When it comes to off-site search engine optimization (SEO), link building is one of the most important things that you can do. Its basic goal is to get other websites to link back to yours since doing this will signal Google that your site is a quality resource.
Business owners should be interested in link building to increase their site’s authority. To that end, here is some basic information on link building that you should know if you want to optimize your website.
Terms You Should Know
To ensure that your brand is visible and that your target audience can easily find you, you should know and understand these terms:
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the text that is used for hyperlinks. If you’re trying to rank for a particular keyword, anchor text backlinks work great.
Backlinks
Also known as inbound links or incoming links, backlinks are when a webpage links to any other authority or credible page. Sites with several backlinks usually earn higher rankings on search engines.
Link Equity
Once called “link juice,” link equity helps with the ranking of an article. It also improves domain authority.
No-Follow Link
No-follow links are backlinks that have a no-follow tag. These links aren’t useful since they contribute nothing to the ranking of a page. A webmaster will use the no-follow tag if they’re linking to an unreliable page.
Internal Links
Internal links are links that go from one page on your site to another page within your site. This type of link directs users to different pages of your site. It plays a significant role in SEO.
Types of Links
There are three main types of links for link building:
Natural Editorial Links
Getting this type of link is the main objective of SEO. These are the links that you didn’t have to ask for since other website owners gave it to you naturally. It is a form of citation, indicating that the link destination is the original source of the data. These types of links are the most powerful in signaling to search engines that your content is offering value.
Manually Created Links
This kind of link is perhaps the most common type of link building. For manually created links, you have to reach out to website owners and bloggers and ask them to link to you. Of course, you need to give them a reason to link to you – this is why you should only contact people relevant to your industry. This type of link building is good since you’re not only building links but relationships as well.
Self-Created, Non-Editorial Links
This type of link is usually frowned upon. These are links that you create yourself on other people’s websites. These usually come in the form of blog comments or forum posts.
Simple Link Building Strategies
Link building is crucial to making your website visible on search engines. Here are some things that you can do to kick-start your link building and bumping up your search rankings.
- Write good content, first and foremost.
- Do guest blogs for other websites.
- Submit content to directories and the like.
- Get friends and family in the industry to promote your content.
- Ask influencers to review your content.
These are just the basics to link building that you should know. If you need more information on link building and other SEO services in MN, you should turn to Sievers Creative. We are a web design, marketing, SEO, and creative agency whose goal is to make your business look good.
For more information on our services, contact us.
