Search engine optimization (SEO) is a highly competitive field indeed. It is a minefield of tricks and tips designed to help your site rank as high as possible in search engines.
Generally, the aim is to get onto page one, preferably at the top of page 1, where the vast majority of web traffic flows.
The problem with SEO is that all of the techniques are constantly evolving. What may have worked well a few years ago won’t necessarily be effective now.
This is because search engines are now increasingly sophisticated, and they update their algorithms regularly in order to provide better results for users.
It is always a challenge to stay on top of everything and to create an SEO strategy that will stand the test of time.
However, there is one area of SEO that is always a safe bet when it comes to improving your site’s ranking on search systems, and that is link-building.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the best and most popular link-building strategies that you can use to boost your search rankings.
But before we do that, let’s start by briefly looking at what exactly link-building is and why it is so important.
What is Link-Building?
Link-building is the process of expanding a website’s online presence by creating reputable incoming links from external sources.
This technique is an essential component of successful SEO strategies as search algorithms use the number and quality of incoming links to measure the popularity of a website and rank it among other web pages in its niche.
In other words, building links helps major search systems to determine how authoritative and trustworthy a given website is and can act as a signal to search crawlers that your own content is valuable and should be highly ranked.
With the right link-building plan, businesses will be able to increase their page rankings, get more visibility for their brand, and have higher volumes of traffic for their websites.
Why is Link-Building Important?
Link-building is a core component of modern SEO and digital marketing strategies. As links are a vital factor in determining a website’s rankings, every website owner should strive to build more relevant links that lead back to their site.
The importance of building links goes beyond boosting the search ranking, though. Here are five reasons why link-building is important for businesses of sizes:
It increases traffic to your website.
One of the primary benefits of link-building is that it drives more traffic to your website. The more links you have, the higher your site will be ranked in search systems, and this leads to increased visibility and exposure for your brand.
With more people visiting your website, you can expect to see higher conversion rates and increased sales.
It improves your site’s credibility and authority.
Search systems use link-building as a way to measure the trustworthiness of websites and their content.
The more relevant links you have pointing back to your site, the higher your ranking will be in search results and the more credible you will appear in the eyes of search crawlers.
This can help to improve your site’s reputation and be perceived as a source of dependable, high-quality content.
It helps you build relationships with other businesses.
Link-building is not just about attracting links back to your website – it also involves partnering with other businesses and organizations to create mutual links.
This can help you build relationships with other businesses that have complementary products or services and is a great way to increase your online presence within your industry.
It boosts your search rankings and visibility.
As we noted above, link-building is one of the key factors used by search engines to rank websites.
When you have a well-optimized link-building strategy in place, you can easily improve your page rankings and get more visibility for your brand on search systems.
This will help increase traffic to your site, attract new customers, and generate higher revenues for your business over time.
It is an effective way to build your brand’s online presence.
Link-building is also an important component of any comprehensive digital marketing strategy as it helps to establish your brand’s authority and build a strong online presence.
With the right strategy in place, you may establish yourself as an industry thought leader, connect with potential customers, and expand your reach within your niche.
Whether you are just starting out or already have an established business, link-building is a must-have strategy for any company looking to grow and succeed in today’s digital landscape.
So, make sure to incorporate link-building into your overall marketing and SEO strategy to see the many benefits it offers for your business.
How to Find High-Quality Links?
When building your website’s presence online, it’s essential to acquire high-quality links. Such links will help direct more traffic to your website, thus increasing visibility and boosting credibility.
However, how can you find such links?
Here are 6 useful tips to help you identify links that are actually worth building:
Authority of The Website
If you are looking to increase your search rankings and amass the highest quality links you can, a great first step is to evaluate the authority of a website.
Authority isn’t just determined by a website’s Google Page Rank or Moz Domain Authority score.
Instead, it should encompass factors like the age of a domain, relevance of content, user engagement, backlink diversity and structure, quality of traffic sources, and more.
