Link building is no more an advanced search engine optimization strategy, but it is something fundamental to be taken care of by the webmasters if you want your site to be alive. All know by now what link building is all about and why it is essential. For those who are still confused, let’s explore.
Why is link building important?
It is so simple to understand. A high number of links connected to your website naturally means the more reputed connections you have, which testify your authenticity. It is like more number of people refers to you for something you are so good at. However, when it comes to search engine optimization, the game rule changes and you need to be so careful and persistent to accomplish it well.
As like real-life references, quality links are also not so easy to get. Previously, many of the webmasters used to take the false advantage of it by paying for links, but this will not work that way anymore and also not recommended to any degree. Now, others may only link to you if they find real value in what you offer, and the search engines have fine-tuned the search algorithms to draw out only quality linking patterns for ranking. Now, it is not the number of links, but their quality counts more.
Strategies for link building
As you know the importance of link building and the fair approach towards it, now we can move on to it in a bit deeper to get more answers.
How is link value identified?
The question, in other words, is primarily whether all links are considered equal? If it is so, then the black hat SEO techniques of link spamming may be the best option for top ranking, right? While thinking of links, the first thing to be thorough in your mind is that link spamming will not take you anywhere nowadays. With the latest Google practices, link spamming may even end up in getting your site penalized by the search engines. So, how they do it?
- Link authority
“Link value is primarily based on the authority of the source.”
As per SandCrestSEO experts, the value of a link to your web page is primarily assessed based on the authority of the web page which links back to your page. If that page/site is authoritative and is being trusted by many and if that particular page has a higher rank on search engines, then naturally you too get the benefit out of it.
While you are planning for efficient link building, you need to do a thorough research to design a linking structure and do mind where you want the links to be from. Links from random sites, which are not relevant to your business, specialization, or industry will not help you at all. Say for example, if you run a website that is related to healthcare, then links from a site discussing dog training may not work for you.
- Link type
Next, to authority, you need to understand the type of link you receive. Some fundamental questions you need to seek answers for are:
- Whether it is simply a nofollow link?
- Does the link keep an anchor text relevant to your topic/website?
- Is the link available at a visible space?
- Is the link put merely in the midst of a lot of random links (like a bulk link page)?
The type of links decide the actual magnitude of the link juice it passes on to your pages. Even if you get backlinks from highly authoritative web pages, there is no point if they offer a nofollow link without or something without an ideal anchor text. So, the value of all links are not the same and you need to focus only on high-value links.
- Age of linking domain
This is a least discussed topic in SEO articles, but it does matter. Even though it may not account largely as an SEO factor, as we used o say, you cannot pay for time or replace the value of it. The older a particular website is, naturally it is trusted more by Google. So, getting valuable links from older sites may surely help add to SEO value. It is; however, very tough to get links from those older websites, but if you are worth it and achieve it, it surely pays off.
A word of caution of about link exchange
You have equally heard of this term before as ‘link exchange.’ Link exchange is a common practice there for long and it is good too, only if you do it the right way. Link exchange does have the potential to enhance SEO value and also more authority with business relations. However, you should not get into such a deal with websites not related to your niche, the so good to be true type of link building services, and also don’t fall prey to the link exchange requests you receive through email.
Link building is a genuine and practical approach in terms of search engine optimization and all the above points may surely help. However, one has to be optimally alert about the do’s and don’ts of this task to get the desired results and avoid the pitfalls, which may adversely affect.
