If you’re so familiar with the internet, then you will agree with me that links are one of the most important pieces of any online content. You visit a sport page and you find an amazing life insurance quote that’s just too catchy to be ignored, and as such, before you even think twice about visiting or not, you’re already on that insurance page; or maybe you simply want to book your travel flight and right there on the company page, you find a link that boasts of having cheap funeral plans for your aged parents. But as exciting and impactful as links are to users, the same cannot be said for the creators and builders. The scope of link building and SEO learning is so broad, so much so that there is always something new and room for improvement, even for those who are already familiar with these online tools. This is because the dynamics of SEO and link building is continuously evolving to meet the demands of current online trends. Today, the importance of link building as a tool for marketing and representation to online businesses cannot be exaggerated.
What is link building?
Link building is a way of promoting your website to other website owners with the prime objective of getting a link (hyperlink) on their site that leads to your page.
Link building garnered popularity with the ascent of Google in 1998, and it has remained relevant till today in 2019. Links form the bedrock of Google search. The more links your website has from similar and reliable websites, the better your site will perform in search of related topics or queries. Links are the ‘webbing’ that connects the millions of existing websites into one unit to produce the interconnected web.
How Does Link Building Work?
There are two types of links; the good type and the bad type. However, if the longevity of your site and business is paramount to you, then you should only practice natural link building. Natural link building is the process of earning links as opposed to buying them or otherwise getting them through manipulative or backdoor channels (also known as black-hat SEO, a practice that can get your website from search results).
Unfortunately, natural link building is quite a cumbersome process, and it is also time-consuming but rewarding at the end. It requires strong social skills, excellent communication, consistency, persistence, and creativity. Arguably it is the combination of marketing, sales and psychology.
If you have a website and you want to boost your traffic from search, you need to persistently secure useful links from a reliable website as not all links are made equal. For example, a link from a dependable site like the Wall Street Journal will have a more significant effect on your rankings on the SERP than a link from a newly built website. But high-quality links are not so easy to come by, as mentioned above.
How To Get Other Sites to Link To You
Generally, there are three ways of linking, that is getting sites to link to your website;
- Natural or Editorial Links
This type of link is the best, and it has the most significant effect on search engines. These types of links are unique in that you do not have to ask for them because other website owners give them. This is much more useful than having to contact someone and asking them to link to you. The not so hidden reality is that you need to give someone a good enough reason to do so. And more importantly, it is your responsibility to discover ways of making several bloggers aware of that reason.
You may try creating an exciting piece of content which you then strategically pass and endorse through a few influential bloggers, in a bid to reach a more extensive network of bloggers. This is very difficult, and it is likely to take some time. The effort eventually pays up as these types of links are regularly held up as a great example by Google, pointing to the fact that they are long-lasting.
- Manual or Outreach Links
This is arguably one of the most common types of link building. Small businesses that are just starting contact other website owners and bloggers and asking them to link. Again, you have to give them a valuable reason to want to link to you.
A useful tip to be successful using this method is to contact people who are reliable and also relevant to your industry. Furthermore, this can also be an effective path to follow if you’re so desperate for results and conversions, as it can help you reach a large pool of audiences in little time, leading to more sales and greater revenues, thereby putting an end to your search of schemes, like Scottish trust deed, in the event that you have some pressing business debts.
- Self-created links
Also called the black-hat SEO, this type of link is not accepted today. They are designed to try to fool search engines into thinking a particular content is relevant or essential when it isn’t. They are fraudulent links and should not be employed.
Importance of Link Building To Your Website SEO
SEO and link building (hyperlink) go together like bread and butter. This means the two work together very well, and the effectiveness of one cannot be discussed without the other.
So how is link building so important to your website SEO?
- They help Google find your page faster
The hyperlink is how Google spiders find new pages. Google spiders use hyperlinks to locate, crawl and index pages on your site. The fact is you are more likely to be found when are connected to other websites, so the more links you have from other sites, the better are for your page to be seen by Google.
- They help Build your website Reputation
Link building is important because they used as Google’s reputation tool. That is, it is a prime factor in how Google ranks sites. Since their main objective is to lead searchers in the direction of the best possible outcome for their query, they won’t point searchers in the course of a site that is not verifiable. Instead, they want to lead searchers to a popular website, because that means the site has a good reputation and is therefore trustworthy.
- They Boost Your Website Credibility
This is why it is always important to ask only websites that are relevant to your industry to link to you. Google evaluates the types of people linking to your content and uses it to rank your credibility.
- It Helps Drive Traffic to your website
Whether it is through a social media share or directory listing, anyone who clicks on a link and lands on your site helps to boost your referral traffic. So when you are executing your link building plan, aim to get links from reputable, high-quality sites that have a Domain Authority of 40+. These types of websites have a larger, more established audience- which can translate to increase overall traffic to your website.
