Many digital marketers and business owners have heard the term backlinking. Backlinking occurs when a business or individual has a link to their personal page from a high-quality site. Collecting and producing a large number of backlinks is the way to a solid link building strategy. Link building helps Google and other platforms identify relevant and trustworthy pages.

Understanding the Importance of Link Building Strategies

The ultimate goal of link building is to bring traffic to your website and, more specifically, a particular web page. Even a fundamental understanding of common strategies can significantly boost web traffic and improve positioning in search results.

The increase can prove significant for young sites still trying to establish their authority. The one thing to focus on is the creation of quality content. If your site does not provide quality information, it will probably never receive an authority boost.

Learning the Inner Workings of the Process

Backlinks from credible, quality websites are the best way to boost web page authority. Too many new digital marketers believe the quantity of links is all that matters, but links to irrelevant and spam sites will not improve page or site rankings. There are several ways to earn legitimate backlinks, including:

  •   Social media promotion
  •   Guest blogging
  •   Pursuing competitor
  •   Manual outreach

A link building strategy will include various links. While there are many links, you will mainly want to focus on the three most important.

1. Follow and No-Follow Links

Follow and no-follow links allow a web developer or publisher to tell Google what sites to crawl or not from the primary page. The “follow” link tells Google and other web crawlers to scan the linked page and see it as an authority. The “no-follow” link does the opposite of the “follow” link, telling web crawlers to ignore the linked page.

Both links are helpful, but no-follow options do not pass PageRank, meaning you will not earn any authority. Still, you can earn brand recognition through both linking strategies.

2. User-Generated Links

How have you promoted your pages in the past? Many people new to digital advertising will focus on user-generated links, which can come from you, people you know, or strangers. The links typically appear in unmoderated blog comments, profile pages, embeds, etc.

While user-generated links will not hurt your authority or rankings, they do not help either. Google is not a big fan of such tactics, so be careful.

3. Organic Links

Organic or natural links occur when other bloggers and professionals link to your site from their website or blog without being asked. Essentially, an organic link is not sponsored or paid for, and it will not have tracking parameters.

Organic linking is among the best and safest link building techniques. These links are a cost-efficient and effective linking strategy, but it can take time to achieve natural backlinks.

Link Building Strategies for the Modern Marketer

Many people overcomplicate link building in modern times. While there are many advanced strategies, the fundamentals of the process remain relatively straightforward.

1. Guest Blogging

Matt Cutts once pronounced the death of guest blogging, but the tactic is not really dead. You can still earn quality backlinks if you are selective about where you post; however, this is not the most scalable technique.

2. Social Media

Social media is an effective marketing and backlinking tool, especially if you have linkable assets, such as an infographic. The best ways to use social networks include:

  •   Posting brand updates
  •   Engaging with your audience
  •   Responding to brand mentions
  •   Participating in niche conversations

3. Resource Links

Quality links matter almost more than anything else. You want to create informative and valuable content that is well-researched and authoritative.

4. Broken Links

Many web pages contain broken links: hyperlinks that go nowhere — deleted domains or 404 pages. Contact the owner of the page and provide links to your relevant pages.

5. Competition Research

There is nothing wrong with scoping out the competition and discovering the resources they use or where they post their content. Performing competition research can help you develop your link building strategy.

Depending on your resources and team, link building can become time-consuming. Most businesses and professionals prefer to leave content strategies to digital marketing experts. If you are ready to revamp or begin your link building efforts, contact Sprout Media Lab online or give us a call at: (800) 617-6975, today!