Digital marketing is a very competitive industry that is constantly developing and increasing. Digital marketing is not an industry that can tolerate being standstill or close to changes. In addition to such difficulties, digital marketing can easily increase brand awareness and profitability when applied correctly. SEM (Search Engine Marketing), which covers a large area of digital marketing, is also divided into two. These distinctions are PPC (Pay Per Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The cost of PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns is already very high and gets even higher with increased competition. That increases the importance of organic growth for businesses, but at the same time, it has become too hard to be successful in organic channels due to the excessive interest in organic growth. On-page and on-site SEO practices are not enough on their own anymore. One of the most important digital marketing practices for organic growth is to produce content in more than one channel and to connect these outsourced channels by using the website as a central hub. This practice is also known as off-site SEO. The examination will include Marxism, reception theory, and semiotics to offer a full assessment of where the field now stands and what adjustments may be done to deliver the best result.

Keywords: Digital marketing, search engine optimization, SEO, search engine marketing, SEM, pay-per-click, PPC, social media management, SMM, backlinks, backlinking, internet marketing, online marketing, guest posts, blog posts, blog comments, directories, citations, local SEO, Off-site SEO, Offsite SEO.

Digital Marketing Channels for Organic Growth: Off-Site SEO

The acceleration and widespread use of the Internet -even in our pocket devices, the fact that socialization is now over the internet, and internet communication is much more economical and even free- has not been delayed in leading the advertising industry where users are present. Thus, it caused the birth of a sector called digital marketing, as well as online marketing, cyber marketing, internet marketing, etc. The internet, which connects users so quickly and effectively, has caused incredible changes when it comes to marketing too (Chomiak-Orsa, I., & Liszczyk, K., 2020, p. 10). With these new changes, instead of trying to force users to show them the ads created -outbound marketing-, it became important to make them want to see the content. This led to the creation of indirect marketing or with a more technical term “inbound marketing”. Inbound marketing requires developing on-site and off-site organic SEO channels.

Digital marketing has major importance in the marketing strategy of any company regardless of sector, size, or country of origin. Thus, more than ever, in order to remain competitive, companies are forced to exploit this form of marketing, which essentially can bring huge benefits at low costs. The main form of digital marketing is inbound marketing, which represents an organic marketing form, based on the close relationship between the company and its prospects or customers, who have expressed their interest in the company’s products voluntarily (based on subscriptions to newsletters, blogs, social networks, etc.) and who have been attracted and involved by a high quality of the content marketing. (Patrutiu-Baltes, 2016)

Organically earned visibility rather than paid ads are more permanent and more beneficial for brand awareness. Inbound marketing techniques create more successful and long-term results than PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising methods. The most important part of inbound marketing success is that it is continuous and free. From this point of view, the long-term ROI (return on investment) of any SEO practice is very high.

In this research paper, we will examine off-site SEO. Off-site SEO is one of the most complex digital marketing practices in all marketing methods. In between digital marketing to off-site SEO, every branch leads to off-site SEO is the most complex in the group. To understand off-site SEO, understanding digital marketing is necessary. From general to specific; online (internet) marketing, SEM (Search Engine Marketing), and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In our research, we will examine the most successful off-site SEO channels and study their effects and duration of impact but before we need to understand the difference between the SEO types. There are multiple SEO types, and each has multiple channels and practices. On-page SEO covers all the organic issues that affect only a single page while on-site SEO covers the issues that affect all pages of the website. Technical SEO covers back-end-related issues and usually requires coding knowledge and an understanding of the very complex structure of search engines. Off-site SEO, as it can be understood from the name, refers to SEO practices done in other online channels, websites, and online platforms.

Decorative Image: Types of SEO

Figure 1. Types of SEO. This figure demonstrates the SEO types and example practices/channels.

Methodology

The collected qualitative and quantitative research analyzes the off-site SEO practices; backlinks, directories, citations, social media, guest posts, and blog posts, which are preferred because these practices are thought to have very successful results in increasing website traffic and brand awareness but complex to work on. It relies on interpretations of semiotics, reception theory, and Marxist theories to provide a collective analysis. The semiotic theory is not about words, but about meanings. The idea behind its creation is that, in digital marketing, meaning is created through interactions between users and marketing professionals (Aydin, D. A., & Aydin, G., 2021). Thus, semiotics informs us about the created meanings, the way the signs are used, and the effects the signs created. The reception theory explains how people interact with the internet and interpret what they see. The Marxist theory allows off-site SEO practices to be considered in terms of social struggles and economic relations and contains information about the application of off-site SEO techniques in various parts of the world depending on their social systems and the availability of technology. Mostly, peer-reviewed and academic texts have been compiled with the help of EBSCOhost, the Google Scholars websites, and some print publications. These sources were selected from sources related to digital marketing in general and published in the last 5 years.

