Web pages are distinct destinations on the web. If you want to move from page to page inside a domain, you can always click on the internal links. In case you want to go to a referral page, you can click on the outbound SEO backlinks. Therefore, it is quite easy for you to understand why Google and other search engines see these links are pathways between locations.
What are the basic principles of link building?
This question might seem redundant to the SEO experts who have been here for a while. However, we must always remember that the basic principles governing link building keep changing almost every season in Digital Marketing Southern-California with the new updates and algorithm changes from the house of Google.
So how to build links here are the basics of link building in 2017:
Quality of your links
Suppose you have a busted sink pipe. Will you call a plumber for service and advice, or will you ask ten neighbors? Unless all your neighbors are also plumbers, you will likely call a plumber as soon as possible. Since in this case, the quality of service will determine whether you will have frozen pizza for dinner or homemade casseroles.
It is quite similar to site links and ranking. If you want to rank high, you need good quality links from reliable sources. You cannot sell children’s books and link to adult masseuse sites. Many clients keep asking us, “What are good links?" Well, in certain cases, it is you will know them when you see them. In others, you simply run a page analysis, see where the website stands according to Google and then link to the page and its adjacent ones.
Number of links
The quantity matters as much as quality. We have seen sites with a hundred links to at least 70 different websites perform much better than sites with 200 links to the same site.
When you can get a hundred links from a hundred sites, it naturally increases your credibility. Google does not only judge you by the neighborhood you link to, but it also judges you by the quality. For example – link farming and viral link baiting techniques do not work with rank improvements after a while. You may be able to boost your ranks by these short-sighted techniques, but automated software and blog spamming techniques will not go unpunished by Google.
Pay attention to your anchor text
Sellers have a gala time with links and anchor texts. If you are the owner of an e-commerce site, you will be able to earn links for many items in your inventory. Now, you need to understand that each anchor word can also act as your keyword in the page title and page URL. Therefore, you must be very cautious about what you are using as anchor text.
Let us give you an example. When you type “Silver earrings," you will get instant hits with Etsy. However, when you search for "Silver Earphones" you will not get any hits from Etsy since they do not have earphones. You will find organizers, holders and gift ideas, but you will not find the exact matching products.
Therefore, you need to utilize this opportunity to link to pages that will contribute value to your keyword, page title, and URL.
Three link building strategies that always work
With the changing face of SEO and digital marketing, the principles of how to get backlinks have also been constantly changing. Standing in 2017, what are the different ways in which you can build links while feeding your website optimization?
Guest posting
It is one of the most time-tested ways to build links. Start guest posting on sites to link back to your site and the source content. Now, be very careful to not raise red flags with Google. If you are not tactful enough while posting the same content in multiple places, Google will flag your content as duplicate and push all associated sites down the SRL.
Skyscraper technique
According to Brian Dean, “the Skyscraper Technique” is when you find a profitable and popular content within your niche and write something better upholding a similar message.
Now, you need to reach out to the ones who have already linked to similar content that has inspired you! Here are the three reasons this will work:
- The content already has a ready audience
- You are cultivating and creating on ideas which have worked so well
- Google has already indexed and crawled the existing content.
Trackback
You need to track your backlinks. Backlinking is not a one-time deal. Well, just like every component of SEO, you need to keep checking on it for quality concerns. Sometimes, websites close down, or they take specific pages down. It will lead to dead ends or 401s from your anchor texts. When Google bots try to crawl the content, they will reach nowhere.
Tracking is a little different from auditing and in fact, a lot easier too. You just need free versions of link auditing tools from SEMRush or Ahref. Check if all the outbound and inbound links in your content are active and healthy.
Content is still the king
None of these backlinking techniques and tactics will work if you do not have quality content. We have seen many websites lose the battle simply because they did not have enough original content to support the link juice. Google can penalize you, even if you have excellent outbound links, in case Google finds your content plagiarized or keyword stuffed.
Having an SEO team handy is always the smarter thing to do when you are trying to face up to the changing facades of Google algorithms and SEO. An experienced SEO will always be able to tell you which direction the optimization efforts are going and how you can engineer your website to coordinate with them.
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