Link building is one of the most important ranking factors to Google. Links are used by search engines to analyze the popularity of your website and its pages as well as other metrics, including trust and authority.
Without an ethical link building strategy, it becomes quite difficult for your site to rank well in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
But like any other SEO strategy, link building techniques have adapted to the changes in search engine algorithms. Indeed, before April 2012, it was very easy to buy a ranking position within SERPs, without having to do all the hard work.
But when Google deployed Google Penguin in 2012, that all came to a halt.
Link building can be both challenging and time consuming. But it isn’t impossible. In the ever-changing rules of SEO, I’ve gathered the five of the most most impactful link building techniques to guarantee more traffic and the best SEO results for your site.
1. Quality of backlinks
In the past, many SEOs employed any inbound, or backlink, techniques they could in an attempt to improve their site’s rankings. But with a major change to Google’s algorithm, dubbed the “Penguin” update, many websites were heavily penalized due to the quality of their backlinks. As a result, smart website owners have now adopted a more conservative stance in their SEO link building tactics.
What’s important, though, is the right type of backlinks earned by your site. Trustworthy backlinks that will earn your site valuable “link juice” (quantity and quality of links on your landing pages) are dependent on four attributes: relevancy, recency, authority andeditorial. These factors then contribute to the overall Domain Rank of your website (total amount of positive link metrics within your website).
One impactful way to garner quality backlinks is through guest blogging.
It is a fantastic strategy to share your expertise with your target audience while distributing your content to new audiences as well.
There are two keys to writing a great blog post. The first is to understand your audience(s). The second is to submit original articles regarding topics relevant to a site’s readership.
There are endless opportunities to become a guest contributor. In fact, media outlets like the New York Times, Mashable, and Business Insider will even allow you to contribute guest posts. It’s important to stress that this strategy works best when there’s been a rapport and relationship built between yourself and the site owner.
Guest posting creates the necessary clout to build quality backlinks to your website, providing your site with high quality backlinks. But in order to make this tactic a working success, be sure to target relevant, high-quality and authoritative websites.
2. Reviews
Like guest blogging, reviews are another easy way to leverage content to build quality inbound links.
Online reviews are hugely important for local SEO because consumers now largely rely on peer feedback for their purchasing decisions. Reviews are authoritative signals that consumers trust, and which actually improve your site’s ranking in local search engines. In fact, in Moz’s 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, online reviews were found to be an important factor in determining search ranking results.
Additionally, make a concerted effort to participate in relevant industry forums. Go in with the aim of building an authoritative voice and rapport with fellow forum contributors. When someone then asks for advice on the forum, give your contribution and include a non-invasive link back to your website as a solution to their problem.
3. Internal Linking
While content is king, it’s important to know how best to leverage that content to maximize your SEO efforts.
Without an ethical link building strategy, it becomes quite difficult for your site to rank well in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
But like any other SEO strategy, link building techniques have adapted to the changes in search engine algorithms. Indeed, before April 2012, it was very easy to buy a ranking position within SERPs, without having to do all the hard work.
But when Google deployed Google Penguin in 2012, that all came to a halt.
Link building can be both challenging and time consuming. But it isn’t impossible. In the ever-changing rules of SEO, I’ve gathered the five of the most most impactful link building techniques to guarantee more traffic and the best SEO results for your site.
1. Quality of backlinks
In the past, many SEOs employed any inbound, or backlink, techniques they could in an attempt to improve their site’s rankings. But with a major change to Google’s algorithm, dubbed the “Penguin” update, many websites were heavily penalized due to the quality of their backlinks. As a result, smart website owners have now adopted a more conservative stance in their SEO link building tactics.
But backlinks for SEO continue to be an indispensable tool in improving your website’s rankings. It has worked in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
What’s important, though, is the right type of backlinks earned by your site. Trustworthy backlinks that will earn your site valuable “link juice” (quantity and quality of links on your landing pages) are dependent on four attributes: relevancy, recency, authority andeditorial. These factors then contribute to the overall Domain Rank of your website (total amount of positive link metrics within your website).
One impactful way to garner quality backlinks is through guest blogging.
It is a fantastic strategy to share your expertise with your target audience while distributing your content to new audiences as well.
There are two keys to writing a great blog post. The first is to understand your audience(s). The second is to submit original articles regarding topics relevant to a site’s readership.
There are endless opportunities to become a guest contributor. In fact, media outlets like the New York Times, Mashable, and Business Insider will even allow you to contribute guest posts. It’s important to stress that this strategy works best when there’s been a rapport and relationship built between yourself and the site owner.
