niche sites influence both local SEO and overall off-page SEO. 

Positive reviews boost your brand’s credibility, improve local SEO reach, and often appear directly in search results.

And reviews don’t just influence consumers. They influence AI. 

Sentiment across platforms is used by models to gauge brand trustworthiness, shaping both AI responses and search visibility.

Google encourages review solicitation as long as it’s honest, unbiased, and without incentives. You can ask happy customers to leave reviews on your Google Business Profile (GBP) to improve your local search visibility.

Brands should respond to all reviews promptly. This helps thank customers for positive feedback and address complaints from those with negative experiences, even if they only leave star ratings. 

How a brand handles negative reviews can be more important than the number of positive ones.

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Off-page SEO techniques

Rather than focusing on generating links, what drives off-page SEO success is a campaign-based approach to building reputation.

Transform sporadic link building into a strategic effort to build authority, reputation, and visibility by treating it like any other marketing campaign. 

Just like a marketing campaign, your off-page SEO efforts require planning, execution, and measurement to drive real, sustainable results. 

This ensures each initiative is purposeful, measurable, and aligned with your broader marketing goals.

Here are the essential steps for any marketing campaign that you can apply directly to your off-page SEO efforts:

• Set specific goals and objectives to measure the success of your efforts and refine strategies as needed.
• Conduct thorough research to identify your target audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviors. Discover where they spend time online, which platforms influence their decisions, and what type of content resonates with them.
• Develop messaging and content that resonates and compels action. Your off-page efforts should focus on creating value through insightful, engaging, and shareable content. Craft your messaging to highlight your brand’s unique voice and align it with the needs and pain points of your audience.
• Track and measure performance. Track referral traffic, changes in domain authority, and the performance of links over time.

With that campaign-based approach in mind, here are five different off-page techniques proven to build a site’s authority and organic reach.

Thought leadership

Thought leadership through content marketing is a powerful way to build authority in your industry while earning valuable links.

Off-page content marketing has outgrown simple guest posts. 

It now requires a strategic approach to creating and sharing content on third-party platforms to strengthen your E-E-A-T signals.

Instead of writing solely to acquire links, focus on positioning yourself or your company as a trusted, indispensable resource. 

The goal is to build recognition and trust that drive organic traffic and long-term engagement.

To truly stand out as a thought leader, your strategy must go beyond the basics and focus on these impactful tactics:

• Create valuable content that answers your audience’s most pressing questions. 
• Leverage search trends and organic data to shape your content marketing strategy. 
• Analyze competitors and the search landscape to identify content gaps. 
• Approach every piece of content with a focus on building E-E-A-T.

Publishing content on third-party websites, such as guest blogging, helps extend your reach beyond your own platforms and enhances brand authority. 

When your content appears on credible, high-traffic websites, it signals to search engines that your brand is trusted and relevant within your industry. 

But how do we go about prospecting and identifying these third-party websites? 

Be strategic and use these steps to identify the best websites for guest blogging or content distribution:

• Assess relevance and ensure the website caters to your target audience or industry.
• Evaluate audience engagement and readership with past published content.
• Analyze the inbound link profiles of your competitors to identify potential sites that could be valuable for your own content distribution.
• Choose websites that maintain high content standards and prioritize original, well-researched pieces.

AI-enhanced link building and outreach

AI can streamline how you pitch thought leadership content and scale link building. 

Machine learning tools can:

• Spot high-value link opportunities.
• Assess contextual relevance.
• Reveal competitor link patterns to surface new prospects. 

Natural language models can also personalize outreach at scale, creating tailored messages without the need for manual one-by-one writing.

Here’s exactly how AI tools can support the heavy lifting.

• Analyze competitor link patterns and surface new opportunities
  • Use tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush to pull competitor inbound link reports. 
  • Export and upload those lists into AI assistants like ChatGPT or Gemini for large-scale analysis. 
  • AI can spot patterns you may miss – recurring topics, common themes, and the types of content earning the strongest links. You can also prompt the AI to categorize prospects by relevance, difficulty, or likelihood of securing a link.
• Draft outreach messages that feel personal and relevant
  • Use AI to create pitch emails and intro snippets tailored to each recipient. 
  • Include details such as the target’s name, site niche, recent content, and the value you are offering their audience. 
  • AI can accelerate drafting, but human refinement is essential to make messages sound authentic rather than mass-produced.

While AI can accelerate research and writing, it doesn’t replace the core tenet of meaningful link building: real people building real relationships.

The best results come from using AI to enhance strategy and execution, while keeping people, trust, and collaboration at the center of every partnership.

