Implementing effective link building strategies is one of the most challenging jobs for any website owner or marketing manager.
But they’re a crucial part of any SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy. Like baking a cake without adding eggs, the whole recipe falls apart without it.
Whether you’re brand new to link building or need a refresh, this guide is for you. We’ll take you through what link building is, why backlinks are essential for good SEO, and how to implement strategies to build quality backlinks.
A hyperlink (but usually just called a “link”) is where a webpage displays a URL to another webpage. By clicking on the link, the user is taken to a different website. It could be a link to another site (external) or another page within the same website (internal).
The URL could be displayed in its naked form, e.g. https://totalsurf.net/seo-services/. But most likely, it is hidden behind anchor text, e.g. SEO Services.
There are two main types of links: backlinks and internal links.
A backlink is a specific type of link where another website links back to your website. There are a variety of different link building methods that we incorporate into the strategies that we offer our clients at totalsurf, but this article will primarily be focusing on general link building strategies, and how you can begin securing high-quality backlinks.
Because backlinks are primarily in the control of a separate business or person, they’re much more difficult to control and implement. That’s primarily why they’re one of the trickiest parts of an effective SEO strategy and why it’s an area few businesses execute well.
Internal links are much easier to control. They are links between webpages within your own website. They still play a role in your overall SEO link building strategies, but they are nowhere near as challenging to obtain as backlinks are.
When building internal links, try not to link back to your homepage. It’s probable that you already have a button at the top of your website that appears on every single webpage which links back to your homepage anyway.
When creating new content or editing an existing webpage, try to keep your existing content in mind and link to it whenever relevant.
And try to use that webpage’s keyphrase as the anchor text to boost its SEO.
Because it’s by far the most popular search engine, the key to good SEO is doing whatever makes Google rank your pages higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Google values many things in a good webpage. These include, although are not exclusively limited to:
But another tremendously important factor in a webpage’s ranking is quality backlinks.
Years ago, Google simply valued the number of backlinks. Let’s say you run a recipe website, for example. You could get links to your brownie recipe from sports sites, disreputable online casinos, and equestrian magazines, and it wouldn’t make any difference.
After the Penguin algorithm update, Google cares about many things when it comes to determining a high-quality backlink.
Below is a list of what makes an excellent external backlink, and the aspects which Google cares about:
Essentially, a good backlink not only sends traffic but shares authority from one webpage to another.
Imagine Google as a nightclub security guard and the highly-ranking webpage as a VIP who can get you inside because they’re willing to say, “they’re with me” to your webpage.
Therefore, building backlinks and executing a sound link building strategy are both essential for good SEO performance.
There are different types of link building and several link building strategies you and your business could implement. For example, you could take advantage of high-quality citations monitoring, guest blogging or competitor imitation, or even digital PR.
But it’s a marathon, not a sprint, which is why many businesses decide to outsource their link building services.
Here are some of the ways you can build quality SEO backlinks.
The best link building strategies start with good content. If you have entertaining, informative, unique, shareable content on your website, people will naturally want to link to it.
It also helps if you have other platforms to share your website’s content on, like an email newsletter or social media accounts.
Another variation of this strategy is to reach out to other businesses or people with high-ranking websites or social media channels with your product or service. There are different types of arrangements involved with this strategy, but ultimately if they like your product or service they might link back to it.
If you’re just starting out, you could ask friends and businesses you already have an association with to give you a backlink. It would depend on their rankings and relevancy as to whether or not this is an effective strategy. But it might be a good place to start.
Blogging regularly will be a great help to your visibility on Google, and can also be a way of earning high-quality backlinks. Pitching guest blog posts to niche websites in your industry, while drawing attention to your own site, is an excellent way to drive traffic and get noticed.
Some websites like to turn off authority for specific links, e.g. social media accounts and links in the comments section. It’s a useful feature if you don’t have the resources to check the quality of everyone who leaves a comment on your site.
You can still receive traffic through a no-follow link and small SEO benefits. But if you’re building backlinks, you want to make sure all of those links pass along authority through a do-follow.
Google often adjusts how it determines good backlinks. Just as Google used to focus on the number of backlinks, and now it focuses on quality.
If one of your web pages suddenly received hundreds of links from multiple online gambling sites, that would be a bad, blackhat strategy. It’s an outdated method that would harm your webpage rankings.
This is why it’s so important to be knowledgeable about link building so you can implement the correct strategies.
Developing your own successful link building strategies is tough.
Not only do you need to be clued up in the latest SEO guidelines, reaching out to websites for potential backlinks takes a lot of time. And it also requires a lot of research in determining which web pages you want backlinks from too.
If you’re interested in building a backlink profile that will boost your rankings and, therefore, your business, contact us today.
It’s very simple. Just fill in the form and we will be in touch with your reports. We will also ask you to book a 30 min call with us so we can run through the report and explain what the issues are with your site, what your goals are and how we can help you.
