Those of you that have been around the business and marketing world for a long time will probably have heard of link building. In the early days of SEO, this was by far and away the best method of gaining traffic. The idea was simple, get as many links as possible that point to your website and your ranking will improve. This was all made possible thanks to the Google search algorithm at the time that put backlinks as one of the most important ranking factors.
Then, somewhere down the line, link building started to become less popular. Again, this was due to the algorithm, which had now changed. In the past, you could generate as many links as you like, in any way you could think. As a result, many companies would spam links on different websites, they’d create blank websites that just had hundreds of links back to their main site, or they’d buy backlinks from different sources. This means there was a lot of spam on the internet, and Google didn’t think it was fair. So, they changed things, and many people suffered big ranking penalties, leading them to believe that link building was dead.
People kept saying it was dead for years, but the reality is it never died. Link building is still a very effective way of marketing your company online, and this guide will tell you everything you need to know about it. We’ll start with a brief look at what the current state of link building is, and then finish things off by showing you how it benefits your business. So, settle down and get ready to learn about link building!
What Is Link Building In 2018?
Link building in 2018 is similar to what it used to be back in the early days. The concept remains the same; you build links back to your site, to gain ranking places. Google still places a huge emphasis on links, which is something a lot of people don’t realise. The difference is that the emphasis is now on quality backlinks, instead of any old link. As a result, you can no longer spam links on every web page you come across. In fact, if you do this, you’ll suffer rankings penalties that make you appear lower down the search results.
What Are The Best Link Building Strategies Nowadays?
You’ll be surprised at how many companies completely neglect link building because they think it doesn’t work anymore. This is simply because of they’re trying all the old tactics and seeing a negative result. In reality, you will see success if you use the right strategies for 2018.
What are they?
Well, make no mistake about it, the old strategies were a lot easier. Now, you have to find ways of generating lots of backlinks from authority sources. The best way to do this is through a company that offers SEO services. They can help you find lots of different websites on the internet that are willing to provide backlinks. Mainly, they provide the links through blog posts and articles. Essentially, they publish a blog post on their site that includes a backlink in the content. It blends in with the content and isn’t considered spam, so Google gives it a big thumbs up. The tricky part is finding enough blogs and sites to post articles on, but this is why you use a marketing agency to help you out.
The other method is writing press releases and sending them to various media outlets. Naturally, they’ll link back to your website, which helps you gain backlinks from top quality sources. This is perhaps the easier way of getting lots of links, but the issue is that you can’t constantly create press releases – they’re only created when your business does something that warrants news coverage!
How Can Link Building Help Your Marketing Strategy?
Now, you’ve seen what link building is and the different strategies you can use, but how does it help your company on the marketing front? The main benefit of link building is to improve your SEO. Websites with a lot of backlinks are likely to receive a nice little rankings boost. As a consequence, you may appear higher up in the results, increasing your online coverage. Websites that rank highly will be clicked on more times than those that are ranked lower – this is just a fact of the online world! Therefore, you could argue that link building helps you gain a lot more web traffic.
Not only that, but appearing high up in the search results means your business now looks a lot more impressive too. It’s great for your brand image as you appear to be a professional and trustworthy company. Do your own research here, ask people who they’re more likely to trust; a company that’s in the top five ranking spots, or one that’s on the second page of the results? They’ll pick the first option every time because we just assume businesses are big and professional if they’re in the first few spots. So, link building strengthens your brand and solidifies you as an authoritative source.
Lastly, because it helps bring in more traffic and improves your brand image, link building can also lead to more sales. It’s common sense; the more people that visit your site, the better. This means more leads can be generated, and the positive brand image convinces consumers to spend their money. As a result, your sales figures can go up quite dramatically. Especially if you operate an online business and make most of your sales directly through your website.
Okay, now’s the part where I wrap up this guide and bring everything together! The main thing to remember from this piece is that link building is very much alive and kicking. It will still directly affect your search ranking, but the strategies you use are different to the traditional methods people attempted back in the day. If you generate high-quality backlinks, then your site will move up the rankings, bring in more traffic, strengthen your brand image, and cause more sales!
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To your success,
Vinh Van Lam & Stuart Horrex
Your Creative Coaches @ CoSydney & ArtSHINE industries