Optimizing for generative AI citations

Off-page SEO now extends beyond third-party sites and traditional search engines. 

With AI Overviews and generative tools delivering direct answers, SEOs face a new off-page frontier: earning citations in AI-generated responses.

These citations aren’t classic links, but they still act as authority signals for users. 

When Google or an AI assistant selects your content as source material, it’s a powerful endorsement that can drive discovery, reinforce expertise, and strengthen your overall organic visibility.

To earn these placements, optimize content in ways that align with how AI models evaluate clarity, context, and authoritativeness.

• Structure your content for extraction by using question-driven headings and concise summaries. Think of this as “answer-ready content” that directly addresses user questions with clear and digestible blocks. 
• Strengthen topical authority and demonstrate comprehensive knowledge. Build topic clusters around depth, expand related content breadth, and ensure each asset connects within a larger strategic plan.
• Leverage “content atomization” to break down comprehensive guides into atomic, citeable facts and data points. AI is more likely to cite a single, well-sourced statistic than an entire, dense page of text.
• Optimize dedicated FAQ sections with clear formatting that provides clean, authoritative definitions and explanations. 
• Use schema markup to reinforce context and make it easier for AI models to understand your content. FAQ, HowTo, Article, and Product schema can support extraction and increase eligibility for citations.

Social media marketing

Social platforms are essential for content distribution, brand mentions, and building authority across channels.

Your social profiles act as extra gateways for discovery, exposure, engagement, and trust – and they can even expand your shelf space in the SERPs.

Sharing content on social platforms boosts visibility and encourages the interactions that fuel your off-page efforts. 

Social signals aren’t direct ranking factors, but they influence your online reputation, and search engines pay attention to both links and implied links.

• Consider which social platforms make the most sense for your business. Establish a presence where your audience is active to build a presence where they are spending their time. 
• Share your content strategically across platforms, like LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and even TikTok. 
• Actively participate in relevant social media groups and discussions. Being present and providing value can lead to natural brand mentions and further exposure.

Influencer outreach

Partnering with influencers can amplify your content’s reach and enhance your brand’s credibility. 

Influencers have established audiences that trust their recommendations, making them a powerful tool for off-page SEO. 

These types of endorsements act as trust signals for both users and search engines, contributing to a stronger off-page SEO profile. 

Collaborations can take the form of sponsored content, product reviews, or co-created content that engages both your audience and theirs.

To ensure your influencer marketing strategy supports off-page SEO efforts, consider the following:

• Vet your influencers to ensure that their online audience is relevant to your brand, their content quality meets your standards, and their audience size and historical engagement rates meet your goals.
• Collaborate with influencers on the type of content that makes the most sense for them. Whether it’s blog posts, videos, sponsored content, or contests/giveaways – it needs to provide value to both audiences. 
• Encourage links beyond social media. These collaborations typically result in social shares, but don’t be afraid to request links from blogs or websites beyond social platforms as part of the agreement.

Forum participation

The SEO value of forums today is undeniable. 

Since the November 2023 core update, Google has demonstrated a clear shift in preference toward user-generated content sites. 

Engaging in forums and online communities such as Reddit or niche-specific platforms allows you to share insights, answer questions, and build a reputation as an expert in your field. 

When done genuinely, it can also help drive traffic and build natural links.

While Reddit specifically doesn’t allow link farming and has rules against strictly using the platform for SEO, there is no denying Reddit can be a valuable SEO asset if done responsibly.

If you want to use forums as a meaningful part of your off-page SEO strategy, keep these points in mind:

• Identify the forums most relevant to your business. Reddit covers almost everything, but niche forums exist for every topic – from tech troubleshooting to plumbing to mechanical pencils.
• Participate consistently. Show up as a knowledgeable voice who contributes to the discussion. When you do share something promotional, it will carry more weight and feel appropriate.
• Don’t link drop. Quick replies with self-promotional links are usually removed, and repeated behavior can lead to penalties or bans. Focus on providing value with helpful, thoughtful responses.

Dig deeper: The reign of forums: How AI made conversation king

Podcasting and webinars

Guest appearances on podcasts and webinars allow you to reach new audiences while promoting your expertise. 

Unlike guest posts or articles, podcasts and webinars facilitate more dynamic and in-depth discussions, fostering direct connections with listeners and viewers. 

When done strategically, they can significantly enhance your brand’s perceived authority and contribute to E-E-A-T signals.