The collected research information has led to successful results for understanding off-site SEO. Even though the secret algorithm of search engines is constantly changing, good off-site SEO work done with “white hat SEO” techniques -SEO techniques applied in accordance with the rules of search engines- can provide benefits for a very long time if not forever. My findings will reveal which of these most preferred off-site SEO practices are more effective in which conditions and what will be the result when these practices are gathered in a central hub which is the website.

Literature Review

Backlinks

Creating a connection from one website to another is called backlinking (Garrett French, & Eric Ward., 2020) and the anchor text or the image holds the connection called a backlink. These links are also called “external links” on the website that hosts the link and are one of the best ways to improve a website’s ranking quickly and efficiently. Backlinks are a huge part of SEO, and there is a lot that goes into building a backlink profile. Often, it’s been thought that website needs a ton of backlinks to rank well. This is not true. There are factors called “DA” (Domain Authority), “PA” (Page Authority), and “DR” (Domain Ranking). To increase the DA, PA, or DR scores also known as authority scores, the website doesn’t need to have many but high-quality backlinks from high-quality websites with high DA, PA, and DR scores.

In the past, the authority scores were not important. Stacks of links in the form of small banners were made for websites at very low costs, displayed on another, and this was a profession. Later, as search engines improved themselves and updated their rules by learning to listen to the consumers and their responses to certain conditions, these techniques began to be called “black hat SEO” -a technique used for deceiving the algorithms of search engines- and websites using these techniques were penalized. These techniques were only to connect the websites and gain search engine visibility. These connections never provided any value for the visitors and are usually hated by most people. Nowadays, backlinks require a lot of work, but in general, backlink providers do not differentiate websites based on the ethnicity, economic status, geographic location, etc. of their owners or visitors. Backlinks – those that comply with the rules – defend the principle of equality like every other SEO study. While giving priority to those who work hard and produce quality content, money is ineffective except to pay people who will produce quality content. On the contrary, backlinks that are determined to be purchased for money in any way -unnatural backlinks- cause the website to be penalized (Google Search Central, 2021). The compatibility of the languages and industries of the referrer and referred websites is sufficient to create a successful connection. Of course, how old is and the authority scores of the referrer website are also very important for search engines to measure the value of the connection. Getting backlinks from websites with high authority scores is not easy because they only accept sharing a link if it generates value for their visitors. According to French and Ward (2020), the most important way to gain backlinks to a website or webpage is to produce high-quality content that deserves to earn backlinks. If the content is good enough, it doesn’t take much effort to generate backlinks to the page, and many backlinks can be generated organically. Backlinks can be likened to references used in articles or books.

Social Media

According to Chukurna & Konak (2018), 43% of the world’s population has access to the internet and the number is increasing. That might be doubled in the last 3 years. Now, social media is experiencing a huge explosion. Recently, with the addition of social media channels such as Tik Tok and Snap Chat, social media has become much more common as social media has started to be consumed faster, and devices that allow internet usage has become more widespread. Of course, the natural decrease in the older population that is not acquainted with social media is also one of the reasons for this.

Social media marketing promotes products or services using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These social media platforms’ built-in analytic tool displays the quantity and data of users as well as their product-related actions (Lal, A., 2018). To construct a successful marketing campaign, organizations require reviews, comments, clicks, likes, shares, retweets, and a variety of other types of customer interactions. This type of dialogic marketing necessitates a different type of rhetorical action than, for example, designing a print magazine advertising (Wall, A., & Spinuzzi, C., 2018, p. 139). Although the marketing part of social media is not included in our content, when it comes to social media, the only difference between organic and paid growth is the interaction time. I am not agreeing with Elerding, C. (2018), that the difference between those who are successful in social media and those who are not is just their gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Yes, these concepts can change the effort and time spent to be successful, but they do not have much effect on the level of success. According to Özcan, Z. (2021), social media is a channel that allows users to communicate interactively and allows multi-directional information transfer. Because of these features, the way to be successful in social media is to want to be successful and successfully listen to and reacting the followers.

