There is more than one way to climb the ladder to the top of the Google search results list. Keyword use, clever content, and responsive web design are the best-known alternatives. However, another lesser known method is link building. This blog explains how to use link building to increase your company’s chances of being found at the top of Google search result listings.
What is link building?
Link building is the active collection of external and internal sources and linking them to your own website. This article will focus on external links that take visitors to your site via other websites. These external links are known as backlinks and backlinks can make a huge difference to your position in search engine results. Google attaches great value to websites with a high PageRank (PR) score. When you link a high PR scoring website type to your own, a portion of their prominence will rub off on your own ratings; a great way to increase your website’s popularity and help it to become more visible in Google.
How does link building work?
Link building success is based on the number of backlinks to your site, and the quality of these backlinks.
You can add backlinks to your website in five different ways:
1. Exchange links with other relevant websites
2. Make use of social media
3. Write blogs and articles for other websites
4. Add your website to comparison sites
5. Buy them
Each of these methods has their advantages and disadvantages. Guest blogs might provide some very valuable links, but it takes significant time and creativity to produce consistently good content. The same applies to social media backlinks; a profile is never enough, and you will have to keep your account active through regular postings. Buying backlinks might seem like the easy way out, but backlinks can become broken, or be of a quality that actually brings your own ratings down. The same goes for comparison sites; make sure the information on the site is regularly updated and not plagiarised from other sites. Finding quality backlinks is not impossible, but requires some effort, the results of which are more than worthwhile.
Google Search = High Street
We’re always told about the importance of ‘location, location, location’ when looking for commercial premises. The value of commercial properties are decided not only by how a building functions and loos, but by footfall and traffic levels. In other words, it doesn’t matter how wonderful your shop is, if it’s in a tiny side street it will only be found by those in the know. And those in the know are just a tiny proportion of your potential customers.
Imagine your company as a shop. You have a stunning and attractive window and an unusual, quirky, and extremely special product, but the shop location is terrible–stuck on the top of a steep incline right on the edge of town, hidden by tall buildings, no parking, no bus stop, while other shops offering low-quality versions of your product light up the High Street many miles away.
Climbing to the top of the Google search engine listings is the equivalent of a genie picking up your shop and plonking it down in the middle of the busy High Street.
However, it’s better than that. When your company website appears on the first page of a Google search, footfall to your shop doesn’t just triple or quadruple like it would on the local High Street. Google is global. You are increasing footfall (read: potential customers) by thousands. Every single day. By people who were looking for the product, you happen to sell.
In short, marketing heaven.
Plan your strategy
Link building is a highly effective method of improving your position in Google searches. Unfortunately, this strategy takes a significant amount of time. Huge amounts of precious time are spent exchanging links, tracking social media and writing guest blogs. For smaller concerns who want to make it big but don’t have the time or manpower, it is possible to outsource link building tasks to a third party. Although there are costs involved, these often pay off in the long term. Once you have reached the pinnacle of the Google search listing, your business becomes a global company, recognised by already interested parties. After all, they used Google to search for those particular products your company deals in.
Be clever
It’s not enough to add every popular word to your website headings. It’s also not a good idea to include low-quality backlinks or write blogs for a website that has nothing to do with the product or products your company has on offer. If you want to increase customer recognition to your brand through search engine optimisation (SEO), you need to look into the correct ways to do this. Google fines content packed to the brim with keywords, or pages stuffed full of backlinks. Hiring a professional, especially if you have little experience of the matter yourself, should be seriously considered. You will be amazed at the results a reputable digital marketing company can achieve for your business.