If you’re looking for a way to expand your brand presence, drive traffic to your website, increase sales, or just grow your business in general, link building promises all of that and more.
However, it is an element of marketing that very few business owners actually know about.
In this article, we’ll explain what link building is and how it can be leveraged as part of your own strategy.
What is link building?
Link building is basically getting other websites to point links to individual pages on your website.
This is usually done by hyperlinking in articles and blog posts and directing people to your own content.
“Google’s algorithms are complex and ever-changing, but backlinks remain an important factor in how every search engine determines which sites rank for which keywords,” WordStream Citations. “Link building is one of the many tactics used in search engine optimization (SEO) because links tell Google that your site is a quality resource worth citing. Therefore, sites with more backlinks tend to get higher rankings.
The benefits of link building stretch far and wide.
First, it increases your organic search ability. It also has the added effect of building your authority and credibility.
As a result, you can expect increased traffic to your website, leading to more customers, sales, and more.
7 Link Building Tips and Strategies
Link building is not a perfect science. It is constantly evolving as search engines change their algorithms.
However, if you commit to the process and stick to the fundamentals, success is likely. With that in mind, here are some tips:
Create quality content
Don’t jump into link building too soon.
Although the links are shiny and attractive, they will be useless if you don’t have quality content. That’s why it’s always a good idea to start with on-site content creation.
You don’t need to publish a dozen blog posts a week or have thousands of pages on your website. However, you need a handful of high-quality on-site resources that you can connect to with confidence.
While this article won’t focus on on-site content strategies, we recommend looking at a pillar strategy.
A good content pillar strategy combined with a strong link building strategy will yield fruitful results in any industry or niche.
Know your audience
Anyone can go out and acquire a bunch of links quite easily.
But if you want to link properly, you also need to consider the publishers you choose.
There needs to be a good alignment between the publisher, your website, and your audience.
If you run an HVAC business, for example, you’ll get the most out of building backlinks from housekeeping websites and DIY blogs.
You wouldn’t get as much value from financial websites or political blogs.
Use anchor text with care
Is it really natural to include the exact anchor in every guest post, press release, and off-site article you produce that links to your services pages?
Google doesn’t think so.
When it comes to the anchor text you use, there should be diversity and variability.
In fact, here’s the right mix based on reviews of sites whose pages rank in the top 10.
Your homepage is also a different monster when it comes to how you should look to link to it.
Use the right link speed
If your site or page gets 10 links one day and 10,000 backlinks the next, do you think that feels natural?
Link velocity is defined by the number of links over a specific time horizon.
It would be more natural for a site to get 10,000 links in a week if the previous week it had an influx of 8,000 or 9,000.
Let your bonds build on each other over time.
Viral links come into play and can be considered “natural”, but such cases are more the exception than the rule.
If you are able to acquire 50 links in a single month in a natural way, focusing on outreach strategies, next month shoot 60 and so on.
Eventually your link momentum will change and you will start to see an impact on your rankings.
Remember that a good link speed for one site may be a horrible speed for another.
Hire a link building service
Trying to do 100% of your link building on your own can be exhausting.
And unless you have some experience with SEO and content strategy, it’s not going to do very well.
That’s why we recommend that you hire a link building partner to facilitate link building on your behalf.
When searching link building serviceslook for companies that have established relationships with publishers.
You don’t want to use a business that’s only been in business for a few months.
There is a lot of turnover in this industry and most services don’t last.
Choose a company that has been around for at least 10 years and practices white-hat link building.
Stick it out
Link building takes time. It’s not something you do once and then expect immediate results. It’s an ongoing investment that gives you ongoing results. At a minimum, you should invest in two or three quality backlinks per month as part of your standard marketing strategy.
Don’t just focus on link building
If you have the same number of backlinks and authority as competing pages, but they are outperforming you for the terms you want, it might be time to look at other areas that may be impacting your your site.
Although link building has a strong correlation with ranking in Google and other search engines, it does not have the highest correlation.
The diversity of factors is the best signal sent to Google for a better ranking.
Take the time to diversify away from just building links for SEO.
Enjoy the Benefits of Link Building
Link building requires resources. You must be prepared to commit time, effort and (in many cases) funds. But it’s not an expense, it’s an investment. And like any good investment, you can expect a positive return on investment. You don’t have to build thousands of links at once.
Start small and go from there. Your progress will accumulate and you will eventually experience all the benefits that link building has to offer.
