by Homerun Nievera, Negosentro.com | How Small Businesses Can Benefit From a Cohesive Link Building Strategy | Google ranking can make or break a small business.
Typing a few words into a search box is the starting point for most purchases that consumers make, and being on the first page of that search is crucial if you want to be considered as a contender in their decision. There are a variety of SEO techniques that a Digital Marketing Agency in Melbourne would use to get your website the ranking it needs to succeed as a business. One of these techniques is link building.
What is link building?
Link building refers to the strategy of getting the hyperlink to your website placed on other websites in order to drive traffic back to your site and create authority so you will get better ranking.
It sounds relatively simple, but Google has a set of guidelines for what they see as acceptable linking.
If you violate their rules, they can penalise your website, which will definitely not help you get the ranking you wanted. Basically, Google sees it as a sign of authority if someone thinks that your website is useful enough to link to. Links should be earned, not paid for or simply placed at random throughout the internet.
How should you build links?
The best places to build links are on local directories and review sites, through influencers and other partnerships, and by submitting press releases to sites where journalists can source stories. These channels will generally give you the strongest links.
Think of link building as a cross between advertising and public relations and a link as a cross between an advertisement and a press release. If you just plant them anywhere, it might get you ranking but the link itself won’t be particularly useful. A good link building strategy will not only give you the authority you need for ranking, but also act to increase referral traffic by leading relevant customers to your site.
Build authority.
The primary benefit of using link building as part of your SEO strategy is to increase your website’s authority so that Google will give you better organic ranking. To do this, Google looks at both the quantity and quality of the links to your page. This is where just throwing hyperlinks around the internet isn’t going to help you because they won’t necessarily be attached to quality content. The more high quality links you have, the more authority your website will have and the better your ranking will be.
Along with gaining authority in the eyes of Google, having your website attached to quality content will give you authority within your industry, making you a thought leader. When you have authority as a thought leader, people will seek out your website and content to gain knowledge on a topic which will further increase your page authority, as well as being a great way to increase traffic to your site.
Increase referral Traffic.
Not only does link building help with your search ranking, but, when done right, it also increases referral traffic to your website as links are made to be clicked. It’s therefore important that you get your links on the right websites that attract your customer base.
For example, there isn’t any point putting a link to your barbeque restaurant on a vegan blog or a link to your local business in Melbourne on a website where 99% of the traffic comes from Canada. Keep your customers and your industry in mind when building links to your website.
Link building can be tricky, but it is an effective way to help your search ranking. Especially for a small business, getting on the first page of search results will get business booming.
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Homerun Nievera is the publisher of Negosentro.com and WorldExecutivesDigest.com. He has interests in several tech and digital businesses as director and chief strategist.
Homerun is a digital evangelist, content marketer and lifelong learning advocate. Homerun is the “He Said” in the popular Facebook Page He Said, She Said.
