What is Link Building?
Link building is the process of collecting backlinks to your website. A backlink is a hyperlink that brings a user from one website to yours. One website linking to another is often seen as an endorsement because they are seen as the internet’s equivalent to a referral. You wouldn’t recommend a bad restaurant to a customer, so why link out to a bad website?
Link building is where search engine optimization (SEO) meets public relations.
Benefits of Quality Backlinks
The benefits of quality backlinks can take your website to the next level.
Higher Organic Search Rankings
Google and other popular search engines consider the quantity (and most importantly) quality of your website’s backlinks when determining organic search rankings. For example, backlinks from quality news sources such as The New York Times are seen as a credible and will boost your rankings, while backlinks from suspicious sites might lead to a penalty.
Quality Referral Traffic
Having a collection of relevant resources that link to your site is a great way to develop streams of referral traffic. For example, a national new outlet using a quote from your business (as an expert in your industry) with a backlink would direct some of their readers to your website.
The quality over quantity rule applies to referral traffic as well as search rankings. One quality link from Food Network would benefit a restaurant far more than 1000 low quality links because the traffic from Food Network would consist of food enthusiasts (possible bloggers looking for restaurants to review) and potential customers, rather than random visitors.
Great Content Generates Great Backlinks
Content finds value when quality finds its niche.
Here are some examples:
- A guitar website with free in-depth tutorials would appeal to beginner guitarists
- A well-written food blog featuring easy and affordable recipes would appeal to novice cooks
- A vlog reviewing various golf clubs and equipment would appeal to avid golfers
Valuable content keeps people coming back. Not every food blog has healthy/easy/tasty recipes just as not every golf vlog has access to hundreds of clubs to review.
Value means giving your audience what they want.
Here’s how quality content helps link building initiatives:
- More blogs and publications will gladly link to your content on their own
- Bloggers and reporters will be more inclined to accept your pitches because your content will be more likely to appeal to their audience
In short, higher quality content is more likely to be shared and referenced.
Strong Content + Links Feed Each Other
Great content leads to sharability, which increases your organic rankings. Higher organic rankings lead to more exposure for your content, which leads to even more sharability and so-on. When both practices are done right, they work in perfect harmony.
Content Marketing and Link Building are vital for successful SEO strategies. But where do you start? If you’re unsure, you can contact the experts at Active Web Group! Our marketing experts have been successfully serving clients of all sizes and industries for 20 years! Can’t wait? Give them a call at 800-978-3417 to take your next step towards a more successful business!
