So, once you launch a website and start working to figure out how to get found online, you’ll start to hear a lot about link building. Understanding what link building is and how to do it can go a long way toward making your website more visible online and more successful at reaching your goals. This is exactly what we are going to cover in this article. One of the most important types of links is the backlink. It is for that reason that this guide to get backlinks poses an important step if you want to make it in the online world!
What is link building?
Link building is one of the most important and difficult parts of SEO. Any tactic that helps a business or organization get links from other websites that point back to your website counts as link building. And for that, you need a variety of approaches. There are a lot of different strategies people implement to try to gain new links, but even for the most consistently successful tactics, it can involve a lot of work, time, and failures in order to achieve a few successes. That is why this guide to get backlinks is so important. Nonetheless, in the competitive space of SEO, link building is one of the strategies that will have the biggest influence on how well you perform in the search engines and how easily people find your website. That makes it worth devoting some of your time and marketing budget to.
What are the five steps in the guide to get backlinks
Before anyone’s going to link to your website, you have to give them something worth linking to. That means that prior to starting on the more proactive link-building strategies we’ll describe below, you should start with some initiatives that will set the stage for making your website worthy of getting said links. So, let’s see what these strategies are!
Keyword research is the first step
SEO isn’t just about getting any top spot you can manage. It’s about ranking for searches that are relevant to what your website provides. For any SEO strategy, including link building, your first step should always be to research what language your target audience is using and what information they’re out there looking for. Then, you’ll know what content to create and what types of links you want.
Spend some time doing keyword research to figure out the main topic areas and questions your audience is interested in. This will form the basis of both your content strategy and your link-building efforts.
Content marketing has a very special role in the guide to get backlinks
Other websites won’t have many good reasons or natural opportunities to link to your website’s homepage. What’s the likelihood the information you have there is going to add something important to an article or other webpage on their website? For other people to want to link to your website, you have to create the sort of content they’d have a reason to link to. That means embracing content marketing. For most businesses, that will mean starting a blog and making a commitment to creating original, high-quality content to publish on it regularly.
It’s a lot of work. However, in addition to being an important step in link building, it also gives you more opportunities to connect with your target audience. When you provide them with helpful information, that gives them a reason to care about your brand, follow you, and likely think about you first the next time they need whatever you’re selling.
Don’t forget content promotion
With so many blogs and media sites out there, people are unlikely to stumble across your content without you putting some effort into making it easy to find. Obviously, SEO is part of that equation. When people can find your content in the search engines, that’s one of the best ways to drive new views to your website. Yet, for most websites, obtaining links and search engine rankings will only come after some effort was already put into helping first readers find the content.
For each published high-quality content piece, plan a strategy for getting it in front of people. That could include sharing it on social media, sending the link to people you expect would be interested in it, posting it in relevant forums, or even using paid promotion on Google or social media sites to boost its reach. The newer your blog is, the harder it will be to get your first followers. So, expect to spend some time (and possibly money) working to get your content seen. Nobody can link to your awesome posts until they know they exist.
PR is a crucial part of the guide to get backlinks
While people in the PR industry don’t necessarily praise themselves as link builders, PR work includes helping brands get coverage in the media and on a number of websites – often with links.
By either working with a PR person or creating an in-house PR strategy, you can find more opportunities to gain mentions of your brand on other websites, position people in the company as thought leaders, and encourage coverage of initiatives you take that could be considered newsworthy, like a charity drive or creative stunts. All of those things are a very important part of your success.
Last but not least, relationship building
People are more likely to link to brands they know and trust. For people to know you, you have to make connections. A whole industry has grown up around identifying and figuring out ways to connect with influencers. Think about ways to interact with other people and brands in your industry that don’t make it all about you. Participate in online communities they’re in. Also, join Twitter chats you notice they regularly attend. Perhaps, ask them to be an expert source for a piece of content you’re writing. You’ll get a very different response from someone who knows who you are and already feels a connection to you than someone who sees you as a total stranger.
If you need any additional help, you can just go get in touch with our Link Department team and navigate your way from there. Always remember that everything we’ve said in this guide to get backlinks is to help you be more appealing in the SEO world.