SEO: link building for a higher reach

If you deal with SEO today, sooner or later you will also come across the topic of link building and in the same breath backlinks. The latter still belong to the decisive ranking factors of the search engines and good rankings can be achieved with a suitable link profile.

In the field of search engine optimization (SEO), link building describes all measures aimed at increasing the number and quality of incoming links to a website. In short, link building is the process of building relevant hyperlinks to a website from external websites.

But what is the right strategy in link building and what does it depend on? In any case, indiscriminate linking does not lead to success, but those who want to buy high-quality backlinks have better chances.

The basics – what is a backlink?

For Google, a backlink is a recommendation of your site, you can see it as a backlink from another website to you. If a foreign homepage sets a link to your offer, you have won a backlink. Google has about 200 different factors that determine the overall ranking of a website. Backlinks are among the most important. But does it matter where the link position comes from? Not quite, if you get recommendations from others, they have to be reputable tipsters. So the ranking of the link-giving website is crucial for you.

Google has a very simple structure in this area. A backlink is registered by the search engine giant as a recommendation for your website. If several sites set such a link to you, your search engine ranking will increase.

The crux of the matter: It is not about collecting as many worthless links as possible, but to place them with reputable partners. The trustworthiness of your partners have a direct impact on you. This also means that a drop in the ranking of the link-giving site can negatively affect your ranking.

Don’t forget: link building is not a matter of “five minutes”, but is one of the most important offpage SEO opportunities and is often considered the supreme discipline. Wrong link building will bring you more harm than good, so make sure your backlinks have the quality you need.

The most important criteria for a good backlink

You can do a lot right, but also a lot wrong when it comes to link building. The topic is always relevant for you, no matter if you want to create your own blog or manage your website and make it more popular. You are exposed to the favor of Google, because the search engine evaluates your link profile and then decides for your ranking. Several factors come into play.

• The authority of the backlink provider: the so-called domain authority plays a decisive role. It is made up of various parameters, including the number of existing backlinks, trust factor, but also the age of the domain. However, there is no fixed KPI, because the authority is measured by different tools.
• Topic relevance: A very important issue is the relevance of the link to your website. If a law portal links to the homepage of a lawyer, the relevance is given. However, if the supermarket links to the lawyer, Google cannot determine topic relevance here. The stronger the backlink, the higher the topic relevance.
• The anchor text: The anchor is the part of the link that is visible to the reader. Prompting links like “click here” are not very relevant because they do not tell the reader what to expect on the other website. Superlatives should be avoided.
• Placement: where the backlink is found does a lot to its value. The higher up on the page it sits, the more valuable it becomes. In the sidebar or in the footer, however, the value decreases, Above the Fold on the home page, however, it increases.
• The Trust: How much value a backlink has for you depends to a large extent on the trust of the linking website. Dubious link farms with little page content and a lack of security cause the reputation of the linking website to drop. A high-quality portal with content-rich content, on the other hand, is seen as reputable.
• Different link types: In order for Google to know how to value a link, there are certain attributes. Nofollow links are only for the information of the reader, but not Google as a recommendation. They are worth less, but still play a role in making your link profile look natural.

Overview of the most important link building strategies

Around a million people give up reading every year, at least when it comes to books. The rapid literary consumption of content on the Internet, on the other hand, is on the rise. The prerequisite is that it is interesting content. One of the most important strategies for generating a high-quality link profile is the publication of guest articles.

This gives you the opportunity to announce your expertise, improve your visibility, and package your own link that is relevant to the topic. Look around for sites in your industry, for blogs, and for magazines and ask if you can post your guest article.

Chances of success are good if you share what topic you want to cover during your application. It should definitely fit with the rest of the site, as this increases trust for you and the host site. You can also ask website owners directly if you can write an article relevant to the topic.

Reviews and testimonials for a natural link profile

If you use different services, tools and products from different vendors, you should visit their website. Many companies are happy to have other business owners write a testimonial. In return, it is often possible that you may name your URL or your company and thus generate a direct Mention or a backlink for you.

Interviews are also very popular.

Generate backlinks through high quality content

Ask yourself why another website, if you don’t pay them for it, should link your website?

The only correct answer is:

Because you provide good content.

So before you start creating and developing your link profile, take care of the content on your homepage first. This is another way Google measures your value to the general internet community.

Texts that are written by you must offer the user a real added value. Link building is also important for you. By linking from your website to other information, you increase the information content for your visitors. Visual content such as images, self-made videos and graphics ensure that your offer is perceived by both readers and Google as being of higher quality.

Links that you place must of course fit your content. It is crucial that your link profile is seen as natural, otherwise Google will lower your trust. Natural means that your links make sense, that the click on the link generates real added value!

Information about the competition is information for you

You don’t care what the others are doing? You have to, because if you want to drive your link building, it’s important to know your competitors’ strategies. Who are other service providers in your industry working with? Which link networks have been established and from where is your competition getting backlinks? There are tools to find out from which sources links have been placed on your competition.

When you see which strong partners are supporting your competition’s link building, you can interact specifically to generate backlinks from those partners as well.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that some of these tools not only cost money, but are quite complex for non-professionals to use. For many website owners, it has therefore proven helpful to leave the natural building of a link profile in the hands of professionals.

The advantage of this is that the external optimization is not only spot-on, but efficient, leaving maximum time for the creation of high-quality content and your core business. It would be a fatal mistake to abandon link building due to lack of expertise, because it is one of the most powerful off-page SEO measures you can use to further promote your website.

Conclusion

Links are still the hardest currency on the internet. However, really good copy is the foundation for any successful website.

In the end, it’s all about the added value for your visitors. The backlinks will come all by themselves.