When looking to boost your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), one of the single most effective tactics is link-building. If you can pull it off, that is.
When Google is determining the placement of your site on their search results page, they don’t merely look at your page in a vacuum. They also consider how many other websites link to your site, and how popular/reputable those websites are. More recently, even the behavior of social media influencers can also contribute to these evaluations.
Simply put, if a lot of high-quality websites are linking to your page, that will inevitably cause you to rank highly in search results.
For the most part, link building is out of your control. After all, you can’t force other websites to link to you. You have to earn those links.
Further, there really aren’t many valid shortcuts. Previously, it was possible to pay money to “link farms” which specifically created a lot of inbound links. However, Google became aware of this activity and will now heavily penalize you for it with lower rankings. In fact, pretty much every form of “pay to play” link building will risk hurting your ranking, rather than helping.
Effective link building requires using reputable techniques. And that takes time.
There are techniques which can improve your chances of attracting inbound links! These include:
Sorry, there is truly no shortcut here. If you want to inspire links, you have to have content that people actively engage with and want to share. A webpage full of generic recycled content will have a very hard time with link building.
SEO doesn’t have to be cutthroat – it can also be a situation where the proverbial rising tide lifts all ships. Make contacts within your industry, and within related industries. Offer to swap blogs and links. An idealized example of this would be a peanut butter company partnering with a jelly company to heavily link to each other – both will profit.
Is there a particular social influencer you’d like to notice your work? Drop their name and include links to their work. It’s not guaranteed, of course, but it increases the chances that you’ll get their attention. For best results, have reasonable expectations and don’t punch too high above your weight class.
Start doing surveys of other websites in your industry or associated with it. Look for instances where they link to webpages which are broken or offline… then contact them suggesting your webpage as a replacement. Again, there are no guarantees, but it’s another good way of bringing yourself to their attention.
Be polite. Remember that they’re doing you a favor if they agree.
Need More Help? ALM Corp. Is A Best-In-Class SEO Services Company <H2>
We have years of experience helping companies of all sizes build better content, better SEO, and better link building strategies. Contact us to learn how we can revolutionize your online outreach!
