Link building is probably the most important strategy you can use to increase your rankings in Google and the other Search Engines. Doing this correctly can make a huge difference to efforts but you need to be aware of the pitfalls too. Google is smart to the various manipulations out there to try and trick their algorithms. That’s why it’s important to know how to get links the right way. This blog covers safe and varied strategies you can use to increase your site traffic and rankings.
What is link building?
Link building is a process of acquiring links from other highly regarded blogs and websites. Often these blogs or websites will be subject related to your own, so an example might be if you sell football equipment, it would be advantageous to have a sports blog write an article on their site and link to your site as a great place to buy football kits. In this sense links provide validity, authority and importantly visitors to your site. There are many different tools and strategies you can use to build links, but the most important thing is to focus on quality over quantity.
Quality link building takes time and effort, so make sure you’re doing it right!
Quick wins in your current network
Its probably the case you know other website and blog owners that would link to your site as great starting point. But be aware, if you link from their site and they link back, the positive ranking effect is neutralised in what is called reciprocal linking. Ideally they would link to you and you not link back, that of course is when it can get a bit tricky!
Outreach
One of the most effective ways to get links is to outreach and connect with other website owners and bloggers. This way, you can share your expertise and promote collaboration between sites. There’s no simple way to do this, it’s about finding relevant sites, reaching out to owners or content writers and get to know them personally to discuss the possibility of including a link on their website that points to yours. Sending out an email asking if bloggers would be interested in working with you is a popular approach and more on that popular strategy comes next…
Guest blogging
Guest blogging is about agreeing with a website or blog owner you will create a useful article for their site that in return will link back to your site. You can determine if a site is a useful and powerful site to approach in tools like SEMRush.com. Once you’ve found your website to guest blog for make sure to write a high-quality article that is relevant to the blog you are guest blogging for, in this sense you are creating a PR article. Be sure to include the all important link back to your site!
Broken link building
One of the most popular strategies for building links is with broken link building. Use tools like the SEMRush to find sites that are subject related to your website but have article links on their site now going to 404s, or broken links. These are often result of websites that they used to link to that are no longer online. The strategy works by contacting the website and suggesting they link to your website instead. You can couple this approach with Guest Blogging by offering to update their old article, or refresh it for free, but adding your link.
Link worthy content – content repurposing
Creating link worthy content on your website that other people want to link too is consuming but works very well when done correctly. One way to remove some of the labour required to create truly unique content regularly is with content repurposing and syndication. This means taking high-quality content from other sources and reworking it into your own work. Additionally, being sure to add in popular keywords into your content makes for more effective articles and for better search engine rankings. A simple way to get started is to do a Google search on the subject matter you want to rank for and see what types of articles come up tops. You can pull several of these articles together and rewrite them in order to arrive at an expert and well resourced article, that hopefully will encourage other people to link to your article.
By understanding the different reasons why link building is so important for SEO, you can start building links that help you rank higher in Google. There are a variety of ways to get links, and by implementing a few of the strategies in this blog. But link building is time consuming and can have a negative effect if not done correctly. For these reasons we would always recommend you work with an agency who are versed in link building and outreach, we are happy to review your current linking and SEO performance and provide tips and advice on how best to approach this for your business.
Get in touch today to find out more…
