In this article, I want to explore the tried and tested, but often misunderstood, practice of link building.
As an SEO tactic link building has been around for a long time and has in the past been abused. However, its importance in any joined up digital marketing strategy cannot be overstated.
Let’s begin by exploring exactly what a link, or backlink, is.
Backlinks and why they matter
In the SEO industry, an incoming hyperlink from one web page pointing to a web page on your website is most commonly referred to as a backlink. Along with on page signals like keywords, content and page titles, backlinks are one of the most powerful ranking signals to search engine algorithms when they come to rank webpages in the search results.
The weight assigned to each backlink by a search engine will take into account several factors:
- Anchor text: The keywords or phrases used in the linking or anchor text is a huge factor in how search engines distinguish relevancy between one site and another. The more relevant your anchor text to your website the better. A word of warning, however, it can be easy to over do this signal, so be cautious
- Page authority: The authority of a given webpage will affect the amount of authority any outbound links carry from it. This is often referred to by SEOs as ‘link juice’. There are a huge number of factors that affect this, including the number and respective authority of any links pointing to the linking web page itself
- Keywords on linking page: The keywords used on a given web page will have a huge bearing on how powerful the link is from that page. The more readily Google can relate the content from the linking page to the content on the page it is linking to the more authority it will give the link. This actually works at a domain level as well.
- Topical Relevancy: The relevancy of the webpage and the entire domain is a huge influencer of how powerful a backlink will be. Sites dedicated to a specific subject will carry far more authority if they are linking to related content on a similarly themed site, than links from a site that is more general or less relevant. Relevancy can even trump page and domain authority, when it comes to the overall power of the backlink
There are a number of SEO signals that go into assuring your website’s success beyond backlinks. However backlinks still represent the most important signal outside of your on-page content and Google’s ability to understand them is growing in complexity all the time.
One recent trend to be aware of is to do with advancements in Latent Semantic Indexing, which allows search engines to extract the meanings from words and work out how they relate to each other, making for even accurate analysis.
For a more detailed rundown of Google’s ranking factors, Brian Dean’s up to date list is a brilliant place to start.
How to build backlinks
Not so many years ago, it was possible to boost a website’s ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) merely through building large numbers of backlinks. This is because Google’s algorithm put more emphasis on quantity over quality of backlinks. This led to huge numbers of blog networks springing up with the express intention of selling links, which could be placed in poorly written copy littered with excessive keyword mentions.
Suffice to say this world doesn’t exist now. In fact, after some much publicised updates to its algorithm, acquiring huge numbers of links on poor quality websites is far more likely to get your website penalised than see it rise to the top of the SERPs.
Building backlinks in 2016 requires a more joined up and quality-based strategy than the automated mass link building tactics of old. Below I’ve listed three techniques that will not only help you build backlinks, but will also go some way to attracting genuine referral traffic to your site.
- Guest blogging: Despite Google’s Matt Cutts declaring guest blogging was dead back in 2014, his comments have since been clarified. Cutts was talking about the practice of producing poor quality content just for editorial links, which is definitely a dangerous tactic. Instead focus on creating high-quality content for high-quality blogs and sites with engaged readerships. Not only will the links you gain from this be far more powerful, but these blogs will also help you raise your brand profile amongst your target audience and provide highly relevant referral traffic
- Business Directory listings: Directories were massively abused by SEOs in times gone past but that doesn’t mean that they carry no relevance today. Approaching high-quality directories can earn you decent links and citations. What’s more it could also end up sending relevant traffic to your site
- Blog commenting: Blog commenting is seen by many as a poor way of earning decent links as any links you put in your blog comments are likely to be nofollow and earn you no link juice as a result. This is to miss the SEO value in blog commenting. By writing engaging and useful comments on well-read sites in your industry you are raising your profile and encouraging debate. It will also help you draw attention to your own content and the more people reading your content the more likely you are to get genuine links to it
Link building certainly isn’t what it was. Abuse it by getting greedy and you could risk a penalty from Google. If you see it as part of a wider content driven strategy, though, then it can give your website and your company the boost it needs to get up those search engine rankings.
This article originally appeared on UK Business Forums and is republishied with permission.
If you need an SEO company to help you build backlinks and increase your rankings then check the trusted SEO agencies in the Trust Local directory.
SEO
Backlinks
Link building
