The Future Of Link Building Is Bright – Part 2
Link building is a very valuable exercise, from both an SEO (search engine optimisation) standpoint and because of the many side-benefits that good links bring. In SEO terms link building is a core part of digital marketing because it helps Google decide where to place your web pages on a SERP (search engine results page).Google uses a lot of tools to determine whether content is relevant to a search but links from respected, trusted websites assures Google that your content is high quality and worth reading. Two rival firms could have a similar piece of content serving the same needs, but the one which has been linked to by a website which has a high degree of authoritativeness will trump the other in a search.
The types of links that are most valuable are editorial, as opposed to in advertising, forum signatures, and press release repositories and similar. Editorial links are intentional, conscious recommendations of the content to which they link and therefore Google gives these links a lot of consideration. In the past, link-farming (which, in a nutshell, just created links in huge volume but with no relevancy) was a shady tactic which Google picked up on pretty quickly. It now values quality over quantity in many aspects of how it works.
To get editorial links you can ask website owners and writers to link to your homepage, a particular product page or otherwise useful content. If the target content/page is good, people will be happy to link to it (although you may need to incentivise a little, or build on existing relationships to get editorial links).Sharing your great content far and wide also helps you get editorial links as more people see it, and decide to link to it of their own accord. This networking exercise will also bring the natural benefits of having strong working relationships within your industry.
Before we start getting a link building campaign going for you, we must start with some content, a product, or a service that people will want to talk about and recommend to their network by writing about it and linking to it. Look at the top performing pages on your website, the on-trend themes and current discussions in your industry, and whether you have any unique takes on these. Ask yourself whether you would leave the website you were on in order to view your pages – what would you click on? This exercise will give you existing content and new ideas you can use to create something link-worthy.
As with many online marketing techniques, link building can take time to show results. Yes, a link from the blog of an industry expert could give you a quick spike in traffic, but you'll see the real results over time. All the things we do to increase the number of links to your website also have benefits in other areas, including expanding your network, learning new things, understanding your core target market much better and your general reputation, both online and in the real world.
If you have been neglecting link building as part of your marketing strategy, then there's never been a better time than now to get started. We can help you at every step of the way, from defining your goals, to creating the content everyone will want to link to, getting those editorial links and beyond. It's a big topic, and one which will certainly see changes as Google continues to refine its search algorithm.
