What is Link Building?
Although the name might sound simple, many misconceptions exist around link building. Over the years, the search engine algorithms have proved elusive and difficult to learn. However, we know that sites generate authority when others link to their pages. For example, lots of websites put hyperlinks to Wikipedia and this is why Wikipedia has gained so much authority over the years.
With this in mind, many website owners attempt to encourage others to link back to their content so that search engine visibility improves. The most common technique is known as email outreach, and this is where Person A, wanting to boost their search engine ranking, reaches out to various websites within the niche. After conversing for a while, Person B decides to create a blog post that contains a link back to the website of Person A. The more authority Person B has, the larger the impact in terms of search engine visibility.
Other link building strategies include content marketing, PR, and broken link building.
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Why Do You Need Link Building?
Individuals and businesses need link building because it’s one of the most effective SEO techniques. Even as search engine algorithms go through various updates and changes, link building will remain an integral part of search engine optimization. If you can encourage authority websites to hyperlink your own content, you will notice the difference. Not only do you get clicks from the other website, but you also tell search engines that your content has value.
However, it’s not just businesses and individuals who need link building…it’s also essential for marketing agencies. Every day, you work hard to generate positive results for clients. Yet, you’re making life much harder for yourself if you haven’t included link building in your strategies.
Once you add link building, you can boost the results of all clients, they live happily (and tell other people about your services!), and everybody wins. It has been nearly two decades since Google started to value links when ranking websites, and the company hasn’t moved away since. In fact, it has even doubled down by prioritizing link quality rather than link quantity.
If you want to learn more about link building and how it would work for you, don’t be afraid to reach out. We’d love to hear from you!
How Does Link Building Work?
You can improve your SEO performance using links in two ways; internally and externally. With internal linking, the idea is to link to other pages on your website. While you might think that this is redundant, it can actually help because you’re making navigation easier on your website. Remember, Google wants to provide the best possible service to consumers; if a website is difficult to navigate, Google won’t want to present it to users. If it did, the user would have a poor experience and likely use another search engine next time.
So long as you have the time, there’s nothing wrong with starting with some internal linking. However, you will eventually want to move into external linking; as discussed, you will attempt to earn links from other websites. While it might require more work, it will also generate a much larger improvement in performance compared to internal linking.
In terms of how link building works, it’s imperative that you seek genuine links because Google can see through most ‘sneaky’ tactics these days. You’ll reach out to other websites, build a relationship with them, and discuss linking and opportunities to help each other. As you can imagine, there’s a difference between low-quality and high-quality links.
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Here are some things to keep in mind:
Page Authority – Firstly, you’ll want pages that already have authority to link back to your content. Don’t worry, there are lots of tools online that will tell you the authority of pages; you can potentially use these to choose between prospective pages. Alternatively, work with a reliable link building service and you’ll get to enjoy the results without all the stress normally caused to create it.
Website Authority – As well as page authority, the authority of the whole website is also important. For example, the impact from a link from ESPN will be much stronger than a link from a small-time blogger who has only just launched a website. Once again, it’s possible to use online tools to compare the authority of different websites.
Site Relevance – If you sell sports shoes, you’re unlikely to find much success getting links from a website and page about hair products. In fact, it’s not even worth your effort because many Google engineers have explained the importance of relevance over authority – authority is irrelevant if the content of the website has nothing to do with your own link.
Even after this, other factors play a role in determining the quality of a link building strategy including anchor text, the positioning of the link, and more. Don’t worry, we can handle everything on your behalf.
How Does Link Building Benefit You?
Much of the focus of link building is normally on individuals and businesses, but agencies and the like have even more to gain from the practice. Why? Because you can instantly improve your service and the relationship you have with all clients. If you aren’t currently including link building in your service, you’re in danger of losing clients to companies that do add this to their packages.
Importantly, businesses are starting to recognize the importance of link building, so agencies without this service could soon miss out on clients on this basis alone. With link building, you can generate stronger results for your clients and they will be more likely to review and recommend your company.
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SEO & Referral Traffic
However, even though we’ve placed a heavy emphasis on search engine rankings (since this is the goal for most!), there are other benefits of link building:
Referral Traffic – Of course, how can you ignore the possibility of getting traffic from the links themselves? Assuming the link is relevant, those reading the content may feel compelled to click through. For instance, people reading about sports shoes for tennis will click a link through to a pair of sports shoes or any other relevant link.
Relationship Building – With outreach emails, businesses also build relationships with others, and this can come in handy. Rather than just pushing for a link, the idea should be to build a long-term relationship where you help each other to grow. As an agency, you’ll be glad to know that we have fantastic relationships with various websites so you can get started immediately rather than starting with a blank canvas.
Brand Building – Furthermore, link building will work wonders for the branding of your clients. Suddenly, consumers see the brand linked on authority websites and your client instantly gains credibility and authority. As more links head to the website of your client, the credibility of the client will continually grow. If you don’t offer link building, this simply doesn’t happen (at least not as effectively!).
As an agency, link building benefits you by adding another powerful tool to your service. Clients see better performance, they’re happier to stick around, client retention improves, and they even recommend your service to others. Link building will complement all the other strategies that you implement and amplify results, so why not reach out to learn more today? Our advanced strategies will help you to help your clients in no time!
