Linkbuilding is an important process that entails acquiring backlinks in order to increase the presence of a domain in the search engine result pages (SERPs) and hence generating more organic traffic to that site.
If Site A, for example, has a page which Site B finds relevant and useful for its audience, Site B would link back to Site A and create a backlink.
Is High Quality Content Enough to Generate Backlinks?
A majority of webmasters contend that writing high quality articles would help them get links; however, that is not 100 percent true.
This is because unless you specifically strive to get links, it would be difficult for you to do so. Linkbuilding was a relatively easy process back in the day.
You could quickly and easily automate tools to submit various article directories as well as Web2.0 sites in order to generate backlinks.
It is worth mentioning that the quality of the inbound links or articles did not matter so much.
But in April, 2014, Google launched its Penguin algorithm, which changed almost everything about linkbuilding. Linkbuilding, as we know it today, is more of a skill and it can take plenty of time to get it just right.
What is Modern Linkbuilding?
When we talk about linkbuilding (or “modern” linkbuilding), we are referring to well thought out and high quality strategies that revolve around well-researched, well-written, highly valuable, and original content.
Keep in mind that some strategies entail producing particular pieces of content that have relevant and valuable embedded links that point back to your domain and are published on quality and high-authority websites.
In contrast, others usually involve the publication, production, and syndication of top notch content on your own site, with the aim to achieve viral reach, and naturally attract inbound links to your content on its merits.
On the whole, the popularity of a site or a blog is determined largely by the number of inbound links.
So, the number of links (inbound) from high quality sites is a main factor in determining the Google Page Rank (PR) as well. This is why after starting a website or blog it’s always better to spend the first few weeks on linkbuilding.
This will help you get more exposure on various search engines, such as Google and Bing.
Keep in mind that incoming links from authority sites are always highly rewarded in Google Search. However, effective linkbuilding does not imply building unlimited links; rather, it means acquiring genuine links from high quality and reliable websites.
In this light here are five reasons why linkbuilding is necessary for your website.
1. Linkbuilding can Increase Brand Exposure
Similar to many contemporary online marketing activities, often linkbuilding results in product, brand, or business exposure to new as well as diverse audiences.
Note that it was true before Google and it is true today.
In fact, this is the main reason the search giant used links as the core of its search; as links are a great vote of confidence from one website to another, especially when created naturally.
One of the best places for building those votes are valuable and relevant websites that serve a community or group of your target demographic.
Also, people tend to inherently trust links. As online marketers or SEOs, you tend to ignore or forget this — you become tired of seeing every website, link, tweet, post, share, and message as a form of marketing.
However, all of these channels have to be taken into perspective.
The truth is that an average individual, when observing one or more natural links from a trusted source, often tends to make positive associations with such links — in particular if the site on the other end is valuable upon scrutiny.
Basically, individuals link to other individuals — not bots, websites, or algorithms.
If you are a small business owner, this strategic guide to linkbuilding will be valuable for you.
2. Page and Domain Authority
Note that when Google decides which webpages to rank for a specific query, one of its main considerations is the quality and quantity of inbound links to that page.
Seattle-based digital marketing agency Moz has come up with a way to accurately measure this, which is known as page authority; it is a subjective measure of both the quantity and quality of inbound links to a given webpage.
In the same way, domain authority can measure this for your site as a whole. It is worth mentioning that if your domain authority is higher, you are more likely to rank higher for any given search query.
Note that the number of relevant or useful links that point back to your domain (as well as the quality of these sources and some other quality factors) usually determine a considerable portion of that domain authority.
As a result, the more invested you’re in the overall quality of your various linkbuilding campaigns, it is likely that all of your website pages will rank higher in organic search results.
3. Building Connections
Also, linkbuilding helps considerably in building relationships with other websites. You can link your relevant content to websites which offer the same or related products and services.
There is no denying that it is vital to forge a connection with other businesses in your niche.
This is because customers would connect your products or services with other excellent services that are offered in your niche.
This would help expand your business while exposing it to many prospective clients. Building lasting relationships with related businesses could help grow your business.
For example, you could exchange ideas about how to provide top notch services to your clients.
4. Linkbuilding can Complement other Marketing Activities
Linkbuilding is not a singular or isolated online marketing activity which is done in a vacuum.
In case these words are hauntingly representative of your various marketing activities (especially the online ones), you are doing your business a disservice.
As you can imagine linkbuilding is often hard work. It takes persuasiveness, experience, interpersonal social skills, as well as an ability to learn, change and adapt.
That being said, even with all of these key skills, a link builder cannot always be effective without a linkable resource: something that is worth linking to.
These could be a few things:
- A unique and useful tool or resource that is valuable to their industry or customers
- Strong and relevant content that is valuable to their customers and/or industry or niche
- Unique business value which meets a vital customer need
- A social buzz or presence
- Newsworthiness
- A strong and credible brand presence within the industry
- Strong industry relationships
As a result, the goal of most link builders should be to get natural links which you would want even in case Google was not going to reward them.
As these links tend to create a user-centric mindset, they can result in more referral traffic.
5. Lasting Investment
Unlike paid adverts or most other conventional marketing tactics, your investment in linkbuilding will last as long as the relevant link (and the webpage on which the link resides) remains active.
Note that with paid adverts, you “rent” visibility temporarily.
On the other hand, links get you a kind of permanent placement which continues to send valuable referral traffic for the entirety of their lifetime.
You can look at this like building equity in your home instead of paying rent for temporarily using it.
To wrap it up, linkbuilding can be an excellent technique to boost your website. It is a vital part of your business.
It would be very upsetting if you have worked hard in creating your website without anyone knowing about it.
Everyone should be aware of your hard work. So contact a linkbuilding agency and boost your website.
In a Nutshell
Linkbuilding is a crucial part of your entire SEO strategy. Linkbuilding is not just about acquiring links from any platform.
It’s actually more about digging into the possibilities of featuring the business on the most relevant and qualified platforms that can help you from an organic search perspective
This includes increased website’s ranking, visibility on branded keywords and increased overall domain authority.
Apart from SEO benefits, it also offers versatile benefits including brand exposure and limitless PR opportunities.
So, it is important to sketch your linkbuilding campaign by researching your competitors and looking into the possibilities, instead of proceeding with a random linkbuilding campaign.