Quality of contents and on-page optimization has always been the first priority for online businesses when compared to link building. However, search engines will primarily look for quality of back links, leading to your website. Since search engines give importance to backlinks, so you should too!
Confusion about links
Google Penguin modified the way links were used in SEO before April 2020. Today, the spam filter of the Google Penguin works in real-time along with the core algorithm. Links can be risky, and you must gain awareness about what harm can it do to your website.
Even today in the SEO world, the referring or source page is called ‘the backlink’. The source page is from where backlink originates. The actual definition of a backlink is ‘Link that connects the source page to a target page’. Many SEO marketers are more obsessed with improving the page ranks with the help of backlinks. However, it is equally important to calculate the link value and risk analysis of the source websites.
What is meant by backlink?
A backlink for your site means a reference from another domain to your URL. It is different from outward-bound links from your URL. Both cause a lot of confusion. A backlink is even called the inbound link. These are crucial in influencing your website’s popularity on Google. Any website cannot rank the top without them.
Reasons link building is important
- It helps Google discover your domain.
- It is Google’s top-ranking factor
- It directs to useful content on your site
- It passes trust and authority
- Google confirms that without backlinks finding a website is difficult
Many other subtle reasons indicate the importance of backlinks. However, each of these differs!
Are all backlinks helpful on the Google ranking factor?
‘The more, the better’ is an old adage but not for the links. Irrelevant ones are a threat to your backlink profile. Your aim has to be few but high-quality links rather than thousands, which are not worth it. Poor backlinks do not improve your ranking but instead it damages your website. You can get penalized and severely lose organic traffic. You need to understand-
- What are the different types of links?
- How many links every month?
- How many source pages, domains, root domains, and subdomains?
- What links trust and authority?
- What is the associated risk?
- Which linking keyword is a threat?
These are a few of the aspects that one needs to evaluate. A link can be bad or good depending on the country, industry, keywords, and language. There is no standard rule, so use research and filter tools to reduce the risks.
What are Google’s quality guidelines for link building?
Good
- Reciprocal linking has to be relevant and logical from the user’s viewpoint.
- Guest post needs to use keywords or phrases naturally in their content.
- Build links in relevant directories associated with informative sites.
- A comment on pertinent blogs or forums has to offer contextual value.
Bad
- Excessive link building is bad.
- Overstuffing anchor text with brand keywords is unnatural and bad.
- Google confirms buying link is unethical.
Valuable link building tips
It is a complex process, but you can start now using the following tips.
Request for backlinks
For a beginner, this is a great way to start. Ask your friends, partners, customers, colleagues, and relatives, who have a website or blog for inbound links. Make sure that the inbound link is from a relevant niche or else it can harm your site.
Build good relationship
Good relationships are crucial for link building. Many opportunities are available on the internet to get in touch with new contacts. Start with industry-related communities including blogs, forums or social media.
The first step is to contribute relevant and interesting posts and offer contextual value to every comment. Active participation in your niche communities will help to get quality backlinks and you will also get updates about the latest changes in the industry. You can gain contacts with some influential personalities in your niche.
Start a blog
Your blog needs to be active with posts getting added continuously. If you just have a single post and a solo backlink to your website then it is not only waste on time but possible a risky link created.
So, focus on your niche to write interesting, useful, and well-structured posts regularly. Soon, you will gain authority and trust. It ensures you get quality backlinks!
Write good guest posts
Many blogs and sites accept guest posts. Before, you write content on someone else’s blog or sites make sure that –
- You chose a relevant platform [site or blog] to write your topic.
- The content is NOT about you or your brand’s exclusivity.
- You concentrate on quality.
- You remember that poor content is bad for a reputation.
Backlinks you build must help your site and not impact your Google ranking badly.
Assess competitor’s backlinks
Researching about your competitors and their ranking on Google is crucial to understand what works and what doesn’t. Some common backlinks will be seen, which you must aim to get because they are from authoritative sites.
Recover dead backlinks
Over the period of time, your website might have a number of broken links. It can be due to a change of URL or typo mistakes. These backlinks will show 404 error codes. These need to be identified and redirected to a relevant page. This helps to transfer the trust and power of those old links, to a relevant new or existing URL.
Launch a contest or giveaway campaign
The .edu or .gov links transfer plenty of trusts but is challenging to receive. You can get smart and launch a contest awarding incentive or scholarship to students writing blog posts on a specific topic relevant to your niche. You can get lots of organic links from such campaigns. It is a smart link building concept, but make sure you have the funds!
Reuse each article in different format
According to Google, great content is –
- Helpful
- Useful
- Findable
- Desirable
- Credible
- Accessible
- Valuable
Google also checks tech features like load speed, design, navigation, complexity, keyword density, bounce rate, click-through rate, and more. Good content will attract plenty of natural links, which is on top priority of Google’s ranking algorithms. You can reuse your interesting posts in a variety of formats like –
- Infographics
- Videos
- Guides
- Transcripts
- Webinar recordings
- Podcasts
While planning your marketing strategies, you should always allow space for ‘creativity’.
Your efforts must be focused on showcasing your expertise, and to boost your brand authority in the niche.
You can generate more leads by using multiple SEO channels to create backlinks for your business website. Building and monitoring the backlinks profile is crucial. You must quickly identify unwanted backlinks, and then make proper strategies to set them right.