Link building is an essential part of SEO if not one of the most important. An effective link-building system is a sure way to bump your website to one of the top-ranking sites on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP).
As much as link building is an important element of your marketing strategy, it has its technical aspects that must be taken into consideration if you must reap its benefits.
If you own a business and require knowledge of the right way to go about link building to improve your ranking, this article will get you started in the right direction.
By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll be familiar with all the different aspects that go into creating an effective link-building strategy.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are links found on one website which lead to a page on another website. Backlinks are an essential part of your SEO strategy.
There are millions and millions of search queries entered into search engines every day. Backlinks are one of Google’s strategies to determine if a page contains the relevant information to answer these queries.
What is Link Building?
Link building is the process involved in obtaining links from other websites that lead to your website. To attain backlinks to your website, you must create content that websites would want to link to.
Additionally, you should plan out an effective link-building strategy such as content marketing, building useful tools and public relations.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
Google has reported that if a high-level website is willing to link to your page, it is highly likely that that page has helpful content.
Backlinks are important because they serve as signals to Google that a particular page contains valuable and trustworthy information.
How Do They Help With SEO?
Backlinks are an important aspect of SEO because they help boost your ranking on the SERPs.
The more relevant backlinks you get from quality websites, the higher you climb through the ranks on the SERPs.
Backlinks also help to build site authority. The more you’ve proven your website trustworthy and helpful, by linking to credible websites, the more authority you obtain on the internet. All these convert to more visibility on your website and eventually higher traffic to your site.
How Much Attention Should I Pay To My Backlinks?
A good amount of attention should be put into building links. However, this can become problematic if:
- this remains your sole focus and you ignore other aspects of SEO
- You go about link-building strategy wrongly
Backlinks are important for SEO but they can become bad if they are not accompanied by useful content.
Therefore, a good amount of time and resources should be put into link building. Nevertheless, the same energy if not more should also go into creating relevant content.
Content Should Always Be The Priority
Many SEO experts have noted that content is the most important factor in ranking on search engines. This is because Google’s main objective is to solve the main problem of the user.
This can be achieved by presenting their users with relevant content hence, the Google algorithm is constantly undergoing changes to root out pages with irrelevant content.
Link building works hand in hand with great content. So, it will be beneficial to first, create content that is worth linking to.
What You Should Know About Backlinks
Acquiring backlinks is not as straightforward as one might think. There are several factors to consider in your link-building strategy.
Quality Over Quantity
Quantity is a great tool to have in link building. The more websites that include links to your page, the higher chance you have of ranking on the SERPs. However, ranking is not dependent on the number of backlinks you have alone.
It is possible to have multiple backlinks but that may count for nothing if those links are from sketchy websites. In fact, gaining backlinks from websites that are not credible may prove harmful to your site.
On the other hand, obtaining relevant links from websites with high domain authority signals to Google that your site contains relevant information. It can be more profitable for your site to target websites with good domain authority to obtain backlinks.
Poor Backlinks Are Devalued, Not Penalized
Poor backlinks are usually devalued by Google. If you’ve obtained a link by using scammy means, your website does not get penalized. Rather, the poor backlink would lose authenticity and consequently harm your article.
However, if you’ve managed to obtain several poor backlinks, this can ultimately harm your rankings.
Emphasize Backlink Diversity
Backlink diversity involves obtaining a diverse link profile. This means obtaining links from varying website sources.
The algorithm prioritizes back-link diversity because it implies that your content can serve a larger and more diverse number of people. And if multiple, diverse websites with good domain authority link to your page, this solidifies the importance of your website in the eyes of the algorithm. Eventually, increase your ranking on the SERPs.
Furthermore, acquiring links from the same website time and time again can imply suspicious linking activity and consequently cause harm to your site.
While building a diverse backlink portfolio, you may consider:
- Both high and low-authority sites that are within your niche
- High and low-authority sites that are out of your niche but related to your niche
Page And Domain Authority Determine The Link Quality
Page and Domain authority are two primary factors that determine the quality of a link.
Page authority is the authority of a page that links to your website. Linking to authoritative pages is important for your website to be located on the internet.
Additionally, a page with high authority linking to your page gives your page more authority.
While domain authority is a good indicator that your website is credible. Gaining backlinks from websites with high domain authority, although difficult, is very valuable.
It Takes Time For Them To Work
Just like any good thing, it takes time for backlinks to do their work. The time, however, is dependent on some factors.
Domain authority of sites linking to you, keyword competition, and the type of link all contribute to how fast backlinks help your SEO game.
How To Get High-Quality Backlinks
Below are a few ways to get high-quality backlinks including:
Create Linkable Content
As emphasized earlier in the post, quality domains will not link to your site if you do not have linkable content.
A good way to start is by recognizing the pain point of your target audience and creating content surrounding ways that you can solve such a problem.
This is not limited to blog posts. Linkable content can also come in the form of quizzes, guides, videos, or even a survey.
Guest Blog
Guest blogging is one effective way to build backlinks. Some sites are open to guest bloggers to write content that they are not particularly interested in covering. The sites will then include a link to your resources on their site.
Keep domain authority in mind when writing blogs for sites as this can help improve the possibility of ranking in the SERPs. News and journalism sites typically have high domain authority.
It is important to look for opportunities to write guest blogs, especially for content that is related to your industry, your products, and your services.
Leverage Visual Content
Effective link-building strategies include creating visual content that is both engaging and shareable.
Leveraging graphics such as illustrations such as product photoshoots or statistical charts and infographics can help you gain quality backlinks.
Prepare Extensive Guides
Preparing extensive guides that contain all available information about a certain topic can be an effective link-building strategy.
This is a successful strategy because the resource you’ve created will be in high demand and in time, bring in quality links.
Final Thoughts
The truth about backlinks is they are an important aspect of your SEO strategy. Link building must be performed strategically and in the right way to gain from backlinks.
While you focus on building your links, don’t neglect your content. Websites with high domain authority will only link to you if you have good content.
Ensure you earn good links from credible sites as poor backlinks will only harm your SEO efforts. So, be patient and carry out good practices and in time, watch your page climb the ranks.