Link Building Strategy Online
Link Building
If you don’t have the money to invest in search engine optimization for your business, you should still understand the importance of generating backlinks for your company website. Google’s search algorithm has long been based around the concept of links back to your website. When another website links to your website, Google considers it, in a manner of speaking, as a vote. Some websites are better than others, so their votes count more than others.
For today’s search engines (i.e. Google and Bing), backlinks are highly beneficial if they come from websites within or ancillary to your specific niche and/or websites with high authority and large traffic bases. The good news is that social links, signals, and engagement are just as (if not more) important than links, and should be a significant part of the overall goals you set.
1. Post a Link on Social Media.
You may think this is too obvious and not worth mentioning, but have you posted a link to all of your most valuable pages from your social profiles? For most of our clients, this is not often the case. This is an easy backlink to achieve since you’re simply giving yourself one, but do not discount its value beyond its direct impact. You are giving all of your followers a chance to not only click the link but also share the link.
Simply post a link to your pages from your various social media accounts with a brief blurb that will compel the user to (1) click the link and (2) engage with the post on social media. Both are valuable to the page’s overall SEO landscape and, as social media becomes more ingrained in our overall lifestyle, they will only become more important.
2. Incorporate the Backlinks into Your PR Strategy.
Good PR is all about getting people talking about you. Now, when they talk about you on the internet, make sure they link to you or share your social status links with their audience. You can do this by searching for your brand name or notable individuals’ names who work for the company and checking the “News” results. (You could also set up a Google Alert.) For any articles you find on the web, you should email the author to thank them for the publicity and request a link in their existing article. Flattery helps, and this tactic seems to work about half of the time. It is a great win, as the content is already written.
Make sure you’re having conversations on the website about your brand, niche, service, point-of-view, etc. (See the next step for more on that.) You can also manually release a press release (with links). The initial press release might not really move the needle, but watch as it is picked up by media outlets around the country looking for free content. Maybe you’re saying, what sort of newsworthy item can we share? Have you launched a new website? That’s a press release worthy topic! Have you started (or plan to start) a blog? Boom, another press release. Be creative and tell the world about it.
3. Engage with your web.
Seek out and converse with other businesses, websites, and social accounts that overlap (but not necessarily compete) with your online presence. Recommend some content on your website to them (through the prism of “this is how this can help you”) and ask that they share it with their audience. This can be a bit time-consuming, and there’s a reason people have jobs to handle a company’s social media and public relations presence. However, if you’re truly in it for the long haul, then make this a daily goal to engage the web around your particular website. It may not pay off as well initially, but the fruits of your labor will take effect over time.
4. Guest-post on another website.
In the same vein as engaging with your web, you could provide some useful and expert-level content for another website with the agreement that you’ll get a juicy backlink for your troubles. This will not be as effective if you’re doing it on a guest-posting platform (since Google knows that’s an SEO tactic), but it works a lot better when you guest post on another website’s blog. You can leave some links within your post to your relevant service pages and/or blog posts to gain exposure as well as a healthy backlink from another relevant website.
5. Join an authoritative online directory in your niche.
This is not your typical directory submission idea that your SEO consultant would have recommended. We are talking about joining an industry exclusive online directory on an authoritative website. This will almost certainly be a paid directory, so this is a more premium option. You will however, get the bang for your buck if you find the right directory. Search within your niche for “best of” lists or official directories on .gov or .edu domains, which are very authoritative website domains.
Want More Help Developing Backlink Strategies?
If you have any questions on developing internal backlink strategies internally or if you should simply wish to handle the reins to link building to the professionals, please do not hesitate to contact us.