SEO, or rather Search Engine Optimization, is an integral part of website development. When you do it right, you get numerous benefits, including getting quality traffic to your website or product, standing out among your competition, and you don’t have to pay for ads to get traffic.
The SEO world is a significant concept since there are different types of SEO strategies that you can use. And one of them is link building.
It’s a concept that has been there for years, at least since Google became a thing; similarly, there are many methods that webmasters use to build links. In this article, we’ll highlight the most effective ways that you should consider using in 2021.
Let’s get into it.
What is link building?
Before we talk about these strategies, beginners may have difficulty trying to understand what this phenomenon is all about. Simply to explain it, Link building is about getting high-quality links back to your site.
For instance, let’s say you want to push a particular product or page. You can look for an established site with a tremendous amount of traffic and add a link that directs the reader back to your site when they click on it.
Over the years, Google uses these links to determine whether a page should rank high or not. That’s the reason why we used the word ‘high-quality links’ when describing the concept.
Benefits of this strategy
If you consider using this concept in marketing your website, there are significant benefits that come with it.
The first one is that it helps you build relationships. Think about it. When top influencers in your industry mention your products, what effect can that have on your business? Of course, the answer is a lot. Primarily, people will trust your product, and they will come to you whenever they need that product.
Additionally, you can leverage on an influential website’s traffic. When they click on your link, they will come on your way.
The best ways to build links
According to different surveys, the most effective linking building includes the four that we will mention. Here they are.
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Content Creation and Outreach
Content creation is one of the most effective methods of building links. Primarily, you have to understand that content includes anything from blog posts, video content, pdfs, infographics, and so on.
Your purpose when creating content is to educate your target audience. When you have a new website, think about how you want to design your content to get the attention of your target audience; meaning, your content needs to be unique. Do a lot of research – especially keyword research, getting to know what your competitors are writing about, and take advantage of customer feedback and frequently asked questions.
After this, strategize on an appropriate outreach method. You can do this by looking for opportunities to write in popular blogs in your niche where you can link back to the content you’ve just created.
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Guest Posts
Now, guest posting is so close to content creation. Generally, what you are doing is creating a high-quality blog and posting it on someone else’s blog. Although Google mentions that it’s the most abused way of gathering links, it can benefit any site.
So, how do you make guest posting beneficial? The best way to ensure that your guest post is helpful is to ensure that it is of high quality. You have to create an article that readers will share on social media or click on the link to your content or product page.
After you have the guest post ready, look for a “write for us” opportunity on a website related to your industry. It may not be as easy to get a blogger that will accept your article. But if you find high-quality guest blogging opportunities, it can be worthwhile and beneficial to your brand.
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Broken Link Building
Most bloggers might not use this method, but it’s one of the most effective ways of building links. I will use an example to explain this concept.
In the first two methods, guest posting and content creation and outreach, you as the writer have to approach relevant bloggers in your niche to ask for posting opportunities on their site.
For broken link building, the process is different. The webmaster approaches the marketer first. They will have to research to find broken links on their website, especially those that give a 404 error. Then they will ask if they can fix that by providing a link that relates to that broken link. By getting that high authority link, you increase the chances of ranking high on the search engine.
Other powerful methods you can use
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Social media
If you are not using social media to market your site, you don’t have an idea of what you are missing. Social media content is a free tool to post your URLs. People interested in your product will click on that link will direct traffic to your site. You can post these links on your business page, groups, and community pages that you can find your target audience.
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Using testimonials
Although testimonials are a great way to build a website’s reputation, you can also take advantage of that to promote your website or pages. When allowed to review a business on Google listing, you can add a link in the comment or review.
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Using forums
Another way to build links is to use forums. It could be on social media or community sites such as Quora and Reddit. When contributing to these platforms, you can add a link to your site to market your services or blog posts.
Summary
When marketing your website, consider using the marketing methods that we highlight in this article. Some strategies may seem tedious, but the truth is that they can be extremely beneficial to any site owner while helping you build your brand.
Ensure that the links are high quality. Search engines, such as Google, keep improving their algorithms, making ranking difficult if your method was spammy.