I write a lot about search on this blog – it’s my first love and most experienced field of study in the larger subset of digital marketing.

Search has been the doorway to kick-starting many small business dreams – even to this day.

For me, it’s one of the best ways to focus alignment ( refining who your customers are, where your customers are located, and what specific problem(s) you solve ) — and being very clear with alignment makes it easier for search engines (and ultimately users) to find you in relevant moments online.

And focusing on relevance — being the most important to the matter at hand — is important for improving your positioning in those moments.

Building – and maintaining – relevance takes time, however and requires consistent effort – both on your website and off.

A lot of focus on this blog has been on working on items on your website – content in particular.

Content comes in many forms: written (like this blog), graphics (like the image on this post), media (photos and videos), among other content types.

Creating regular, genuinely helpful or interesting content is a great way to build relevance – having a deep, focused library gives your audience several ways to connect with you, making you more relevant for those particular topics and areas of expertise when they need/desire those topics.

In addition to having that valuable content for your users, it’s a great way for other websites to reference you – either through being mentioned or through a link.

Getting mentions/links from other websites allows visitors to those other websites to find you through those mentions/links.

As you’ve likely put together already, those mentions/links can accumulate over time – something that can help you build relevance for users of those other websites.

While this part of the relevance equation is important, it can also get abused – something you want to steer clear of – getting mentions/links from irrelevant sources won’t add value, so it’s important to focus on building an authentic, relevant off-site portfolio.

Genuine Networking

I like to compare this to offline networking; if you run a small business that sells widgets in Texas, you likely want to network with groups and folks that are interested or related to the widget industry in Texas, right?

It can work similarly in the online world – it can happen naturally (when they find your content useful or interesting and mention you organically), or if you attend offline events or participate in other ways with organizations, picking up those references/mentions & links becomes much more valuable.

As users visit those other websites, being referenced/linked there allows those folks to discover your business.

The larger and more trusted the website, the more folks may find your small business through those links/references.

Keep It Relevant & Natural

As mentioned above, not all links/references add much value to your overall relevance, so it’s typically best to consider the users/audience of those websites first.

If there isn’t a ton of overlap between their audience and yours, it might not be overly useful for your long-term plans.

Get Involved

Getting involved with your community is a great way to indirectly build online references/mentions.

Local groups, organizations, local news publishers, bloggers and other businesses will often have a digital presence so by participating you not only get to connect in-person, but you build a natural reference that others can find later on.

If your small business serves an audience that’s largely in the immediate area around your headquarters/office, it’s only natural that doing so can have many benefits.

Hosting events is another great way to give back and allow you to reference/mention others as well.

Building Off Your Content

As mentioned, building a strong foundation of content can be incredibly helpful in many ways, but it becomes even more valuable as you participate more with others in your area.

New users get a chance to explore your content, and potentially mention/reference it on their sites and social media feeds.

Remember The Goal: Relevance To Your Audience

Being everything, everywhere, all at once, all the time isn’t likely sustainable for most small businesses, so picking your spots and using your time wisely is important when accumulating your off-site portfolio.

Relevance & timing is key.

And relevance means keeping your customers at the heart of every action – something that will serve you nicely as your off-site efforts progress.