Link Building for SEO
11th April, 2012
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I think it is about time I wrote something about Link Building for my clients and what value it brings to our websites and how you should go about it.
I have always maintained that Google likes three things Content, Links and Good Design. Content is straightforward enough, you write it and I’ll publish it, Good Design is largely down to me as your website designer, and indeed I always try to make a website as search engine friendly as possible.
That leaves Links – by definition, Google ranks your website based on the authority it thinks your website has on its chosen subject. As a principal indicator, Google looks to see how many websites ‘agree’ and place links to your website. And that’s where the plot thickens.
- Google is looking for recommendations for your website – you recommending other websites serves little purpose.
- Google is looking for relevant websites – you having a link on a Baseball website when you sell DIY tools has no effect the subject matter has to be related
- Google is looking for authoritative links – being recommended on the well-respected BBC is going to be way more powerful than having a link on a website that no one has heard of.
This all makes the situation much much tougher… you have to find high-quality websites, willing to give their traffic to you at little or no cost on the same subject matter as they are trying to concentrate on the same target audience.
It’s a bit like MacDonald’s selling Burger King Whoppers.
And it gets worst – Here are a few of the types of links you should be trying to target:
- Competitor websites – if you have a link on a competitor’s website – Google will take it as a sign that your competitors think your offering is better. This would be extremely highly valued by Google.
- Trade Websites – find your industry trade websites and try t target these, these act as centres of information for your industry and should be open to pointing interested parties in your direction. But beware of the cost.
- Journalistic or News – In the domain of PR, getting articles or content from leading journalistic websites would be highly ranked by Google, the problem is by their nature these are quite short-lived affairs and you need to keep the pressure on Journalists to keep writing about you.
- Blogging – another albeit lesser area is to get others to write about you on their Blogs. Google however takes into account the source (a Blog) and a lot depends on the quality and respect the source has within your industry.
- Social Media – having others write about you on Facebook and Twitter with links back to your website is also highly important and often effective. Google realise that real people recommending real products and services is important.
- Article websites – a newer source of links, a new breed of ‘How to’ websites that offer articles on any subject and often allow publishers to place a link back to their website. Google currently allow a fair amount of leeway on these sites, but as they get abused so Google will tighten up.
- Directories – in terms of Google value Directories are low on the list – you can easily list your website in hundreds of Directories or secondary search engines, but who uses these?
So what is the solution – all this is rather negative, yet Link Building is probably one of the best and most important ways to build your website’s popularity, not only do you open your door to traffic from many other websites, but Google ranks you higher based on the quality and quantity of the links.
The role of the expert – all things cost money or require actual work.
Briefly, you need to build and manage a profile of websites you think would help you.
- You need to contact as many trade bodies as you can and request links to your website. Partner and supplier businesses also need to be contacted and requests made to list your website link on their websites.
- Press Releases – you need to ensure that your website address is printed at every opportunity on and offline.
- Articles – should and can be written and then submitted ‘How to’ websites.
- You need to comment and contribute not only on your own Blog, but on other people’s blogs too. Volunteer yourself to write for others
- Journalists & Awards and Case Studies – always encourage your company to partake in investigative journalism, apply for awards and allow yourself to be used in other people’s advertising.
- Social Media – provide the right content that people will share on Social Media so that your message travels far and very wide.
That’s a lot of work for someone… and will seem daunting, but it should not be so. And actually, it’s extremely easy. A big chunk can be done once off, more can be outsourced to the likes of myself and another chunk can be automated. Once you have the core parts implemented the rest can follow.
Quality link building takes time, work and money, luckily, however, linking building needn’t take all three, it can be divided up quite happily. Contact me if you want to discuss this more.