L
ADING

Link Building In SEO – Effective Strategy For Attracting Targeted Traffic To Your Website

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.

How to Create a Guest Posting Campaign That Will Help Your Brand Grow

Guest posting is one of the best and easiest ways to raise the awareness of your brand and help it grow. However, when it comes to guest posting, many bloggers have one goal in mind – link building. Although guest posting enables you to build backlinks to your website, it definitely shouldn’t be the only reason to engage in a guest posting campaign because, apart from SEO purposes, it is an excellent opportunity for branding, gaining exposure, expanding your reach and building a community.

What’s more, being mentioned on high-authority websites, such as Inc. and Forbes, helps you build credibility and inspire trust. These are all very good reasons for guest posting and, if you focus on those goals and benefits instead of focusing only on backlinks, you will create a successful campaign that will actually help your brand grow.

Just remember what Matt Cutts, the former head of Google’s web spam team, said more than 3 years ago on guest blogging for SEO: “If you’re using guest blogging as a way to build links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time, it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging, then you’re hanging out with really bad company”.

He was right. If you want your campaign to be successful, make sure you don’t use it merely as a link building tactic. Otherwise, your voice will simply be lost in the noise of thousands of guest bloggers wh o don’t have a clear purpose in mind for their campaign. Here’s what you can do to create a guest posting campaign that will help you effectively grow your brand.

Search for Great Guest Posting Opportunities

 

When searching for the websites that you will write for, you need to make sure that those you choose are relevant to your own niche. Look through their content and make sure that it is focused on your niche, so that you can actually expand your target audience. Their readers need to be interested in what you have to say, so ensuring that their audience and yours feature the same demographic is the first and most important step towards an effective guest posting campaign.

Not only will thorough research of relevant websites help you create the kind of pitch that will make them accept your guest posts, but it will also help you understand how to engage their readers and make them trust you. You will know how to provide them with relevant content that they will want to read, so you will easily stand out from the crowd.

 

Prepare Your Pitch 

Before sending emails to your chosen websites, make sure that you carefully prepare your pitch. In order to create appropriate guest blogging proposals, you need to show that you have done your homework and want to create content that will be relevant to their target audience, so that they can see that you will truly contribute to their website.

Don’t offer overused content, but rather come up with something different that will make the blog owners genuinely interested in what you have to say. Provide several creative ideas that will provide unique approaches to the particular topics that you want to tackle.

Most importantly, tell them why you want to guest post on their blog and what value you want to provide to their readers. To showcase your potential and your writing skills, include a few links to some of your successful blog posts, so that you can increase your chances of being accepted.

 

Craft Compelling Content

Craft Compelling Content

When creating content for your guest posts, you need to remember that it shouldn’t be about you. Don’t promote your products or services – you have the author bio for that. Instead, provide relevant and compelling information that will engage the readers and make them want to find out more about you.

Create high-quality blog posts that will stand out from everything you’ve ever written, because you will wow the blog owners, who will be more than happy to promote your guest posts, and in doing so attract more visitors to their website, ultimately driving some of them to your website as well. You will rank higher in search engines and you will significantly increase your credibility.

You can also include one or two internal links to show that you are familiar with their content, and don’t forget to add an enticing call-to-action to your every guest post. Also, encourage comments and discussions, as those will make people even more engaged in the content and help build a great community.

 

Don’t Forget to Follow Up 

Following up with the blog owners is great for building meaningful relationships with them, but you should never be pushy or constantly send emails. Simply maintain a friendly relationship and offer more high-quality guest posts.

Follow up with your every published guest post as well, and take the time to respond to the comments they have generated. Interacting with your readers will show that you care about them, and you will expand your audience and grow a larger following.

 

How to Consistently Keep a High Standard of Blogging

Thorough research is the key to quality blog posts, so make sure to always carefully research the topics you want to write about and think about what your target audience actually wants to read about. Getting to know your readers will help you provide real value to them. 

Make sure your content is unique and actually useful, so that you can build credibility and authority. It should be informative and actionable, and you should use a friendly and conversational tone to form stronger connections with your readers and compel them to come back time and time again. Most importantly, always track your results, so that you can apply changes when needed in order to improve your content and successfully grow your brand. 

 

Following all of these tips will help you create an effective guest posting campaign that will make your brand stand out from the crowd, so get on your research right away and get your creative juices flowing in order to craft enticing content that will help you position yourself as an authority in your field. If you have any further questions about making your guest posts stand out, feel free to reach out in the comments section and we will be more than happy to help you out.