What is link building?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an important digital marketing technique businesses invest in today. With proper website optimisation, you achieve higher visibility on different search engine results page (SERPs).
SEO comprises on-page and off-page optimisation. On-page SEO refers to the enhancements within your website, such as optimisation of meta descriptions, URLs and content. On the other hand, off-page SEO refers to the external actions you take that influence your site rankings. Social media marketing, local SEO such as your Google My Business listing, and influencer marketing are some examples of off-page SEO, but the most crucial one are backlinks, what digital experts term as link building.
Here are what you need to know about link building and how it can benefit your website.
Key idea of backlinks
Have you ever visited a webpage with external links that redirect you to another website? That link is called a backlink, inbound link or an incoming link. It occurs when one site links to another webpage for its users to access. Backlinks are classified based on how they are acquired. They can be :
1. Natural Links
2. Manually Built Links
3. Self-Created Links
#1. Natural links
#2. Manually built or outreach links
Such links are promoted by an external site upon the request of the business owner. You may send a product to a potential partner and request them to do a review about it and include your URL in copy with an optimised anchor text. An influencer marketing strategy is one of the ways you can create manually built links.
#3. Self-created links
These links are created by adding a backlink on forum posts, blogs, press releases, or online directories. Often, this strategy leans towards black hat SEO so it is important to be careful with these sites. One way is to ensure the content you are adding a hyperlink to is relevant to your site and has a well-optimised anchor text.
#4. Importance of backlinks for your webpage
Such links are promoted by an external site upon the request of the business owner. You may send a product to a potential partner and request them to do a review about it and include your URL in copy with an optimised anchor text. An influencer marketing strategy is one of the ways you can create manually built links.
What makes a backlink effective?
An effective backlink is one that is of high quality. The quantity of your linking sites does not equate to quality. Not all third-party websites are credible and helpful. You must take note of the following before adding websites as part of your off-page SEO strategy.
#1. Make sure your linking site performs well on search engines
Choose sites that have established their brands already. Websites found on the tenth page of SERP will not do any good to your website’s SEO.
#2. Backlinks should be derived from trustworthy high-authority sites
The domain authority of your linking sites is important to establish the credibility of your website. A low authority backlink is considered weak and may hurt your website’s SEO.
#3. Choose partner websites that are relevant to your business
It is obstructive, even in Google’s eyes, if you own a business offering medical supplies and you receive an inbound link from a website focused on home improvements.
#4. Acquire fresh backlinks
If you made changes to your URLs such as a change from HTTP to HTTPS, you should inform the third-party sites you have engaged for your backlinks to update the hyperlinks.
In summary, the characteristics of valuable backlinks are:
1. High ranking and popular
2. Relevant to your website
3. High authority and is trustworthy
4. Updated and fresh
Do I need backlinks?
Yes, it would help if you had backlinks. It is an essential part of SEO, and it is beneficial to your online marketing plan. Again, backlinks are pieces of evidence that help endorse your website. It increases your online popularity and the chance for Google to regard your site as valuable for the search queries you have optimised your site for.
Acquiring backlinks is also a step towards acquiring connections, helping you seek better ideas on how to improve your marketing strategy.
In turn, this off-page SEO strategy helps to increase the traffic to your website once you begin to rank higher on search engines.
Overall, backlinks help support your online presence. While others are ahead of you, it does not mean you cannot compete with them. With the right optimisation, connection, and support, you will gain more customers in the long run.
Conduct an in-depth backlink research
You may feel discouraged if you do not have enough connections to provide you with backlinks. Do not worry because nothing beats a well-researched marketing strategy.
If you do not know how to conduct backlink research, you can leave this task to an experienced SEO agency. These agencies have already established connections with relevant websites – they will be able to churn out an impactful backlink strategy for your website.
Wrapping up
Being resourceful is key when you enter the digital marketing world. Getting confused is normal but adapting to this culture is a must. If one of your goals is to gain more traffic and leads, do not overlook the techniques that have proven a success.
Link building is one of the marketing strategies you can utilise to boost your SEO campaign. Take note of the hints that make a website a valid backlink and avoid those that don’t make the cut.
