Introduction Link building can therefore be described as being a very vital element in the process of search engine optimization in the modern world. It means the act of getting links or what is commonly known as ‘linking’ from other sites to your own. Such links act as signs to search engines so that your content is marked as important and worth linking to. For this reason, link building helps a website to achieve the much-needed visibility and ranking in the search engine result pages (SERPs). In this article we will explain to you what is link building, why it is important and how to use it for your SEO benefit.
What is Link Building? Link Building is a process of making other websites to link back to your website. These ensures that through linking other sites, it is considered as approval or recommendations by the search engines. Since most web surfers tend to trust sites that are on the top of the search engine results, a link from such a source is an endorsement of your site.
There are two primary types of links:There are two primary types of links:
Internal Links: These are links that join other pages within the same website without necessarily moving to other site or sub-domain. They assist the search engine and users to access as well as to browse through your site.
External Links (Backlinks): These are other people’s websites that take users or direct them to your website, and these are referred to as backlinks. Backlinks are important since the search engine, including google, considers them as recommendations from other good websites.
Context: Link Building is one of the major factors that help in the effectiveness of a business website.
Link building is vital for several reasons, especially when it comes to improving a website’s SEO and driving organic traffic:Link building is vital for several reasons, especially when it comes to improving a website’s SEO and driving organic traffic:
Increase Search Engine Optimization: Quality of backlinks is also closely related with such factors as one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. When many high ranking sites link to your page, then the content of such a site is likely to be credible, hence improving its chances of ranking high.
More Website Traffic: This link refers users from other website to your site Backlinks directs user to your site. If the link is on the right position in the most visited site, it can bring hundreds referrals.
Building Trust and Credibility: Every time sites that are related and are considered as experts link to your site it enhances the SEO but it also increases the credibility of the brand in that it is seen and recognized by the user and the search engine.
Networking and Relationships: Most of the processes of link building include contacting other companies and bloggers who are in the same line of business; these connections can culminate into long term business partnerships as most of the firms partner with bloggers whom they can share business dealings with.
Link building is part of the ecommerce process and its effective use depends to various factors as explained below:
Link building, if done right, means the difference between a thriving site and an almost dead one in terms of traffic. Here are some practical strategies to help you maximize the benefits of link building:Here are some practical strategies to help you maximize the benefits of link building:
- Create High-Quality, Valuable Content
This makes content the most important component in any link building campaign that one needs to undertake. For backlinking, ensure that your post is informative, has high value and it is not duplicated. Here are a few types of content that often generate backlinks:Here are a few types of content that often generate backlinks:
Comprehensive Guides and How-Tos: Educational and explanatory content that presents well-argued and detailed tutorials and guides are very shareable and are perfect for including links into.
Original Research and Data: Updating your website with fresh knowledge in form of new articles or researches, statistical data or case studies gives you the chance of updating link from other websites that reference to your findings.
Infographics and Visuals: Graphics or visual content are highly shareable content and can generate a lot of backlinks especially from blogs which are looking to support their points with illustrations.
- Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is undoubtedly one of the best methods to have backlinks. This implies guest posting for other websites that belong to the same niche as yours. In return, the webmaster allows you to place one or two hyperlinks to your site in the article or the authors’ byline.
As much as guest blogging is great, it is good to ensure quality when guest blogging. Post on other high ranking websites within your business field rather than the poor or the unrelated ones. Not only is this going to provide further high-quality backlinks for your website but it is also going to help to increase some of the targeted traffic to your site.
- Broken Link Building
Broken link building comprises of identifying dead links on other websites then presenting your content as a replacement for the dead link. This advantage the website owner since you get to assist in correcting broken links as well as enjoy a back link from them.
To use this method:
Some of the ways include using Ahrefs or Check My Links to look for websites in your specific specialty or to look for broken links.
Contact the owner of the dead links, and inform him or her that the said link is no longer working, and recommend the content you wrote to replace it.
- Social Networking Sites: The most effective way of marketing content is by introducing the product in social network sites.
Social sites are very effective as far as sharing your content and getting it out there is concerned. When you repost your articles, infographics, or research on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, changes are that other websites will pick them by linking back to your content.
Reddit and Quora can also be used in the same vein to drive traffic and backlinks if it is done in the right forum by sharing your knowledge or links to your content.
- They Make It Easy to Get Listed on Resource Pages
Most websites have a link to resources section or a selected list of tools, articles, and references. This can be useful that these pages can give back links to IET. Looking for such opportunities, enter google.com with the request – keyword resources or keyword useful links.
If you are in search of some valuable resources related to your content, then it is highly advisable to contact the owner of the web site and explain to him how this information which you offer could be beneficial for his list of resources.
- Monitor Competitor Backlinks
Studying your competitors ‘ link-profile may potentially indicate a link building opportunity. Using SEMrush or Moz, it is possible to see which resources your competitors use as backlinks, and, therefore, link to those resources as well.
Conclusion
Link building is an integral part of SEO as it helps to increase website rankings, organic trafic and earning the reputation of a reliable source. Including the detailed strategies such as guest blogging, broken link building, social media promotion and many others, it is possible to develop the necessary network of backlinks for your website. In essence, what we are advised to do is to employ patience and persistence regularly in our operations and it will pay off in the long run.