In the previous periods of the internet, the flow of information was one-sided. With Web 2.0, information gained versatility and was able to be directed in different directions. That’s why this age was called the information age. However, with the spread of Web 3.0, also known as Metaverse, in the upcoming periods, third-party channels like Facebook, which is the weakest aspect of Web 2.0, will be devalued and more information will pass directly from person to person. In other words, web 3.0 will remove the server logic of the internet. This will make the internet provide equal opportunities to everyone in the future. Even though they don’t like social media anymore, the number of people who get results with their money will decrease and maybe disappear. On the other hand, social media experts who know how to influence human psychology and human perceptions using signs and meanings will be successful. According to Özcan (2021), every signification includes two planes: the “plane of expression” and the “plane of content”. When viewed in the context of literal and connotative sense; denotation, which has these two planes, takes place like a plane of expression within the connotation. In this case, the denotative meaning is formed by the signifier and the signified; It is defined in connotation as a signifier. Connotation; includes “signifier”, “signified” and “signification” which connects these two elements. Connotative signifiers are composed of literal signs (signifier and signified). In another saying, denotation constitutes the first level of signification, and signification is made for an obvious meaning. Connotation, on the other hand, reveals emotions and cultural values in line with denotation; It is subjective and includes ideological considerations.

Directories and Citations

Digital marketing is not different from traditional marketing, but the key difference is the method of encoding and decoding data as well as the channel used for marketing (Chomiak-Orsa, I., & Liszczyk, K., 2020, p. 14). Digital marketing, different than traditional marketing, gives marketers the ability to decode consumers. Link building is the most effective method to increase the DA, PA, and DR scores of a site and the way to increase these scores quickly is to get backlinks from sites with high scores and high authority backlinks that turn into sales (Garrett French, & Eric Ward., 2020). Local Directories and Citations are the simplest way to do this. Local Directories and Citations are generally ignored as they do not give the chance to use many keywords and are local SEO prioritized. Besides the importance of local SEO, these sites are generally high-authority websites and the backlinks from them positively affect the overall authority scores of the website, even for global SEO. These SEO channels are more useful than they seem, especially for local businesses. Although citations and directories had different features at first, they both started to mean the same over time. For example, classic citations only gave information about the company and did not have a backlink to the website. Currently, companies that offer these types of services offer the same features, even if they call themselves citation services or directory listings. The most famous among those are Google My Business which changed its name recently to Google Business Profile Manager, Yelp, Manta, Yellow Book, etc.

While Directories and citations offer free services, many offers paid plans as well. Besides a simple free plan, they give priority to the companies who purchased the paid plan. They even sometimes hide the profiles of the free plan members so that the paid members gain more customers than the free ones without competition. In digital marketing, consumers of the content are evaluated according to their demographics (Guilbeault, 2018). According to Kayihan (2018), digital capitalism is characterized by targeted advertising. In other words, all local businesses that create directory listings and citations, especially the content of local businesses that provide service, will interact more successfully with targeted local people and these potential customers will interpret the content they see more positively. Often interacting with company information, especially the logo, also creates brand awareness. Not immediately, but over time. It will mean something to them when they see the logo offline. According to Dawkins (2015), brand communications can be viewed as a desultory cycle where a bunch of fundamental beliefs or a rundown of traits is, through semiosis, converted into multimodal texts like vision explanations, logos, and brand claims.

Guest Posts and Blog Comments

According to French and Ward (2020), guest posts are popular among SEO experts since they allow for connections to highly focused sites, such as sales pages, which convert directly and instantly to a sale. On the other hand, blog comments can be examined in two different areas. The first is used exactly like guest posts. it is just simpler, but because it is made without permission, it is likely to be deleted due to the backlink in the comment, or if it is marked as “NoFollow” by the webmaster, it will be depreciated. Even if the NoFollow link does not work in increasing the SEO value, it can help bring referral traffic. Although the second method is out of our scope, it is worth mentioning. This method requires enabling the blog on the website for visitor comments. While this is useful as it will provide regular updates and add content to the page, it is difficult to control because of spam commenters. These types of blog comments are within the scope of on-site SEO and the security-related disclosures are within the scope of technical SEO.

Guest posts are usually known as “content placement” or “web 2.0 link” and require ideally a great writer who is also knowledgeable about the industry to write great content (French and Ward, 2020). Great content is a must-have because it needs to be accepted by the hosting website and it is not a basic duty to write content for those types of websites since they are sometimes large news corporations. On the other hand, the constantly changing digital marketing industry has started to accept content as guest posts not only in written versions but also in the visual versions known as “rich media”. With the development of “speech to text” technology now search engines can detect the speeches in the videos and evaluate them according to their keywords in them. In addition, technology has become able to detect images and create keywords from the content of the images and use them in connections. Improved search engine features depreciate the value of the extra links they found if they detect more than one link in the content that goes in the same direction. Also, associate all the keywords in the content in the connection between the referrer and referred websites without extra effort if used properly.

