There are plenty of resources out there on how link building will get you more traffic for your website. This article will touch on those things, but it’s more important to understand why link building is important so that you’re not over-saturating your blogs with unneeded links.
Today, there are a variety of opinions on how important link building truly is for SEO and content marketing. If you do a search about it, you’ll find a variety of web pages that show you exactly how to do it. These are great, but is this where you should focus the majority of your time.
I’d say, the majority of your time should be spent doing the activities that will get you the desired outcome you are seeking. If you’re looking to rank on Google, then yes, link building is very important.
However, if you’re trying to create an SEO dent in a competitive market, link building is important, but not as important as others might have you believe. The best marketers know that right now, being authoritative, creating original content that is the right length, and content that has the potential to go viral is very important.
Now, that is out in the open, the rest of this article will be about creating a link building strategy that will improve your SEO whether you’re in a tough market or not.
Credibility
This about link building for the purpose of adding more credibility to your articles. If you’re looking to add links for the sole purpose of ranking higher, you might fall into the trap of adding too many. What you should look for are links that first and foremost, enhance the quality of the article.
If your customer clicks on the link and finds something that has nothing to do with your article then you’re simply creating frustration. The best articles are authoritative and link to other authoritative web pages.
Customer-First Mentality
Think about all the times you read a blog and didn’t really get anything out of it. Too many times, right?
These days there are so many content marketers writing articles with very little substance that an article with a decent amount of useful tools can really make its mark. The time has come to make the internet a less-cluttered place.
This customer-first mentality to link building is something you should seriously employ to your business strategy. Each link you choose should make the article you write so much better.
Too many companies fear to link to other websites for the fear of losing customers to competitors. While losing customers to competitors is a real thing, it shouldn’t be too much of a concern, because your content should be better.
High-quality content is the number factor to getting the kind of traffic that you want.
Traffic vs. Sales
Link building is a tool to get more sales and make more money. Even if your goal is to sell ads on your blog and not make any money directly from the articles, the goal is to continuously get more loyal readers. This means that the quality of the content should supersede everything.
The customers that come to your website read the blog to understand who you are and what you’re all about. That means that if your content is lackluster, they’ll go shopping for someone else that tells a better story.
Sure making all your blogs SEO-optimized does help you get more buyers, but people don’t make serious purchases on a whim. Most online shoppers these days spend time consulting review sites and articles to find out what products are best. If they are on the fence about whether to make a purchase or not the quality of your content has the power to get their credit cards out.
This is why link building is so important. Links help you get more relevant traffic and adds to the feeling of trust they have for your brand.
High-Quality Links
A high-quality link building strategy is one that includes other sites that are reputable by Google and experts in the field. Flash-in-the-pan fads are not good links to associate with your brand. Each external link should be carefully placed to enhance the article.
They should be plentiful, but not excessive. A good rule of thumb is to have 3 external links per 1,000 words at a minimum.
A high-quality link comes from other SEO-optimized sources if they are a blog. They should rank on the first page of Google. I can’t stress this enough.
Unless they are from a government site or are a peer-reviewed journal, don’t bother if they aren’t on the first page.
What you’re going for is to make Google think that you are part the “first-page crowd.”
Here are a few places to get high-quality publication links: Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, Moz.com
Getting Backlinks
A link building strategy guide will always include a way to get backlinks. Unfortunately, trying to hack your way into getting backlinks is not possible. Backlinks come from old-school tactics like cold email and guest blogging.
You have to sell yourself and your skills to talk about subjects you understand. This is not something you can fake, so roll up your sleeves and get to work on the 4 tactics below.
Guest Blogging
If you have a way with words, one of the best ways to start link building is to guest blog larger blogs in your niche. This does a variety of things besides getting you high-quality links. It helps you become an influencer in the industry, helps you sell more products, and multiplies your traffic over time.
Fill-In-The-Gap Content Creation
Create content that talks about something that other blogs are missing. Then use cold email to get them to link to you. You will most likely have to reciprocate, but it’s worth it.
Cold Outreach
Cold email is not the only way to get backlinks. Social media messaging works just as well. If neither of these work, you could try direct mail. How many times do you get a letter from someone these days? It’s a surefire way to get someone’s attention.
Create Multiple Websites
If you have the time and the energy, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. This means to create other websites that accent the general niche you’re already doing. You could make one website for your company and the other for your personal brand.
Don’t duplicate the content, but create a different spin on the same topics. Then have each of the websites linking to each other.
Internal Linking
Link building requires linking internally. For every 1,000 words, you should have at least 3 internal links.
It’s not a good idea to just link to product pages or sales letters. You should think about the quality of the article. If you’re selling directly with a blog, you’re not content marketing correctly. Take every opportunity to build trust by creating the best content possible. Throwing cheesy sales pitches into your blogs will push people away like the plague, so keep sales pitches to a minimum.
Are Naked Links Ok?
No. Naked links are not part of a good link building strategy. They make your blog look very unprofessional and Google does not like them. It’s always best practice to embed them within 2-5 words within the text.
The content of the link should always logically connect to words you’ve chosen to embed the link. Without a logical connection, Google could de-rank your page because of link spamming. Look at the links provided in this article for a good example of what to do.
Are You Sold on Link Building?
If you were, I’d be shocked. It’s a lot of work and it might not seem like it’s a good idea. You might be right, but like I said at the beginning it depends on your goals. If you’re focusing on ranking with Google then you have to embrace link building and do your best to get backlinks.
If your strategy uses Facebook ads or Social Media, then who cares about links. Just make your blogs amazingly informative or creative. There are a ton of strategies, so try them out, but if you do decide to use link building then make sure you commit long-term.
It takes time to get the respect you deserve online whether you get links or not. Getting a large following takes time, but what is more important than the number of followers is the amount of interest your followers have in what you’re doing.
Think about a brand like Pepsi, they may have tons of traffic and followers on social media, but aren’t the people that follow them just looking for a free drink? That’s not what you want.
You want people that are willing to spend their hard-earned dollars, and the only way to build that is to build trust with them. This article is not how to enter a new market and blow it up. This article is about how to do well in tough markets. The only way to do that is to simply be better than your competition.
Content is the separating factor when it comes to your clients. If you’re looking for a simple way to master content creation, click the link here.
