If you work in marketing, it’s likely that you’ve heard the words “link building” from time to time. This is an important aspect of many marketing campaigns, especially those which prioritize search engine optimization. Put simply, it involves getting as many links as possible pointing from other websites to your own, which in turn – and, perhaps at least just in theory – improves your Google rankings. But what exactly does it entail, and how do you go about it?
The basics
When a search engine such as Google gets its robots to trawl the Internet looking for the information which it serves you in search results, it doesn’t just stop at the website it starts on. It “clicks” on the links that exist on that website and begins to explore those new sites, too. It then starts to chronicle what it finds on the new sites, and those sites get added to Google’s lists. For that second site, then, the original link on the first site is a valuable commodity, as it is a way of breaking into that all-important Google ranking. As a link builder, your responsibility is to get as many of these positive links as possible for your or your client’s website.
Methods available
When it comes to building links, there are several methods available. First off, you can work to get the most precious links of all, organic links, by raising your profile through a public relations strategy. You can also hire an agency who can do the legwork of approaching paid-for host websites for you, and this may be cost-effective if you are looking to outsource the work and do it on a more efficient basis. And it’s also worth exploring other avenues to creating links, too: the best email outreach tools are able to aid with SEO, while social media may also offer another node in the funnel to a linked page.
Quality is still important
For a newbie marketer, then, it’s tempting to create another website, add a page to it and fill it with links to your original website and hope it climbs the ranks. And in the past, some marketers would do this and hope for the best. So why is that not wise these days? The answer is simple: Google doesn’t make its decisions about what ranks highly based on how many links are pointing to it. It also makes them based on the quality of the page and the content on it, and “link stuffing” tends to be sniffed out by Google’s robots.
For many people, link building is a significant challengebut it is worth it in the long run. Getting a website ranked highly in Google is important for revenue, awareness raising and more. And while links are not the only thing you need, they’re high on the list – and when paired with (and integrated into) quality content, links can be a great investment.