Our SEO clients benefit greatly from our professional link building and link acquisition strategies.
If you were to fully analyse the top ten results for any search you do on Google, you would see that the higher the ranking, the more backlinks a website will have pointing to it. To further confirm how important link building is, Google themselves have stated that backlinks are one of their top three ranking signals when determining where a website should appear in its search results.
We must add a caveat here, just in case you were thinking that it is simply the number of backlinks alone which influences Google. It does to point but Google is also assessing the quality and relevance of those backlinks and where they are coming from. In other words, if you thought it was a simple matter of going out and creating dozens of spammy links then you need to think again.
Back in 2012, Google introduced its ‘Penguin‘ update, and a major aspect of it was identifying link schemes such as forum comments and article directory links which allowed website owners to post hundreds of spam comments and articles cheaply and quickly that linked back to their websites that then inflated their search engine ranking.
Google saw through this and those sites that relied on spam backlinks soon saw their ranking plummet. The word from Google is they want to see genuine backlinks, and the higher quality a website they come from, the better.
So, we know backlinks are an important component of ranking on Google and we want to get as many as we can as long the backlinks are not spammy. Also, we want them to be from as many sites with high authority as possible that are relevant to your business. The question is ‘How do we build our backlinks?’ View our: SEO Case Studies
“I just wanted to touch base to let you know the SEO campaign has been really effective. We have now been at full capacity for a few months and I am at the point where I am struggling to fit in new enquiries – thank you for helping get us to this point!”
Bianca Chaney / Principal Speech Pathologist
Kid Speak
Perth WA
The first task we need to carry out is to determine what keywords we wish to rank for. This requires a great deal of research to identify keywords with good search volumes, determine how difficult they will be to rank for, competitor analysis to see what they are ranking for, and what combination of short-tail and long-tail keywords you are going to use.
Once we have done our research on keywords, it is now time to create content within our website that relates to specific keywords. The overriding principle is that the content we create is high-quality and certainly content that visitors who read it, would also regard as well written and informative.
This point about creating quality content is crucial because if we are ever going to get another website owner to link to our website, they will want to know that any visitor they send is going to another quality site, and not one with poor content which is stuffed with keywords. If our content is as good as can be, website owners will not only allow us to link from their website, they will actively encourage people to visit it.
With our content created it is now time to spread the word, and this obviously involves contacting other website owners, posting on forums, commenting on blog posts, and posting on social media. Ideally, we should be looking for those who are the main influencers within our niche, the ‘personalities’ within our industry that have thousands of followers, and websites that have very high authority. Talk to us today
Not all of them will agree to, or allow a link back to a website, especially if the request is from a relative newcomer, or a website which isn’t ranked very highly. Do not let that put you off, because the process of link building can be a slow one and is certainly not something that necessarily gets results very quickly. Instead, it should be looked as a long-term strategy with an SEO agency and one which you should never really stop doing.
As a website starts to grow in popularity, and its rankings improve, you will often find that the ‘No’ you got previously from another website, becomes ‘a Yes’, and better than that, they may want content in the form of a guest post, with a backlink, that they will promote. Imagine how Google will view that when they next assess your website’s backlink profile.
While getting links from high authority sites is great, you must not focus purely on them. Google likes to see a backlink profile that includes links from all kinds of sources, as to them that is more natural. Don’t overlook putting links on relevant websites that may not necessarily be on page one of Google. Also, include links from social media pages too.
You also want to mix up the types of links you use. By that we mean do not focus on one single anchor text, just because that is your top keyword. Again, Google frowns upon backlinks to a website where every single one has the same anchor text and can penalise a website because of that. It’s best to have a mixture of different anchor text terms, and also having backlinks which are just the URL of the page it is linking to is also highly recommended. Get a free website audit
What are the best links for your SEO?
When Google’s algorithms are calculating where each individual website page should rank, there are somewhere in the region of 200 – 250 different factors that it takes into consideration. Within those ranking factors there are some that make a minuscule difference, and there are some which make a significant impact on where a page ranks.
Up at the very top, and by all reckoning, one of the top three ranking factors Google assesses, is the backlinks that go to a web page. Incidentally, you will note we say a web page and not a website. The reason for that is that Google does not actually rank a website, but instead ranks every web page within that site.
Obviously, the home page is likely to be the most important page, and the one likely to have the most backlinks linking to it. However, for SEO purposes always bear in mind that every page within your website will be ranked individually by Google, so when it comes to your backlink strategy do not overlook linking to the inner pages of your website.
Best Links: Link building 101
if you are new to SEO or have never sought to rank a website before then you might be asking what backlinking is all about, so let us answer that briefly.
