049 - What is Link Building?

CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE

spotify button
google play button
itunes button
stitcher button
soundcloud button

The importance of link building in every SEO campaign cannot be overstated.  They always go hand-in-hand, but you need to ensure that the links are of high quality or originate from relevant, trustworthy sites. When you add link building into your SEO campaign, you should be ready to continue link building after you start doing it, so that it will eventually yield good results. 

Podcast Highlights:

00:00 Prologue

00:52 Introduction of the topic of Link Building

01:23 How important is link building, and why must content and link building be done the right way?

01:58 Where can you find good sources of links?

03:00 The best link building strategy according to Gert. 

04:03 Some different link building tactics people use, such as:

          -guest posting 

          -free content in exchange for a link  

          -broken link tactic

05:29 Why is outsourcing your link building a better option? 

07:58 The right tools to use to make sure only relevant links point to your site.

09:25 End

What is link building?

Link building is a technique that many people overlook. You may not know that it plays an important role in driving traffic to your website via search engines.

In competitive industries, it can be the difference between ranking well on search engines and being below other websites. So, what are some link-building strategies? How to know if your time and efforts are successful?

Gert Mellak shares what link building is and why it's important for businesses now. Read on!

How do search engines work?

Google scans the websites to identify high-quality links it found from. When you use a Google search, you are not just searching the live web. It uses algorithms in combination with human and machine learning to get the results.

Search engines maintain a massive database about their users across the Internet. These searches rely heavily on external and internal links for both crawling and ranking purposes.

Sites having more backlinks generally gain more rankings. But, not all links are created the same. They rank depending on some factors that may be crucial for Google and other search engines.

Why is link building important for SEO?

Link building works by getting other sites to link to your website. Developing Links is one of the many keywords often used in SEO. 

You can do it by exchanging links with relevant websites. Aside from that, publishing articles on your site and guest posting on other blogs.

Search makes up for nearly all web traffic. It is a major part of search engine optimization.

It is a basic method of any SEO strategy. And it's important not to ignore this step to get better rankings in Google searches. At some point, learning how to build quality links will allow you to increase traffic and grow your business quickly!

Links as a ranking sign

The more relevant links you have pointing at your site, the higher you'll rank for competitive keywords in SERPs. And with no links, any websites cannot appear on competing search results. However, it demands time and effort, and it's hard to do right, but it's also hard to do right. 

High-quality links are harder to get but easy to rank and locate. It affects search results for those pages. Humans and Search engines put a lot of worth on online linking. Thus, security for such web links requires constant and specialized effort.

How do you know whether a link is good or bad?

It's crucial to understand a good (or terrible) link before going into step-by-step link-building tactics.

That way, you can concentrate on creating links that will help you climb the Google rankings. With that in mind, here's how to figure out which links are genuinely worth building.

Good links

Not every link is worth the effort. Google has been penalizing poor links ever since.

So, what forms a good link? Continue reading. 

Link comes from the relevant author

Relevance is required for a good link. It has become the most significant aspect of a good link since the SEO and link-building sectors are tied up.

Assume you're in the business of selling houses. Would you prefer a link from a real estate website or a nature photography blogger's blog?

Although the choice may be simple, some site owners continue to make mistakes. They desire links from "bigger" websites, even if those websites have nothing to do with their own. What's more, the relevancy of a link is almost always far more essential than indicators like domain authority, rating, or Page Rank.

Links come from trustworthy websites

What is the second most critical aspect of a successful link? Trust.

Links represent the transfer of trust from one website to another. When someone links to your website, it's essentially a strong endorsement. However, not every website is reliable.

Untrustworthy sites have the following characteristics in Google's eyes, as well as in the eyes of your users: 

  • Not a high quality written content
  • Overly optimized blog post
  • Advertising that is too intrusive
  • Promoting illegal goods
  • Not original content (plagiarized)
  • A "spammy" presence in general

A website is trustworthy if a real person made it to promote their business, provide information, or sell their (legal) goods. The easiest links are sometimes found on the least trustworthy websites. Don't get taken in by the ruse.

