The rumor of, “ Is Link Building Dead,” is going on for years now. Google’s core algorithm is based on the links, and their importance has not decreased until now. Google has confirmed that links are the one ranking factor, and ranking a website higher without links is next to impossible.
However, link building techniques have evolved dramatically over the years. The old school link building tricks no longer work, but rules have changed with the requirement of skills and tools for quality backlinks in 2020.
What is a link?
A link is a connection between a website to another with a clickable hypertext on the web. Links increase the crawlability and accessibility of a website by search engine robots to index and show in future search results. It is usually denoted by a hyperlink connection referring to the target page as a common practice in an SEO project.
Link building is no longer an activity of linking with a website for the sake of increasing the link profile. But, it needs a deeper understanding and analysis of the quality of the link source and potential risks involved. The task requires analysis of web page rank, spam score, relevancy, citation flow, and trust flow before creating a link to a source.
Instead of solely focussing on outgoing links, focus on creating a more robust profile of backlinks – the links that connect back to a website from authority sources. More inbound links are useful for a website that determines the popularity and significance of a site in the search engines.
With the Google Penguin update in 2012, the link building tactics in SEO has changed forever. The Google Penguin Spam Filter is now an integral part of Google’s core algorithm that works in real-time. Expecting to rank a site at the top of the search result with a spammy link is not possible now.
Quantity of links doesn’t matter anymore, but quality does affect a site’s performance. Links must add value to a website to get the desired ranking boost passing of link juice and authority.
What are the benefits of quality links?
Google cares about quality links and should the companies outsourcing projects to SEO agencies and professionals for services. As stated earlier, it is really hard to rank a website without creating a quality link profile. Further, quality and ethical link building are necessary for the following reasons:
- Links are Google’s top ranking factor
- Improve crawability and accessibility on the web
- Transfer link juice and authority to a website
- Enhance trust and credibility to a website
- Boosts ranking of a site in a search result
Standard link building practices and methods
All links are not created equal, and one needs to be careful to start a link building program. Instead of using software for link building, it is better to go for manual link creation that looks natural and trustworthy to Google.
Links are always associated with excellent content to put anchor texts or selected keywords of business on articles, blogs, or guest posting. The natural placement of keywords instead of stuffing to manipulate ranking is necessary to boost the ranking of a website according to Google’s webmaster guidelines. Remember, it is good to build relevant and quality links keeping the user in focus. Here are some of the standard practices in SEO for link building:
Link exchange
Link exchange is one of the most common practices to build links with niche industry websites. The reciprocal link building means agreeing to mention the brand name with a do-follow tag on each other site. The practice is not bad, but overdoing it can lead to penalty Google with lower website ranking.
Guest Posting on different platforms
Guest posts are one of the most crucial ways of creating backlinks to a website. However, some specific rules and practices need to be avoided at any cost, such as unnatural placement of anchor text or keywords, and over-optimized content to promote only the keywords. The best method is to write guest posts with an aim to add value to customers sharing new and unique ideas about a topic instead of inserting only the keywords. In this way, readers engage more with the content and create value for a business.
Listing in the Web Directory
Hundreds of web directories provide a listing to the businesses operating online, but sadly they give no value to customers. So, Google has removed the lists from showing to the users.
Listing to the web directory or business listing sites helps a business be known to potential audiences. Further, it also carries a signal to search engines about the information of a company and operation. However, listing brings the highest benefit to a business when the links are built with a relevant platform of a niche industry. Directories bring a quality link apart from listing business to show its website in the future search result. The listing contains useful information to the potential customers with the address and other contact details. However, the directory should be relevant to the niche industry to get indexed as well as benefits later.
Comments on forums and blog posts
Another common practice of building links is commenting on blog posts and forums. There is a catch to this practice. The blog posts and forums must be relevant to a business to mention links and get desired benefits. However, it must be done on a limited scale with no commercial intent. Submission of comments on unhelpful blog posts or forums will violate Google’s guidelines and may result in a lower ranking.
Invest in creating great content
Great link building techniques are always associated with engaging content. Whether it is a guest post, blog post, or an article submission on third party sites, it is the quality content that makes a backlink even better in the eyes of user and search engine robots.
It is thus advisable to invest money in creating quality and comprehensive content to get natural linking from different sources instead of buying spammy links from low authority sites. Link farms, the places where links are sold, have been declared illegal and invite penalties from Google affecting any website that has bought a link.
Leave testimonials
The testimonial link building creates a win-win scenario for businesses in the niche industry. Leaving a testimonial with a link that connects back is a useful technique in link building. The testimonials bring credibility and trust of customers. The businesses won’t mind giving a backlink to a genuine review or testimonial back to business. Apart from creating a good link profile, it also helps to generate the right amount of potential traffic, benefiting a company more than the link request email.
Start a blog
Start a blog on the website with content targeting the industry and potential customers. Make a clear content strategy of content writing posts related to the problems, questions, and how to address them on the blog to create engagement. Posting relevant, useful, and nicely structured blogs have the potential to bring natural links in the form of shares, hits, and blog comments from the niche industry users. Great blogs earn quality backlinks and traffic in no time, but there should be consistency and relevance on the posts.
Infographics and image submission
Infographics are easy to understand and carry a ton of information that publishers intend to an audience. Informative infographics that summarize ideas are a great source of connection for businesses apart from the content. There are many sites where submission of infographic take place on different industry verticals. Innovative infographics attract users to build links and share elsewhere.
Another essential way of conveying information in a simplified form is through images. The visually appealing images are easy to grasp as images are processed faster by brains than content. Apart from catching the eyeballs of visitors, images are a great source of link building by sharing on social media and other platforms. The original, innovative, and optimized images with a link can rank higher in the search result of Google’s image search.
Create social media profiles of business
Social signal is an indirect ranking factor for a website in the search engine result. However, social media platforms are a great place to build a lasting relationship with potential customers and create a loyal fan base, which may result in higher sales for a business.
Apart from creating brand awareness and identity, creating profiles on social networking sites on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest, help to get credible backlinks. Regular posts with engaging content help to get more likes, share, and hits from real users, enhancing the chance of higher ranking.
Build a relationship and ask for backlinks
One of the popular ways of link building is to build a relationship with professionals and ask for backlinks. Earning a backlink through this strategy is not easy without creating a credible relationship with owners. However, the effort of writing link request emails pays off in the long run.
Most of the SEO professionals try to build a relationship with industry influencers to get a mention of their brands that passes a significant link juice as well as traffic potential to a website.
Analyze competitor’s link profile
The task of building links where competitors have created is not as easy as it requires analysis and SEO tools for professionals. Some SEO tools, such as Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMrush, help to extract the link profile of competitors and search opportunities for link building. It is one of the advanced link strategies in SEO that help to explore sites to build new and high-quality links. The plan works mainly when one is trying to outrank competitors on keywords ranking and traffic generation.
The bonus tip
Link building is one of the top activities in an SEO service campaign that helps to increase the ranking of a website. The process needs a consistent effort with analysis of link sources PageRank, citation flow, trust flow, spam score, and other parameters to avoid getting lousy linkup that impact search ranking.
Further, it is best to go for manual and natural link building strategies instead of hiring automated software that may lead to a penalty. That is because link building doesn’t mean putting a clickable hypertext on anchor texts or keywords. Building links is not wrong, but creating a connection with spammy sites will definitely harm a site’s potential to rank and gain trust from Google.
At Yash Gola, we offer customized link building packages to businesses to increase link profiles, which may help in increasing website ranking. Contact us for services now.