Learn About SEO Links and How to Create a Link Building Campaign that Works for Your Business
Link Building is one of the dreaded SEO techniques. It can take a herculean effort to obtain links and unfortunately many links are spammy and therefore detrimental to your SEO.
Many people assume that the goal of a link building campaign is to get as many websites linking to your website as possible. In essence, that is true, however there are a couple of critical caveats – types of links, quality of links, and relevance of links. Read on to learn more about these three areas of link building and try out some recommendations and tools to improve your SEO links.
SEO Links
Types of Links
Most people think that a link building campaign is all about getting websites to link to your website however there are really 3 different types of links:
- Internal Links: links between different web pages and posts.
- Outbound Links: links to other websites.
- Inbound Links: aka “back links” when other websites link to your website.
Your website should have a health combination of these three different types of links. Every page should have at least one internal link or outbound link. The call-to-action at the bottom of the page is a good place … to drive some to another page or website for more information. But don’t have to many outbound links, you don’t want to constantly be sending your website visitors away!
TIP: If it’s not a button or graphic, links on websites are usually displayed with an underline on the words. Don’t underline words on your website for emphasis, only use underlines for links.
Quality of Links (inbound links)
The quality of a link is more about the popularity of the website that is linking to your website. Popularity meaning Google ranking. For example, getting a link from a well known website in your industry is much more beneficial than from an unknown directory that covers a plethora of topics/industries.
Relevance of Links
One of the early SPAMS of SEO was the ability purchase links (cheaply) – they used to be called link farms and link exchanges. I always say if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Unfortunately, business owners not only waste money on useless links, but sometimes their websites are banned from Google for conducting spam practices.
“We try to understand what is relevant for a website, how much should we weigh these individual links, and the total number of links doesn’t matter at all. Because you could go off and create millions of links across millions of websites if you wanted to, and we could just ignore them all.” – Google’s John Mueller on Backlinks (note: that was an outbound link)
Link Recommendations
Following are some link building recommendations that every website owner and implement:
- Internal links include links from your navigation links (main and footer navigation), image links, and contextual links (when a word links to a page/post – this could also be an outbound link).
- The content area on your home page should link to your products/services page, your about page, and possibly a services area (if you are limited to a geographic area). INTERNAL LINKS
- Each web page and blog post should have some call-to-action for next steps … contacting you, purchasing, or reading more. Don’t rely on people to use your navigation, make it easy for them. INTERNAL LINKS
- If you have any social media business accounts, link to them from your header, footer, about page, and/or contact page. OUTBOUND LINKS
- If you have listings, articles, press releases, or collaborations – link – OUTBOUND LINKS
- Links in your email signature and in your enewsletters. INBOUND LINKS
- Make sure your social media account profiles link to your website. INBOUND LINKS ex:
- Facebook www.facebook.com/business/pages
- Instagram www.business.instagram.com
- Google Business Profiles www.google.com/business
- 30/60/10 Rule – Create some diversity in your social media posts strategy – 60% of your posts should be engaging, 30% should be shared content, and 10% should promoting your products & services, events. Link to your website page or post (not just the home page). Also link from your youtube videos. INBOUND LINKS YOU CONTROL
- DoFollow links – ask for “followed” links when you can. However, NoFollow links are better than no links. INBOUND LINKS REQUESTS
- If you belong to any associations, schools, or networking groups that allow you to have a profile/listing – link to your website! INBOUND LINKS
- Press – if you have an announcement for a new product, service, employee, or charitable event share your information in a online press release (ex: www.prweb.com). Or you can answer a reporter’s questions with HARO (www.helpareporter.com) INBOUND LINKS
- Directory listings. Be careful not to get involved with spammy directories. Look for industry directories, local directories. INBOUND LINKS
Free Tools to Help Your Link Building
Fix or remove broken links. Use this dead link checker to identify broken links. www.deadlinkchecker.com
A backlink checker will give you a score on your backlinks and help you identify the quantity and quality of your back links. Try Ahrefs Back Link Checker www.ahrefs.com/backlink-checker