It’s impossible to guarantee that your website will have (or keep) a good ranking in search engines like Google and Bing without a good link building strategy in place.
Link Building is about increasing the number and quality of websites that link to yours.
Links are essential for many reasons: First, it’s one of the main ways search engines can find and index content on the web. Search engines like Google crawl from link to link discovering and indexing new pages.
That’s why the more links you have pointing to your website, the more often crawlers will visit you and update your content and ranking. On top of that, the number of links is also a measure of content quality, because it means more people are referring to you for information.
Will any link help me increase my site’s ranking?
No. It’s important to remember that search engine algorithms have gotten a lot better at filtering relevant links from fake and not relevant links. A few years ago it was normal to see hundreds of links in the comment session of blogs and websites because back then it was very hard to make the distinction.
Now search engines take many factors in consideration when analyzing links: where the link comes from, in what context it was used, if the content from the source is relevant to your site or not, and many others.
So what is a relevant link?
If you sell kitchen appliances haven a food recipe blog linking to your website makes sense, right? People that like to cook may be interested in buying your products.
But having a link to your site in the comment session of page about political activism…not so much.
Non relevant links (sometimes called fake links) are not just useless (since they have a very low to nonexistent click rate) but can actually lower your site’s raking when search engines punish you for them. That’s why finding, analyzing and blocking them is part of every good SEO strategy.
How do I get more relevant links to my site?
The are a many strategies we can use for increasing the number of quality links to your site. Here’s a few:
Paid or Partnership Blog Posts
Get in touch with bloggers that write about your segment or at least related to your segment. If you don’t want to pay for content you might be able to negotiate a exchange of content: that’s when you publish something about them in your site and they do the same in theirs. Or offer to write a piece of content that is relevant to both you and their public, they just might post it for free.
Sponsored articles in News or variety websites
Make sure your content is relevant to your target audience. Remember that engagement is also essential to a quality link.
Local Directories
Websites like Yelp, Yellow Pages and Google Maps are an easy and often free opportunity to have good links pointing to your website.
Content Marketing
Relevant and up to date content that brings value to your customer (even in the form of a good laugh like memes) is essential to getting lots of shares which bring you tons of google links. That is why it’s very important to have a good marketing department focused on content that speaks differently and strongly with every type of customer you have or want to have.
And Remember: Link Building is an infinite game. It’s not something you can set up and apply for 30 days and reap the benefits forever. Links lose value overtime if not cliked and what was once a good link can turn into a bad link in no time. For that reason it is essential to present in your marketing plan regardless of your segment. Now, go get those links!