SEO Linking Building: What is it?
The demands of link building are always changing, and it is important to keep up to date with what it means to have high-quality links. One fact that never changes is that links are essential if you are going to thrive online.
If you are unsure what link building is it can be defined simply as gathering hyperlinks from other websites to yours. Simply put a link is a means of linking between spaces on the internet. However, search engines use these links to crawl the internet and work out where they want to send their users. Influencing the links to your page is possible through many strategies, though digital marketers agree it is one of the most difficult parts of their jobs.
It gets complicated but here are some basics about links. At the start of a link there is a tag that tells the search engine that this is link to something else. There is then a link referral location, which is followed by the anchor text of the link. This is the bit of the link that the users see when they click to open the link. This needs to be clear to the user to help with navigation and stand out on the page as a link. Then there is the closure of the link tag, which signals to the search engine that this the end of the link.
The obvious use of this link is to help the user navigate. However, the search engine also uses it to rank the pages. When the search engine crawls pages, it extracts the content of pages and add it to an index. By doing this they decide if the page linked to yours has enough quality to be ranked for relevant keywords. They judge this from content and then they judge it based on the links pointing to that website from other external websites. Backlinks are the primary judge of the authority of your website. This is because the link is seen as a vote of confidence for your website, with one website developer say the content of the other website that the content is worth reading.
Life got more complicated with link building when Google started updating the algorithm to prevent manipulation of this ranking system. They referred to it as over-optimisation. This means that your link building service needs an understanding of the rules that prevent the abuse of SEO techniques. Your link builder also needs to understand the no follow rule – which helps prevent links from impacting on the ranking of pages.
If you want help with link building and avoid the complication, contact us and hear how we can help.
How important is linking building to your business?
Link building can benefit your business in lots of different ways. First and most obvious is that high quality links can significantly increase your ranking, therefore increasing your visibility, increasing your traffic and then your potential sales.
However, there are other benefits. Link building can involve reaching out to other sites and bloggers in the same industry. This means that you build relationships, as you are likely offering promotions or a piece of relevant content that can help both users. This outreach can help you build long term relationships that may influence your industry and build trust in your and your expertise.
Link building services can also help define your brand. Content creation is a part of link building and this can reflect on the quality of your brand. If you produce content that is published on a different site but links to yours, you can become known as an industry expert, which increases the credibility of your brand. Good content on authority sites can also act as word of mouth for your product and services.
A good strategy for your website should include something that is useful for others to link to. Part of your SEO strategy is likely to be a blog or quality landing pages. It is important to add quality to these pages and encourages clients to link to it. In short, all link building requires something of worth to link to. Share-worthy content is going to build a much stronger link building campaign.
How can we help?
The process of benefitting from links is complex. You need experts in digital marketing to help you formulate your link building campaign. The first step will be to set goals for your campaign, which need to be aligned to your business goals. The number of links and the quality of these links need to be mapped against the vision for the whole organisation.
You will then need to develop an asset that is worth linking to. This could mean the content of your website, access to data, sharing of products or services or the people who are expert in your company. You will then work with your SEO link building expert to work out what sort of links you need – whether it is link to deep pages or links to company names or links to keywords you are targeting.
It is then about analysing the quality of the decisions that have been made. Looking at the metrics gives ideas for improvements in the strategy, which in turn will improve the outcomes. Your SEO link building expert will work with you to adapt the strategy based on what is learnt.
Your next steps
Link building is one of the most important steps in optimising your site. You need the authority of the links, without the danger of penalties from forcing these links. If you are interested in knowing more about how 2o.com can help you build your links, contact us today. We will consult with you to understand your company goals, help plan and devise your strategy and ensure the results that link building can deliver.