Despite what is said in some media, Link Building is still one of the most important SEO techniques.
Links are good for positioning and also drive traffic to your website.
But what exactly is it, and how is it done effectively?
If you also ask yourself this question, keep reading, because in this post I explain everything and I present some natural Link Building strategies that work.
What is Link Building?
Link Building is an SEO technique that consists of obtaining links from pages with greater authority to improve your website the search engine ranking.
The key to positioning by building links is the transmission of the authority of a page with a certain relevance to the website itself (what is known as link juice ).
Imagine that your website A receives a link from another page B that has a good reputation in our theme.
Then the search engines will take that link as an endorsement from B to A since it is an authoritative page on the subject.
As you may have deduced, it is important that both pages deal with the same subject so that link-building works well.
But the first thing you should be clear about is that Link Building is not a 100% natural technique.
Any strategy in this sense will always seek to get links artificially.
So what do you mean by natural Link Building strategies?
What I mean by “natural” is that the links appear to have been generated spontaneously, without your having intervened.
And that is where the crux of the matter lies.
The difference between giving SEO a boost or falling into the abyss due to some penalty is how forced it is in the eyes of search engines.
But this is not always an easy thing.
If you want to avoid search engine penalties, I advise you to follow the following guidelines in your link-building strategy:
- Always get links to pages with the same theme. This is obvious: it doesn’t make sense for a page that sells cosmetics to link to a travel blog. As a rule, avoid directories or sites that link without following a specific theme. In the end, everyone pulls on these links and they are not very useful.
- Avoid easy links. Nobody is going to give you a link for nothing, much less if it is from a domain with high authority.
- Don’t buy links. Although many sites will tell you that nothing is wrong, the purchase of links is a behavior highly penalized by Google. If you do, it is at your own risk.
- Focus on quality rather than quantity. It is more effective to have fewer links from very good domains. Also, accumulating too many links can make search engines suspect that you’re breaking the bank.
- Look for variety in your links. Always keep in mind that it is about being as natural as possible. If all your links are from pages with a lot of authority, it will be suspicious. An ideal mix of very strong domains with less relevant ones is best.
What are “no-follow” and “do-follow” Links?
One last thing before we get into it.
A topic that is asked a lot on the web is the difference between “no-follow” and “do-follow” links.
Let’s see it in a simple way.
Dofollow: they are links that transmit all their authority to the website to which they are directed.
Nofollow: these types of links do not transmit authority to the page to which they link. They serve to prevent the loss of link juice through links, such as forum posts or comments.
It is not 100% proven that no-follow links do not really convey some authority.
Some experts say that something is transmitted, although much less.
Google takes into account so many factors that it would be possible for you to consider them.
In any case, they are useful to attract traffic to your website and improve positioning in other ways.
Many of the links we insert are do-follow by default.
But if we want to change this, we need to modify the anchor, including the rel=”no-follow” attribute.
Although many CMS already include no-follow links automatically to prevent spam (for example, in the links inserted in WordPress comments).
Is Google Ditching Links?
Although some blogs claim that Link Building’s days are numbered, we cannot take it for granted that it is losing importance for search engines.
It is true that Google has made many changes to its algorithm aimed at reducing its abuse.
Many link-building strategies have stopped working, but from there to stop being a determining factor in organic positioning is saying a lot.
The objective of search engines has been, is, and will always be the same: to offer the best results for a search.
And everyone knows that good content tends to be the most linked and shared.
That is why incoming links will continue to be important for web positioning.
How do I get Links to My Website?
Obtaining external links that point to our page is an SEO strategy that has always worked.
But how can I get them to link to me?
Earning a link naturally at first is difficult.
When you have been generating quality content for a while and have reached a certain authority, you will see how the links arrive on their own.
But until that moment arrives, you can use some of these tricks.
5 Natural Link-Building Strategies That Work
These are techniques that seek to build links in a more natural way to avoid penalties from search engines.
But as I’ve said before, no Link Building strategy is 100% natural, so they all carry a risk of penalty if not done right.
1# Social Networks
Nowadays, social media moves an important part of the links on the Internet.
