What is Link Building?

Link building is a component of SEO that many people overlook.  It’s important to have links on relevant sites to your business in order to rank higher in Google, but it can be difficult! Link building isn’t something you can do all on your own – you need others who are willing and able to help out! This blog post will cover the importance of link building as well as some tips for how you can get started with finding new partners.

Defining link building

Link building is the process of acquiring links to your website.  It’s a valuable way to build traffic and rank higher in Google search results, but what most people don’t know is: it isn’t something you can do all on your own! You might be able to get some high-authority links by contacting individuals personally, but most of the time you have to work with sites that already have links. This means, of course, finding partners – i.e. other websites on which you can place links to your own site.

Why is link building important for SEO?

Search engines want web pages to be relevant and useful for their users.   Web pages with truly relevant information are more likely to provide value and rank higher than pages that don’t really hold any value (then again, everything depends on a website’s link popularity).  Therefore, it only makes sense that search engines would favor popular websites over lesser-known ones! The more links a website has pointing at it from high-quality sites, the more popular it is assumed to be.   With popularity comes a higher ranking in search engine results.

Link building can help you rank higher even if your website already has good content and gets good traffic from organic search! It’s usually not enough for a high-ranking site to just have links pointing at it – that is seen as low quality backlinking and could lead to penalties from Google.  It’s important to get links from other reputable websites, especially if they are on-topic with yours. This helps improve the legitimacy of everything being presented on your own site too!

Types of links

There are two main types of links: inbound and outbound.   In the context of link building, “inbound” means links that bring visitors to your own site from external sites – this is what we will focus on for the remainder of the blog post.  There are also outbound or “outlinks” which are usually visible by clicking a link at the bottom of an article or page leading to another website (such as Wikipedia). These aren’t really used for SEO purposes but might gain you some traffic and therefore be worth mentioning here.

Inbound vs outbound: Which type should you get?

There’s no clear-cut answer to this question, although it seems like people tend to prefer one over the other – likely because their results vary between the two.   Inbound links are generally considered to be more effective than outbound ones – this could be due to the fact that people have a greater tendency to click on inbound links since they lead directly to your website!

There’s no right or wrong way to link building, though, so don’t stress too much about picking one over the other.  If you’re able to find partners who are willing to agree on both types of links then more power to you!

Why do you need link building?

In order to rank higher in Google, you need to have links!  It’s not everything, but it helps a lot.   You may be able to find partnerships with other businesses that are willing to include your website within their own content and link back when applicable – this is great, but chances are you’re going to need more than just one or two sites linking to your site if you want good search rankings.  Building the number of links will help improve your visibility in the search engines as well as build up your credibility (if everything else about what you’re presenting on the web is high quality).

If you want people visiting your site from organic search (both those who already know where they’re going AND those looking for what you offer), then you need to have your website present in the top results.  And if you want that, then you need high-quality links pointing at your business!

How do you build links?

Since everything is digital these days, everything we create IS something that can get a link if we try hard enough!   This might not sound believable at first, but keep reading and learn everything there is to know about link building.  I’ll cover everything from how to get backlinks from social media posts all the way to how you can build outbound links with guest posts on other sites or even starting your own blog related to what it is that you sell!

What are all of the different ways I can build links?

There are tons of different ways to build outbound links!  I’m going to go over everything that could help you generate those all-important inbound links, listing everything from the easiest and most common methods to some of the more difficult or less-common methods.   We’ll start with easy ones first!

Authority websites/social media

You know these sites already – they’re considered credible by search engines because they have earned their authority via good content, popularity, and an established social following. Just reaching out can sometimes work – but there are other things you can do too.

Guest posts & infographics

Guest posts (writing articles for other sites) can be a great way to get your own content on another site with a consistent flow of visitors.  Some people are willing to swap guest posts too!   Infographics, while similar to blog posts, are GREAT for link building since they’re often shared on social media and generally make use of other websites.  Infographics are also more likely to be linked to other sites because they provide good information in an easy-to-understand format. If you have the skills (or someone who has them), then you can even create your own infographic and post it online – after everything is done, you can contact blogs that would do well with it (high traffic or related topic/niche).

