When it comes to improving a website’s search rankings, various factors come into play. From quality content and mobile responsiveness to search engine optimization (SEO) and page experience, there’s a lot to consider. However, one crucial aspect often overlooked, even by top brands, is link building.
Continue reading to learn more about what link building is and why it’s essential for enhancing your website’s rankings, driving traffic, and establishing your website’s authority.
Understanding Link Building
Link building is an SEO strategy that revolves around encouraging other websites to link to your website’s homepage, landing pages, or blog posts. The goal is to increase your domain’s SEO authority, and in SEO terminology, these links are referred to as backlinks.
Backlinks play a significant role in Google’s algorithm, serving as one of the signals that determine a website’s quality and authority on a particular topic. When a reputable website links to your site, a portion of their authority is transferred to yours, effectively vouching for the credibility of your content.
To illustrate, think of it this way: Imagine you move to a new town and ask your neighbors to recommend a doctor. If everyone suggests Doctor B, you’re likely to trust their judgment and choose Doctor B, even though you have no prior experience with them. In the same vein, when authoritative websites link to your content, they endorse your website’s trustworthiness, making it more appealing to both users and search engines.
In essence, link building is a blend of human judgment and algorithmic evaluation.
Google’s Evolution of Link Prioritization
In the early days of Google’s search rankings, the quantity of backlinks was the primary factor influencing a website’s ranking. This led to brands pursuing strategies to acquire as many backlinks as possible, even if they were from low-quality or irrelevant websites.
Over time, Google shifted its focus from quantity to quality, prioritizing the significance of backlink quality over quantity. Google now considers high-quality backlinks to be those that originate from established and authoritative domains or websites. Other factors that increase the authenticity of content from websites lie in how they are written, how long they are, and whether or not they contain links that provide the reader with high-quality resources to do further research.
For instance, if a well-respected website like Ink.com links to a newly established website, Google interprets this as an endorsement of the new site’s credibility. Consequently, the algorithm transfers a portion of Ink.com’s authority to the new site. In simple terms, the more authoritative the domain providing the backlink, the more valuable it is.
Breaking Down Link Attributes
Before delving into link-building strategies, it’s crucial to understand the components of a link. Most links can be dissected into three attributes:
Anchor Tag: The “<a” tag indicates that the link will direct users to a different page.
Link Referral Location (href): This attribute, denoted as “href,” specifies the URL to which the link will lead.
Anchor Text: This is the visible, clickable text that users see and interact with. It is often bolded or colored to signify its clickability.
Types of Links
Not all links are created equal in the realm of link building. There are various types of links, each with its own level of value:
Follow Links: These are standard backlinks that convey to Google that authority and page rank should be passed on to the linked site. They contribute to improved SEO authority.
No-Follow Links: No-follow links, indicated by the “rel=’nofollow'” attribute, signal to Google that the linked site should not be crawled. They are commonly used for sponsored links or when linking to sites that you do not wish to endorse.
User-Generated Links: Often considered low-quality, user-generated links occur in user profile pages, blog comments, advertisements, or embedded infographics. They typically do not transfer site authority.
Organic Links: Organic or natural links are the most valuable. They occur when other websites link to your content voluntarily, without incentives. These links are genuine endorsements of your content’s value.
Benefits of Link Building
Link-building strategies offer numerous advantages for your website and online presence, including:
Bolstering Brand Credibility: High-quality backlinks from reputable sources enhance your website’s domain authority, signaling to both users and search engines that your content is trustworthy and credible.
Improving SERP Rankings: Websites with higher domain authority are more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), increasing your visibility and traffic.
Increasing Web Traffic: Quality backlinks not only drive direct traffic, but also improve organic search visibility, leading to more visitors over time.
Creating Positive Feedback Loops: Successful link building can lead to a self-perpetuating cycle of linking. As you gain more backlinks and authority, you attract even more backlinks.
Boosting Brand Awareness: Backlinks serve as word-of-mouth endorsements, introducing your brand to new audiences and potential customers.
Supporting Revenue Growth: More traffic, improved authority, and higher rankings translate to a broader customer base and increased revenue opportunities.
Fostering Partner Relationships: Link building often involves outreach and relationship-building with industry influencers and like-minded brands, strengthening your brand’s trust and influence.
Encouraging Link Building
While every brand wishes to accumulate high-quality backlinks effortlessly, it usually requires a proactive approach. Brands with an impressive list of quality backlinks don’t achieve that status by accident; they employ deliberate link-building strategies.
Both professional software developed to help make this process easier and more comprehensive, as well as years of collective expertise, are what make SEO link-building strategies effective. Just like you would experience in a “corporate ladder” situation, not just anyone can climb to the top faster than the rest based on their physical strength alone.
Additionally, adding backlinks despite their quality will not gain you the digital notoriety your brand needs unless the poor quality links that attach themselves to your website are also removed. Some shady (or black-hat) SEO processes are out there, and many a time, your brand will be blemished by bottom-the-barrel links that try to steal the authority of your website for themselves, in turn pulling your ranking down to their level, even if by a little bit!
Here are some effective tactics to continue to improve your link building efforts:
Link Outreach: Reaching out to websites within your niche and requesting links to your content can gather a group of genuine links. Identify sites linking to your competitors and explore the possibility of them linking to your site instead, maybe even forming a beneficial relationship along the way!
Guest Blogging: This practice helps you to contribute high-quality content to industry-related blogs or websites. Guest posts allow you to establish authority and earn valuable backlinks.
Visual Assets: Create visual content like images, infographics, diagrams, and charts that are easy to link to. Visual assets provide sites with valuable content without the need to create it themselves, engage your readers more effectively, and give you plenty of content to freshen and remix for broader audiences.
Leverage Social Media: Share your blog posts and visual assets on social media platforms. Engage with your audience, tag relevant brands and influencers, and encourage sharing to amplify your content’s reach.
Identify Unlinked Brand Mentions: Use social listening tools to discover instances where your brand is mentioned but not linked. Reach out to the mentioner and request a link to your content.
Choose Your Online Capital Group For Link Building That Works
Link building is a potent SEO strategy that can significantly impact your website’s authority, visibility, and traffic. By implementing effective link strategies, as well as a reliable and consistent management process, IT IS possible to watch your online ranking rise and continue to grow over time.
Give us a call today at (904) 600-3600 for more information about our SEO services today. It is our job as your Online Capital Group to bring your brand to greatness.
