Overview
In order to gain visibility in today’s search environment, all business websites must be built on a foundation of trust, and this often requires more than just quick fixes. While many companies adopt short-sighted, high-risk approaches to gaining quick visibility, search engines have designed sophisticated algorithms to detect and penalize risky linking schemes. Now, more than ever, taking the long-view position on Backlink Building Strategies will help your business rank high in relevant search queries.
SEO executives and marketing agencies must understand the value of a safe backlink to maintain their ranking presence on search engine results pages.
Ethical Link Building Matters
Backlinks show search engines what other websites are vouching for you. They all matter and are counted individually. A backlinks profile filled with thousands of low-quality links will lose significance when compared to just one backlink from a high quality website. Marketing budgets and rankings can be negatively affected when resources are used to build low-value backlinks in large numbers.
Core Principles of Sustainable Link Building
There are some key elements of ethical link acquisition that, when understood, can help inform your approach to link building:
- Audience and industry first – Links should be from websites that are relevant to your business.
- Editorial placement – A good backlink is earned through content that deserves to be referenced, and is not a paid backlink.
- Sourcing diversity – A link profile that is built naturally will include blogs, news sites, directories and other reputable publications.
- Speed vs patience – Growth that occurs gradually is natural and sustainable, whereas rapid, unnatural growth attracts concerns.
A Rundown of Practical Backlink Building Strategies
There are several reliable, white-hat strategies from which marketing teams and agencies can choose and implement, without the risk of penalties.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging builds authority for your brand by writing insightful articles on reputable blogs and also a great way to create links.
Digital PR
The media is likely to cover your original research or case studies, or even data reports if you publish them.
Broken Link Building
This approach offers a reputable site’s benefit by providing content to replace their broken links.
Resource Page Outreach
A page where you earn a spot on a reputable site’s resource list by creating and offering a genuinely useful page.
Collaborations
Original work, especially high-quality content, naturally attracts backlinks and mentions. In addition, partnerships and collaborations earn mentions and backlinks organically.
Things to Avoid
There are things that are best to avoid, supplementing that knowledge of what works.
- Link farms
- Link networks
- Link exchanges
- Directory submissions
Overuse of a particular anchor text
None of these approaches are worth the end result that helps little to no and (in time) damages your link trust and visibility.
Measuring the Impact
You need to track more than just how many backlinks you made. To evaluate a link building campaign, you should consider the campaign’s impact on referring domain authority, the number of visitors to the linked pages, and changes in keyword ranking.
Conclusion
Building a ranking position through unethical means may give you a short-lived advantage, but the ethically built rankings will retain their position even with changes to the algorithm and increased focus on SEO. Backlink Building Strategies Focusing on the quality of your content and making relevant connections will result in the steady, penalty-free growth of your business. In the end, ethical link building is not just safe, but actually beneficial in the long-run from an SEO perspective.