These are the key considerations for incorporating podcasts and webinars into your off-page SEO strategy:

• Focus on relevant, high-authority podcasts and webinars.
• Identify what your target audience is listening to and/or watching.
• Determine who is already considered a thought leader in the space and what value you can bring to their platform.
• Look for podcasts or webinars with a solid following and strong niche relevance.
• Request links from podcast show notes, transcriptions, or webinar descriptions to support your inbound link profile.
• Offer a valuable “leave behind,” such as a free resource, guide, or tool for listeners or viewers.
• Include a clear call to action, such as a download form, to encourage engagement and site visits.

The role of content in off-page SEO

Creating quality content is the cornerstone of off-page SEO success. However, it’s not just about churning out blog posts.

It’s about producing valuable, engaging, and shareable content that positions your brand as a leader in your niche – a “necessary source.” 

Original, shareable content

Original content includes unique insights, how-to guides, and creative formats that grab attention. 

This type of content encourages organic shares and natural links because it provides something new and valuable to the audience. 

Think of content that addresses pain points, offers fresh solutions, or presents information in a way that hasn’t been seen before. 

This will help build a reputation that goes beyond just having the “right” keywords on your site. It establishes your brand as a trusted source of fresh perspectives and valuable information. 

In off-page SEO, this kind of content fuels outreach efforts. 

It makes it easier to earn links and mentions from authoritative sources, ultimately driving more visibility and higher rankings in search engine results.

Infographics and visual content

Visual content, like infographics, charts, and graphs, is highly shareable and engaging, increasing the chances of mentions on social media and third-party sites. 

These visual assets can make data and complex information easier to digest. 

The key to success with visual content, like written content, is quality. 

Create unique, visually appealing, and informative infographics that offer real value to your audience. 

Your design should be professional, and the information you present must be accurate, well-researched, and useful.

Beyond infographics, visual tools like calculators, quizzes, and interactive reports can engage users more deeply and are more likely to be shared and referenced by other sites.

To encourage sharing, provide an embed code directly on the infographic or visual asset page. 

This makes it simple for other websites to post your visual content on their sites while automatically linking back to yours. 

By making it easy to share your content, you increase the likelihood of earning inbound links.

First-party research

Creating and publishing first-party research is one of the most powerful ways to build authority. Original research, such as surveys, case studies, or industry reports, positions your brand as a source of unique information. 

When your content provides new insights, data or perspectives, it naturally attracts links from other websites, social shares, and discussions across various platforms. 

One of the biggest benefits of original research is that no AI tool can replicate insights derived from proprietary research. 

Publishing original research enhances your reputation as a thought leader, fostering trust and authority with your audience. 

These types of detailed reports backed by data are highly valuable to your audience and other industry websites, often leading to organic shares and mentions.

Video marketing

With the popularity of YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, video content has become increasingly important, and search engines prioritize it in the SERPs. 

Google and other search engines increasingly feature video content in results, making it a critical part of any SEO strategy. 

These platforms also function as search engines in their own right, offering additional opportunities for brand visibility. 

That makes video marketing an essential tool for engagement and a valuable asset for improving off-page SEO performance.

Video content also extends your reach. It can be shared across social media, embedded in blogs, and linked in emails, increasing overall brand exposure.

Key considerations include:

• Optimizing videos for keywords by using descriptive titles, tags, and metadata, which ensures they’re easily discoverable. 
• Hosting videos on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo and embedding them on your website enhances link opportunities. 
• Transcribing videos and adding subtitles to improve accessibility and provide more indexable content for search engines.

Public relations 

The goal of off-page SEO is to obtain relevant mentions and links from credible websites to grow organic traffic. 

Similarly, the aim of public relations (PR) is to gain media coverage through compelling stories that resonate with audiences. 

This creates a mutually beneficial relationship, allowing you to share engaging stories while also building links. In this way, PR helps you earn editorially given links.

Reputation building via PR helps build links, but it also helps in telling your brand story and becoming recognized as a credible and authoritative voice in your industry. 

An integrated approach to PR and SEO is an ideal way to reach audiences and make authentic connections. 

Proactive reputation management and fact-checking

Given AI’s reliance on third-party sources to validate facts and understand entities – and its propensity for “hallucinating” – outdated or inaccurate information can easily surface in AI-generated answers.

Off-page SEO now includes actively shaping the factual landscape surrounding your brand. 

It’s a continuous layer of optimization aimed at protecting brand integrity and ensuring AI systems tell the right story. This includes:

• Establish a process for actively monitoring high-authority, relevant industry sites, top publishers, and product review platforms for inaccurate facts or outdated information related to the brand. Prioritize corrections on the most influential domains.
• Track how AI tools reference your brand. Routinely test branded queries, product questions, and competitive comparisons, and analyze the responses in AI Overviews and major AI assistants. Identify where inaccurate or incomplete information originates, then work backward to the source.
• Align local listings and third-party profiles. Inconsistencies in local NAP data or service details can trickle into AI answers. More on local citations below.

