Link building is the most important aspect of SEO. It is what determines your search engine ranking, and it can take months or even years to build up enough quality links for your site to rank competitively in the search engines.
These links will improve the ranking of your site on search engines as well as increase visitor traffic. However, there are some things you must do and others you must not do when trying to attract new links to your site. Read on for more information on what link building is and how to do it right!
The Do’s of Link Building Services:
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Provide valuable content that educates and informs.
The internet is full of content, so Google needs to separate good content from bad, and show users the best, most relevant content to their queries. Therefore it’s important that your content provides value.
But valuable content isn’t simply about how many words you write, or how elegant your prose is – quantity is not preferable to quality in SEO. While long-form content is good, you need to be sure you aren’t writing 800 words of pointless fluff, and that you’re addressing questions or providing new information that your visitors will find useful.
Imagine the client of a link building agency, such as the ones found on Searchengineland.com, needs informative content written about antivirus software. The generic (bad) route to go would be 500-word hype pieces that are trying to sell people on the product or provides no valuable information.
Consider a generic topic title like “Why You Need Antivirus Software” – this offers no value to the reader, because most people already have a basic understanding of why they need antivirus software.
Good content would be something like “5 Useful Features in Antivirus Software You Didn’t Know You Were Missing” – this offers a valuable insight into the features of antivirus software that people may not know about or know how to use.
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Optimize your content outreach strategy and build your network.
A big part of successful link building is having a content outreach strategy in place. If you can write content that is engaging, interesting and educational, and you get it in front of the people who you want to read it, you will win.
Contacting webmasters and offering your content will feel tedious at times, but if you target the right people, it is time well spent. Webmasters of good authority sites want valuable content, so building relationships and letting your content speak for itself will leave a positive impression.
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Monitor performance after Google algorithm updates
It is important to monitor your site after major updates in the search engine algorithm. When Google updates their algorithms, you need to be sure it doesn’t impact a particular strategy you may be using, and if it does, you need to be ready to act quickly.
Most businesses are affected by algorithm changes; you need to be vigilant and know which strategies will be affected. It’s important to audit your past content for any metric changes, and if you’ve been negatively impacted, figure out what you need to do to recover.
The Don’ts of Link Building Services:
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Be Obsessive About Metrics and Numbers
As with any activity in SEO, obsessing over metrics and numbers is a critical part of linking building. But it can be detrimental to your campaign.
Metrics can serve as guidelines for strategizing your approach, but they aren’t the end-all-be-all of link building. Focus on results that provide value for your business, and let metrics help you decide if you should move on to a new strategy or tweak your current one.
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Over-Optimize Your Site for Keywords
When people figured out specific patterns in content that Google prefers, they of course tried to game it. One common bad habit I’ve seen of webmasters is to use a plug-in that “scores” the SEO value of their content, and then they try to write content meant for robot crawlers, not for human readers.
Your content should never be written for Google’s crawlers, like following a strict checklist of keyword density, order, and number of words, or any other form of an excessive optimization strategy.
Your content should be written for humans, with a simple goal of increasing sales. Google doesn’t automatically know whether your content is unique and valuable, human engagement decides that – so focus on creating good content that people want to read.
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Participate in spammy link exchanges
One of the worst things you can do for your link building is to participate in link exchanges. Even if you think your content is valuable, the fact its published on a low authority, spammy website will lower your reputation.
Getting links is the purpose of link building, but you want quality referrals from trusted domains. When Google penalizes a link exchange network, they typically penalize all sites involved. Don’t make the mistake of assuming quantity of links is better than quality.
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