Link building<\/strong> is one of the most important and difficult parts of SEO. Any tactic that helps a business or organization get links from other websites that point back to your website count as link building.<\/p>\n There are a lot of different strategies people implement to try to gain new links, but even for the most consistently successful tactics, it can involve a lot of work, time, and failures in order to achieve a few successes.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, in the competitive space of SEO, link building is one of the strategies that will have the biggest influence on how well you perform in the search engines and how easily people find your website. That makes it worth devoting some of your time and marketing budget to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of most important things any marketer or website owner needs to learn about SEO is that you are not the search engine\u2019s priority at least not as a marketer. The goal of Google and the other search engines<\/a> is to deliver up the best, most useful results to their users. To do that, their algorithms look at various signals that suggest people like and trust websites (or that they don\u2019t, as the case may be).<\/p>\n Every time one website links to another, it communicates to the search engine that site A thinks site B has something worthwhile to say that its own visitors can trust. It\u2019s like receiving a reference or a good review in SEO terms. And if site A is one that has a lot of links from other sites pointing back to it, then it\u2019s like receiving a reference from someone really well respected, making it that much more valuable.<\/p>\n While links are only one of many ranking factors that the search engines pay attention to, they\u2019re one that holds a lot of weight in how search engines decide which websites are authoritative and trustworthy. When you have a lot of other sites linking to yours (especially other sites that are seen as authoritative and high value by Google), it makes you look like a more reliable pick to include high up in the search rankings for users.<\/p>\n It\u2019s specifically because link building is so difficult that it\u2019s a really good way to set your website apart and stay competitive in the search engines. There are two main approaches you can take to link building:<\/strong><\/p>\n Most brands that do link building will benefit from doing a combination of the two.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before anyone\u2019s going to link to your website, you have to give them something worth linking to. That means that previous to starting on the more proactive link building strategies we\u2019ll describe below, you should start with some initiatives that will set the stage for making your website worthy of getting said links.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n SEO isn\u2019t about getting just any top spot you can manage, it\u2019s about ranking for searches that are relevant to what your website provides. For any SEO strategy, including link building, your first step should be to research what language your target audience is using and what information they\u2019re out there looking for. Then, you’ll know what content to create and what types of links you want.<\/p>\n Spend some time doing keyword research<\/a> to figure out the main topic areas and questions your audience is interested in. This will form the basis of both your content strategy and your link building efforts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Other websites won\u2019t have many good reasons or natural opportunities to link to your website\u2019s homepage. What\u2019s the likelihood the information you have there is going to add something important to an article or other webpage on their website?<\/p>\n For other people to want to link to your website, you have to create the sort of content they\u2019d have a reason to link to. That means embracing content marketing<\/a>. For most businesses, that will mean starting a blog<\/a> and making a commitment to create original, high quality content to publish on it regularly.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a lot of work, but in addition to being an important step in link building, it also gives you more opportunities to connect with your target audience. When you provide them with helpful information, that gives them a reason to care about your brand, follow you, and likely think about you first the next time they need whatever you\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n With so many blogs and media sites out there, people are unlikely to stumble across your content without you putting some effort into making it easy to find. Obviously, SEO is part of that equation when people can find your content in the search engines, that\u2019s one of the best way to drive new views to your website. But for most websites, obtaining links and search engine rankings will only come after you put some effort into helping your first readers find your content.<\/p>\n For each high-quality content piece you publish, plan a strategy for getting it in front of people. That could include sharing it on social media, sending the link to people you expect would be interested in it, posting it in relevant forums, or even using paid promotion on Google or social media sites to boost its reach<\/a>. The newer your blog is, the harder it will be to get your first followers, so expect to spend some time (and possibly money) working to get your content seen. Nobody can link to your awesome posts until they know they exist.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While people in the PR industry don\u2019t necessarily tout themselves as link builders, PR work includes helping brands get coverage in the media and on a number of websites often with links.<\/p>\n By either working with a PR person or creating an in-house PR strategy<\/a>, you can find more opportunities to gain mentions of your brand on other websites, position people in the company as thought leaders, and encourage coverage of initiatives you take that could be considered newsworthy, like a charity drive or creative stunt<\/a>s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n People are more likely to link to brands they know and trust. For people to know you, you have to make connections. A whole industry has grown up around identifying and figuring out ways to connect with influencers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Think about ways to interact with other people and brands in your industry that doesn\u2019t make it all about you. Participate in online communities they\u2019re in, join Twitter chats you notice they regularly attend, or ask them to be an expert source for a piece of content you\u2019re writing. When it comes to the link building strategies we describe below, you\u2019ll get a very different response from someone who knows who you are and already feels a connection to you than someone who sees you as a total stranger.