Guest posting creates the necessary clout to build quality backlinks to your website, providing your site with high quality backlinks. But in order to make this tactic a working success, be sure to target relevant, high-quality and authoritative websites.
2. Reviews
Like guest blogging, reviews are another easy way to leverage content to build quality inbound links.
Online reviews are hugely important for local SEO because consumers now largely rely on peer feedback for their purchasing decisions. Reviews are authoritative signals that consumers trust, and which actually improve your site’s ranking in local search engines. In fact, in Moz’s 2017 Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, online reviews were found to be an important factor in determining search ranking results.
There are a few ways to leverage online reviews as a link building technique. One is to take advantage of your competitor’s tactics. If their link building techniques employ blog reviews, then reach out to those reviewers and offer them a test trial of your products/services.
Additionally, make a concerted effort to participate in relevant industry forums. Go in with the aim of building an authoritative voice and rapport with fellow forum contributors. When someone then asks for advice on the forum, give your contribution and include a non-invasive link back to your website as a solution to their problem.
3. Internal Linking
While content is king, it’s important to know how best to leverage that content to maximize your SEO efforts.
Internal linking is the process of referring your audience from one page on your website to another relevant page that may be useful to them, be it a related blog post or product page. Internal linking not only assists the user, but also serves as a navigation tool for search engines to follow as well.
Unlike sourcing quality backlinks to your site, internal linking allows you to dictate the relevant anchor text. You can match your anchor text to the targeted link, sending additional signals to search engines as to what that page is about.
Other benefits of internal linking are passing authority from one page to another within the same domain, guiding visitors to high-converting pages, and prompting call-to-action opportunities.
To effectively utilize internal linking:
Other benefits of internal linking are passing authority from one page to another within the same domain, guiding visitors to high-converting pages, and prompting call-to-action opportunities.
To effectively utilize internal linking:
● Use internal links throughout your key landing pages
● Avoid using generic anchor texts throughout your site
● Avoid stuffing links into your site’s footer (search engines will penalize you for that as it’s seen as manipulation in the internal link structure).
It’s important to remember three factors when implementing an internal link strategy: the importance of the linking page, the relevancy of the link, and the type of link.
4. Social sharing (with the objective of engagement)
The act of social sharing is a useful part of online community building — it is one of the most effective ways of distributing content to the (relevant) masses. However, the catch is not to solely distribute the content, but to get your ideal target market to actually engage with your content. And that is indeed a big catch — as we all know how difficult it can be to create shareable content.
Your published content needs to be shared in order to actually result in ranking improvement. Whether it's guest blogs, reviews, or any other form of useful content, social sharing has the ability to establish your brand as an industry expert. The resources you provide should be easy to share, as well as unique.
Shared content is a great way to start conversations. It’s also an invaluable way to build relationships with authoritative third-party sites and an online community. And just as importantly, shared content increases your brand’s visibility, generating more traffic to your website.
Make sure your content is optimized for social media. Titles should be reflective of certain character limitations, like those found on Twitter. Social sharing widgets should be accessible. Your content should incorporate automated shareable opportunities. Tools like the ClickToTweet service easily create tweetable links of your content.
5. Competitive link research
Understanding the SEO tactics employed by your competitors can go a long way in increasing your ranking on SERPs. Competitor link research will allow you to identify opportunities to create backlinks on sites that your competitors are engaging with.
Staying up-to-date with your competitors can help you replicate their best backlink strategies. This allows your site to find high-value link opportunities that can earn quality backlinks to your site.
Monitoring backlinks is a great tool to gain insight on the backlinks your competitors are earning. This will then allow you to understand their successes, especially if they’re earning links through guest blogging or reviews.
Another way to maintain competitive link research is by creating Google alerts of your competitors. Simply create an automated keyword search with “site:targetwebsite.com.” This alert will monitor your competitors for interesting new content.
Conclusion
Link building isn’t what it used to be. It certainly is more challenging than ever to get high-value results with SEO. The road to successful, quality SEO is long. But, by doing the research and using these five impactful link building techniques, you can be confident in the success of your SEO strategy. With time and effort, the desired results will come.
AUTHOR BIO
James Reynolds (@FollowJames) is the founder of Veravo which consists of two search engine marketing agencies; SEO Sherpa and Click Jam. James is fanatical about all things search, social and content on the web. He regularly shares content via his SEO blog, Twitter and LinkedIn and is a contributor to several leading publications including Entrepreneur Magazine. James mentors startup companies in his free time.