Are you looking to attract more traffic to your site, using links from other sites? Well link building is one way that can help out with that. Good link building is like having a good foundation for a house. Essentially, you want to build links with others, and then have those links come back to your site. Google’s algorithm is one of the big reasons that this should be done. We will discuss that, along with the importance of link building, and how you can get started.
Table of Contents
Backlink Basics
Before we get started, we will quickly discuss some backlink basics. A backlink is a link from one site to another site, usually for supplemental resources. t contributes to quality link building. You want to have links leading up to your site. Who doesn’t? This will be hard to do for beginners. Do not worry though, we will go over how to improve your link building skills with and without a fancy tool.
To put it this way, think of a backlink like you would think of a vote. Pages are voting for yours, since they like it. The more “votes” that your page has, the better. At least in the case of the Google Algorithm. As we discuss link building, multiple topics will arise. These topics all contribute to a successful website.
What is Link Building?
So, what is link building? What exactly does link building help us out with? These are great questions. Well, quality link building has some basics that we will go through. Links are signalling to Google that your site has quality resources on it. These signals basically tell Google that your site is being used as a resource by others. It will then rank your site higher. Sites that have more links leading to them usually rank higher. Of course, link building is not simple. We will discuss how to do proper link building. Mistakes can be made, so we will try to avoid them.
Link Building: Right vs. Wrong
There are right ways to do link building, and there are wrong ways. After we discussed what is link building, we should discuss the proper way to link build. With Google, we have to play by their rules. If we do not, our sites will not succeed.
First, this is what not to do. Do not go out looking for freelance link building services that cost $5 on sites such as Fiverr. This is the worst way to build links. Sometimes, offers that say they will get 25,000 links for your site appear. Ignore these. Instead, start off by doing something as simple as blogging. Sites with blogs get much more links than sites without blogs. Creating a blog may lead to a more sites linking to yours.
Another mistake to avoid is to contact the wrong people. You’ve learned what is link building. Now, make sure you are contacting the right people about building your links. If your website is about technology, do not contact a site that cannot give you a good link to your posts. This would make things very difficult. And, you would waste your time as as well as the other person’s time. The algorithm would also be of little help here. You want link building between sites that have similar content. Moz Link Building can be very helpful for beginners. Moz is a great website that helps out with search engine optimization, especially with link building, and we will discuss it next.
Moz Link Building
Link building tools are out there. Link building can be described as a series of roads. The links require all of the search engine crawlers to connect to each other. Well, these roads need to be built first. This is where Moz link building steps in. Moz link building is one of the best tools on the internet for links. Definitely check out their site, as there are multiple tips and tricks for beginners. There are internal links, follow links, and no-follow links, all of which contribute differently to SEO. Having a balance between the links on your site is important. Overdoing some things may hurt your site in the eyes of the search algorithm.
The Types of Links
The types of links that are very important are follow, nofollow, and internal links. These three link types are the most common. They all play important roles as they are recognized by the Google search algorithm. You can recognize these links by the blue underlined text. First, we will discuss internal links.
Internal links help a website increase domain authority. An internal link just links one part of your site to another part of your site. While it seems simple, it is actually very important. To start, it reduces bounce rates when clicked. This is because users are not just exiting the page after viewing the article. Instead they stay engaged with your website’s content. Also, internal links help readers have more information available.
For example, you write a blog about a topic, but have another blog about a similar topic on your site. If you link blog A to blog B, you have supplemental material for readers. And, it helps the algorithm when a crawler sees internal links.
Second, we will discuss follow and nofollow links. These two types of links are actually very important. Both of these links are types of backlinks. But, while they link to other sites, they are not the same. Follow links are from another website to yours, but they are not all credible sites. This means you may have some sketchy links to your site.
On the other hand, nofollow links are not utilized by the algorithm. They can be links for comments on a blog, or a picture on a page. Google knows not to acknowledge them. These two types of links are very different. You want credible follow links to your site. In order to get them, build quality content that other sites can link to yours.
SEO Link Builders
Alright, so you want to improve your SEO with some link building. SEO link builders can be found online. Some of the best SEO link builders will have higher costs. These link builders are usually just tools. The best link building tools can be very helpful for your purpose. These tools include Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, Moz’s all in one SEO products, and Google. If professional SEO link builders aren’t your thing, then you can try it by yourself. We will go over a process on how to simply try it out.
How To Link Build By Yourself
If I was just starting out and wanted to build links by myself, there are a few things I would consider. First, I would consider my budget. If my blogging budget is minimal, then tools are out of the question. I would also consider the quality of my content. If I have a good amount of visitors, then it is good to keep up the quality.
After considering this, the first suggestion I have is to find a blog that you want your site to be linked to. Then, find out who contributes on that blog. Once you have their contact information, send them an email about their content. See if they could link to your site. If they reply with a yes, then congratulations. You have established a backlink! This could be a good relationship with other site contributors too.
Other SEO Basics
Now, creating links is not the only way to have good SEO on your site. Other SEO basics to increase your rankings include user experiences, keywords, and social media presence. While we won’t cover these in detail, they are important to know. User experience is actually closely tied to backlinks of sites. If your site is being linked to from a site with poor user experience, this won’t help you. The algorithm knows that this site is poorly run, and your rank won’t increase.
Social media presence also helps with linking. You could have a social media account linking to your website. The algorithm acknowledges this! Even if you run both accounts, it is still a good backlink! Therefore, social media ties very closely to backlinks.
Moving Forward with Link Building
Link building will always be a main part of SEO. Whether it is connecting your site to others’ sites, or just having links from social media, it should not be ignored. We have discussed the right and wrong ways to link build. Since the algorithm is picky, it is important to also know the different types of links. Other types of SEO can also loosely be tied to link building. Links can connect sites to each other with relevant content. Overall, what should be remembered is that good link building will help your site. It will increase its rank, popularity, and credibility. Going forwards, this can make your site into a top ranking site on Google.
FAQs about Link Building:
- What are backlinks?
- How to get more links to my site?
- What are some link building tools?
- What are internal links?
- How do I improve my SEO?
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