Posted by Do you want your website to be found by more people on the web? If the answer is yes (and I’m pretty sure it is for most website owners), link-building is definitely a skill you’ll want to master this year. In fact, according to a 2015 survey conducted by Moz that voiced the opinions of some of the smartest search marketers out there, links play the biggest role of all search-engine ranking factors.
But first, what is link-building?
Related: What Google Doesn’t Want You to Hear About Link-Building for SEO
Specifically, it’s the process of adding hyperlinks you’ve acquired from other websites to your own website. These links are like streets that allow users to navigate between pages on the internet. The goal, of course, is to have as many “streets” (links) on the web as possible so that you can lead people straight to your website. Link-building not only helps more users discover your site on the web, but helps Google determine how a page on your site should rank in its search results.
So, that’s what it is. But when it comes to the how of link-building, the steps ahead may be difficult. But you can master link-building in 2019. So if this process is still a mystery to you, read on:
Get links on other high-quality sites.
The first strategy to mastering link-building is to get your links onto other high-quality websites. One way to do that is to develop a guest-posting strategy. Posting your guest content elsewhere will ensure that it gets seen by a ton of readers and that your links get clicked.
To come up with a winning guest-posting strategy, do some research; find out which publications you want to post on. Don’t pick a site purely for its reader numbers; choose publications that your target audience is likely to read. If you’re targeting accountants, for instance, don’t guest-post on a celebrity gossip website — your audience won’t be there.
After you’ve made a list of popular, relevant publications, create engaging content to match the website you’re pitching to. As long as you craft awesome content that will impress the publication along with its readers, you’ll start building up your links.
Other ways to get links on external websites include:
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Get links on local news sites, or even national news sites. Sign up for HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to be notified when a journalist needs a source in your industry. You can get valuable media coverage and a link in return.
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Get reviews and mentions from popular bloggers. Offer your product or service for free to a popular blogger in exchange for a review and link on his or her blog.
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Participate in forums like Quora where you can leave a link to your website.
Create highly shareable posts.
Another way to get links on other websites is to create highly shareable posts on your own blog. Sure, a well-written, helpful article will get shares, but what will really step up your link-building is an infographic. Infographics are highly shareable and perfect for getting links for your website on other publications.
For instance, check out this popular infographic of the daily routines of famous creative people. It has 656 current links to it from other sites.
Image credit: Infographic Design Team
You can easily create a stunning infographic using a free tool like Canva. If you can create a visually appealing infographic that shares some interesting and important information, tons of other websites will share it on their own posts with a link back to you.
Related: Link-Building 101: Wanna Take the Course?
Use internal link-building.
You don’t have to rely on other websites to build links; you can improve your link-building right from your own site, too. Internal link-building is something you have complete control over, which makes it a great strategy to use in order to master link-building. An internal link connects your web page or post to another page or post on your website. It helps users navigate your website, as well as boost your SEO.
Within your blog content, you need to be adding internal links that connect to your other content. For example, this blog post from our site links to another one of our blog posts on the same site.
Image Source: (Screenshot) Optinmonster.com
Importantly, you want to add links in a natural way that will be useful and help guide your readers. Make sure your anchor text (the clickable text in a hyperlink) is relevant to the post you’re linking to, use a follow link and include a keyword for even better results. Remember, don’t overdo it by adding too many links to one small paragraph; that can make your content unreadable and irritate users.
Related: 6 Advanced Techniques for Link-Building as a Future SEO Strategy
Over to you.
Building links can take time, but it doesn’t have to be hard. With these tips and just a little bit of dedication and patience, your link-building skills can skyrocket this year. As long as you’re consistent with this task, you’ll be able to watch your website rise to the top of search engine results and receive an influx of traffic.