Assessing the authority of any given website may help to conduct an overall audit that takes into account all of these variables before making your decision.
Doing so will ensure that you obtain quality links to websites with legitimate online reputations and offer maximum benefit for your organic search efforts.
Keep in mind, however, that there is no “magic number” for authority sites – you may need to conduct a number of audits and identify potential link sources based on your unique business needs.
Page Authority
In addition to evaluating the authority of a website, you should also look at the individual page that you’re considering linking to.
For instance, if you have an established business with numerous product pages, it’s important that each page has proper relevance and visibility on search engines.
This means that it will be beneficial to reach out to external websites and partners that have pages with high authority and relevant content, as this will help to improve your search rankings for targeted keywords.
To identify such links, you can look at factors like page ranking in search results, backlinks from authoritative websites, the number of social shares the page has received, and more.
Evaluating individual pages will also help you target the most relevant sites that are more likely to link back to your own website, thus helping you build a high-quality link-building tactic for long-term success.
Relevancy of The Website
Another important factor to consider when identifying potential link sources is the relevance of the website.
Choosing websites that are highly relevant to your brand or business will help ensure that you get quality traffic and boost your overall visibility on search systems.
When conducting an audit of a potential linking page partner, you should look at their content and determine how relevant it is to your own.
For instance, if you have an online store that sells pet supplies, you may want to reach out to websites that focus on animal care or veterinary services, as these sites will likely be interested in building a link and promoting your products.
In addition to looking at content relevance, evaluating the overall niche of a website is also important, as this will help ensure that your link won’t be seen as spammy or irrelevant by search systems.
Position of The Link on The Page
When it comes to finding quality links, position is key. Knowing where the link is situated on a page can help you determine its value and how useful it will be for your own website.
A well-anchored link at the top of the page signals to search systems that this particular website information is trusted and valuable; therefore, links from these sites are more likely to be shared by users online.
On the other hand, links placed in sidebars or columns are usually less accessible for visitors, so if you find links further down on a web page, you should investigate further before considering them as quality sources.
By understanding the importance of link placement on a web page, you’ll be able to distinguish between high-quality and low-quality resource pages more easily.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see when they hover over a link. It’s an important factor in determining the quality of a link, as it helps search systems understand what the page being linked to is about.
For this reason, it’s important to choose exact match anchor text that accurately reflects your website or business and is relevant to your targeted keywords.
This will help ensure that your link-building efforts are seen as a “white hat” and will help improve your search rankings over time.
There are a number of different strategies that you can use when choosing anchor text for your links, including using brand names, generic terms, keyword phrases, or combinations of these.
Ultimately, the best approach will depend on your specific business goals and the niche of your website, so it can be helpful to conduct an audit and identify link opportunities based on your unique needs.
No-follow vs. Do-follow
Not all links on a website are created equal, and not all of them will help to improve your search rankings.
In particular, you should be aware of the difference between no-follow and do-follow links, as this may play a large role in the quality of your link-building strategy.
No-follows, as the name suggests, are links that do not pass any “link juice” to the linked website.
This means that they will not help to improve your search rankings or boost your visibility on search engines.
In contrast, do-follows are generally viewed as more valuable by search systems and will help to improve your organic search results.
For this reason, it’s important to focus on building high-quality do-follow links that will positively impact your website or business.
And while no-follow links may not help with your search rankings, they can still be an important part of a well-rounded link-building strategy.
For example, no-follow links can be an effective way to increase referral traffic or build brand awareness by getting your website or business mentioned in high-profile publications or websites.
Ultimately, the key is to build a balanced mix of both links that will help to drive traffic, increase your visibility, and boost your overall online success.
With the right tools and techniques, you may easily identify high-quality link-building sources that will help to drive long-term success for your website or business.
17 Link-Building Strategies that Will Help You to Increase Your Ratings in Google Search Results
Growing a solid presence on the web today requires more than just having an attractive website; it also involves link-building strategies that will help to boost website rankings in search results.
