Linking is a particularly valuable SEO strategy used to help boost your ranking via online connections and recommendations. The map of links between your website and others is analyzed by search engines bots to evaluate the keywords and quality of your site, in the interest of finding the best search results for queries. Popularity — or the frequency, volume, and length of stay on your website — is a great indication of the quality of your website. And so the more your website is referenced or shared, the better its ranking for your chosen keywords. But you can’t cheat the system: Search engines have developed complex algorithms to verify the legitimacy and honesty of your site. In this article we will explain guidelines and strategies to introducing linking to your online marketing.
1. Organic Links: Featuring Really Good Content
Linking is one of the primary goals of a content marketing plan. If you have high-quality content, other businesses and websites may want to use your content as a primary source for their own content. They may cite an excerpt of your content or recommend you directly. Search engine ranking algorithms recognize this and improve your rank for the results of associated keywords.
2. Submit Content to Other Sites
Many online magazines take applications for articles and blog posts to be featured on their website. Though many of these magazines don’t pay you for your accepted submissions, the “pay” is being able to link to your site. The key is to submit content that is valuable to the consumer and relevant to both the online magazine’s subject matter and your own business. Choosing keywords that you both want to rank highly for in search results is a way to ensure mutual benefit.
For example, if you are a company that sells backyard lighting, you may want to find a home and garden magazine. An informative article about things homeowners should consider when choosing outdoor lighting, or a piece featuring images of impressive backyards featuring LED lighting, would be relevant to your business and interesting to your consumer. Amongst the value in the article, you subtly recommend and link to your own business.
3. Partner with and Promote Other Websites
Another way to get people to link to you is by approaching them and proposing a promotional partnership. The goal of this partnership is to drive prospects to each other’s businesses by creating a symbiotic relationship and gaining from each other’s good reputation. It is important to be selective about which companies you would consider partnering with. Quality is always key in any method of linking. Choose someone with a good brand and public image, and that has a relevant business to yours (but isn’t a competitor!) so you can link safely and strategically.
4. Social Media Marketing and Linking
Another way to generate links to your website is via social media. Posts and shares can be a great way to get you some more exposure and generate prospects. And they will be factored in to your search rankings, but not as heavily as in-content links. Distribute your resources between content marketing and social media marketing accordingly.
5. Link to High-Quality, Relevant Sites
Feel free to reference or recommend other sites in your website or content. But make sure to always link to relevant sites that offer value to your clients. Reputation is important: If you link to spam, or inaccurate, unpopular sites, search engine algorithms may deem your site to be cut from the same cloth. Also make sure not to overdo links in your content. An excess of links negates your originality and ability to be used as a primary source.
6. Use Anchor Text to Dictating Relevance
Anchor text is the consumer-facing phrase used as the hyperlink. On-topic, relevant keywords should be used in your anchor text, as search engine algorithms validate and rank based on the quality and pertinence of your anchor text. Simply writing “Click here to see examples of creative backyard projects with LED lights” will not score highly with Google. A better setup would be “Check out some creative project examples using LED lights in backyards.”
7. Keeping Links Fresh
For long-term results, it is not enough to put up some good content on your site and then sit back and relax. A notable component of SEO algorithms is staying contemporary. Search engine analysis evaluates how frequently and recently your website has been updated and new content has been added. As time passes your stagnant website by, search engines may deem it partially abandoned, or inaccurate with the current state of the market/information. Many companies choose to implement blogs as part of their content marketing, to maintain regular, frequent posts with which to generate more links.
8. Stay Away from Editorial Linking
Comment sections on articles and other content can seem like an easy loophole to insert your own links into someone else’s site. You have likely even seen this type of comment, complete with a link, and might have thought it seemed out of place. That’s because this method of linking is essentially spam, and Google and other search engines recognize that and categorize those links differently than regular content and copy links. An abundance of these editorial links can actually hinder your ranking and make your website less reputable by algorithm bots.
If linking seems overwhelming after this introductory glance, a good place to start is by searching for the keywords or phrases that you’d like your website to rank highly for. Explore the top results: What do their backlinks look like? What is the ratio of content to links? What is the anchor text? What are the quality sites and content they are linking to? Emulating some of these strategies, or using them as a guideline for what a winning combination might look like, is a safe bet. Contact us at Rapt Marketing for further help understanding linking, contact marketing, and developing a strategy.