What is link building?
Link building refers to the activities that lead to an authoritative website linking back to yours. Backlinks show Google that your site is one to prioritise because others have deemed it good enough to link back to.
What are backlinks?
When a website links from theirs to an external site on a different domain, this is known as a backlink. This is as opposed to an internal link, which links to another URL in the same domain.
Why is link building and backlinking important?
Whilst there’s lots you can do for your SEO on your own websites, backlinking is a way that others can give you a leg up into Google’s top spots, and that’s by backlinking. Google prioritises links as a way to determine rankings. Therefore, earning inbound links to your web pages from sites that have already earned their stripes with a good domain authority can work wonders for you in the SERPs. These links show that what you have to say is valuable, and worth directing traffic to.
How can quality backlinks improve your website?
Boost organic visibility
As we’ve mentioned, good quality backlinks can boost your search engine rankings, which gets you seen by more people searching for what you do. This can only be a good thing for conversions!
Increase your target audience reach
Backlinks expose your website to a larger audience using insertion into content they’re already interested in reading. Because you’re relevant to it, the traffic generated is likely to be valuable to you too - everyone wins.
Build brand credibility
By earning backlinks from authoritative sources, your brand credibility gets a boost as a result; you’re being mentioned by trusted sites, which means you can be trusted by association.
What factors influence link building?
There are a number of factors attached to each backlink that determines its impact on your web page’s rankings. This includes (but is not limited to):
•The age of the domain that creates the link to your site
•What the anchor text is (that’s the text used for the link within the linking site’s content)
•The country that the linking domain is based in
•The domain and page authority of the linking site
•The diversity of the links earned (they should come from blogs, websites, news outlets etc as opposed to a single source)
•The linking domain’s relevancy to what you do
What link building services do we offer?
At 427 Marketing, we’re a link building agency proud to use a range of techniques to earn genuine, quality links for your site that provide value to the sites that we earn them from. We do this through creating well-researched, helpful page and blog content that can then be used to approach sites that we have vetted, ensuring a healthy backlink profile, and no wasted time.
As with all of our SEO services, the way we tackle link building is tailored to the needs and goals of your business. Our link building can take a national approach, or a local one, through local SEO backlinks earned through directories and map packs.
How do I get link building right?
As with almost all SEO practices, link building needs to be done right to avoid harsh penalties; get-links-quick schemes are in no way your friend. Recognising a good quality link building opportunity is best left to the experts, as a wrong move could catastrophically affect your rankings in a way that’s hard to bounce back from.
We strongly believe that link building isn’t meant to be a dark art; it’s a way to get your content out there, provide value to other sites and the audience you’re targeting, and raise the authority of your website.
How NOT to link build
Still curious about the dos and don’ts of link building? Here are some practices to avoid when it comes to link building; any agency worth their salt won’t even consider any of these:
•Paying for links - don’t underestimate Google’s ability to find out! The Google algorithm is programmed to detect and understand unusual patterns that may indicate paid links. Google also conduct manual reviews to search for paid links
•Spamming - this means building low quality links from sites that aren’t relevant to what you do
•Link farms - websites created with the sole purpose of churning out links are to be avoided at all costs
•Exchanging links - quid pro quo is a big no
Why choose 427 Marketing for link building?
Years of experience in SEO marketing has given us the benefit of watching link building evolve over the years, and work with the fundamentals that have remained the same; they all focus on quality.
This means that we’re skilled in obtaining quality backlinks for your site based around genuinely helpful content that your target audience wants to see. By using tried and tested methods, we eradicate the time and resources that could otherwise be wasted in the pursuit of backlinks. We use what we take the time to get to know about your business to get you the best results in the SERPs.
As a link building service in Sussex, we’d go so far as to say we’re a safe pair of hands. So if you need help with your link building, get in touch with us today and a member of the team will be on hand to help you.
Frequently Asked Link Building Questions
What industries do you do link building for?
We have clients across a range of industries, and nothing is off limits. We work with solicitors, restaurants, online retailers, construction companies and even drainage contractors, to name just a few; you name it, we can develop a link building strategy for it.
Do you keep up with Google’s ever-changing guidelines around links?
Of course - we know Google’s penchant for updates, so we’ve always got a beady eye on the latest so we can adjust our link building activities accordingly. How do you avoid link building penalties? Penalties from bad links can have you in the Google dog house pretty much forever, so we focus on an organic approach to link building. This means that quality content always comes first.
Should I outsource my link building efforts?
Unless you have a dedicated in house digital marketing team, which contains employees who are knowledgeable and experienced in link building, we do recommend outsourcing your link building needs. Our clients employ our link building service in Sussex to avoid the pitfalls of link building that could have negative consequences on their rankings, so considering outsourcing could help you do the same.
Can I just do link building to improve my SEO?
No, this isn’t something we recommend at all! Link building is an invaluable part of your SEO strategy, but it’s not the only component. On page and technical SEO also need to come together to get your site into the top spots; link building complements these activities.
How long does it take for link building to work?
Because of the work involved in generating a high quality link, we’re not able to put a timeframe on it. We have seen some backlinks produce results within a week and some take a few months; it all depends on when Google picks up on the link. The benefit of the link that we earn, though, could have positive impacts on your rankings for months and even years to come. It’s definitely worth it!