Link building may sound scary on the surface, especially if you haven’t dealt with it before. Luckily, you have nothing to fear! This is a very commonly used way to increase the reach of websites and an irreplaceable element of effective SEO strategies. You can learn it too!
Acquiring links is nothing more than posting links leading to your website on other websites. However, well-thought-out and conducted link building can bring your business many benefits. Links on external websites help generate traffic to your website in two basic ways: by directing customers to you and by influencing the positioning of your website in search engines.
Basic links types
Link link not equal! If you are taking your first steps in link building, it may seem that every link is more or less the same. Nothing could be more wrong! What basic types of links should you know first, how can you use them in your strategy, and their potential?
Internal links – links that lead to pages and subpages within the website on which they were posted. For example, you can include suggestions for similar articles on your blog in your most recent post, which will help you generate traffic and increase the number of views on older posts that are no longer as popular as when they were posted.
External links – links that lead to websites other than the one on which they were posted. For example, these may be links in a sponsored article published on an external portal, leading directly to your website, social media, or store.
External and internal links perform completely different functions: external ones generate traffic on your website by redirecting customers from other websites. Internal ones make a person who has already visited your website stay on it longer. If you want to get their full potential out of them, make sure you balance them and find a place for both in your strategy. Thanks to this, you will provide your website not only with a regular influx of new customers but also encourage them to learn more about the content you publish.
Good practices for your link acquisition strategy
Acquiring links doesn’t have to be complicated! Although taking the first steps is always more or less challenging, following these few simple rules will allow you to get into link building painlessly. If you do not have time to deal with it yourself or feel that you may need support, be sure to check out our offer at www.linkhouse.co!
Choosing the right place
The most important rule of link building is that links should be placed in thematically related places to your activity. Why is it so important? In addition to influencing the position of your website in search engines, there is a good chance that the readers of the portal will be willing to learn about your company’s offer because it fits their interests. Thanks to this, you can attract new customers and gain their trust and build your brand recognition in the industry.
Also, try – to the extent possible – to ensure that links appear on pages with a high position in search engines and many views. Portals that do not generate too much traffic will not significantly affect the positioning of your website and do not guarantee a regular influx of new visitors.
Which websites should I avoid? First of all – those where the dominant (or only) content is sponsored content, even if their subject matter largely coincides with your business profile. Unfortunately, you cannot be sure that placing links to your website will increase your reach. In addition, such websites are usually not very trusted by consumers or search engines, so it is always worth considering whether placing links there will be beneficial for you and not expose you to image loss.
Avoiding spamming
Spamming is never a good idea as it doesn’t increase link strength and doesn’t guarantee a higher click-through rate. In addition, the algorithms of internet search engines or social networking sites catch spam very quickly, resulting in both the removal of previously published content and blocking the possibility of adding new ones in the future. In extreme cases, you can even be “rewarded” with the permanent deletion of your profile, mainly if you previously ignored other preventive measures taken by administrators.
In addition, spamming with links will have a terrible effect on the image of your company and will not give you the trust of potential customers. It is easy to find posts on social networks or blogs in which the content posted by, for example, advertising bots becomes the object of jokes, mainly due to repetition or language incorrectness (usually resulting from automatic translations). In this way, you will not gain the sympathy of potential customers, so a much better idea is to bet on a smaller number of links but post in a thoughtful way.
Where can you start posting links?
Comments
A prevalent method, often used, for example, in the blogosphere, is to post links in comments under posts, articles, videos, or on forums. Remember, however, that links in comments with no other content are often frowned upon by other authors. It shows that you only care about advertising yourself and are not interested in the work and effort that the author of the text put into creating them.
However, it is good to refer to the commented content and kindly suggest visiting your website. Also, try not to include more than one link per post, as this may be considered spam. You also don’t want your site to be treated like a bulletin board by others. Also, remember not to base your entire link building strategy on posting comments on posts on other websites, but to treat them only as one of its elements.
Articles and other sponsored content
A great idea to get started with link building is publishing sponsored articles. This is a straightforward and effective way to get links. A sponsored article is a text that informs consumers about your offer, and its publication is commissioned to promote the brand. You can create them yourself and entrust this task to your employees or copywriters.
A sponsored article is a great place to link to your website and take your first steps in link building. In addition to influencing the visibility of your website in search engines, sponsored articles bring several other benefits: they help build brand recognition and awareness and expand the group of potential customers. Of course, in addition to the sponsored article, you can also invest in other types of content promoting your brand, e.g., social media posts as part of cooperation with influencers.
Guest entries
Another way to enter the world of link building is guest texts, e.g., on blogs, which will contain a link to your website with an incentive to visit it. This type of collaboration differs from a sponsored article in that it usually works on a barter basis – you get the opportunity to publish your text. Still, in return, you also lend your platform to other authors.
Link building through guest posts has mutual benefits – barter allows you to both save money that you would spend on paying for the possibility of publishing on an external site and gain new customers among regular readers of the person with whom you cooperate. Therefore, it is worth exchanging entries with someone from the industry from time to time – thanks to this, you gain valuable external links and increase the recognition of your brand.
Social media
It is also good to use the possibilities offered by modern social media, i.e., social media, in the link building strategy. Thanks to this, you will not only significantly expand the base of links leading to your website but also increase the recognition of your brand among consumers and you will be able to stay in constant contact with them.
Your own channels and profiles have the advantage that you control how often linked content appears on them. In addition, you can conduct them yourself or outsource this task to an external entity, which will save you time and ensure you regularly publish professional, high-quality posts.
The optimal solution is a two-way action, i.e., creating your own communication channels with customers in social media and taking care of the presence of links to your website in other people’s social media. For this purpose, you can establish cooperation with influencers or companies from the industry, e.g., by exchanging the guest mentioned above posts, investing in sponsored content, or advertising.
Summary
Acquiring links is an effective method of generating more traffic to your website and ensuring its attractive position in search engines, so you should include it in your SEO strategy. If you need help starting your adventure with link building, we invite you to familiarize yourself with our offer at Linkhouse!
