Link building is a critical part of search engine optimization. Obtaining incoming links to your website is necessary if you want to rise in the search engines. Old link building styles don’t work well any more, however. Search engines have become wise and buying links, submitting your links to a link farm, and article spinning are all old link building methods that can backfire and actually hurt your search engine placement. The reason these methods do not work anymore is because it is clear those using them were not focused on creating useful content, but just on getting a quick link. Google and other search engines only want useful content to rank highly. Follow these steps to come up with useful content and do link building the right way:
1. Compile a list of assets
Your business has unique resources that will make link building easier for you. Stop and think of everything about your company that is of interest others. Maybe you have compelling photos or educational videos (or could easily create them and are in a line of business that would easily translate into photo/video). Maybe your clients or friends have related expertise and would be interested in helping out. Don’t be afraid to think big and list all online and offline assets that come to mind.
2. Do your research
Search relevant terms and see who is ranking well in the search engines now. Use a link finding program to see which sites link back to those high-ranking URLs. While you don’t want to copy a competitor’s strategy exactly, it is nice to become aware of what others are doing. Also do research on what industry-related blogs, sites, and forums are out there. Knowing where you might fit in is important. Ask staff, clients, and colleagues to help brainstorm back linking sources. The more minds involved, the better.
3. Create a plan and calendar
By now you know your assets and have an idea of where and how you can share them. It is time to make a concrete plan and assign tasks to certain people. Maybe the writer of the office can contact industry-leading blogs asking to guest post and the photographer can share relevant photos on social media and industry forums. Be creative. Create a calendar so there are due dates for tasks and schedule meetings in order to enforce these due dates.
4. Regularly evaluate and adjust your plan
After a couple of months of doing link building, stop and take stock of your progress. Look at your ranking in the search engines for various terms and try to determine which backlinks helped. See which links bring the most incoming traffic and which do not. Use this information to decide which strategies to continue and which to adjust. The internet is constantly changing so re-evaluating your link building strategy is a good thing to do every few months.
Hopefully these steps will help your company start successfully link building. If you would like to enlist the professional help of ClickxPosure, do not hesitate to contact us. We have created and managed link building and overall search engine optimization strategies for both large and small companies. Your competitors are doing it, so if you want to be found in the search engines, you need to do it too!
