Whether it may be an online business or your personal website, you are going to want to do SEO on it. No matter how great your product or content may be, if it doesn’t land on the first page of Google, it won’t receive any traffic. There are a lot of concepts behind SEO and one of them is link building. The idea is fairly easy, but according to a bunch of SEO specialists, this is what they consider as their hardest responsibility.
Table of Contents
What is Link Building?
The concept of link building is having as many websites mention your website link that you want to promote. That’s as short as the definition can get, but it is not all that simple. There are right and wrong ways to achieve this and the latter could mean catastrophic for your SEO ranking.
Why is Link Building Important?
Google has been constantly developing their search engine algorithm. In 1990, they started considering how “trustworthy” a website is by how many websites reference it. Translation: the more websites that mention the link you are trying to promote, the more likely it will land on the first page on Google’s results.
Apparently, it is one of the major influences in search result ranking, therefore, much attention must be given. It is the hardest task to accomplish for a reason.
How Link Building Works in SEO
So, why did Google see link building as an essential part in their rankings? Imagine yourself being out on a vacation and you ask five people what’s the best restaurant around. If all answered restaurant x, you are likely going to opt for that choice.
Every time a different website mentions your link, it means they are using you as a reference. The more you get referenced, the more relevant and reliable your reputation becomes. Google sees this and understands that you are a top choice.
It has provided people searching for answers with the most relevant results in Google ever since. As a result, it has continuously been a part of the search engine’s algorithm even decades after its introduction.
The EAT in Link Building
While the concept of link building might be self explanatory at this point, the problem lies within how to achieve it. Getting your link mentioned in different websites is not all that it takes. Google has made updates throughout the decades to ensure that the mentions are relevant and of value in an effort to filter out manipulative tactics.
So, what websites should be mentioning your links? A simple acronym comes into mind: EAT. Must be considered as experts on a certain field, authoritative in nature, and trustworthy. The higher the reputation of a website under all these three categories, the higher the value of their mention on your search engine ranking.
What Does Nofollow Mean in Link Building?
Another thing to keep an eye on are nofollow links. Just like not all websites can help you rank higher, not all links necessarily count as “mentions” and improve your ranking. When a website mentions your link but puts the “nofollow” attribute to it, it informs Google not to consider it as a reliable mention. Therefore, it has no impact or whatsoever in your SEO ranking.
The nofollow attribute is added in various situations. It may be because the website mentioned you as a bad example or doesn’t see you as a completely reliable source. There are also a number of situations wherein the nofollow attribute is the default such as blog comments, forum posts, and Yahoo! Answers.
In another situation, if you purchase paid ads that link to your website, Google requires that these should have the nofollow attribute. Paying for links is considered manipulation and does not put reliable value to your website.
How to Generate High Quality Link Building?
Now that you know what qualifies as link building and the things that do not, the next thing is what are your choices in creating high quality links? While it may seem that there are a lot of ways to achieve link building, we were able to simplify the best choices down to only four.
Create Quality Link Building Content
The most foolproof and best way to have websites reference you is by making quality content that is worth referencing. When you create material of value, it then does the rest. However, your content is not immediately going to land on the first page of the search engine, making it hard to come by.
Ironic as it is, you need websites to reference you to have a good search result rank, but you can’t be referenced if you can’t be seen. Nevertheless, as long as you have great quality content, it is much easier to find websites that are able to use it as a reference.
Find Partner Links
You just can’t wait for websites to mention your link. Instead, you need to approach them and strike up a deal. Find reputable websites that you can provide your product to and have them write a review or a blog post. You can also approach websites in the same industry and help each other out by mentioning one another’s link.
High Quality Guest Posting
Guest posting is the process where you publish your content in other websites. You don’t get paid, but what you earn in the end is promoting your content and referencing your link.
However, it is not always going to be easy. The hard part is that certain websites have preferred topics and they make sure to only publish high quality content on their platform. Therefore, you need to generate great material that would be within the criterion of those websites.
The competition is tough especially that you are not just going to be the one pitching your material into their platform. You are going to receive rejection here and there but the list of websites you can approach is inexhaustive.
Content Promoting
You don’t necessarily have to wait for somebody else to promote your link, you can do that yourself as well. Use other platforms to cite your website link such as Qoura, YouTube, and Slideshare. Create content and mention your link as your reference.
In a different aspect, you can re-purpose your old content. If you published an article a couple of months ago, update it and market it as a better reference. This allows you to concentrate your attention on certain materials and build on from what you missed since you already know which ones stood out and those that did not.
If you want a marketing strategy that is more content-centric. We suggest you take a look at inbound marketing.