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Once you have some good content on your website that you\u2019re confident in and a baseline of relationships with various people and brands in your industry, you\u2019ll be in a strong position to start employing common link building strategies.<\/p>\n Here are a few of the tactics people find the most success with.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most of your content promotion efforts will be trying to get your content in front of a large number of people in your target audience. This tactic involves identifying a number of individuals you think would be likely to like, share, or link to your content and sharing it with them more directly.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s someone you already have a relationship with, tagging them when you share the post on social media may be enough to get their attention. If it\u2019s not, then you can try crafting an email making the case for why you think they\u2019d like your content, citing similar content you\u2019ve seen them share or times they\u2019ve written about related topics.<\/p>\n The biggest risk of this tactic is coming off as an annoyance to the people you\u2019re trying to reach. You\u2019re essentially asking strangers to do you a favor, so you should always do your best to think about how your content might benefit them rather than making it about you. And if you\u2019ve spent time building relationships like we recommended, this tactic will go a lot smoother.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Every time someone mentions your brand, that\u2019s an opportunity for a link. Using a link reclamation tool, Google Alerts, or advanced search commands<\/a> in Google, you can find places around the web where someone\u2019s talked about your brand and any of the high up people in your company that may be seen as thought leaders. In every instance where your brand or CEO or founder gets mentioned that doesn\u2019t include a link back your website, craft a pitch to the website owner asking them to add one.<\/p>\n Pro tip:<\/strong> Do not send a template email to every website without taking a minute to actually visit the site. If they\u2019re criticizing your company, you risk annoying somebody who already doesn\u2019t like you. And if the mention actually has nothing to do with your company but is some other use of the term you use as your brand name, you\u2019ll both be wasting your time and look lazy to the recipient.<\/p>\n But for websites that are mentioning your brand because they think you\u2019re worth talking about for positive reasons, they may be inclined to take a couple of minutes to add the link at your request.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first step in this strategy is to spend some time seeing what shows up on the search engine results page (SERP) for a number of relevant keywords for your brand. What you\u2019re looking for here is content in the first few spots that isn\u2019t actually that good or that\u2019s outdated. If you feel confident that you can create content that\u2019s better (or already have), then these are your targets for the skyscraper content strategy.<\/p>\n For each of the identified terms, create really awesome content or improve the content you already have. Aim to make it some of your best work and definitely<\/i> make sure it\u2019s more thorough and helpful than the content that currently claims those top spots in Google.<\/p>\n Once your content is published, find out which pages include links to the sub-par content you\u2019re wanting to replace on the SERP (most SEO tools include a feature to help with this) and get to work contacting those sites to recommend they link to your content instead.<\/p>\n Be careful in how you word your emails. You do want to make a case for why your content is more valuable than the content they link to now, but you don\u2019t want to sound like a pompous jerk. If the other content has outdated information, point that out. If your post is more thorough and includes more actionable tips than the competitor\u2019s, emphasize that. Focus on what makes your content valuable<\/em> rather than trashing your competitor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Part of what makes link building so difficult is because it often involves asking someone to do work that benefits you more than it does them. Guest posting<\/a> is a useful tactic because when you write a good guest post for another website, you\u2019re doing something valuable for them and their audience. Including a natural link back to your website in the post doesn\u2019t require any work on their part and, if you do it right, will provide value to their audience in the process. It\u2019s a win-win.<\/p>\n Start looking for blogs in your industry and in related or complementary industries that accept guest posts. You can use Google for this do searches for terms like industry 'guest post'\u009d <\/i>or industry 'guest post submission guidelines'\u009d<\/i> and start visiting the sites that come up to get familiar with the kinds of topics they cover and what their typical posts look like.<\/p>\n![\"register](\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Domains.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat is Link Building?<\/h2>\n
Why Link Building Matters<\/h2>\n
\n
5 Steps to Earn Links Naturally<\/h2>\n
1. Keyword Research<\/h3>\n
2. Content Marketing<\/h3>\n
![\"Creating](\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Creating-a-blog.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n3. Content Promotion<\/h3>\n
4. PR<\/h3>\n
5. Relationship Building<\/h3>\n
5 Common Link Building Strategies<\/h2>\n
1. Targeted Content Promotion<\/h3>\n
2. Brand Mention Campaigns<\/h3>\n
![\"brand](\"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/brand-mention-link-building.jpg\")
<\/p>\n3. Skyscraper Content<\/h3>\n
4. Guest Blogging<\/h3>\n