Authority forums now

Forums are a great way to tap into other people’s audiences in order to drive traffic and get links back to your site.  You can join communities related to what you do and create valuable content – that may or may not include some self-promotion ( everything should be treated with at least the same amount of promotion as everything else, so no need for you to go overboard if everything is relevant).

Linking within your own content

You don’t have an audience yet?  That’s okay!  Take this time to let everything naturally grow – if you have a blog, make sure everything on it is completely relevant to what it is that your business offers.  If you add content regularly, then you can start getting links as people notice how much time and effort you put into providing good content to others online.  Creating good content also gives the impression that everything else about what your brand does/offers must be of high quality, too!

eCommerce

If your website sells products or services (or both), then there’s an added benefit for link building aside from just natural promotion of everything on your site.  You get all of the benefits from using keyword-focused anchor text in backlink campaigns while still maintaining relevance with everything!

Trying everything we can

You HAVE to try everything you possibly can when it comes to link building.  Don’t get stuck in ruts with one type of backlink over and over again, because that might not work for Google anymore.  Make sure everything is relevant, everything has a purpose (even if the purpose is just to give readers more information), and everything looks natural.   Don’t forget about your social media presence too!  Having a great following online brings tons of traffic – boosting your content doesn’t hurt either (just make sure everything there is actually pleasing to visitors!).

Staying up-to-date on best practices

It’s important that you’re well aware of everything related to link building best practices – everything is changing so fast and what was once huge for SEO is now going away.  You have to stay several steps ahead of everything else or you’ll just get lost forever!

Depending on what your business requires, there are plenty of different ways that you can build links nowadays.  Some methods are easier than others but all of them must be done with caution in order to avoid any backlink penalties from Google along the way as well.  

 When should I start my link-building campaign?

If everything is done properly, then your link-building campaign should be achieved in one month.  That’s not to say that it will take you that long – it just means that everything else should be working together so well that everything is set up for success, and once everything has been established, everything goes quickly!

How can I tell if my link-building efforts are being effective?

You know they’re working when you start seeing new backlinks coming in.  Not only do backlinks to your website show Google how valuable your content is (and what a great site you have), but they also help drive more traffic which leads to increased business/sales as well.  The most effective method of tracking links is with a Google Alert.  Google Alerts let you know everything that’s related to your niche and if links are being created or just go missing (appearing on social media, etc.)

How can I find people willing to do promotional work for me?

There are plenty of ways to look for promoters such as LinkedIn or Facebook groups.  Facebook groups tend to be more relaxed and open than LinkedIn, so check them out as well!  Once you’re in the group(s), look for someone who has similar goals/interests/etc. that may be interested in working with you on something like this.  

Tools for your Link Building Campaigns

There are several tools out there that can make everything much easier for you if your budget allows.  If it doesn’t, then try to use everything free of charge – everything we’re talking about here is totally free anyway!

Google Alert

This tool is extremely useful in tracking any type of change in reference to a keyword or phrase over time, so if anyone mentions it on social media (or within a website’s content), you’ll know about it right away.  

Tweet Jukebox

This one’s especially important because it shows everything that has been tweeted with keywords related to your niche anywhere around the globe.  It will also track your own tweets and those who reply/mention you as well.   If you’re looking for something in particular, this is a great tool to use.  

Social Mention

This one’s also really important because it tracks everything that happens online regarding your niche and everything is organized by date so you can see what happened when.  It will even track everything on global social media sites such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.  

Mention Maps

This is another great mapping service that gives you everything mapped out with keywords related to your niche.  The only thing is that it might give everything a little too much attention if there are several groups with the same keyword(s).  

Once again, don’t overlook link building – it’s crucial! Make sure everything going into your link-building campaign is everything you need it to be, and everything will work out great!