Link building is another vital part of successful SEO. It includes various tactics with which you can strengthen the authority of your website. And this is the very reason why backlinks are so important for search engine optimisation. Google algorithms pay a lot of attention to the credibility of your content is to rank it higher. The more links from authority website you have leading back to yours, the higher your chances to come up higher in engine searches. But this whole process of including and receiving links can take a lot of time and efforts. So here are the 10 things you need to know about link building.
#1. What is Link Building
First things first, we need to know what exactly we are doing before we start doing it. Link building is the process in which you include a variety of links from and to your website. There are 3 categories of links that need to be present on every well optimised website.
It's pretty obvious how you can include the first two categories in your content. However, many online businesses struggle with backlinks building. Hence, we are going to explore different tactics of doing this in 2018.
#2. You can replace broken links on other websites with your content
The Internet is an enormous space. This means that over time some websites stop working because the owners don't renew the domain subscription, cancel hosting plans or go out of business. In other cases particular pages get removed by a website's administrator because they are outdated or the content is moved to another page. In scenarios like these, the links that lead to these pages expire and are called broken links. Having broken links on your website is bad. This is why you need to check regularly if your external links are still active. If you look at this from a different perspective, though, it is also a fantastic opportunity to get some high authority backlinks.
First, identify the high authority websites in your niche. It's great to get backlinks from .gov, .edu or .com domains because usually they have the highest trust ranking score. Your second step would be to find out if they contain any broken links on their pages, related to your area of expertise. You can do that by using the Chrome extension Check My Links. Once you have it installed on your browser, find the websites you are interested in getting backlinks from and click the extension icon when you land on the page. It will show you the number of broken/inactive links on the page. Then just scroll down to find the location of the link. It will be highlighted in red.
#3. You should write original content to be published on other websites
Last week we talked about how important blogging is for your SEO because it provides frequent fresh content among other reasons. So definitely, creating new, informative and engaging articles for your website is great. But to take your SEO efforts to the next level, you should also create original content to be published on other websites in the same or similar niche as yours. This is known as guest posting. The main benefit you get from this is a valuable backlink. Be careful when you choose the site you want your article to be published on. You need a high authority one, not just any emerging site with low trust ranking. Any links from such sites are low quality and they can hurt your SEO rather than improve it.
#4. You can reach out directly to organisations and ask for a link exchange
It is a very common practice for thousands of organisations out there to reach out to others and offer a link exchange. This means you write a piece of content, publish it on your website, include a mention of another brand/organisation in it and provide a link to their website. Essentially, it is exactly the way you build external links. However, since this is an exchange opportunity, the other organisation agrees to do the same and you receive a backlink. When you prepare or accept such an offer, make sure you talk about anchor text. Best SEO practices advise the use of text that is most relevant to the content of the page you are linking to. Here's an example:
Good anchor text: What is anchor text?
Weak anchor text: To read what anchor text is click here.
#5. You should share all of your web content on Google+
Google+ is the social media channel that has the biggest direct impact on your SEO. Unlike other social networks, the links that come from G+ are do-follow and add more weight to your link portfolio when the search algorithm determines your ranking position.
Find out more reasons Why Google+ is Important for Powerful SEO
#6. You can become a HARO source
Not everyone knows what HARO is, so let's shed some light on it. This is the abbreviation for Help a Report Out. It is a website where journalists and content creators collaborate. You can sign up as a source for free and then you will get notifications with the topics journalists are writing about and need sources to quote. When a topic or a question, relevant to your area of expertise appears, respond following the guidelines. That's how you can get a backlink from Reuters, BBC or Forbes.
#7. You should comment on other people's blogs
It is worth spending some time writing genuine and meaningful comments under other organisation's blog posts. This also provides backlinks to your website, although they aren't as strong as those you would get from a guest post or a link exchange. Nonetheless, it adds to your portfolio of links, which Google will surely consider when ranking your website.
#8. You should give testimonials
When you give a testimonial to another organisation about their product or service you've used in your business, it feels like you are doing them a favour. In SEO terms, however, you are also doing yourself a favour. When submitting your feedback, ask the organisation to include a link to your website. It's a win-win situation.
#9. You should turn the mentions of your website into backlinks
Sometimes other websites will mention your brand but not provide a link to your website or blog content they are referring to. This isn't always done on purpose. In fact, in most cases it is just something they missed doing before publishing their page. Recently, I was in this situation. I got an email from Sylvester from Canva. He noticed that I talked about their service in the Twitter Marketing Strategies 2018 blog post, but forgot to add a link to their website. How did he find out? There are different online tools you can use to find your brand mentions on the web, like Link Research Tools and Mention however, they are all paid. If you have no budget for this, you can try searching for your brand name on Google and go through all the links that appear to check if there is a link with the mention. It's free, but it takes a lot more time.
#10. You should really be active on social media
The logic behind being active on social media for link building purposes is really simple. The more channels you share your content on, the more people will see it. This increases your chances of being referenced on someone else's website and acquire a backlink. Of course, this is dependent on the value of content you provide. So now you know, using only Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to share your blog post on is not enough for good SEO. You need more exposure on more channels.
Do you feel like you need to learn more about social media and different platforms? Go through our blog articles published in May and June. You will find all the information you need there. And if something is missing, just contact us with your questions.
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