There are a number of link-building strategies that you can use to increase your rankings and gain an advantage over your competition.
Here are just 17 of the most effective and powerful ones:
Outreach
Outreach is a great way to create link-building opportunities. It involves connecting with leaders in your field and convincing them to share links from your own blog, website, or online store on their channels.
This method has proven to be effective in helping increase ratings in Google search results as it provides views from other outlets and increases visibility for a wider audience.
It is important that the content being shared is of high quality and relevant; otherwise, it will make minimal impact.
Also, look at joining online communities related to your industry so that you can reach out and connect with influencers within that space more easily.
Outreach takes dedication and time but can be well worth the investment, given the potential opportunity of increased visibility within Google search results.
Grow Your Personal Brand
Building your personal brand and establishing yourself as an authority within your field can have a positive impact when it comes to generating links and improving search engine rankings.
Consider writing guest posts for well-established blogs or publications within your industry, speaking at reputable events, and developing high-quality content (such as ebooks, whitepapers, infographics, or webinars) that can be shared online.
Focus on consistently sharing high-quality and valuable content, as well as engaging with others in your industry on social media platforms to help build relationships and increase your visibility.
Building a strong personal brand takes time, effort, and dedication, but it can be an effective strategy for increasing your rankings in Google search results over the long term.
List Your Site in Trustworthy Directories
Listing your website in trustworthy directories is one of the most reliable and common link-building strategies that can help you improve your rankings on Google search results.
Directories navigate users to high-quality websites, allowing potential customers to access and learn more about your services quickly and easily.
It’s also an effective method for increasing your domain authority since the major search systems will take into account the trustworthiness of such directories when assigning relevance to a website.
When creating directory entries, make sure all information presented is accurate and up to date.
The more detailed and thorough your entries are, the more likely you are to be found by potential customers who are searching for products or services like yours.
Get Active on Social Media
In today’s digital age, social media has become an essential tool for improving your rankings on Google search results.
It allows you to easily reach potential customers and build relationships with influencers in your industry by sharing valuable content that is relevant to their interests.
Consider building a following on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or Pinterest and regularly posting engaging content that is relevant to your business, such as articles, infographics, videos, product reviews, or industry news.
Engage with other users by liking and commenting on their posts, replying to questions or comments in a timely manner, and sharing valuable content from others within your industry.
Social media may be a powerful way to increase your search engine rankings by increasing the number of quality links to your website and improving your visibility.
However, it is important to be strategic in how you use social media – posting too often or irrelevant content can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings, so make sure that you are focusing on quality over quantity.
Start a Blog
One powerful way to increase your visibility and build quality links is by starting a blog related to your business.
Blogs allow you to share relevant content on an ongoing basis, effectively positioning you as an expert within your industry and building relationships with others in your field.
Consider writing blog posts offering tips or advice related to issues that are common for your target audience, such as common problems they might face or frequently asked questions.
You can also share news or updates about your business, post product reviews and case studies, or offer tricks and tips for using your products and services in an engaging manner.
Additionally, you can incorporate a blog into your website to attract more traffic and improve your search engine rankings.
Write a Good Guest Post
Writing good guest posts is one of the most effective link-building strategies out there. Not only can you drive more organic traffic to your site and introduce yourself to a new audience, but you’ll also increase your rating in Google search results.
High-quality content that provides value will not only attract visitors to your website, but they’ll also be more likely to link back to it in their own posts and discussions.
Before you start writing a blog post, research target blogs and outlets carefully – make sure your subject matter aligns with their audience.
Craft content that stands out with interesting facts and commentary while avoiding duplicate information or content that has been previously covered in an article or post.
Put together well-thought-out points backed up by evidence when possible, include relevant internal and external links for readers to find additional resources on the topic discussed, SEO optimize the blog post by including related keywords strategically (without excessive use), and contact bloggers personally offering them the option of reading it first before publishing.
Keep in mind that Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search systems look at how many links lead to your site, as well as the quality of those links.
