Need help understanding the ins and outs of link building? Call Results Digital at (281) 975-2086 for SEO and digital marketing solutions.
Digital marketing encompasses a broad range of techniques, tactics, and strategies, from paid ads and brand awareness to SEO (search engine optimization) and social media campaigns. As Woodland’s top SEO company, we frequently answer questions from clients, including: “What is link building?” So if you’ve ever wondered the same thing, you’re in the right place. Join the Results Digital team as we discuss the fundamentals of link building and how it’s a key piece of the digital marketing puzzle.
What Is Link Building?
In digital marketing and SEO, link building is the process of adding links to your website via other websites, known as backlinks.
If you can accumulate quality backlinks from authoritative and reputable websites, you can build trust and credibility for your site and enjoy a boost to your ranking on the SERPs (search engine results pages). Google has stated that having backlinks from prominent websites in your content is one of the most critical factors of the 200+ within its ranking algorithm.
Why Is It So Important to Build Quality Links?
Accumulating quality links for your website’s content is important for various reasons. Google looks at a backlink as a vote of confidence for your website.
Here are some of the most important reasons why you should incorporate link-building strategies for your website:
- Links are beneficial for search engine optimization
- Google considers backlinks as a strong ranking factor
- Gaining backlinks on other high-traffic websites helps you reach an entirely new audience
- Each link creates a connection and builds trust and credibility
- Utilizing link building also increases the amount of organic traffic to your page
Building backlinks requires posting relevant, valuable, engaging, and informative content. Publishing a generic blog post with the same regurgitated content just isn’t going to cut it.
What Are the Most Important Factors in Building Quality Links?
When developing effective link-building strategies, you should consider several important factors to ensure that you get the maximum results from your efforts.
Anchor Text: The term “anchor text” refers to the clickable text on a hyperlink. Here’s an internal link and anchor text example: “Learn more about our SEO services and how Results Digital can help your business grow.” By using clear and descriptive anchor text (such as primary keywords), search engines can quickly identify that your website is a good resource for that topic—in this case, SEO services.
Local Popularity: Internal links from similar pages can give your website more local traffic. For example, if your pet supply website receives a backlink from a well-known pet care blog, search engine algorithms will rank you higher than for links from an unrelated website or topic, like a furniture shop.
Global Awareness: The most popular websites can get more external links. For example, Wikipedia is often at the very top of the SERPs because it contains so much valuable information about a wide range of topics.
Link Sources: Backlinks from reputable, authoritative, and trustworthy websites carry far more weight and provide greater benefits than links from spammy or low-quality websites. Every search engine has algorithms that evaluate the quality and trustworthiness of websites to comb through irrelevant and malicious content.
Link Building Strategies: White Hat vs. Black Hat Tactics
Link building isn’t just complex and challenging; it’s also time-consuming. Of course, there will always be bad actors who use illegitimate methods to gain a leg up in terms of their SERP ranking. So, what’s the difference between white hat and black tactics? Let’s take a look:
White Hat Link Building and SEO
White hat SEO and link building use organic tactics to improve the visibility and awareness of your website. Google rewards these tactics, and they will pay off more in the long run. However, they take longer than less-reputable methods. Here are some examples:
- Posting high-quality, relevant, valuable, and interesting content
- Utilizing guest posting
- Promoting your content on social media
- Commenting on blog posts and content from authoritative websites
- Publishing high-quality infographics
- Using business listings and website directories to list your website
Black Hat Link Building
Black hat link building and SEO use unethical tactics to force your website to rank higher in the SERPs. Google and other search engines do not reward websites for using these techniques, and if the algorithm catches your website using these strategies, it will harm your ranking. You could even face a penalty or be blacklisted from Google’s website index. Examples of black hat tactics include:
- Stolen, spun, or scraped content
- Hidden links
- Links with spam or malware
- Keyword stuffing
- Doorway pages
- Paying for links
- Link farming
What Are the Benefits of Using Link Building?
Although white hat link building is complex, you don’t have to take on the challenge by yourself. Many web admins simply don’t have the time or energy to handle the type of work that effective link-building involves. You can utilize the services of an experienced digital marketing agency to help you grow your website and increase visibility. Link building can provide numerous benefits for your website, including:
- Growing your brand and increasing awareness
- Establishing authority and credibility with search engines
- Increasing the amount of organic and referral traffic
- Fostering critical business relationships and networks
- Boosting traffic, conversions, and sales.
Grow Your Brand and Establish Authority with Link Building and Digital Marketing
So, what is link building? Essentially, it’s a vital aspect of digital marketing and should be one of the core components of your website’s promotion and advertising strategies. Even starting with one high-quality link can help you begin building a well-established, reputable, and trustworthy website with excellent organic and local visibility and a high SERP ranking.
Fortunately, you’ve got the experts at Results Digital to help you. We’re an experienced SEO company with the skill, resources, and talent to drive consistent growth for your brand. Find out why digital marketing will work for your business by calling us today at (281) 975-2086 to book a consultation.
