Link Building Strategies Guide

Implementing?effective link building strategies?is one of the most challenging jobs for any website owner or marketing manager.?

But they’re a crucial part of any SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy. Like baking a cake without adding eggs, the whole recipe falls apart without it.

Whether you’re brand new to link building or need a refresh, this guide is for you. The totalsurf team will take you through what link building is, why backlinks are essential for good SEO, and how to implement strategies to build quality backlinks.

What is Link Building?

A hyperlink (but usually just called a “link”) is where a webpage displays a URL to another webpage. By clicking on the link, the user is taken to a different website. It could be a link to another site (external) or another page within the same website (internal).

The URL could be displayed in its naked form, e.g.?https://totalsurf.net/seo-services/. But most likely, it is hidden behind anchor text, e.g.?SEO Services.

There are two main types of links: backlinks and internal links.

WHAT IS A BACKLINK?

A backlink is a specific type of link where another website links back to your website. There are a?variety of different link building methods?that we incorporate into the strategies that we offer our clients at totalsurf, but this article will primarily be focusing on general link building strategies and how you can begin securing high-quality backlinks.

Because backlinks are primarily in the control of a separate business or person, they’re much more difficult to control and implement. That’s primarily why they’re one of the trickiest parts of an effective SEO strategy and why it’s an area few businesses execute well.

WHAT IS AN INTERNAL LINK?

Internal links are much easier to control. They are links between webpages within your own website. They still play a role in your overall SEO link building strategies, but they are nowhere near as challenging to obtain as backlinks are.

When building internal links, try not to link back to your homepage. You probably already have a button at the top of your website that appears on every single webpage that links back to your homepage anyway.

When creating new content or editing an existing webpage, try to keep your existing content in mind and link to it whenever relevant.

And try to use that webpage’s keyphrase as the anchor text to boost its SEO.

Why is Link Building Important for SEO?

Because it’s by far the most popular search engine, the key to good SEO is doing whatever makes Google rank your pages higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google values many things in a?good webpage. These include, but are not exclusively limited to:??

• Optimised pages for mobile
• Fast page load speed?
• Relevant images with alt text
• High-quality header tags and metadata
• Expertly-written content?
• A valid SSL certificate
• The right URL structure
• XML sitemaps?

But another tremendously important factor in a webpage’s ranking is quality backlinks.

Years ago, Google simply valued the number of backlinks. Let’s say you run a recipe website, for example. You could get links to your brownie recipe from sports sites, disreputable online casinos, and equestrian magazines, and it wouldn’t make any difference.

After the Penguin algorithm update, Google cares about many things when it comes to determining a high-quality backlink.?

Below is a list of what makes an excellent external backlink and the aspects that Google cares about:

• Relevancy to your business/website
• Anchor text/keyword phrase used for the backlink
• The positioning of that backlink on a webpage (the higher up the page, the better)
• How highly the linking webpage ranks in search engine results
• How many clicks that link receives

Essentially, a good backlink not only sends traffic but shares authority from one webpage to another.

Imagine Google as a nightclub security guard and the highly-ranking webpage as a VIP who can get you inside because they’re willing to say, “they’re with me” to your webpage.

Therefore, building backlinks and executing a sound?link building strategy?are both essential for good SEO performance.

Types of Link Building Strategies

There are different types of link building and?several link building strategies?you and your business could implement. For example, you could take advantage of?high-quality citations monitoring,?guest blogging?or?competitor imitation, or even?digital PR.?

But it’s a marathon, not a sprint, which is why many businesses decide to outsource their?link building services.

Here are some of the ways you can build quality SEO backlinks.

CONTENT PROMOTION

The best link building strategies start with?good content. If you have entertaining, informative, unique, shareable content on your website, people will?naturally want to link to it.?

It also helps if you have other platforms to share your website’s content on, like an email newsletter or social media accounts.?

Another variation of this strategy is to reach out to other businesses or people with high-ranking websites or?social media channels?with your product or service. Different arrangements are involved with this strategy, but ultimately if they like your product or service, they might link back to it.

BLACKBOOK LINK BUILDING

If you’re just starting out, you could?ask friends and businesses?you already have an association with to give you a backlink. It would depend on their rankings and relevancy as to whether or not this is an effective strategy. But it might be a good place to start.

GUEST BLOGGING

Blogging regularly will be a great help to your visibility on Google and can also be a way of earning high-quality backlinks. Pitching?guest blog posts?to niche websites in your industry, while drawing attention to your own site, is an excellent way to drive traffic and get noticed.

Do-follow and No-Follow Links

Some websites like to turn off authority for specific links, e.g. social media accounts and links in the comments section. It’s a useful feature if you don’t have the resources to check the quality of everyone who leaves a comment on your site.

You can still receive traffic through a?no-follow link?and small SEO benefits. But if you’re building backlinks, you want to make sure all of those links pass along authority through a do-follow.

Avoid Blackhat Techniques

Google often adjusts how it determines good backlinks. Just as Google used to focus on the number of backlinks, and now it focuses on quality.

If one of your web pages suddenly received hundreds of links from multiple online gambling sites, that would be a bad, blackhat strategy. It’s an outdated method that would harm your webpage rankings.

This is why it’s so important to be knowledgeable about link building so you can implement the correct strategies.

Contact Us to Build Your Backlink Profile

Developing your own successful link building strategies is challenging.

Not only do you need to be clued up in the latest SEO guidelines, reaching out to websites for potential backlinks takes a lot of time. It also requires a lot of research in determining which web pages you want backlinks from too.

If you’re interested in building a backlink profile that will boost your rankings and, therefore, your business,?contact totalsurf today.