Increase Your Web Visibility With 3 Simplified Methods in Link Building
With people spending more time than ever online, do you wonder if your prospects are finding you? Are you confident in your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy?
The internet is built on links. Developing and executing a link building strategy is a proven way to increase your site’s SEO: it connects you with other like-minded professionals in your sector, and it gives you the chance to share your valuable expertise with a wider audience.
What exactly is link building?
Linking goes both ways: you link to other websites, or they link to yours. It’s a natural way for web users to navigate between sites online.
- When you choose to publish another site’s link on your website, this is an outbound or outgoing link.
- When a credible site links to your website, it’s referred to as a backlink or an inbound link (IBL). An IBL from a credible site helps increase search rankings because the engines view it as a sign of credibility. As described at OptinMonster, links are a “crucial SEO ranking signal.”
The web is built on links, and yet links are more than the sum of their parts. Even links that don’t drive traffic to your site will increase your brand visibility across the web.
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Increase your web visibility when you incorporate these 3 simplified link building methods.
1. Start with your connections
The chances are very high that you have professional relationships with reputable churches or organizations with a similar mission. The chances are also high that your high-quality content will be a benefit to their audience, and vice versa.
As far as creating authentic backlinks through a guest-posting scenario on their blog or website resource area, here’s how it can look:
- Contact those industry friends and carefully pitch your collateral, like a blog article or an e-book, which of course will contain links back to your website.
- Create something original for their publication, or edit an already-existing article to fit their parameters.
- Promote the resource on their site from your social media channels.
As a result of this connection, your material and website will be introduced to prospective followers and send qualified prospects to your site.
It’s also possible that you’ll be asked to publish guest material on your website. If the prospective resource fits your plan, you’ll find it to be a fast and inexpensive way to build collateral on your website. Just proceed cautiously: associating with blogs that are low-ranking or penalized can harm your site’s reputation and optimization.
Pro tip: To learn more about accepting guest posts, take a look at Sergio Aicardi’s article on Search Engine Journal entitled 6 Things You Must Do Before You Ever Accept Guest Posts. Sergio hits all the main points of accepting guest posts: setting goals and guidelines and determining your plan.
2. Develop new relationships
Seek out and build relationships with managers of other reputable websites that can provide an IBL back to your website.
Of course it’s against Google’s policy to purchase links, so beware of link-selling operations. Also, contextual links are always preferred, but a guest option is great for visibility and brand authority.
How can you determine which sites might offer a good link? Kristopher Jones at the Search Engine Journal suggests the following guidelines:
- Linking domain offers content relevant to your business.
- Linking domain has high traffic value.
- Anchor text is contextual.
- Linked-to page offers value to users.
- The website has an editorial process in place for content.
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3. Create a roundup post
A roundup post compiles answers or comments about a single subject in one convenient location. The post is full of valuable outbound links that bring in traffic because many of the quoted individuals will share your post with their audiences.
Since the work can seem to fall on the shoulders of the person quoted, this technique is sometimes considered a put-off and can give roundup posts a bad rap. Try this link roundup tactic instead:
- Find the content for yourself (research tools like BuzzSumo, Topsy, SEMRush can all help) by searching the web.
- Thoughtfully create your article, including the found quotations or data.
- Approach the individuals to be quoted to let them know they’re included. As explained by Stephen Panico for BuzzStream, ask them:
- Are you still good with this info or would you change or add anything?
- How do you want to be attributed? Do you want a link to your Twitter profile, blog, or some other page?
This kind of approach shows the individual that you’ve done the work and you’re going to publish the article and give them credit, and it’s up to them to contribute additional comments or promote it themselves.
Get found by web crawlers and followers alike when you apply these link building methods to your SEO strategy.
Find more digital marketing tips and best practices on the get.bible/blog.