Putting interesting new Content online is essential to attracting new website visitors and persuading Google to rank you higher in its search results. But how do you maximise your visibility?
Tactic 3 – Love Inbound Links
Inbound links are links on other websites that point to a page on your website. They are also known as inbound links, backlinks, and links to your site.
Inbound links are crucial to Google’s PageRank system – the more relevant websites with good reputation refer to your site, the higher your website appears in its rankings. However great your content, your website power and traction is provided by trustworthy, authoritative sources linking to you.
Whilst link-building takes time to implement and reap results, Backlinko https://backlinko.com/link-building analysed 1 million Google search results in 2016 and found that links impacted rankings more than any other factor.
Quality links are more important than the quantity, although this varies by industry. Links in the middle of the main body of text are most valuable. A diverse and natural-looking anchor text (the clickable text section of a link) distribution improves your site’s rankings.
Inbound links are different to Internal Links – links that point from one webpage of your site to another page of your site, also known as website navigation. Internal links can assist your SEO by pointing to your best resources and improving visitor experience and time spent on site, which can improve your page’s search rankings.
Short-Term Actions To Win New Inbound Links:
1. Check Who is Already Linked To You
Use Google Search Console https://search.google.com/search-console/about to learn about sites that are referring to you. Be aware it shows all websites ever linked to you, including ones that have been removed, and you can’t check what anchor texts are being used.
Use tools to look at how you rank for certain keywords in comparison to your competitors and see what your link profile currently looks like.
For example, check an indicator of a URL’s PageRank using Ahrefs https://help.ahrefs.com/site-explorer/terminology/what-is-ahrefs-url-rating or use Moz’s “Domain Authority” metric https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority.
2. Check Who Is Linked To Competitors
Use tools such as SEMRush https://www.semrush.com to assess where competitors are getting authoritative inbound website links from.
Use Moz’s Link Explorer https://moz.com/link-explorer to see which pages on your competitors’ sites are getting the most links and who those links are coming from.
Review what types of posts are earning backlinks, and think what you could write for the same publications your competitors are writing for.
3. Guest Blogging
Guest posting is a useful tactic because you are providing something valuable for another business and their audience, in return for a natural link in that article back to your website.
Look for blogs in your industry and in related industries that accept guest posts – search for industry “guest post” and familiarise yourself with post types and topics used.
Pitch following their guidelines, and only target high-quality, well-followed sites that are attractive to your ideal customer.
Neil Patel https://neilpatel.com/blog/link-building-campaign-for-2018/amp/ advises that guest blogs must be relevant and industry-specific, and they give you the opportunity to brand yourself as an industry expert and thought leader.
4. Broken Link Building
Backlinko https://backlinko.com/link-building loves Broken Link Building, as you add value to someone’s website rather than just asking for a link.
Use Check My Links https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/check-my-links/ or LinkMiner https://linkminer.com (within Chrome Browser) to find broken links on web pages you would like an inbound link from.
Typically these will be popular pages with lots of outbound links, such as Blogs or Resource pages.
Email the site owner about their broken link, and offer a quality replacement resource from your site.
5. Influencer Outreach
Search Engine Journal https://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-basics/258833/ recommends building relationships with industry bloggers through outreach campaigns.
Target experts and top influencers by mentioning them in your post. Make sure it is a good quality article, so there is a high likelihood the influencer will share it, resulting in more links.
Moz https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building/campaign suggests learning more about what your target bloggers like, how often and what they share, by visiting their websites and social media.
Prioritise contacting them using their PageRank & Domain Authority, Influence – number of followers, and Likelihood of Linking to you.
Impress the blogger with your valuable and shareable content, and ask them for the action you’d like them to take – sharing on social networks, embedding your infographic, accepting a guest post, linking back to your content, or an opinion piece about your content with a backlink.
Follow up politely on all outreaches if you don’t get a reply, as bloggers are busy people
6. Expert Round-Ups
Hubspot https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/build-inbound-links advises publishing helpful resource lists to get links from and build relationships with influencers, who can both share your resources and contribute to them.
You can also use Resource pages to find link building targets, for example search for “your Keyword” + “useful resources”.
Work out whether a link from a resource page is worth the effort, and find content on your site that will best fit that resource.
7. Compelling Infographics
Ninja https://ninjaoutreach.com/infographic-ideas-for-linkbuilding/ points out research has shown people are 30 times more likely to read infographics than a text-based article.
Infographics are one of the most-shared pieces of content on the Internet. If you create an original infographic, people will link back to you as the original source.
Use a tool like Venngage https://venngage.com to easily build infographics based on existing templates with multiple categories.For
Consider creating infographics for existing posts – if they have lots of traffic but not many links, repurpose them into infographics.For
8. Link Reclamation
Find and monitor your unlinked mentions or infographics using BuzzSumo https://buzzsumo.com/solutions/content-alerts/, Mention https://mention.com/en/ and Google reverse image search https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808?hl=en.
Contact webmasters to turn these opportunities into inbound links.
Long-Term Actions To Win New Inbound Links:
9. Maintain A Blog With Great Content
Regularly creating great blog content that people want to link to is one of the most successful ways to organically generate inbound links.
10. Link To Other Blogs
If you link to others on your blog in a consistent way, it is likely bloggers will return the compliment.
Harness the wealth of resources on the web to create useful and rewarding blog experiences for your readers.
11. Create Client Case Studies
Make your clients look good in case studies, and they will link to your site. Choose companies who are enthusiastic, have great results, and structure an attractive, comprehensive story.
12. Conduct Free Webinars, Post Archives Online
Attendees will share informative content. Turn a PowerPoint presentation into a SlideShare presentation https://www.slideshare.net, and embed it in a blog post so anyone looking for a webinar can view it.
Partner with another company or influencer for the webinar to widen the audience.
13. Respond to Press Requests and Send Quotes
Journalists ask for information and quotes for features through press request alerts, such as HARO https://www.helpareporter.com and Source Bottle https://www.sourcebottle.com.
14. Ask For Reviews Of Your Business
Request customers and industry experts review your products and services, especially new offerings. This provides valuable feedback and builds relationship as well.
15. Be A Podcast Guest
Sempo https://blog.sempo.org/2018/08/podcast-link-building/ states that guesting on the right podcasts is a solid link building strategy.
Hosts will include your information in the show notes and share it on social media, linking to your site and your social profiles, meaning you get links from quality sites to yours.
These links are usually around for a long time so podcasting has great long-term benefits.
16. Publish Skyscraper Content
Hostgator https://www.hostgator.com/blog/beginners-guide-to-building-website-backlinks/ advocates the Skyscraper technique.
Research what appears on search engine results for your relevant keywords, looking for high ranking content that is low quality or outdated. If you can create content that’s better, these are your skyscraper content targets.
Create first class content that is more thorough and helpful than the content currently claiming the top spots.
Once published, find out which pages link to the sub-par content you want to replace, and contact those sites to recommend they link to your content instead. Make a case why your content is more valuable and up-to-date.
Lastly, be sure to AVOID: Poor quality, Self-Created, Non-Editorial and Paid links, as Google penalises sites with these.
For quality website SEO development and blog writing services, please visit http://www.brilliantbusinessblogs.com or e-mail jan@brilliantbusinessblogs.com
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