Dig deeper: The AI-driven reputation repair toolkit

Local SEO and off-page factors

Local SEO focuses on optimizing your website for organic visibility in local search results and maps. If you have a physical location, local SEO is table stakes. 

The strategy is two-fold: 

• On-page local relevance.
• Off-page local relevance as determined by local listings, reviews, and proximity.

Google Business Profile optimization

GBP is a tool that helps businesses and organizations manage their visibility in Google Search and Google Maps.

By keeping your profile complete and up to date, you boost your chances of appearing in local search results and attracting more targeted traffic.

Several factors go into optimizing a GBP listing so you can clearly communicate your organization’s relevance to Google.

If your business qualifies, start by creating or claiming your profile.

You’ll then go through a verification process, where Google confirms that your business is legitimate and has a physical address.

From there, it is recommended to fill out as much information as possible, but the following pieces of information are integral for visibility and engagement:

• Your organization’s logo.
• Your organization’s category.
• Your organization’s website.
• A correct address.
• A correct phone number.
• Business hours.
• A description of the organization that is tailored to the overall purpose.
• Images that are representative of the company. 

Additional features that are beneficial to take advantage of include:

• Publishing photos to your business listing is a great way to improve the appearance of a local panel. Consider hiring a professional photographer to take high-resolution photos of your business. 
• Google also offers a Q&A feature on the GBP panel that enables users to post questions about the brand. Other users or the business itself can respond. Answering any question directly is important to ensure accurate information is being shared. 
• Google reviews are among the most critical ranking factors in the local search algorithm. We’ll cover review best practices in more detail, but make sure to monitor Google reviews and respond to both positive and negative reviews. 
• Showcase products or services on your knowledge graph or Google Maps listing. This is another great opportunity to link to your website, where customers can learn more. 
• Google posts let you publish brief updates to your GBP, much like a social post. You can share updates, special offers or events. To get the most out of this feature, make sure to publish regularly. 

Local citations and directories 

Beyond your Google Business Profile, it’s important to secure listings on other major and niche-specific local directories.

Consider platforms like Bing Places for Business, Yelp for Business, Facebook, and Apple Maps, among many others. The right mix depends on what best serves your business and audience.

Most business listing sites follow a similar format and process to that detailed for Google Business Profile:

• Claim or create your business listing.
• Fill out all of the relevant information. The more, the better.
• Verify your listing and that you are the owner. 

Across these directories, having your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) consistent is vital for local SEO. 

Consistent NAP information signals to search engines that your business is legitimate, helping improve your visibility in local searches.

Measuring off-page SEO success

Evaluating off-page SEO is important for assessing your website’s authority, monitoring links, and analyzing how outside factors influence search engine rankings.

After all, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. But where exactly do you start with off-page SEO?

Key metrics to track

Measuring the success of your off-page SEO efforts involves tracking various metrics, such as:

• Inbound link quantity and quality. Beyond the sheer number of links, several factors must be considered when evaluating the health of your overall inbound link profile, including relevance, naturalness, freshness, anchor text, and diversity.
• Your site’s domain authority/domain rating. Ideally, this increases steadily over time. 
• Referral traffic from external sources. Use Google Analytics to monitor not only where your referral traffic is coming from, but also how it interacts with your site and whether it converts. 
• Social media engagement, including likes, shares, and comments on social content. Additionally, monitor traffic from social platforms to assess effectiveness. 
• Brand mentions and online sentiment may be more difficult to monitor, but using tools like Google Alerts in conjunction with social listening can help identify brand mentions across the web, even if they don’t include a link. 

AI visibility metrics: Tracking brand mentions in generative results

The definition of “visibility” is also expanding. 

Beyond traffic and links, tracking AI citations, voice search mentions, and contextual brand references in generative summaries is quickly becoming a new standard SEO metric.

When measuring AI visibility, consider:

• How often does your brand appear in AI-generated answers (AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity)?
• What sentiment and context surround those mentions?
• Are AI systems accurately summarizing or citing your brand’s expertise?

Dig deeper: How to track visibility across AI platforms

Tools for monitoring off-page SEO

Several tools can help you monitor and optimize your off-page SEO strategy. 

Below is a detailed look at some of the best tools for measuring off-page SEO.

Semrush

Semrush is a versatile all-in-one SEO tool with strong off-page capabilities, including link analysis, competitor research, and brand-mention tracking.

