Beginners Guide To Link Building

beginners guide to link building

You’ve created content that people are searching for, that answers their questions, and that search engines can understand, but those qualities alone don’t mean it’ll rank. To outrank the rest of the sites with those qualities, you have to establish authority. That can be accomplished by earning links from authoritative websites, building your brand, and nurturing an audience who will help amplify your content. We see this at a professional SEO services company.  There are many search engine optimization companies to choose from; choose one with proven results.

Before we get to know what are the various link building tactics, it is important we know what a link is, it’s importance and finally, the various types it has.

WHAT IS A LINK?

what is a link

A link (short for hyperlink) is an HTML object that allows you to jump to a new location when you click or tap it. Links are found on almost every webpage and provide a simple means of navigating between pages on the web. However, links can be attached to text, images, or other HTML elements.

Inbound links, also known as backlinks or external links, are HTML hyperlinks that point from one website to another. They’re the currency of the Internet, as they act a lot like real-life reputation. If you went on vacation and asked three people (all completely unrelated to one another) what the best coffee shop in town was, and they all said, “Cuppa Joe on Main Street,” you would feel confident that Cuppa Joe is indeed the best coffee place in town. Links do that for search engines like the Search Engine Optimization company Denver: 5280 Software LLC.

TYPES OF LINKS

When text is used as a hyperlink, it is usually underlined and appears as a different color. There are four types of hyperlinks.

  • Text hyperlink – Uses a word or phrase to take visitors to another page, file or document.
  • Image hyperlink – Uses an image to take visitors to another page, file or document.
  • Bookmark hyperlink – Uses text or an image to take visitors to another part of a web page.
  • E-mail hyperlink – Allows visitors to send an e-mail message to the displayed e-mail address.

When adding a text or image hyperlink that moves off your site, have it open in a new window. This allows visitors to easily come back to your site without having to use the back button on their browser. Text or image hyperlinks can also be used to move between pages within a site.

WHY BUILD LINKS?

According to Google’s Andrey Lipattsev, links are one of the three major ranking factors in Google. So, if you want your website’s pages to rank high in search, you will almost certainly need links.

Google’s algorithms are complex and always evolving, but backlinks remain an important factor in how every search engine determines which sites rank for which keywords. Building links is one of the many tactics used in search engine optimization (SEO) because links are a signal to Google that your site is a quality resource worthy of citation. Therefore, sites with more backlinks tend to earn higher rankings.

Link building is important because it is a major factor in how Google ranks web pages. Google notes that: “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.”

Imagine that we own a site promoting wind turbine equipment that we sell. We’re competing with another wind turbine equipment manufacturer. One of the ranking factors Google will look at in determining how to rank our respective pages is link popularity.

While the above example provides a general visual understanding of why link building is important, it’s very basic. It omits key factors such as:

  • The trust and authority of the linking pages.
  • The SEO and content optimization of the respective sites.
  • The anchor text of the incoming links

WHAT IS LINK BUILDING?

A Definition. Link building, simply put, is the process of getting other websites to link back to your website.

Building links is one of the many tactics used in search engine optimization (SEO) because links are a signal to Google that your site is a quality resource worthy of citation.

HOW TO BUILD LINKS

There are many tactics and strategies that will help you get links from other websites to your pages. We aim to show you a proven website search engine optimization system.  In this chapter, you will learn what these tactics and strategies are, the logic behind them, and how risky it might be to use them.

Conceptually, most link building tactics and strategies fall into one of the following five buckets: Add, Ask, Buy, Earn and Preserve.  When it comes to digital marketing services offered by our competitors, we aim to show you the best options to grow you organic SEO traffic.

1. Adding links

If you can go to a website that doesn’t belong to you and manually place your link there, that’s called “adding” a link. The most common tactics that fit into this category are:

  • Business directory submissions
  • Social profile creation
  • Blog commenting
  • Posting to forums, communities & Q&A sites
  • Creating job search listings

etc.

Building links via those tactics is very easy to do. And for that exact reason, those links tend to have very low value in the eyes of Google (and in some cases can even be flagged as SPAM).

SIDE-NOTE.

While looking for more ways to “add” links to other websites, you might come across tactics that mention “web 2.0s” and “bookmarking sites.” Those things used to work some 15 years ago, but you shouldn’t waste your time on them today.

2. Asking for links

As the name suggests, this is when you reach out to the owner of the website you want a link from and give them a compelling reason to link to you.

That “compelling reason” is absolutely essential for this group of link building tactics. The people you reach out to don’t care about you and your website (unless you’re some sort of celebrity) and thus they have zero incentive to help you out.  Our digital marketing services can help you ask for links by sharing great content they can use on their website or social media accounts.

So, before you ask them to link to you, ask yourself: “What’s in it for THEM?”

