It’s a question that every website owner wants to know.
And the answer would be…
Well, as you know, link building is the most important element of SEO. When it comes to organic search; it stands out from all other elements (Content & On-Page Optimization) because when done right and in quantity; it influences your rankings a lot.
It is so crucial because it works on two levels:
First, backlinks are the basic signal that your website sends to Google and other search engines. It shows them where you rank in comparison to others & how well you have managed to get indexed by others (i.e getting some notable backlinks). And secondly, they act as a direct & indirect ranking factor that directly impacts your rankings.
If you don’t dominate the link-building game, you can forget about winning any organic search races.
But the problem is that search engines don’t show much love to most of the backlinks people build these days. They rather give their attention to better-looking websites with high-quality content and backlinks that are natural-looking and compelling enough.
But it’s not all bad news because you can still make links work for you if you follow the right strategies.
So, in this article, I will share with you my foolproof formula to build links that Google will love. But before we begin, let me tell you that…
The backlinking rules have changed and it’s about time you know!
To understand the concept of this article, I must tell you about a book written by Eric Schmidt in 2008 called “The New Digital Age“. In this book, he pointed out three trends that were changing the online world:
- 1. Data will be collected from everywhere
- 2. The speed of sharing information will be faster than ever
- 3. You will be able to search the whole world’s data in real-time—it will be available for you on your mobile phone
Well, I think we can all agree that these predictions have proven to be true over the years because…
Today, with the increased use of Smartphones, millions of people access the internet every single minute.
It has also made it easier for companies and organizations to make their data available online through different platforms which has resulted in a higher amount of data being produced than we had imagined 5 years ago.
Google & other search engines have also done their job by indexing and ranking hundreds of millions of pages of content online & making them easily accessible to people who search using keywords. And with the sudden surge in mobile usage, it has become easier for these companies to reach out to their audience by building custom websites & applications that make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.
And…when you combine this increase in data availability with an increased speed of sharing information over different channels…
You get a new reality where you can access and share information in an instant. But to make the most out of this new environment, search engines have updated their algorithms & guidelines which lead to drastic changes in how we build links for our websites.
So, let me take you through these new rules as well as the ones that haven’t changed.
The new rules of link building that you MUST follow
Build backlinks for your website’s authority & reputation (not just for search rankings)
This is a new rule which lets you know that it doesn’t matter how many links to your website Google has; if they don’t point to your website’s authority & reputation, they’re useless.
Your website’s authority & reputation have a lot more value than thousands of links pointing to the homepage or certain pages that don’t matter because Google only really values high-quality content that has been published on credible and authoritative sources online.
When it comes to building links for your website’s authority & reputation, you need to understand that Google takes into account 6 different factors while ranking a web page and backlinks are just one of them (others are: the importance or value of the content on the linking pages, your social media presence, etc).
Here is how these six SEO factors work together:
1. The website’s authority & reputation account for 40% of the total ranking value
2. The content on your website accounts for 35% of the total ranking value
3. Authority & reputation of linking pages account for 10% of the total ranking value
4. The number and quality of backlinks from authoritative pages that are pointing to your website accounts for 7% of the total ranking value
5. The social media presence of your website accounts for 2% of the total ranking value
6. The “other” factors that are not taken into account directly in Google’s algorithm account for 1% of the total ranking value
Link Building – Quality vs. Quantity:
So, as you can see…a backlink from a high-quality, authoritative source can be worth more than a thousand backlinks that have no reputation.
This is because Google has determined that the former helps in building & maintaining your website’s authority and reputation far better than the latter.
When it comes to building links for your website’s authority, you can start by asking your business peers, co-founders/directors & investors to leave a link that points to your website’s homepage on their blog.
The reason why you want them to do so is that it helps in making your website more authoritative than before by giving Google an idea that these people have agreed upon something & this content represents their views on the subject.
Thus, this content is considered credible because the people who created it are authoritative enough to do so by having a good reputation in their niche.
You can also ask your business peers and other high-ranking websites in your niche to link back to you using relevant anchor text. This helps in increasing the keyword relevancy for that specific page which means that when someone searches for it, your website will get a higher ranking on the search results page.
And…if you want to receive backlinks from authoritative websites or high-profile people in your niche, you need to provide them with some incentive. This can be anything like free access to one of your services, advice about their business, a link to one of their articles, etc.
Just make sure that you don’t offer them a bribe because Google hates it when people do so and your website will get penalized for doing so.
Another thing that you can do to build links back to your website is by creating some kind of an infographic or report on your business and then releasing it through some of the most authoritative websites in your niche.
You can get this infographic or report published on these sites by providing them with a backlink to it (not necessarily back to your own website’s homepage).
This is similar to giving away free access to one of your services but you’re using something tangible as bait.
Finally, you can create a press release about your latest business achievements or some other important update and then give it to as many people within your niche as possible so that they can publish it on their websites.
The more authoritative the source is, the better for you.
By doing all of this consistently, you will be able to build links back to your website that has a good reputation & authority which will help in improving the rankings of your site.
I’ve only talked about building backlinks for your business’s authority, so what should you do if you want to improve the content on a specific page of your site? Increase its relevance. How can you do this?
The best way is to create some kind of a report or an infographic that represents your information in a more clear & comprehensive way than before.
This could be:
Showing the history of certain industry statistics over some time and how it has changed since then finding out what are the most important problems that people have faced during their search for solutions regarding your topic using data compiled from emails, comments/questions on social media websites like Facebook & Twitter, LinkedIn discussions, forums/message boards and other places where people express their opinions.
This way, you will make your content more relevant to the keywords that people are searching for which will help in improving its rankings on search results pages.
And…once you’ve created something like a report or an infographic, you can get it published on some of the most authoritative websites in your niche and they will publish it as one of their articles.
“Ok,” you’re probably thinking, “But all of this is very time-consuming & I don’t even have enough time to take care of my everyday tasks. How can I find the time to do all of this?”
Well, it’s not exactly easy. But…you don’t have to do everything at once. Do things gradually & consistently and you will see results in a short amount of time.
For example, you’ve already been targeting 2-3 keywords on your website’s homepage. Instead of adding another one or two, try to get relevant links back to the existing pages which will help in improving their ranking.
Or…instead of creating a whole new report/infographic about your topic and getting it published on other people’s websites right away, start by giving away free access to one of your services. This way you will build some links back to your website on an organic basis without actively seeking them.
These are just a few examples of things that you can do to improve the backlinks and content on your website and attract more people from search engine result pages which will help in raising the number of your daily visitors.
The only important piece of advice that I will give you is to remember: every action counts, so do whatever you can and don’t give up on your goals. By doing this consistently over time, you will achieve great results.
So…are you ready to make a change? Then get started now by using these tips to create natural backlinks and you will see how they can help your business improve.
Ali is a digital marketing blogger and author who uses the power of words to inspire and impact others. He has written for leading publications like Business2Community, Inc. Magazine, and Marketing Profs. When not writing, he enjoys spending time with his family.