Blog comments are also known as “open conversations”. Blog comments often require membership in platforms that provide such services. It is the way people share their knowledge or information resources. Links from these platforms are usually NoFollow links and do not directly affect SEO efforts. The effects are indirect, and information needs to be provided to ensure this. The best way to increase traffic is to write a small paragraph to show the solution and promise more with a link. The webmasters of these sites will be satisfied with this work, thinking that it will add value to the website. According to French and Ward (2020), blog comments should be made for informational purposes only and therefore should not join a conversation or create an account on these sites just to leave a link.

Result

During the research, backlinks, social media, directories and citations, guest posts, and blog comments were analyzed in terms of semiotics, reception theory, and Marxism. To generalize, all off-site SEO studies that have been examined, except for directories and citations, depending on the effort spent and the quality of the content created. Although directories and citations offer free account creation and use of the service, they give priority to the paid members when it comes to directing visitors to the most appropriate content, even if their content is less relevant. One of the greatest advantages that a directory listing or a citation can offer is that it helps to build brand awareness by increasing the exposure of the company logo and adding meaning to it. In addition, the backlinks they provide, provide the same benefit to everyone, regardless of whether they are paid or free members, just like the other backlinks. In addition, backlinks are one of the first areas where search engines listened to their visitors for the first time and change the rules to show results that fit their needs, and it has revolutionized the development process of search engines.

Another point where feedback from visitors is used successfully is social media. In the analysis, we saw that social media can help companies to apply more successful marketing techniques by looking at customer statistics. We also examined the success of social media in attributing texts, images, or figures to create different feelings in visitors by using generated meanings of them. Of course, social media channels give priority to paid promotions, like all other off-site SEO channels that accept paid promotions. Although social media is an unfair field in this respect, as it offers unlimited expansion to all paid or unpaid efforts, the only difference between the free and the paid promotions is the growth speed. This allows us to see social media as a fair competition area to some extent, even if not completely.

Discussion

Some researchers might argue that PPC campaigns are more effective than any SEO practices and that might be right in many cases. PPC campaigns can produce very fast results compared to any SEO practice, including off-site SEO. The secret of their success is the money paid for service. PPC campaigns do not offer equal opportunity and prioritize those with money. The real problem with PPC campaigns is that they make content creators lazy. Businesses that rely only on PPC campaigns instead of SEO efforts often aim to rank higher in the SERPs by paying money rather than producing quality content. The main reason for this is the misunderstanding of PPC campaigns. If the pay-per-click campaign is stopped or the budget runs out, search engines will send the website where it belongs in the SERPs (search engine result pages). If successful SEO work has not been done on the website, perhaps it will disappear completely. Since SEO is a study of meeting visitor demands, the rules and scoring criteria set by search engines for SEO are always related to meeting visitor expectations. Being forced to provide content that is requested by potential visitors is crucial. This provides great benefits in increasing brand awareness, reducing bounce rates, and gaining repeat visitors. Websites without quality content -lower SEO score- are also displayed in PPC campaigns for a higher CPC (Cost Per Click) or if the spending is limited by the ad manager so less than the companies with higher SEO scores even if they bid the same amount.

Conclusion

The thesis on the importance of off-site SEO for a completed SEO study has been successfully examined. When it comes to SEO, each practice is a link in a chain. For this purpose, rather than comparing off-site SEO practices with other SEO practices in their own parallels, we compared with another off-site SEM (Search Engine Marketing) practice called PPC (Pay Per Click). In addition to recommending that all practices be used, SEO practices must be completed before PPC campaigns are launched. PPC should only be used to increase the visibility of high-quality content. Companies should create digital footprints for themselves on the internet and increase awareness of the footprints they created. The first thing to understand is that the purpose is not to bring the visitor to the website but to create memories during the visit. The most important way to do this is to pay attention to the ranking factors of search engines because search engines shape these ranking systems according to the responses received from visitors. In addition, SEO efforts provide equal opportunity to all companies and no one gets discriminated against based on their language, religion, race, economy, etc.

According to studies, from many perspectives, especially when third parties are not involved, off-site search engine optimization produces fair, free, and successful results. However, when it comes to brand awareness, the features added to the system by third parties can be very useful for branding practices. In this case, brands may be advised to pay certain fees to these third parties in order to get results, perhaps not better, but faster. As in every platform of digital marketing, the only way to ensure permanent growth is to produce and disseminate quality and useful content. The brand will be formed as meaning is loaded into the content produced and even as meaning is created at later levels.

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