Link building is when you acquire backlinks from other websites to your own. It sounds simple, but these backlinks are worth their weight in gold. Quality links contribute to a huge chunk of your page ranking. While most SEO specialists spend time developing keywords, writing quality blog posts, and building social media presence, this isn’t where the work stops. Though likely the most time-consuming, link building is one of the most powerful ways to build your page ranking.
Mastering the art of link building gives you leverage over the competition. It’s not an easy process. There are no overnight success stories in the world of link building. However, if you put in the work, you can make big strides in the digital space. Keep reading to learn more about what link building is and why it’s essential to your SEO strategy.
What Is Link Building?
First thing’s first, let’s talk about what link building actually is. As we stated before, it’s the process of acquiring backlinks. But not all backlinks are created equal. These links are how search engines discover new web pages. They also help with search engines understanding the level of quality of your links.
Because search engines analyze pages by crawling, these links lead to them crawling your own website. Search engines look at more than just the content of your pages. They look at what websites are linking to your pages. The more high-quality websites you have linking to your content, the more confident Google becomes in your own content.
While keywords and other SEO practices certainly matter, they’re not a sure-thing with Google. You can tell search engines all day what your website content is about, but they’re more likely to trust authority links. If you’re able to land quality links to your websites from other high-ranking pages, you’ll see a boost in your own ranking. It’s both that simple and that hard.
How Do You Acquire Links?
Now that you understand the fundamentals behind what link building is and why it works, let’s talk about how you actually start link building for yourself. While working with a local SEO company can help you target leaders in your geographical area, you can also work on a larger scale.
There are two main ways to acquire links: by networking and by writing great content. The first way requires you to work closely with other bloggers, publishers, and influencers. This can be through guest posting or asking for a link in a relevant, existing blog post. It’s important to note that these links should be natural and not forced. Google is cracking down on penalties for those who abuse the link building system. The other way to acquire links is by simply writing content worth linking to. In-depth, valuable content attracts links from other quality content.
There are a few key components of link building worth keeping in mind. When done properly, it’s a powerful tool for improving your own presence online. When done recklessly, it does far more harm than good. Keep these principles in mind before you start any campaign or outreach.
Link Building Best Practices
- No-Follow Links
No-follow links include a tag that isn’t recognized by Google. These include sponsored links as well as blog comments and online forum posts. These do not help your SEO at all.
- Relevant Content
Linking from irrelevant websites is a bad idea. Google will catch on quickly that you’re not interested in fair practices. You want your link to appear on websites in your niche or industry for the most impact.
- High-Quality Content
Don’t waste time publishing low-quality content or attempting to get your link on low-quality websites. These will only come back to haunt you.
As long as you put quality first, you’re in a good place to succeed with link building. This strategy isn’t an overnight miracle. It takes a lot of time, networking, and patience. Think of it as the long game. You’re setting a solid foundation for your website page ranking to grow organically. Get started with your own link building strategy today to see for yourself why it’s so powerful.
