Link building is the ranking strategy that seems to be standing the test of time.
Since 1998 Google has used the “links” pointing to a website to signify quality.
If you have-
- Lots of links
- From lots of relevant sources
Google will view your site as an authority in it’s niche. It’s a fairly simple formula for success.
And once you learn to harness various link building strategies you’ll be able to see a major growth in your ranking and traffic in a small amount of time.
If you are struggling with link building – you are in the right place because my link building tutorials will bring you upto speed in no time at all-
But in the mean time:
I’m going to show you what link building is and how to use it to transform your website.
What Will I Learn?
What Is Link Building?
Link building is the art of getting a hyperlink from someone’s website back to your own. Each link that points back to your site works as a “vote” in the eyes of Google.
Think of it like a big thumbs up that your content is good.
The more of these “votes” and the higher quality of people who provide them, the higher your site will rank. Let me show you some link building examples:
In this blog post Ahrefs linked to my Easy Wikipedia Link Building article:
Because they are a well known website this link is a big “vote” for the quality of my article.
In the eyes of Google, it’s an endorsement that this content is good.
Thanks to this link – and many others like it – my article holds the top spot on Google for:
Wikipedia Backlinks:
If you’re able to collect links to your site like this from other websites in your niche you’re going to be able to rank much higher in Google results yourself.
But why does this happen?
Google introduced backlinks into its algorithm in 1998. They believed links worked as endorsements and made identifying the best quality content much easier.
This system was a little flawed because they focused on link quantity and not quality.
The more links you had, the better. Many SEOs take advantage of that, creating fake links and blogs and “spamming” the system.
As time went on Google refined its algorithm and link building took on a different form.
Quantity gave way to quality and the better the source of your link, the more power it has.
That means a link from the BBC is worth more than a link from my blog.
But as long as my blog is active and spam free, the links from my blog still count and make up a healthy “link profile” for your site.
Which brings us to an important question…
Why Do You Need Link Building?
You need link building to help you maximise your SEO results.
When used in conjunction with on page SEO, link building can take even the most obscure of websites to the top spot.
Which is what makes it the most sought after and important SEO technique.[novashare_tweet tweet=”You can get SEO results without link building, but you can ONLY get incredible SEO results with link building @mattwoodwarduk” quote=”You can get good SEO results without link building, but you can ONLY get incredible SEO results with link building.”]If your site isn’t being endorsed by third-party links…
You are going to lose.
Link building has a powerful branding effect beyond search engines, too.
Human beings also see links as endorsements.
If they click to your site from someone they trust, they’re going to have a positive association to your brand.
This is why thought leaders like Tim Ferriss are able to sell out affiliate products in seconds. (Often called The Hug of Death.)
People trust what they have to say.
They trust the referral. Your brand looks good because of it. It’s a no-brainer.
Internal & External Link Building: What’s The Difference?
There are two “major” categories of link building:
- Internal link building
- External link building
And it can be difficult to understand the difference. So, allow me to explain.
Internal links leads from one piece of content to another within the same site. Like if you click this link, that’s an internal link to another page on my blog.
If you run a website about health & fitness and you have an article about protein powder, you’d add a link to this article every time “protein powder” was mentioned on your site.
External links work on the same principle, except they link to an external website that is not your own.
You’d then be looking to acquire links from other people’s content that leads back to your protein powder article. (Or whatever it is you’re talking about.)
There are various different types of link building, but these are the 9 link building techniques I tend to focus on:
- Backlink Analysis
- Testimonial Link Building
- Crowd Funded Link Building
- Event Link Building
- Resource Pages
- Broken Link Building
- Social Media Link Building
- Internal Link Building
- Expired Domains
And if that’s not enough for you, check out my full list of link building strategies.
But for now, remember:
Internal linking is from your website to elsewhere on your website.
External linking is from a third-party website back to your website.
The Anatomy Of A Backlink
Not all links are created equal.
As you saw in the first section “votes” from different places count more than from others.
But what is it that makes one link worth more than another?
Well there are a few pieces that make up the anatomy of a good link:
- Relevancy: The more closely related to the topic you’ve written about, the better.
- Domain Strength: The better known a website is the more powerful the link. A link from The New York Times is worth a lot more than your local newspaper. But that local newspaper is worth more than my blog.
- Page Strength: The page containing the link plays a factor. The more well-known that page is, the more “juice” will flow from it to your site.
- Anchor Text: This is the text your link is attached to. The more accurate this is to the topic of the article, the better.
If a link is lacking in multiple areas here or it is missing some of these factors altogether, it’s going to have a next to no impact on your search visibility.
If a link has all these factors in high levels, it’s going to strongly influence your page.
Wrapping It Up
Link building is getting links from an external website to point at your website.
Each link is an “endorsement” in the eyes of a search engine that your content is:
- High quality
- Worth ranking
These links need to be high quality and spam free. The better the website, the more impact it’ll have on your SEO results. They also have a great branding effect, too.
A good link is relevant, comes from a well known site and is connected to accurate anchor text. A bad link is the opposite.
Remember, before starting building links, you need to make sure you’ve build a solid SEO foundation using my 45+ steps SEO checklist.
Next up I’m going to show you how to get started with backlink analysis which is a great way to start building links and learning by the power of observation.
But, if you really want to learn more about link building and SEO in general, why not taking an SEO certification?
FAQs
What Is Link Building? Everything You Need To Know? ›
Link building is when you gain hyperlinks from other websites that will lead back to you. Oftentimes, other websites will site you as a resource or pull a quote from your content. When a website or web page has more links attributed to it, Google will see each link as a vote of confidence for your website.
