SEO factors have changed quite a bit, but one concept has always been a critical component in improving your search ranking: Link building.
A link building specialist can help you earn high-quality backlinks to your website and appear further up on the search results page.
Unfortunately, the concept of link building is easier to understand than to put into practice. It may be difficult to become a link building specialist, but it’s not impossible.
Read below for strategies to help you improve your knowledge and get your site linked to from other places online.
Always Be Learning
If there’s one thing marketers know about SEO, it’s that it’s always changing.
Google, for example, typically updates its core search algorithm at least once a day. There have also been several major algorithm updates, with names like Panda, RankBrain, and Penguin.
(In fact, the latest major slew of updates this past March was, as Google says, was a “broad core algorithm update” focusing on quality content. )
No one can predict when these changes will occur. The best we marketers can do is to consistently learn about them so that we’re prepared when they do happen.
Frequently check news sites and blogs about SEO to stay current with what’s happening. You can’t claim to be an expert if you don’t know the latest trends in link building and SEO!
Produce Valuable Content
In the rush to build as many backlinks as possible, it’s easy for SEO specialists to forget the foundation for gaining them: Having something worth linking to!
No one is going to want to send their visitors to your page if your site doesn’t offer valuable information or media.
Make sure you’re consistently publishing great content on your website. It’s also worth going back and updating old content from time to time, to keep it relevant and tweak any internal links you may be using.
As we mentioned above, Google rewards good content so the better the quality the higher the likelihood it will rank well. This, in turn, gets more shares and backlinks for your site.
If you worry you don’t have what it takes to produce great content, read my blog on this subject – How to Blog About Your Business Even if You’re not a Writer – for tips to get you started on the right path.
Network With Others
It doesn’t matter what field or industry you work in – it’s important to get to know others in your space.
Not only does this help you learn about potential competitors and what they’re doing, but it also assists in your efforts to build backlinks.
While you shouldn’t try to barter or make deals to force people to link to your site – these practices can get you penalized – there’s nothing wrong with casually asking if they wouldn’t mind linking back to your site or blog.
Remember to also offer to link to other sites as well: You have to give to get!
Track Your Progress
If you don’t know what your SEO picture currently looks like, how will you know if it’s been improved or not?
Solve this problem by utilizing one of the many free SEO audit tools available online. Create a log file that records your results and update them about once a month to see how your backlink building efforts are going.
For a terrific breakdown on great link building tactics and resources, check out this great post by Neil Patel – “9 Link Building Resources That’ll Increase Your Search Rankings”
For a great comprehensive list of SEO tools to help you out with link building and other SEO tasks, check out this helpful post/list by Brian Dean.
If you want an updated SEO Tools guide, Linkio has reviewed 169 tools that would help you find pretty much everything you need to manage your website. Check out their guide here.
Becoming a Link Building Specialist Means Good SEO
No matter what happens in the SEO space, link building will likely continue to be an important element of boosting your search ranking.
For more information on how to rock the search results pages in your specific field or industry, get in touch with one of our marketing gurus today to learn how we can help.
