What is Link Building?
The ultimate aim of link building is to help both new and old businesses reach the right people, the more links that are gotten from other more credible websites, the more reach your page or content will get. Because of the difficulty involved with gaining trust and credibility, online links are now used as a form of referral on the internet, and it is now how reputation and authority are passed on. For example; anyone within the SEO or Digital Marketing industry will be familiar with MOZ or the Search Engine Journal, and if you then find out that there’s a page or content on either of these sites linking to Soap Media, you’d automatically have a certain level of trust for Soap Media because it was referred to you by a website that you trust and whose authority is ranked highly. When link building was first introduced, there were thousands of websites and people that would build hundreds of spam links every day, and it uses to be effective because it was able to get your site to the top of a search engine’s first page. Although this technique is still being used and still works, it is no longer an effective method of link building. It can be a reason for the Google penalty because, over the years, it has come to appreciate quality over quantity.
Why is Link Building Essential?
There are many reasons why link building is still being considered as one of the more important avenues to gaining visibility for your business online instead of using marketing tools like PPC, Email marketing, and more.
Off-page Optimization
One of the main reasons why link building is so important is because it has probably been the only constant involved with off-page optimization, other simpler methods of gaining links have been introduced, however, building links continues to be part of the search engine rules required for a site to rank higher on google. Link building is also a major determinant when it comes to ranking your page on Google, the number of sites linking to your website is the only way Google can determine how valuable your site is to other people online.
Brand Exposure
Another reason building a link is so important is because it has the potential to increase brand exposure, links when given naturally, are one website vouching for another website. For a link to mean something, it has to come from a site that is relevant to yours with the same range of target audiences and with a credible authority. Once a website with authority has linked to a page on your website that link then goes on to improve the positive communications then goes on to improve and expose your website and even your brand new audiences.
What to Consider before Link Building?
The saying ‘Man can not live on bread alone’ also applies to link building, ‘A business can not survive on links alone’. If appropriately done, link building is supposed to serve as a natural complement to work the rest of your marketing activities. It’s worth bearing in mind that link building cannot be successful unless there is something valuable to link to on your site — for example, quality content, a unique business value, news-worthy information, social presence, and more. However, link building should be an on-going practice, and it may prove to be challenging to acquire enough quality links on your own. This is where you should consider hiring a professional or agency that offers link building services.
Is Link Building Still Relevant?
Finally, although a lot has changed over the years in terms of link building, it is still not a dead avenue when it comes to gaining links. It remains one of the essential parts of a content marketing strategy and has the potential to divert enormous traffic to your website. Online businesses that are not taking full advantage of the opportunities that link building providers are missing out on valuable links that can bring in new business.
