Since Google changed how the search engines work, it has become a debate among many about how effective link-building strategies are. The truth to the matter is that they still have an impact on the search results.
They matter significantly because the more reputable your site is, the higher your rank. This includes all the backlinks from other sites and the links you supply in your content that lead to outside sources.
This means that most of the strategies you have used throughout the years are still viable, which is good news when you think about how many articles you have around the internet that point the reader back to you. However, so many articles and blogs go up daily that Google has to be a little picky.
The better the links are, the higher the ranking of the site. It is that simple.
Links On Your Site
The place where all the links start happening is on your site, embedded in keywords typed into the content. Some time-tested rules need to be followed if you want to maximize the effectiveness of the internal link-building strategies.
- Links going out must go to a reputable site with sizeable traffic and a Google rating of an authoritative site. The more authority the page you are linking to has, the more credible your page appears to the webpage crawlers.
- Links in the text form will always help rank higher than the pictures and videos commonly added to the page.
- Links embedded within the body of the content will consistently rank better than the ones in the sidebars or footers.
- Along with trying to get excellent links embedded into your content, you must also make your article or blog so informative that other people start linking to you as an authority on the subject.
The internal links going out is the place to start with because unless you have some excellent quality pages of content on your site, it is pointless to have backlinks bringing people to it. Focus on getting these pages up before you move on to the next tactic in the link-building strategy playbook.
Backlinks On Other Sites
Once you have excellent content on your page that links to reputable sites, it will be time to start thinking about placing some backlinks around the internet in different blogs and article websites. It is important to only post on these sites if they already have a high ranking. You can take the chance on a site if you think they will rise in ranking by supporting their efforts with a few posts, but you should concentrate on making friends with the big dogs on the net.
Here are some rules that need to be followed when creating backlinks. They are not in any specific order so take the ones you want to accomplish and go from there.
- Sponsored content – This is the content that will be posted on high-ranking sites that your competitors are trying to post on. This will cost you something to have the privilege, but it is well worth it. Payment can be made in money or trade, but since it is not free, it is considered a sponsored link that takes the reader to you and your site.
- Guest Posts – Posting blogs and articles on other sites is the best way to get some backlinks until you build a reputation. You can reach out to some blogs similar to yours, but not the same, and offer to swap guest posts. That means you can post a few articles with backlinks on their site, while they can do the same on yours. It is a fair trade, but most of the time, you will have to have a decent amount of viewers before other sites are willing to work with you.
Backlinks are the best way to get your site noticed by Google web crawling bots. The more reputable the post is, the more credibility your site will earn, which is what it is all about.
Conclusion
You will never have a successful online site without a linking plan. It may take some time to get all the links and backlinks set into place, but once you do the number of visitors in a day will absolutely amaze you. For the search engines, all that matters is what they can see and read on the web pages, so the ranking in the search requests will be the key to overall online success.