The more high-quality, trustworthy, and authoritative sites link to you, the higher your blog posts and sales pages will appear on search result pages.
Link-building can be done in multiple ways, but a compelling guest post will help move the needle forward.
Establish Content Pillars
Establishing content pillars is an effective link-building strategy for improving your rankings on Google search results.
When you create content around a specific topic, also known as a pillar, it can make your website easier to crawl, improving visibility and engagement.
This type of content becomes more shareable, too – the more people are talking about it, the more backlinks you’ll get. Quality matters, too – ensure that your content is well-researched and thorough.
By building a solid foundation of wonderful content that explains the core concepts associated with your product or service, you’ll increase readership while simultaneously boosting credibility and authority.
Create Visual Assets
One of the top strategies for increasing ratings in Google search results is creating visual assets.
It goes without saying that people nowadays are more likely to engage with content that includes visuals like videos and graphics, as it makes the information far more accessible.
Even if your website isn’t particularly industry-focused, assets such as infographics or a detailed flowchart can make complex topics simple and straightforward to understand.
Also, be sure to add ALT tags in your images so they are recognized by web crawlers and can ultimately drive potential visitors back to your site.
Creating quality visual assets is essential for getting an opportunity to attract links, so make sure you don’t forget it when trying to increase your Google rankings.
List Your Posts
In case you want to increase your search engine rankings and boost your website’s visibility, listing your posts is a great strategy.
By including lists and numbered steps in your content, you create structure and make the post easier to read and navigate – which helps increase engagement with the post.
Additionally, structuring the content in this way increases its accessibility to both search systems and people that may have difficulty reading more complex pieces of text.
Not only can this technique help to improve user experience, but it will also assist Google algorithms in understanding what a post is all about – allowing higher rankings as they are able to better identify relevant content.
Utilizing list and numbering strategies when creating posts can be a beneficial addition to overall link-building strategies!
Create Content That Reveals Original Research, Data, and Ultimate In-Depth Guides
Creating content that reveals original research, data, and ultimate in-depth guides is one of the top link-building strategies for increasing your rankings in Google search results.
Original research and comprehensive coverage of topics allow readers to gain insights they can’t find anywhere else. It also encourages natural link-building, as websites want to cite reliable sources when developing content.
Producing well-researched pieces that focus on unique topics gives you a competitive edge in the crowded search landscape by providing more relevant information that no other source can offer.
By leveraging original research and ultimate guides as part of your link-building strategy, you’re able to set yourself apart from the competition while offering something truly valuable to readers.
Consider Broken Link-Building
Another useful link-building strategy is to build broken links. By finding websites with ‘broken’ or dead links that are pointing to sources that no longer exist, you can offer new ones in their place.
This process not only helps reduce errors on other sites (which can increase their page rank) but also gives you the opportunity to gain website backlinks that you might not already have.
It’s a win-win situation, with the added bonus of helping improve your SEO rankings and visibility.
To find a dead link, you can use a number of online tools and resources that identify them. Once you have identified the ‘broken’ links on other websites, reach out to the webmaster or site owner and offer new, relevant sources for their readers.
Just make sure to do your research and make sure the content is truly valuable before reaching out.
Find Unlinked Mentions
One of the most effective yet often overlooked strategies in link-building is finding unlinked mentions.
This involves searching for instances where your brand, website, or product is mentioned online, but no link has been provided.
When you discover a mention like this, reach out to the publisher and kindly request that they include a link back to your website. Most site owners are happy to turn your unlinked mention into a link.
This technique is simple yet surprisingly efficient; it allows you to build links with relatively low effort and cost while engaging with third-party sources in a positive way which will bolster your reputation and help you form effective outreach relationships.
Examine Competitor Backlinks
As a part of your link-building strategy, it can be helpful to examine the backlinks of your competitors. By looking at where and how your competitors get a link, you can gain valuable insight that will allow you to better strategize your link-building efforts.
For example, if many of your competitor’s backlinks come from social media campaigns or through guest blogging opportunities that you have not yet taken advantage of, this information can help guide where and how you should build links for your own website.
