Link building is an important part of any brand’s marketing strategy. It not only helps increase your visibility but also works to establish your domain as an authority. It is worth mentioning that Google and other search engines count links as a significant factor in determining your PageRank. So if you want to make your brand search engine friendly, you need to up your link-building game.
While many SEO experts believe links to be dead, we think otherwise. Sure, content has the utmost importance, but links are important too. Earlier, it was more about quantity. The more links you had, the higher you ranked. But now the game has changed. These days a few high-quality links can rank you high in search results. High-quality links here mean backlinks from sites with high domain authority. Such links serve as testimonials that tell search engines that your content is worthy and beneficial for your target audience.
Of course, earning such links is not a piece of cake. You have to stay patient as it is a gradual process. That’s why today, we have mentioned four expert secrets to a successful link-building strategy. Check them out below:
- Develop Your Website as an Authority
In SEO terms, if you are an authority, people will naturally link with you. A natural, organic, or editorial link is the most gratifying experience ever. But for that, you need stellar content and an amazing SEO strategy.
Start with creating tons of link-worthy content. Think about what other bloggers, organizations, and journalists typically link with. It is best to pick evergreen content like a how-to guide or a top ten roundup, but no matter what you post, it has to be high in quality and must provide relevant information. Now optimize your content with effective internal links that can improve user experience.
Linking the posts related to the topic at hand works the best. You can also place some high-quality outbound links to gain more visibility. It is also essential to keep an eye on your backlinks. If they are shady or unreliable, your domain authority will suffer.
- Publish a Link Roundup
Link roundup is the best way to direct traffic towards your site. A link roundup is a blog post that lists different postings themed around a specific topic or keywords. Bloggers usually create them on a weekly or monthly basis. When you publish a link roundup yourself, you share the content that best fits to audience’s interest. Here’s the best part, when you generously mention other blogs in yours, in return, they share or link your blogs too. The practice results in getting you more traffic, exposure, and of course, backlinks.
However, in your link roundup, you should mention interesting posts from authority blogs along with your internal ones. When you do that, they’ll surely come to check out your post and sometimes may leave a comment too. Hence, a link roundup quickly brings you under some higher authority sites’ radar.
- Guest Posting
Most webmasters already know about guest posting, but not many of them use it to their advantage. Perhaps, writing for a high-ranking blog as a guest serves two purposes: it connects your name to the prestigious blog and makes you popular among thousands of people who follow that blog. Notably, if the visitors like what they read, they’ll continue visiting your blog for more.
With that said, getting a chance to guest post is certainly not easy. Most pitches get deleted even before opening. So you have to create a pitch that is impossible to ignore. It’s better to conduct some research beforehand so you can draft a strong and compelling pitch. Spend some time browsing the site to understand the topics that the readers mostly search. Once you are allowed to post as a quest, draft an amazing post and get it published.
It is best to create a catchy title that attracts attention and compels the readers to go through the content. Don’t forget to add some internal links to the host blog, as their editorial team will surely do so. You can help save their time. Once your shiny bright post is up on the site, people will clamber to follow you. It will increase your domain authority and improve your PageRank.
- Use Social Media
Social media has completely revolutionized brand marketing. Having an active social media account can boost your link-building strategy. Now you might be thinking, how’s that possible? Perhaps, the answer is simple, i.e., share new content, recent updates, and images about your brand and products. The fundamental way to build links via social media is to include your website into your profile – this includes your business profile, fan page, and group page. You can also include links to the images, descriptions, photos, or any other social media content you post.
Once you are all set, start sharing your website content over social media platforms. You can also add a call for action, asking your audience to share your content. Just be sure to share quality content that your viewers find valuable. When people decide to visit your web page, they are more likely to share it when you display it outright in front of them. For example, having floating or fixed sharing buttons for popular social media platforms is a great way to ask for shares subtly. As more people share your content, it gets more exposure hence improving your chances of getting links.
The Bottom Line
Like we said above, link building is not dead. Search engines have just changed the way people perceive them. If you want to rank higher than your competitors, you have to stack up on quality backlinks from high-ranking domains. Of course, your content also needs to either be better or at least on par with your competitors to get a higher PageRank, so keep looking for ways to improve your posts.
Aim to become the best in your niche, and you will start getting links naturally. Remember that getting indexed can take a few weeks, so you may not notice the results immediately, but all your hard work will surely pay off. Your ranking will improve and continue to do so if you keep improving your domain.