Here are some of the link building tactics and strategies that fall into this category, along with a briefly defined “compelling reason” that they’re based off:

  • Guest blogging — create useful content for their website;
  • Skyscraper technique — show them a better resource than the one they’re linking to;
  • Link inserts — show them a resource with more information on something they’ve briefly mentioned;
  • Ego bait– mention them or their work in your own content in a positive light;
  • Testimonials Case studies- give positive feedback about their product or service;
  • Link exchanges — offer to link back to them if they agree to link to you;
  • Resource page link building- show them a good resource that fits their existing list;
  • Broken link building- help them fix a “dead” link on their page;

All these strategies seem quite exciting, right? But as soon as you send your first email request, you’re likely to face the harsh reality—your “compelling reason” isn’t compelling enough.

3. Buying links

Let’s get this straight from the get go: we don’t recommend that you buy links! 

At best, you’re likely to waste lots of money on bad links that will have zero impact on your rankings; at worst, you’ll get your website penalized.

However, we would be putting you at a disadvantage if we didn’t disclose the fact that many people in the SEO industry “buy” links in all sorts of ways and manage to get away with it.

4. Earning links

You “earn” links when other people link to the pages on your website without you having to ask them to do so. This obviously doesn’t happen unless you have something truly outstanding that other website owners would genuinely want to mention on their websites.

But people can’t link to things that they don’t know exist. So, no matter how awesome your page is, you’ll need to invest in promoting it. And the more people see your page, the higher the chance that some of them will end up linking to it.

Here are a few tactics and strategies that fall into this category:

  • Linkbait (or linkable assets)
  • Data studies, infographics, maps, surveys, awards
  • Podcasts / interviews / expert roundups
  • Content promotion

etc.

Earning links is arguably the easiest and the most effective way to get them.

5. Preserving links

As the name suggests, this final group of tactics is focused around preserving all your hard-earned links. One might argue that reviving your lost links can’t be categorized as “link building.” But as they say, “a dollar saved is a dollar earned.”  Our proven website search engine optimization system can build content that will be relevant in the future and keep your hard-earned links.

There are just two ways of preserving links:

  • Link reclamation
  • Fixing 404 pages that have links

CONCLUSION

For your information, No SEO strategy is complete without link building. While link building is recognized as one of the most difficult and time-consuming SEO tactics, it can help your site rank significantly higher, bring you more traffic and grow your business significantly.

About 5280 Software LLC:

5280 Software LLC, located in Denver, Colorado is a premier software development firm.  We have worked with a variety of clients over the years.  Our expert team of developers have helped small to medium sized businesses, startups, as well as enterprise level clients such as RingCentral.  If you are looking to build a mobile app, we can deliver flawless apple ios mobile apps as well as android mobile apps.  These apps can be designed for smartphones, ipad and android tablets, wearable such as smart watches, and even smart TVs.  The power of a well-designed app to gain new customers is key in today’s market.  We help execute your app development to perfection.  A website is powerful tool for branding and showcasing the products or services you offer.  We can build you a WordPress, E-Commerce, or custom coded website at competitive prices.  We are also by far Denver SEO marketing experts.

Once the site is launched, or if you already have a website, we offer Search Engine Optimization Services to achieve higher search engine rankings.  Contact us today with your website’s URL and we will put together a free SEO analysis of your site with pricing and timeline to get your site ranked on the first page of Google and other search engines. Our experienced and dedicated team has a proven track record and provide regular reporting on tasks completed and keyword movements during your SEO project.  Our expert SEO services team help businesses and companies gain rankings on all the major search engines.

Do you notice your competitors are posting on almost a daily basis on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter?  It is crucial to post often to social media.  This shows users that you are serious about building your brand.  This task also builds your authority in your niche.  By sharing updates about your products and services you drive traffic to your website.  If you are overwhelmed (as most business owners are) with the daily tasks of running your business and don’t have time to run your business’ social media campaigns we can help.  Our social media marketing services are cheaper than having a salaried employee and we can deliver great results.  See what Paddy McCracken from Rapid Connect Medical had to say about our social media marketing and SEO campaign we ran for his company.

We can improve the understanding of your business and marketing outreach through the use of analytics. We offer a complete solution with the latest technologies to solve your obstacles and scale your customer base. From the start of any project (and at every stage, step, phase, and release) we focus on the client and always ask for feedback while we develop the project. Creating a quality solution for a business or startup is our end goal. Our strategy and processes are based on solid communication with our clients. We are a digital product development company that can guide your digital marketing strategies as well.

We look forward to speaking with you about your project.  Learn why clients around the world trust working with 5280 Software LLC.  We support our clients from mockups, sketch, wireframes, and graphic design, development, product launch and ASO when we publish your app, and even code updates at a competitive price point.  Feel free to visit us on our social sites Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or send us a LinkedIn connection request to learn about our offers to get answers to your questions.  Want to hear firsthand from our previous clients the superior service we offer?  Check out our testimonialsCall us today at 888.510.0833 to learn about our Search Engine Optimization and Digital Marketing services!

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