Link Building Best Practices
As you already know, not all links will help your SEO rank. However, other than the nofollow attribute and the reputation of the website that mentions your link, there are other factors that will affect its value. It is important to know what are the features of a good link that will definitely help your SEO score.
Editorially Placed Links
Putting your link in your guest posts or on your content is not enough. You should place it naturally as well. If it is an article, the link must be editorially placed and must fit coherently to the overall purpose of the material. Don’t put it randomly just for the sake that you are able to mention it.
Link to Relevant Websites
While Google checks the reputation of the website that uses your link, it also checks the relevance. If you are a business that sells dog cages, it doesn’t make sense for it to be found in a computer software website. Therefore , only reach out to websites that are in the same field as yours.
Anchor Text is Descriptive and Relevant
Your links should be anchored to text that is of value. For example, if you are selling dog cages, your link should be on a word in the article that is relevant to it. It could be “cage” or “dog houses”. Your anchor text is as important as the placement of your link.
Google considers the anchor text in its search results. When your link is commonly used for a certain anchor text, it is likely to be associated with that phrase and come up as a result when searched.
Benefits of Link Building Beyond SEO
Don’t concentrate too much on the SEO benefits of link building. There is a lot more to earn than ranking high in search engine results. Therefore, nofollow links may not be as useless as you think they are. Same goes for low quality mentions in social media sites. Here are just some reasons to continue your link building campaign even if it doesn’t affect your SEO ranking.
Building Relationships
Reaching out to websites allows you to create a relationship with them, especially with ones that are still starting out. What began as a link exchange can potentially progress to other future initiatives that could help both of your business out.
Referral Traffic
Nofollow links may not help your SEO ranking, but it still places your link out there for people to see. At the end of the day, it still generates web traffic from people who see and decide to click on it. So even if social media sites or blog comments that mention your link may not be completely helpful in SEO, it can potentially bring you visitors and give your business the exposure it needs.
Brand Building
The more frequent your link gets mentioned, the more the name of your business or website is placed out there. As a result, you get more known and that builds the reputation of your brand. The outcome is going to even be better if you are positively referenced.
Not All Links are For Link Building
We have mentioned a couple types of links that do not contribute to the SEO purpose of link building, but that wasn’t all of them. There are still a couple more to look out for and here are them.
Social Media Mentions
There is nothing wrong with wanting to promote your business or website in every platform possible. You might even go as far as putting your website in your social media bio to let everybody know that you are associated with it. However, remember that this doesn’t in any way help your SEO ranking.
Comments/Posts
As much as mentions in social media are not influential to SEO ranking, the same goes for comments and posts made in the same platforms. Google has purposely omitted them in their algorithm as they are links with no measurable value. Remember that when you are making a number of posts on your social media accounts.
Web Directories
There are websites that function as directories, but even if your link appears in them, they do not impact your SEO ranking. So, before you get a little bit tempted in putting your links in them, it is important to remember that they may not have the results you expect them to have.
Link Building Manipulation Methods That You Should Never Do
While the goal of link building is to spread your link in order to improve your SEO ranking, it should never be done excessively. Best practices should be followed instead of finding loopholes and manipulating Google’s algorithm. Through the decades, the search engine has refined its program that it is able to track malicious link building activities. The consequence of getting caught is that Google removes your link entirely from being a result in their search engine.
If you are a beginner, you might be wondering what are some link building manipulation methods. It is essential to know what they are in order to stir away from them especially if you are seeking to hire an SEO specialist.
Purchased Links
It is what the title suggests. Paying websites or seeking services that would have them mention your link is a big no. While it may seem that it is hard for a search engine to differentiate what is paid or not, there are going to be tell tale signs most of the time. Might as well not take the risk because it is not going to be worth it considering the consequence.
Excessive Link Exchanging/Reciprocal Linking
The keyword here is “excessive”. There is nothing wrong with link exchanging as long as it is not spammed. We did mention earlier that it is one of the ways to build your network of links. Just remember to only exchange links with quality websites that are also affiliated or related in some form to what you are marketing.
Low-quality Directory Links
With people wanting to manipulate SEO ranking comes a service specifically aimed for that. What happens here is a large number of web directories will post your link, thus increasing your ranking. It used to be a common manipulation technique but Google has caught on to the trend. Nevertheless, the paid service still exists out there and it may be tempting for a fast way to climb the ranks.
Conclusion
SEO is essential in marketing your website or business. Link building plays a huge role in that. However, it is both a complex and tedious task. To make things worse, there are a lot of things to keep in mind and stir away from. Unless you are a profession, you might find all of it overwhelming. If you do try to do this all by yourself, you might find your website spiraling down a rabbit hole. What we suggest is to contact our marketing company today for a free strategy consultation.
