Link building is not dead and it is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Though Neil Patel argues that link building is not the future of SEO as Google prefers high-quality content that helps users more than anything else but he says:
“By no means am I saying that you should ignore SEO.”
That’s the thing.
Even if you’ve published the best content, if Google and other people cannot find it or don’t know that it really exists, you’ll not going see any improvement in rankings.
So you’ve two jobs in hand when it comes to link building, especially focusing on acquiring dofollow links:
- Write awesome content that nobody else had posted. It has to be the best of the best content.
- Tell people about your great content. This is where you’ll build links along the way naturally.
What Is Link Building in SEO?
Link building is the process of acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites to improve a website’s search engine rankings and online visibility. It is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) that helps search engines understand the relevance, authority, and trustworthiness of a website. Essentially, link building involves creating high-quality content, building relationships with other websites, and using various tactics to attract links from relevant websites.
When other websites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your site is a valuable resource worth referencing. This, in turn, can boost your search engine rankings, making it easier for users to find your content. The more quality backlinks you have, the more authoritative your site appears to search engines, which can lead to higher visibility and more organic traffic.
Fundamentals of Link Building
At its core, link building is based on the concept of “votes” from other websites. When a website links to another, it is essentially casting a vote for that site, indicating that it is a valuable and relevant resource. Search engines like Google use these votes to determine the ranking of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The quality and quantity of these backlinks can significantly impact your search engine rankings. High-quality backlinks from reputable sites are more valuable than numerous low-quality links. Therefore, focusing on acquiring links from authoritative and relevant websites is key to a successful link building campaign.
Why Building Links is Important
Links are what tell search engines about the existence of your website. There is no other way.
According to BeFound SEO in Dublin when other websites link to your website, search engine crawlers find your website. When a lot of links on different websites point to your website, crawlers will visit your website and will consider it important and of value.
Yes, there are other factors too but links are the primary way search engines determine the popularity of a website.
This is why sharing your content, reaching out, and telling people about your website and great content is so crucial for acquiring high quality links. This is how they link to your content and your website gets all the love.
The number one reason why link building should be your top priority is that backlinks are the most important ranking factor.
Ranking without backlinks is nearly impossible no matter how great your content is. Regularly tracking your link building efforts is essential to ensure you are earning and maintaining high-quality backlinks.
Because there is no way search engines will find how helpful and awesome your content is. They might never find your website and will never crawl it.
Statistics show that more than 99% of top websites have at least one referring domain pointing to them and the number of unique backlinks from different websites is correlated with higher search engine rankings.
There is no way better than backlinks to improve search engine ranking.
In order to get the right backlinks, however, you do need to know what you are doing, and some SEO training will certainly come in handy. Luckily, there are many agencies out there who offer training in many aspects of digital marketing – Tillison Consulting, for example. Once you get a hang of the tactic, you can start executing it.
Link Building Strategies
There are several effective link building strategies that can help you attract high-quality backlinks:
- Creating High-Quality, Linkable Assets: Develop content that is inherently valuable and shareable, such as infographics, videos, and podcasts. These types of content are more likely to be linked to by other websites.
- Guest Posting: Write and publish articles on relevant websites and blogs in your niche. This not only provides a backlink but also exposes your content to a broader audience.
- Building Relationships: Network with other websites and bloggers in your industry. Building genuine relationships can lead to natural link opportunities.
- Broken Link Building: Identify broken links on other websites and offer your content as a replacement. This helps webmasters fix their broken links while providing you with a backlink.
- Leveraging Social Media: Share your content on social media platforms to increase its visibility and attract links and shares.
- Using Resource Pages: Find resource pages in your niche and suggest your content as a valuable addition. These pages often link to high-quality resources, providing you with quality backlinks.
By employing these strategies, you can build a robust link profile that enhances your website’s authority and search engine rankings.
How to Build Links that Search Engines Love
Search engines don’t consider all the backlinks equal. Natural links are the ones that are natural. Paid links are never appreciated and these are the links that will make your website look like a spam. Avoiding spammy link building techniques, such as shady guest posting and blog comment spam, is crucial to maintain a positive site ranking.
So how to build links that Google and other search engines love?
Outreach
This is the best approach to building quality backlinks that will never get your website penalized.
Here is how it works.
- Write great content that’s better than your competitors.
- Reach out to people who have already talked about, linked to, or have shared similar content in the past. Use BuzzSumo to find top performing content and who has shared it.
- Send them a nice email and tell them about your content. Tell them why it is better and how it can be of help to their audience. Don’t ask for a link.
- If they like your content, they will share it and will obviously link to it.
Outreaching is such a great way to get exposure, build relationships, drive traffic, and to acquire high quality links from authority websites.
The reason why this technique works is that you reach out to the people who are already interested in the similar content. They have already shared or linked to similar content in the past so the probability that they will link to your content (since it is better) is fairly high.
It is like using a manual transmission ride and someone shows you the automatic transmission car. You’ll obviously switch to it because it is better and updated.
Same goes for the outreaching the right people for your awesome content.
Guest blog
Posting your best content on an authority blog that gets thousands of visitors daily has two benefits:
- You get a backlink.
- You get referral traffic.
This is one of the easiest ways to acquire quality backlinks from authority websites.
Follow the steps below to have your post published on an authority blog.
- Find authority blogs in your niche/industry that accept guest posts.
- See what type of content they publish. Read a few recent articles and read the guest posting guidelines carefully.
- Craft a couple nice article titles and a short outline based on the guidelines.
- Write an email to the editors. Show them your past writing samples and send them the article titles and outline. Ask if they’d be interested in a guest post.
- Once you get a reply, write the article and send it over.
The rule of the game is to send your best content for guest posting. If it is ordinary content, it won’t be accepted. Even if it gets accepted, you’ll only get a backlink and no referral traffic.
Instead, write a great article so that you don’t miss referral traffic.
Infographic marketing
This is a similar approach to outreach but in this case, you’ll create an infographic.
Infographics have this amazing ability to get shared. They perform better than text.
Every single infographic can bring several backlinks at no additional cost.
- Find a topic that is hot, trending, or is appealing to a wide audience.
- Search existing infographics. See if you can do any better?
- If there are no infographics on the topic, that’s your best bet.
- Collect data and find resources. Create an outline for the infographic.
- Hire someone on Fiverr or UpWork to create an infographic for you.
- Publish it on your blog and insert an embed code that allows others to easily copy and paste the infographic on their website.
- Run an outreach campaign.
- Send a link to your infographic to influencers, webmasters, and all the people who have shared or linked to the similar topic in recent time.
- Submit your infographic on infographic directory sites like Visual.ly, Infographics Showcase, and others.
Sit back and enjoy the backlinks as well as referral traffic. Always remember: backlinks are not going anywhere soon – they’re here to stay. As long as backlinks are valued by search engines, you shouldn’t stop building them.
The Future of Link Building
The future of link building is likely to be shaped by the increasing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in search engine algorithms. As search engines become more sophisticated, they will better understand the context and relevance of links, placing more emphasis on high-quality, relevant links.
Additionally, the rise of voice search and mobile-first indexing will impact how links are built and used in SEO. In the future, link building will need to focus more on creating high-quality, relevant content that attracts links naturally, rather than relying on manipulative tactics. This will require a deeper understanding of search engine algorithms and the ability to adapt to changing trends and technologies.
In summary, while the tactics and tools may evolve, the fundamental principles of link building—creating valuable content and building genuine relationships—will remain constant. As long as search engines value backlinks, link building will continue to be a critical component of SEO.
This post was written by Hoot a web design agency in Dublin. They build and re-design websites for growing business all over Ireland.