What Is Link Building in SEO?
/What is link building? Find the answer, learn how to implement the SEO strategy, and build backlinks to boost your blog organically!
What Is Link Building in SEO? (In Simple Terms)
Unlike internal linking, which involves linking web pages on your own site, link building is a search engine optimization strategy that involves getting other websites to link to your website in their content.
The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more authority it is given in the eyes of search engines like Google and Yahoo. As a result, the website is more likely to rank higher in unpaid search results.
Of course, there are many factors that play into whether or not a website or blog ranks on Google and other search engines. However, according to SEMRUSH, eight of the top 20 ranking factors for a website relate to backlinks.
Therefore, being proactive in achieving and maintaining high-quality backlinks can be a game-changer when it comes to growing your website and boosting traffic.
What is a Backlink?
Backlinks are links that connect one page of one website to the page of another website. So, say you’re writing about a cookie recipe, and you link to a post explaining how to use the spoon and level method in your blog. That link is a backlink to another website.
What Do Backlinks Do for Websites?
Backlinks help make a website more visible, exposing it to a large audience. Backlinks play a crucial role when making sure your website is SEO optimized, which simply allows it to rank higher in search engines. This is great for brand awareness, blog traffic, boosted revenue, and conversion!
What Affects a Backlink’s Value?
While backlinks are valuable, not all backlinks are the same. Some are better than others in the eyes of search engines. In fact, “bad” backlinks can negatively impact your blog. Therefore, it's important to ensure you gain SEO links that are considered to be high-quality links by search engines.
When building backlinks, the most important factors to consider are:
Authority
The more authoritative the referring backlink (the site linking to yours), the better the backlink. Try to get links from sites with relatively high domain authority and a good balance of quality backlinks.
Relevance
It’s generally a good idea to build links with sites that are related to yours. This tells search engines that you are respected within your niche.
Link Placement
The higher up on the page and the more prominent it is, the better. Search engines take the likelihood of a reader seeing and engaging with a link into effect when ranking pages. As a result, links in sidebars, footers, and low on the page’s content aren’t as good as those that are higher up the page and included in the body content.
Anchor Text
Backlinks with descriptive anchor text are best because they allow search engines to better understand what the page is about.
For example, a backlink with the words “gluten-free chocolate cake recipe” clearly indicates what the link will lead to and allows search engines to know what keywords it should rank for.
However, a link with the anchor text “click here” tells both readers and search engines nothing.
That said, it’s important that anchor texts read naturally and are not forced into copy. Otherwise, they are considered to be over-optimized, which can have a negative kickback in the eyes of search engines.
No Follow, Sponsored, and UGC Attributes
Some links are created with a no-follow attribute. This basically tells Google not to pay attention to the link or give it any boosted rankings because of it. No-follow links can be helpful in driving traffic but do not help your rankings or authority in terms of SEO.
Other links that don’t contain a no-follow attribute, sponsored, or UGC attributes are often referred to as do-follow links. These are the ones you want! They tell Google to pay attention and give your site credit for the link and related keywords and are incredibly helpful in boosting SEO.
How to Build Backlinks
Now that you know what backlinks are and why they’re important, it’s important to establish a link-building strategy. Some of the most effective link-building techniques include:
Email Outreach
Reach out to websites and creators and ask them to give you a backlink. This isn’t always well received by can be effective if you reach out with great content. SEMRush even has a prospect-finding tool that can help you find great sources to contact.
Provide Great Information
Consistently publishing helpful content is the easiest, most cost-effective way to build your site’s backlinks. By posting helpful resources and information, people will naturally want to link to your site, which requires no extra effort on your part.
Broken Link Building
This is the process of finding backlinks on other sites that are broken or no longer work and persuading the site owner or operator to use a link to your content instead.
Creating Linkable Assets
Similarly to helpful content, tools, research reports, calculators, and other helpful assets earn backlinks naturally. The more useful they are, the more backlinks you’re likely to get.
Find Unlinked Brand Mentions
Look for websites that reference your product or brand without linking it, and reach out to the owner, requesting they do so.
Analyze Competitor Backlinks
Look at the topics your competitors are gaining backlinks with, and replicate it. This includes analyzing their website content, top-ranking keywords, social media activity, etc. For example, if your top competitor gains a lot of backlinks through YouTube videos and you don’t have any, it might be time to start filming.
Reclaim Lost Backlinks
Determine what backlinks you lost and why - was the page removed, or was it redirected or updated? Then, reach out to ask why it was removed and suggest another link or area where it might be helpful.
Do a Backlink Gap Analysis
This shows where websites link to your competitors but not to you. Reach out to these sites and suggest ways in which your content can help and may be useful to link.
Guest Blogging
You can find quite a few sites that offer guest posting, which is a great strategy to use in your link-building campaign. In doing this, you are able to create helpful content for someone else and promote your own with links you know are helpful and relevant.
In Conclusion
Link building in SEO is the process of gaining backlinks from other websites to content on your site. This marketing strategy exposes your content to new audiences and builds your website’s authority, which allows it to rank higher and more often on Google. As a result, it’s an effective way to expand your audience, your your traffic, and boost revenue through ads and conversions.
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