Why it matters to a buyer
On-page work has a ceiling: two similarly well-optimised pages on a competitive query are usually separated by off-page factors, mainly the authority and relevance of the sites linking to each of them. For a buyer, off-page SEO is also the slower, more relationship-dependent half of the work, so it is worth asking early how an agency plans to earn links and mentions, rather than assuming strong on-page content will be enough on its own for competitive terms.
How it is measured or applied
Off-page work is applied through digital PR and outreach that earns coverage and links from relevant, authoritative sites, through building and maintaining consistent citations and directory listings, and through generating genuine reviews and brand mentions elsewhere on the web. It is measured with a backlink tool tracking new referring domains, their relevance and authority, alongside tracked rankings and organic traffic for the pages those links point to, since new links matter most when they measurably move the pages they were meant to help.
Sources
- Off-site SEO, Moz