Diverse links

The number of linked domains is diverse. Types of links vary. Both are necessary if we want to build quality links and maintain a strong, robust link profile.

The term "diversity of linking domains" refers to receiving connections from various domains rather than the same ones again and over. It's not very diverse if all of your links come from online directories. It's not very diversified if all your links come from press release aggregators.

I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about. A natural link profile will include those from a variety of different domains. 

Earned links

These links are often given as a result of a webmaster's liking for your website or content. Most of it, however, does not appear when you are idly lounging around. Google penalizes websites that engage in unnatural link schemes when they are discovered.

The majority of good links come from asking for them. If you think your site is a good fit for another site, don't be shy about asking for a connection—be kind about it! That's it, and you'll get referral traffic afterward.

Bad links

Links are still a very important ranking element.

What happens when you have a large number of poor links that are causing your site to suffer? Links from spammy websites, links that don't make sense in the context, and paid links can all hurt your website. Much more, Google may penalize your site algorithmically, or worse, you may face a manual action. 

Here are some poor and bad links that can cause Google penalties on your site.

Suspiciously Keyword-Matched Anchor Text is Embedded

Anchor text for links was a huge problem back when keyword-focused optimization was synonymous with SEO. It's recommended to put your link in text with the precise term you intended to rank for, but it no longer works.

It's the easiest way to get a manual punishment, which cannot be easy — if not impossible — to reverse. Google has a thorough knowledge of semantics and link context. Thus, it prioritizes links that are in a natural journalistic context.

Links to low-quality directories or blog posts

It is a common source of deception. If you have a low-quality guest post, the tendency could be, another site will not go for you, and you don't want to link in. Large lists of websites and their descriptions characterize these sites.

Search engines have uncovered a few other intentional link-building techniques. They have identified algorithmic methods to reduce their influence in the process. 

Purchased links

Links that have been purchased are known as poor links.

Search engines like Google and Bing are attempting to reduce the impact of buying links in their organic search results. While this can't tell whether links were earned vs. purchased, it can discover wrongdoing patterns. Websites that are detected purchasing the following links face penalties and will see their rankings drop.

Exchange of links

According to search engine's criteria, "excessive" link exchange and similar ones only to cross-link are not allowed. So, there's a chance that this method of exchange on a lesser number won't set off any link spam alerts.

For an example of spammy link exchange: You've received an email or message from someone you're not connected with saying, "you link to me, and I'll link to you."

Linking to people you work with, collaborate with, or have some other association and having them link back to you is fine and even valuable. It's the bulk exchange of links pointing to unrelated sites that can result in fines.

Common Link Building Tactics

This guide can show you ways to build quality links. It'll improve your organic search engine rankings without breaking Google guidelines.

Guest blogging

This link-building method is so popular and effective that it's one of the handfuls that SEO experts directly advocate. The blog post offers the unique capacity to produce new content consistently and engage online dialogues. Besides, it gains listings and connections from other blogs.

But be cautious: low-quality guest posting just for link development should be avoided. Google advises against it, and your time and effort would be better spent elsewhere. 

Interacting with other websites is an excellent strategy to get links from them. You're undoubtedly familiar with the other players in your field. They could be competitors or simply other awesome websites.

Write a relevant and unique content

It's not easy to create unique, high-quality content, but it's well worth the effort. High-quality information can be widely disseminated if it is promoted properly. It can assist in the creation of works that have the following characteristics:

  • Addresses a pressing issue or topic of attention
  • Specific to a certain location
  • Give strong emotion to the audience

Creating a resource like this is an excellent approach to draw many connections on a single page. These editorially earned votes are priceless in establishing trust, authority, and ranking potential. 

Users who come across this type of unique content are likely to share it with their friends and bloggers. Thus, tech-savvy admins who come across it are possible to do so via links. 

Keep it natural on the niche you're trying to rank

Know what is happening on specific keywords. How many websites link to rank for? Is it natural or spammy for searches?

