The Importance of Link Building for SEO

Throughout the history of search engines, link building has remained a constant factor in search engine optimization (SEO). It’s a vital element in helping to boost your search engine rankings as it determines the relevance of the pages on your website. If you haven’t implemented link building as part of your SEO strategy, you’re missing out on valuable web traffic that you can turn into potential sales.

This article will discuss link building and how it can impact your search engine optimization. That way, you can get other websites to link to your site and generate more web traffic.

What is link building?

Link building refers to the process of obtaining backlinks from other websites. Simply put, it’s about getting another website to link a page on your site for reference. Google’s algorithms include link building as part of SEO because it helps them identify which pages on the internet contain accurate and relevant information.

For example, if a website with strong credentials links to your site, it signals to Google that your page’s content is trustworthy enough to be used as a reference. It’s not just Google that will deem your website as a reliable source, but your core audience as well. As a result, link building boosts your website’s credibility and position on the SERPs pages.

Why should you care about link building?

Considering that 75% of internet users never go beyond the first page of Google’s search results, you need to ensure that your pages land near the top of the page. That’s where link building comes in. When you obtain that coveted position that most websites compete for, you’ll be able to experience the following:

1. Boost organic traffic to your website

Users have a specific intent when they type on search engines and usually click on the first three pages that pop up on the search results. That’s why most websites on the internet rely on organic traffic to become visible to their target audience.

When your website has plenty of quality backlinks, you have a higher chance of landing on the first page of the SERPs than your competitors. Your content will be more discoverable to your audience and enable you to generate more organic traffic.

You also benefit from increased referral traffic which can help you acquire more leads. Imagine having an active link from another website with its own audience. You can potentially expose your brand to thousands of new readers and access a whole new audience that may be interested in what you have to offer.

2. Increase your site’s domain authority

Domain authority is a site metric tool developed by software company Moz. The tool measures a site’s potential in the SERPs rankings by factoring in backlinks, content quality, SEO performance, and more.

You can get scores from Moz’s domain authority ranging from 1-100. On average, most websites score 50 and above, with those around 60 considered excellent. When you acquire quality backlinks from reputable websites, you can boost your site’s domain authority and see how well you fare against competitors.

While Google doesn’t pay attention to third-party SEO tools, knowing your site’s domain authority is a good indicator of where your site stands in the search engine results pages.

3. Establish authority in your niche

No matter your niche, it always pays to create quality content. Link building is a great way to establish brand authority as it indicates your content is trustworthy enough to be used by other credible sites. Your audience will enjoy the content you put out and turn to you whenever they need a solution to their problems.

4. Boost your sales numbers

As you go through the link-building process, you open up opportunities for your target audience to discover you. Marketers know that the more traffic you generate, the more sales you can make. How do you get more traffic to your website? By obtaining quality backlinks, that’s how!

When you pair link building with a solid lead generation strategy, you’ll be able to attract high-quality prospects that are easy to convert.

5. Create relationships within your niche

Most people don’t know that link building is a two-way street. Marketers use it to create relationships within their niche that involve reciprocal action. For example, marketers from two brands may exchange backlinks with one another to benefit from better SEO. The benefits go beyond growing your business, as there are personal networking advantages too.

By connecting with other people within your niche, you can learn from successful marketers and even share ideas that will benefit both parties involved.

How to get started with link building?

So you’re interested in building links for your website but unsure how to approach it. Follow these three tips on getting started with link building:

1. Write guest blogs

Some people think that guest blogging is a thing of the past, but according to a survey from Referral Rock, around 60% of bloggers say they write between one to five blogs per month. There are many benefits to guest blogging, like introducing your brand to a new audience, pulling more site traffic, and allowing you to get free backlinks to your website.

To make the most out of your guest blogs, it’s a good idea to choose a site with a similar niche as yours. That way, you can appeal to the interests of their audience and build authority within your industry. You may also want to look at the web site’s performance, like its domain authority and blog upload frequency.

The last thing you need to know about writing guest blog posts is to ensure your content is in line with what the site’s audience wants. It’s worth researching the type of blogs the site writes to help you craft compelling content.

2. Outreach for backlinks

No link building strategy is complete without a solid outreach tactic. As the name suggests, outreach is the process of contacting website owners within your niche. The methods of communication may vary, but marketers mainly use emails to reach out to other brands.

The approach to outreach is quite the same for writing guest blog posts. You seek out websites that have a similar audience to you and evaluate their site’s performance using SEO tools. Once you’ve identified who to contact, you can create an offer to present to the site owner.

Usually, marketers will want to exchange backlinks to boost each other’s off-site SEO. But others pitch in with linkable assets like infographics, videos, and custom images to appeal to the site owner.

3. Take advantage of broken link building

Broken link building refers to finding broken links from a website and offering your own links as replacements. It’s one of the more tedious link-building processes but works out in the long run since you’re actively helping out other websites.

You’ll find plenty of tools online to help you identify broken links from pages. One example is Check My Links, a handy Chrome extension that automatically searches for errors on a page. Once you find a broken link, you can reach out to the website and offer your content as a replacement.

4. Earn links from other websites

There’s no other way around it; content is king. No matter how many guest blogs or websites you reach out to, nothing beats writing high-quality content that people will gravitate towards. Invest in what you write, and other sites will notice your work as it gains traction on the internet.

Earning a link is one of the best ways to build links to your website because you add value to other websites. Their audience will find your content appealing, and you’ll benefit from increased web traffic.

In summary

Link building is often an overlooked aspect of search engine optimization. But, when performed correctly, it can make a huge difference in web traffic and site authority. If you haven’t built links for your website yet, now is the perfect time to do so as more and more people use search engines today. Hopefully, you have a better idea of how link building works and how it can benefit your business.

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