When Google is determining the rank of website, it uses a number of signals to determine its authority and importance. Obviously, the higher these are, the more likely that Google will consider it deserves a higher ranking than websites where these are low. The primary way in which Google measures a website’s authority is by the backlinks that are linking to it, from other websites.
A backlink is a bit like a mark of approval or vote of confidence. The more other websites ‘vote’ for another, the higher its importance will appear to be. Google assumes that the backlink is there because the website owner that links from their site to the other wants to send their visitors to it. This virtual seal of approval is a large positive with regards to SEO and ranking.
You might think that having read this, that the easiest way to get ranked highly is to go out and generate as many backlinks as you can. That can get you so far, but you will soon discover that some of your competitors, who have fewer links to their websites than you do, are still outranking you, even if all other ranking factors seem equal.
There is a simple reason for that; the backlinks that they have coming to their website carry more power than yours do. This brings us to a core concept regarding backlinks that you need to fully understand, and that is not all backlinks are created equally.
In other words, the ‘votes’ analogy that we used, if applied here, means that some votes, carry more weight than others. That means that backlinks each have different power, and the higher quality they are, the more power they will distribute.
Giving Google What It Wants
Google has released countless updates and information bulletins about what it is looking for when it comes to ranking websites. To make things more difficult for us as SEO Experts in the SEO industry, that changes quite frequently, and in some cases, Google reverses some of its policies.
One policy that has been at the core of Google’s thinking for some time, is that it wants its search engine to produce results for its customers that have high quality as can be. In practical terms what that means is it seeks to rank higher those websites that it believes are high quality and carry some authority.
By doing so, it hopes that by having those sites nearer the top of their rankings what those searching will find are more trusted businesses and organisations, whose websites offer an experience for the visitor that meets with their approval.
What Google does not want is for low-quality websites that have barely any content worth reading or looking at. The fear Google has if that is what those searching are taken to when they click through to a highly ranked, but, low-quality website, then those people will start using a different search engine, in the hope of finding better quality results.
This is one of the main reasons that Google views high authority and trust as premium factors when determining its rankings. By doing so, it seeks to ensure that those searching online will continue to use their search engine. With backlinks, it has an ideal way of measuring that trust and authority, and this why the quality of backlinks is so important.
Best Links: Obtaining High-Quality Backlinks
One of the most effective ways of creating a backlinking strategy that will generate high-quality backlinks to your website is for it to be part of an SEO campaign. This will ensure that not only are you building a strong backlink portfolio but that they are also generated at a natural pace, thus Google will give you credit for them in terms of rankings.
Here at SEO Melbourne, we can create and implement such a backlink strategy, either as a stand-alone service, or as part of a larger SEO campaign. Either way, it should boost your rankings, and thus generate more traffic to your website.
Should you wish to go it alone and build up your backlinks yourself, there is a simple process for how you might consider doing it. You take the direct approach and having done some research to determine which are the high authority websites you would like a backlink from, you email the business or website owner.
Now, do not simply ask them to link to you as this is almost certain to get you an emphatic, ‘No’, and possibly even see your email marked as spam. Instead, you first compliment them on their website and then offer to write a blog post or some other form of content for them.
Either send them an example or point them to previous content you have created so that they can see it is good enough to be published on their site.
The reason this approach can work is, first, you are praising them, and this obviously appeals to their ego. Second, content creation is time-consuming, and if they have someone willing to create content for them to save them doing it themselves, generating a link from that content is a small price for them to pay.
Never, Ever Pay For Backlinks
One final point we must make, and that is no matter how keen you are to boost your ranking, and no matter how much budget you may have for your marketing, never, ever, be tempted to pay for backlinks to your website.
You might come across other website owners who swear by it as a means to get ranked quickly, but it means taking a huge risk with your business.
Google’s systems almost certainly are able to tell when backlinks have been created normally, or when they have come from some kind of link farm, The scary things is with Google is, you are guilty until proven innocent, so they will simply delist you, and ask questions later.
If you have paid for links, you really have no defence, and that means your website has basically been banned from Google. Do not put your website and business in harm’s way.
If you are unsure what to do next to start your linking building strategy, get in touch, and we will be happy to advise you on how to get started. View our: SEO Case Studies
SEO Perth: 183 West Coast Hwy, Scarborough, Perth 6019 WA | Tel: (08) 6102 5800
SEO Sydney: 264 George Street, Sydney 2000 NSW | Tel: (02) 8006 2477
© 2022 : SEO Perth Experts | Privacy – Professional SEO Company