It provides a detailed analysis of a website’s link profile, including referring domains, IPs, and the types of links. 

It also tracks brand mentions across the web, helping you to identify unlinked mentions. Semrush’s database is constantly updated, making it a go-to for accurate link data.

• Best for: Competitor analysis, backlink gap analysis, and ongoing monitoring of backlinks and brand mentions.
• Pricing: Starts at $139.95 per month.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool for analyzing off-page SEO and inbound link analysis. 

Known for having one of the largest backlink databases, it provides robust features for tracking referring domains, broken links, and competitor links. 

This tool shows not only how many domains link to you but also the specific websites and pages, when each link was found, the anchor text, domain authority, traffic, and more.

It also offers historical data so you can track how your link profile has changed over time. 

• Best for: Comprehensive backlink analysis, identifying link building opportunities, and tracking the off-page SEO health of a site.
• Pricing: Starts at $129 per month.

Majestic

Majestic SEO specializes in link intelligence and is widely recognized for its focus on link data. 

It offers unique metrics, such as Trust Flow and Citation Flow, to evaluate the quality and quantity of links. 

One of Majestic’s unique features is the categorization of links by industry or topic, which makes it easier to understand the relevance of your link profile to specific niches. 

• Best for: Deep backlink analysis, particularly for assessing the trustworthiness and influence of referring domains.
• Pricing: $49.99 per month.

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is known for its easy-to-use interface and authority metrics. 

Moz’s tools are especially useful for tracking link building efforts and assessing the overall authority of a website.

The Link Explorer tool offers an in-depth analysis of a website’s backlink profile, including new and lost links, anchor texts, and more.

Of note, Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) are proprietary metrics from Moz that measure the strength of a website or page, based largely on the quality of backlinks.

• Best for: Monitoring domain authority, tracking toxic backlinks and identifying competitor link building strategies.
• Pricing: Starts at $49 per month.

Google Search Console

Although not as comprehensive as third-party tools, Google Search Console is a free tool that provides important insights into how Google views your website, including links and search performance. 

The important thing to remember about Search Console is that this is Google telling you exactly what they see and what they are considering when evaluating your site. I like to think of this as a peek behind the curtain.

Google Search Console isn’t as comprehensive as other tools, but it is vital.

• Best for: The Link report shows which sites link to you, which specific pages are being linked to, and how often. This is the only tool that notifies you if your site has been penalized for unnatural backlinks or other SEO violations.
• Pricing: Free.

Off-page SEO best practices for 2026

Focus on user experience signals

In a search landscape where user expectations keep rising, search engines reward websites that deliver exceptional experiences. SEO and user experience are now tightly connected.

This connection shows up not only in on-page SEO but also in off-page efforts.

Your thought leadership articles, social posts, podcasts, webinars, videos, and infographics all need to spark engagement if you want to strengthen off-page performance.

Even though off-page SEO happens beyond your website, its impact flows back into how users perceive and interact with your brand.

A strong off-page presence boosts user experience signals, which leads to better rankings and greater overall success.

Leveraging AI and machine learning

AI and machine learning have transformed the way search engines deliver results and how we work.

Today’s off-page SEO is about striking the right balance – embracing new technology without losing sight of the person on the other end.

AI-powered tools now give us deeper insights that strengthen link building and outreach strategies.

By using data and personalization, these tools can dramatically increase your chances of earning valuable links. Here’s how they can help:

• Identify new link building opportunities: AI can scan competitors’ inbound link profiles to find sites that link to them but not to you, giving you a targeted outreach list.
• Drive data-informed outreach: This makes your campaigns more effective and efficient, raising your odds of securing strong links.
• Optimize outreach strategies: AI personalizes your communication by analyzing behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns, helping you craft messages that resonate with each recipient.

Go beyond links: Build a brand that earns trust everywhere

Off-page SEO is much more than link building. It’s about strengthening authority, trust, and visibility everywhere your audience – and AI systems – might encounter your brand.

Modern off-page work can’t stand on its own. It has to connect with your on-page, technical, content, and social efforts in an ongoing, campaign-driven strategy that reinforces E-E-A-T.

AI has added a new layer between users and websites.

Winning brands must build authority signals across every channel – human, algorithmic, and generative.

Links, social proof, reviews, mentions, and reputation markers now influence far more than rankings. They shape the data and trust signals AI models use to generate answers.

In this new landscape, the brands AI trusts enough to cite will define organic visibility.

By taking a holistic, multi-platform approach, you position your brand to rank in traditional SERPs and to be referenced and surfaced in AI-generated results.

That’s where the next era of competitive advantage begins.