That is why it is very beneficial to place sharing buttons directly on social networks.
Many people limit themselves to the most popular ones (Facebook, Twitter…) because they have the largest audience.
But it is a mistake to think that the greater your reach, the more people will share you.
On the contrary, it is easier to reach fewer but more qualified users.
People tend to share content that interests them.
My advice is to find out which networks your target audience is on and focus on them.
2# Content Aggregators
They are a great unknown for many initiates in the world of blogging.
Aggregators offer the possibility of spreading your content.
Placing a link on one of these pages is very simple: you create an account and link to your blog.
But usually, these are no-follow-type links.
To get a do-follow you have to work a little more.
To get more links and gain more visibility we have to make one of our articles appear on the front page.
It is not easy, but with time and a lot of dedication, it is possible.
Another good way to achieve this is to participate in one of the prizes that some of these aggregators organize to choose the best websites.
As with social networks, there are two types of aggregators: horizontal and vertical.
Among the first are the best-known, such as Meneame or Bitacoras.
The verticals deal with well-defined themes.
Examples are Divúlame for scientific articles or Mktfan for marketing issues.
3# Guest Blogging
It is a fairly widespread practice among professional bloggers due to its numerous advantages.
Guest Blogging consists of inviting other experts in your area to post content on your page or vice versa.
In this way, the guest takes a link to his blog and you get another for yours.
Everyone wins.
If, in addition to that, you invite a recognized expert in a subject, you benefit from his knowledge and prestige.
But before you go looking for professionals, make sure you have something to offer.
Do not look for guest posting if you hardly have posted or they are of low quality.
Wait until you have some more content and start networking.
4# Collaborations
In this case, we are talking about collaborations other than Guest Blogging.
Because there are, there are.
For example, if our site is e-commerce, we can look for links to blogs or pages that talk about the products we offer and offer a discount or promotion to its users.
In this way, in addition to incoming links, we ensure qualified traffic.
Those who visit sites that publish news or reviews of a product are usually interested in buying it.
You can also use affiliate marketing and offer the site in question a commission on referral sales.
5# Private Blog Networks
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a network of blogs created with the intention of obtaining positioning through links.
The operation is very simple.
We have a group of websites with a certain authority and we link them to others to transfer part of this authority.
So far very simple, right?
As you can deduce, this technique consists of creating links artificially and, therefore, it is the one that involves the most risks in terms of a possible penalty from search engines.
Google can discover that we are cheating and label it cheating.
And we missed the trick because it’s not easy to get rid of a penalty.
From my own experience, I can say that PBNs are a strategy that can work very well, as long as it is done wisely.
The worst thing you can do is develop a PBN in a hurry.
Unfortunately, there is no magic recipe for building links without risk.
If you decide on this strategy, you have to be aware that building a blog network takes time and effort.
You have to wait for the different websites to position themselves to avoid raising suspicions.
It is also convenient that the domains do not have different ages and that the blogs are not hosted on the same server.
And From Here What?
These strategies that we have just seen are a good start to getting some incoming links.
But, as I said before when your website has content of interest, the links will come by themselves.
It will be the users themselves who decide that the content is so good that they want to link it.
These types of links are completely natural.
It is what is called Link Baiting, and it has a lot to do with content marketing.
Link Baiting and Link Building are not two conflicting strategies, but we should develop them in parallel on our website to get links.
The importance it should have will depend a lot on our specific case.
If our intention is to position highly searched content on Google and with relatively little competition, then it will be quite easy to do it through Link Baiting.
But if we have a blog that talks, for example, about travel (a very competitive sector on the Internet), it will be practically impossible for them to link us only for our content.
We will need to do link-building to try to gain some positioning artificially before we start to stand out.
Conclusions
In summary, I think that Link Building is a technique that is still going to give a lot of play.
It is worth directing our efforts to find quality links.
Of course, you have to be aware that any Link Building strategy has risks.
We must try to be prudent and take these risks only if we are willing to.
Regarding the strategies, what do you think?
Have they worked for you?
Do you know any more?
Let me know in the comment box.
Thanks for Reading.
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