It’s not the most exciting part of business, but link building is vital for the health of your website. You want your website to have good rankings and authority, and the way to get it is by creating backlinks. Google makes sure there is no way around this, as buying or spamming links only hurts your ranking.
These three tips for link building will help you get the best backlinks for your site while staying on Google’s good side:
Tip 1: Invest in quality content
Google wishes that all the links in the world were organic. By creating and sharing good, original content, you will give Google what it wants, which will improve your ranking in the search engine results pages.
Creating quality content is a challenge and I’ve written a number of articles on the subject. Above all, it’s important to provide your audience with the content they are seeking. You probably have many different types of consumers on your website, which means you should offer a variety of content formats. Use Info.gram and Easel.ly to make infographics. Write awesome, in-depth articles (or pay someone to do it for you). Post shareable images and memes from a website like FreeImages.com. Record an engaging video with your webcam, cell phone camera or digital camera. The options are endless.
Posting high-quality, diversified information is the quickest and most honest way to build links. Research or develop the most valuable content, and then find the most appealing and entertaining format for sharing it with your audience. The more effort you put into this, the greater the increase in traffic and links you’ll see.
Tip 2: Make it easy for people to find your content
The only way to make that great content work for you is to get it out there. Just leaving it on your website and hoping people create links for you isn’t enough. You have to send your creations out into the world! I’m not just talking about the traditional channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (though you should be using those, too!). Here are some alternative places to post your content, depending on its format:
- Post your videos to Vimeo and YouTube, and when you do so, don’t forget about the description! A detailed, informative description will attract viewers and hopefully gain you organic links.
- Daily Infographic and Visual.ly are great places to post an infographic you’ve created. Always ensure that interested viewers have a way to access your website, but surround that link with other information so you don’t seem spammy.
- Imgur provides a place for you to share any special images or memes with an enormous (mostly young) audience.
- On Pinterest, you can share both articles and photos to a more diverse audience. Since Pinterest is like a virtual scrapbook, many people post things they want to return to later, which makes it a great platform for getting links back to your website.
- HubPages helps your written content get discovered by interested parties. Just post one of your carefully crafted, high-quality articles on your profile and add a link back to your website.
Always continue searching for new platforms where you can launch your content, and never forget to include the link to your site!
Also on StartupNation.com: SEO for Startups
Tip 3: Use the right traditional methods
There are some traditional link building methods that are worth your time, but they are secondary to creating quality content and sharing it on the proper channels. Once you have that under control, you can look into directory submission. Again, quality is key: listing your site in a directory of poor quality, where it is surrounded by other sketchy links, will hurt your reputation. It’s also important that the directory is relevant to your website’s subject matter. Directories like Dmoz are a good choice.
Reverse engineering is also a viable option for obtaining backlinks. Using a tool like the AffiloTools Link Finder, you can see which websites rank highly for a certain keyword. Reach out to the owners of the highest-ranking sites and offer to guest post, or direct them towards an existing piece of content their audience might like. It’s a win-win: they get new content and you get a backlink.
There are also some link building methods you should definitely avoid. Duplicating content and buying backlinks don’t work anymore, as Google recognizes these strategies as deceptive and doing so will hurt your reputation. Instead, spend your time improving the content on your website so you can use more effective link building methods.
Every time you create a new piece of content, you have the opportunity to open up a world of backlinks that will improve your website’s authority. By starting with the foundation of good, informative content, making it accessible to your audience and using some reputable strategies, you’re sure to see an increase in organic backlinking for your site.