There are many tools and online resources that can help you to find, examine, and analyze your competitor’s inbound links.
One of the most commonly used tools is Open Site Explorer, which allows you to view a list of all the backlinks pointing to any website.
With the right tools and resources, you can quickly gain valuable insights into your competitors’ backlink strategies that will help inform your own.
Replicate Your Competitor’s Best Links
In addition to examining your competitor’s backlinks, another effective strategy is to replicate their best links. By identifying the highest-quality backlinks to your competitor’s site, you can replicate these links in order to boost your own SEO rankings and visibility.
There are several ways to find your competitor’s best links. You can manually examine their most popular or highly shared content or review their link profile using a tool like Open Site Explorer.
Another effective strategy is to use a tool such as Majestic SEO or Ahrefs, which both provide metrics on your competitor’s most link-worthy content.
Once you’ve identified your competitor’s top-performing links, reach out to the site owners and offer them similar links for your own site.
For best results, be sure to target high-quality, authoritative websites that already have a strong relationship with your competitor.
Reclaim Lost Backlinks
Building your site’s link portfolio involves a combination of work – not only acquiring new links from scratch but also reclaiming those that may have been lost over time.
A number of factors can lead to losing backlinks from a post or resource page, including website maintenance and redesigns, changes in the site’s content or focus, or simply webpage errors that cause broken links.
Regardless of the reason for lost backlinks, it is important to regularly monitor your link profile and identify opportunities to reclaim these valuable assets.
In order to reclaim lost backlinks, you can use a variety of online tools and resources. One popular tool is Google Webmaster Tools, which allows you to identify any broken or “404” links pointing to your site.
You can then reach out to the site owners and request that they remove the link or – if possible – provide an updated, relevant link to your content.
Other tools that can assist you in identifying and reclaiming lost links include Ahrefs, Majestic SEO, and Open Site Explorer.
With the right combination of tools and strategies, you can keep track of your backlink profile, recover any lost links, and continue building a strong and valuable link portfolio for your website.
Earn Editorial Links
Earning editorial links is an important part of achieving high ratings in Google search results. What sets editorial links apart from other link-building strategies is that they come from well-known, authoritative sources and publishers which are highly respected by search engines.
When you successfully earn an editorial link from a respected source, it helps boost the SEO profile of your content and demonstrates to Google that your content is high-quality and worth ranking higher in the results.
There are a number of different ways to earn editorial links, including guest posting on relevant blogs and websites, participating in high-quality discussions or forums, and contributing to relevant resource or industry-specific roundups.
Additionally, you can reach out to content publishers directly and ask for an editorial link if you have already published guest posts or articles on their site.
And no matter where your link appears on the site, it will be valuable to your SEO efforts as long as it is a trusted, relevant source.
Keep Track of Your Link-Building Efforts
An essential part of successful link-building is keeping track of your efforts. You need to know what strategies are working and which are not so that you can make adjustments and improve on them.
Fortunately, there are several tools that help keep track of your link-building activities. By implementing analytics systems, you will be able to gain insights into how well your links perform, discover new opportunities for growth, assess the value of each link, and strategically plan for future link-building operations.
Additionally, you can use automation techniques to streamline routine tasks and simplify data management.
With diligent analytics implementations and thoughtful tracking solutions in place, you’ll be able to maximize the success of your 17 link-building strategies and achieve greater visibility in Google search results.
Start Your Link-Building Efforts Today!
As you can see, there are many effective link-building strategies that can help improve your search engine rankings on Google.
Whether you choose to focus on improving your content, growing your personal brand, or building trustworthy directory links, the key is to consistently work on your link-building efforts and track your progress over time.
In case you are not sure where to start, try partnering with an experienced link-building agency. There are many reputable agencies, such as Azarian Growth Agency, that can help you build high-quality links and improve your search engine rankings.
So start your link-building efforts today, and watch your search engine rankings soar!