What you need to know about link building? ›Link building is all about getting other websites to link to pages on your own site. In SEO, these links are called backlinks. Here are some of the most popular link building strategies: Content marketing.
What does link building consist of? ›Link building is the practice of building one-way hyperlinks (also known as “backlinks”) to a website with the goal of improving search engine visibility. Common link building strategies include content marketing, building useful tools, email outreach, broken link building and public relations.
What is link building in simple terms? ›What Is Link Building? A Definition. Link building, simply put, is the process of getting other websites to link back to your website. All marketers and business owners should be interested in building links to drive referral traffic and increase their site's authority.
What not to do in link building? ›Don't engage with low-quality blogs, low-quality link directories, and spammy sites. While you might want to build as many links as possible, resist this temptation. When the quality of your site's backlinks is sacrificed for the sake of quantity – can start to get into trouble with search engines.
How hard is link building? ›Link building is hard work. Landing top-quality links takes a lot of time. Unless you have a dedicated in-house team of link builders, acquiring the links you need can be difficult, especially if you have more than one site you're working on.
What are the three types of link building? ›Deep linking: linking directly to a page within another website. Inline linking: linking directly to content within another website. Internal link: linking directly to content within your own website.
What are the responsibilities of a link builder? ›The main responsibilities of the link builder include drawing up a strategy for external promotion, searching for donor sites, agreeing on placement conditions, and monitoring the work quality.
How much should I pay for link building? ›Link building pricing can vary from $100 to over $1,500 per link, depending on the industry you are in. A common campaign budget is $5,000-$20,000/mo, often tied to content marketing activity that also has secondary KPis.
What are the risks of link building? ›The main risk of link building is that Google may come to the conclusion that you're trying to manipulate its results, and your site may be penalised. This could result in your traffic plummeting and have the exact opposite outcome to what you were hoping for.
What are the benefits of link building? ›
- Ongoing link building is one of the fundamental pillars of a successful SEO strategy. ...
- (1) Improve organic rankings. ...
- (2) Build brand and site authority. ...
- (3) Increase referral traffic. ...
- Building backlinks without being penalized.
The best time to start link Building is 3–4 month after buying a new domain because when you put content on your blog so your ranking always on the positive side. On the other side, you can prevent Google from spamming your domain. Then after 3–4 month start link building and you can get excellent results.
Which tools do you use for link building? ›- Link-building strategies, along with SEO tools, have certainly changed over the years.
- Majestic and Ahrefs are two research tools that provide large databases and robust reporting.
- I'll go through five tools, Pitchbox, BuzzSumo, Hunter.io, BrightLocal, and HARO.
First of all, link building isn't technically illegal because there are no state or federal laws against the practice. What people usually mean when they say it's illegal is that it's against Google's rules.
Is link building a skill? ›Link building is one of the most essential SEO skills for marketers of all levels, and this guide will help you set the right foot forward.
How long does link building take to work? ›In most cases, results from link-building efforts start showing up within three to 12 months. However, it still depends on a few crucial factors.
What is the strongest form of link? ›1 STRONGEST: Dark Link
He is made of shadow magic but has all of the same powers and strength as Link himself. With this in mind, Dark Link's power rivals that of the Hero of Twilight and the Hero of Time.
Final Thoughts on Tiered Link Building
There are three tiers of links, each of which is of greater quality than the tier below it. Tier 1: High-quality links from trustworthy sites. Tier 2: Medium-quality links from Web 2.0 sites. Tier 3: Low-quality links from comment sections and forums.
Link building is the work and link earning is the reward. You put in the effort, and you did everything the right way, so you earned the link.
What is the difference between link building & outreach? ›“Outreach is an advanced form of link building that uses surgical link building tactics to enhance organic visibility on search engines. Outreach is really a collection of small step-by-step tasks that make up a full outreach campaign.
How do link building services work? ›
A link building service is provided by an SEO agency that usually finds relevant websites that your target audience visits and places links back to your website. This is usually done by promoting your website content through manual outreach to as many relevant websites as possible.
Should you buy back links? ›Buying backlinks can break or make your brand, but you need to make sure that you follow the rules. Avoid poor-quality links, don't break the rules and risk getting penalized by Google, avoid spammy outbound links/ anchor texts, and make sure that links and relevant.
Is link building still effective? ›In short, yes, link building is still relevant to SEO. However, the days of quantity over quality are long over.
Is link building still relevant? ›As of 2023, Link Building is still relevant for SEO.
Search engines use the quantity and quality of links pointing to a website as one of the factors in determining its ranking on search engine results pages. The more high-quality links a website has, the higher its ranking is likely to be.
- Link names should be the same as the page name linked to.
- Don't use the full name of a document or program as a link name.
- Be as explicit as you can. Too long is better than too short.
- Make the link meaningful. ...
- Add a short description when needed to clarify the link.
Strategy is comprised of three parts: Vision, Goals, and Initiatives: Vision describes who the customers are, what customers need, and how you plan to deliver a unique offering.
What is the difference between backlinks and link building? ›Link building is the process of creating links to your website from other websites. This can be done through directories, social media, guest blogging, or any other method of getting links from other websites. Backlinks are links that point from other websites back to your website.
What makes a good link in link building? ›Links should be related to the content at hand; with good anchor text, which is useful for search engines to understand the context of the links. We created these guides to help make your link building and SEO efforts a little easier.