You will obtain links from other websites if you stay focused on your niche. The more relevant these sites are to your web pages, the more authority they confer on them. If your website is valuable and you only need a few connections to get the word out.

Find links to customers and partners

If you deal with regular partners or have devoted clients that appreciate your business, you can earn links from them rather easily. You may provide partnership badges or offer to write product testimonials.

Both of these services provide items for them to display on their websites and links back to you. So better start it now and provide great service to your customers and partners.

Interact with your community

Community engagement can result in some of the most significant and influential links for a local firm. All these sensible and genuine strategies offer excellent prospects for local relationship building.

  • Take part in community events, seminars, workshops as a host or participant.
  • Encourage sponsorships
  • Encourage the use of loyalty programs.
  • Donate to deserving local initiatives and become a member of local business organizations.
  • Develop real-world relationships with related local firms to see how you might collaborate to help your community's economy thrive.

Do some research on Google and other tools

Look for the top pages on google. Apply keyword research. Besides, every step of the process can be made easier with the use of link-building tools.

Are you running a link-building campaign that isn't working? Prospecting is the process of locating defunct pages that are topically relevant and have backlinks pointing to them.

Are you having trouble coming up with "linkable" content ideas? Investigate your competitors' websites to see which pages have attracted the most links and why. 

Link building takes various forms. But one thing is always constant: link campaigns should always be tailored to your specific objectives. It should be tied to your site. However, it must also be a potential to rank.

The negative impacts of choosing the wrong strategy

If you develop the wrong links on your pages and then use risky black hat practices, you risk your profile with content that will hurt your results.

So, what is a black hat strategy to build links? How does it affect your organic search ranking?

Black hat link building is obtaining as many links as possible in the shortest amount of time. This strategy refers to web admins who have violated this regulation and tried manipulative ways to rank their sites higher. And you must be aware that using improper link-building processes can have disastrous results, as can using tactics that aren't. 

What are broken links?

A broken link is a web page that a user can't find or access for various reasons. When a user tries to visit a broken link, web servers frequently produce an error message.

These links can arise for a variety of reasons, including:

  • Your site's URL structure recently changed (permalinks) without a redirect, resulting in a 404 error.
  • Misspelled URL
  • Elements on the page are broken (HTML, CSS, Javascript, or CMS plugins interference).
  • The external links are no longer accessible, have gone offline, or have been relocated permanently.
  • Outside access is not permitted due to a firewall or geographical restriction. 

How to fix them

You'll need to set aside time to do a broken link-building strategy. It depends on how much content you publish each week. You'll want to follow these best practices for other time frames you choose:

  • 404 errors can be seen in Google Crawl Errors.
  • Redirect (301) the broken page to another appropriate page on your website.
  • Recreate and replace the damaged URL's content.
  • If the link is external, contact the linked website and ask for a correction. 

Start building links now to rank higher on SERP

Links have been playing the game for a long time, and Google pays attention to them. Remember that linking is crucial in achieving a high organic search ranking. 

By employing the link-building strategies above, you'll be able to create links safely and naturally. Instead of trying to manipulate your way to the top, you need to follow Google's recommendations so you can spread links throughout your entire page.

Connect with Gert Mellak:

Email: [email protected]

about gert

Loved This Episode?

Please consider leaving me a review with Apple, Google, or Spotify! It'll help folks discover this show and hopefully we can change more lives!
RATE AND REVIEW

Listen to the Previous Episodes

048 - The Ideal SEO Article Length

The length of an article depends largely on what


VIEW POST
047 - SEO or Google Ads?

Choosing the right marketing strategies can


VIEW POST
046 - Make Better Videos with This Framework - with Kan Huang

Creating engaging video content for social media is a very good marketing tool business owners are incorporating to their marketing strategies these


VIEW POST

How we approach SEO

Recently, our founder Gert Mellak, has published a book about our approach “ERICA” that guarantees consistent, strategic execution to improve your site’s SEO and protect your website from Google updates and penalties.
GET THE BOOK NOW
erica