There are billions of websites on the World Wide Web, and getting traffic to your website is becoming increasingly difficult. However, if you follow specific strategies well, you can beat the competition and get traffic, leads, and more conversions. These strategies are called “Search Engine Optimization,” or SEO. Search engines keep changing their algorithms to improve their results, but the basics remain more or less the same.
What is Link Building and Why is it so important?
Link building is the process of building hyperlinks, also called backlinks, to a particular website to improve search engine visibility. It is essential because the most popular search engine, Google, ranks websites based on various parameters, including how many quality websites link back to your website.
“A survey of SEO professionals worldwide in June 2021 revealed that 17.4% considered links as the most important factor impacting search rankings” – Statista
In this blog, we will discuss six simple steps for building effective backlinks, which can help in improving your rank in search engines and, as a result, increase traffic to your website.
Step#1 Identify your Target Audience & Reach Out to Them
The first step would be to identify people in your segment and introduce them to your content. The primary reason is that you want them to talk about you and link to your website. This is also called blogger outreach, wherein you put your content or product in front of relevant bloggers and journalists.
Bloggers can be contacted by sending personalized emails to a small list of targeted prospects. These prospects can be bloggers who have written articles on the same topic as you have or linked-to articles on the same topic. The emails must be crafted carefully with a catchy subject line and crystal clear language. Once you have reached out to them, you need to segment them into categories based on their popularity.
Step#2 Generate Quality Content with Infographics
No high Domain Authority(DA) website would like to backlink to your webpage unless you have some relevant and meaningful content that can help them. Publishing original content that is of high quality will automatically attract backlinks. The content will be shared on social networking websites if the reader finds it relevant and interesting. But, be careful that the content should be useful to the readers and not just meant to manipulate the search engines.
Images, diagrams, infographics, and charts attract more backlinks than text does. Another type of content that attracts more backlinks is list posts that provide tips, techniques, or reasons. Original research, which contains data that has never been published and How-to guides, as well attract more backlinks.
More Reading: Content people like to watch
Step#3 Write Guest Blog Posts
One of the best ways to build long-lasting relations with other web admins is by offering to write guest blog posts. The Guest Posts generally have a backlink to the author’s blog or a few words about the author’s business at the end. However, writing guest posts solely intending to manipulate the search engine results page is wrong and can backfire. If you are an expert in your segment and can offer readers of your Guest Post quality content with some relevant links, guest posting can still be a good link-building strategy.
Step#4 Use Social Media
Social media has millions of users across the globe, and it can be used to reach a new audience. The content you generate can be shared via social media like Twitter or even shared directly with certain people who may like your article. Facebook is also a great platform to reach out to a new audience. As people like, share, and talk about your content, it will attract more backlinks. You can even take the help from top advertising agencies to come up with social media campaigns to boost your blog’s presence online.
Step#5 Broken Link Building & Unlinked Mentions
Instead of directly asking people for links, you can rather look for broken links on websites. Broken links are nothing but web pages that no longer exist as they have been replaced or removed by the owner. Several online tools can help you find broken links, which can be helpful to you. Once you have identified a broken link, the next step is to notify the person who runs that page and offer quality content as a replacement. A well-crafted email will probably convince them to replace the broken link with your valuable content.
Sometimes a blogger will mention you or your product/service without providing a link to your webpage. This is half the job done, as the author is already familiar with you. All you need to do is email and convince them to convert the mention into a link. Unlinked mentions can easily be found using online tools, which can provide you with such a list within seconds.
Step#6 Build Connections
Backlinks from high Domain Authority(DA) sites are not easy to obtain and need to be earned by building connections in your niche. Having long-lasting relationships with the owners of other successful websites in your domain will greatly help you in your link-building plan. It will be a mutually beneficial relationship, and the content doesn’t necessarily have to be text. Content can be a product, service, business, or brand worthy of a link.
Links can also be bought, but buying links is not recommended as Google has clearly stated that this practice is against their guidelines.
To Wrap it All Up…
Having discussed six simple steps to an effective link-building plan, it needs to be mentioned that the ranking algorithm of search engines keeps getting updated, so you constantly need to revise your strategies, and no approach can guarantee cent percent results all the time.
However, quality backlinks have always been known to have helped websites improve their Search Engine rankings. So, by following the steps mentioned above, along with other Digital Marketing techniques, you can get more traffic to your website and increase sales.
More Reading: Digital Marketing Trends