Guest post by Natalie Montes
Modern day era of the internet is a cliché but not all of us can maximize it to our advantage.
Whatever websites we have, whether for business or what not, we will do all that we can to spread the word about our websites and their corresponding URL links.
We also want to improve our SEO so we get the much needed exposure we need to further climb up the ranks.
In this article, we will discuss what link building is in relation to SEO, some pros and cons, its importance, and some tips and info about it that you should take note of for success.
Quick Overview of Link Building
Before we discuss all we need to know about link building, let us first talk about its definition. For those not educated about the SEO world, link building is simply the act of putting your links out and getting back links or inbound links towards your website. It is like fishing from your boat, strategically placing your lures and you get back the wanted fishes to your boat. If you are a fisher man wanting fish or a businessman/blogger wanting back links, better listen up on the next points we will tackle.
What you Need to Know about Link Building
1. Link Building is Valuable
With respect to the SEO world, link building is very important. For you to be on top of the search results, you need to have more quality back links to let users and search engines out there know that what your site has to offer is valuable and worthy of the attention. Google and other engines see your number of links as how credible you and your web pages are so link building is important.It is through it that your links get spread all around the web, increasing your rank over time.
2. To improve your SEO skills
As link building is a major part for SEO success, constantly doing it will lead to you leveling up your skills in SEO. Link building is not a simple straight forward task, but practicing it will give you the needed skills and practices that can be helpful too for your SEO ploys so it is truly hitting two birds with one stone.
3. Basics are important
Repeating the fact that link building is not a walk in the park is worth it, as it truly is not that easy to execute effectively. It is a double edged sword as it might make or break you, because if you do it the wrong way, Google will punish your spam like activities and will ruin your rank. If you approach your niche the wrong way by carelessly broadcasting your links, that will also give negative results like tagging you as a nuisance. So know the needed foundations so you can move forward to your desired results.
4. Some Basic Skills for Link Building
Now we know its benefits and risks, let us see the skills you should have to minimize risks and maximize the benefits. Google’s latest Penguin algorithm update will really punish spammy links, and one way, or perhaps the best way, to prove to Google your good reputation on the web is to have great and informative content in your web pages, that you have there information that are truly beneficial to the users all over the world.
That way, people will refer your links to other friends, spreading them like wild fire and getting those great comments and feedbacks. This process of getting referrals of your links is how reputation and authority are seen by Google, so get your sense and quality together.
Another skill that will help is to make your mark in those social networking sites. The immense popularity of those will allow you to easily spread your words and branding. Spreading links and getting more referrals to your websites are easy this way, and Google will once again see credibility through this so do great in your social network pages.
Simply linking out also helps in link building. One great way to do this is to look for existing blogs related to your niche, then engage in good conversations there, create friendship and make people there feel you are willing to help via the info in your links, and carefully market your URLs. If you and your links are really of help to the forums there, then it will help you to get more back links!
Guest posting is also another method of getting back links, and instead of engaging in conversations as mentioned, you can perhaps post your blogs as a guest that aims to support existing bloggers that are again, the same as your niche.
5. Pros and Cons of Link Building
To further understand and increase chances of success, let us see some of the pros and cons and see how we can divert all our efforts to end up in the pros of things.
PROS
Link Popularity and Prominence:
The size of traffic towards your websites or the number of websites that contains your links really equate to popularity, and link building can do just that, attract more people towards you by having your links out there, but again, at the same time ensuring quality.
Higher Page Ranks:
Page Rank or PR is a term used by Google as a means of knowing how valuable you and your pages are. If you do well in attracting and reaching out, then you will further go up the ranks in the search engines.
Getting Targeted Traffic:
Depending on your accuracy in link building, you will get potential traffic towards you, and if you are lucky and skilful, you will get your intended target traffic or your wanted customers, which is your ultimate goal all along!
CONS
May be Slow to yield Results:
Not all search engines can allow you to quickly have your links out there, and readers are just humans that were not programmed to click your links as soon as you put them out. Patience is required my friend.
On going Process:
You are not the only fisher man in the sea, so you should do constantly well to get your wanted backlinks. Continuous effort is a must to stay on top of the competition.
Skills and Knowledge are a must:
Though the concept of link building is simple, one should also have the technical and practical skills needed to yield great results. Again, remember our double edged sword term for this!
Wrapping things up, link building is a huge part of SEO, so keep in mind all the information in this article and you will soon get the exposure and reputation you want. Search engines use the primary element of links so learning how to get your links spread effectively there for users to see and click will surely give you success in SEO and Discovering new methods in Linkbuilding like Youtube SEO will really help you.
Author bio:
Natalie Montes is an alumna from San Beda College of Alabang, a former marketing assistant and a 23 year old freelance writer. She is into almost all types of Music especially The Ballad and Old Love songs. She also has a passion in Singing and Scrap Booking. Follow her escapades on her Twitter.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Link Building is the vital process for improving your site into SERPs. I think this post will really help those who are beginners in SEO field.
The only weak thing is that it’s time consuming and as it is stated here in “CONS” : slow to yield results.
Twitter: tlmarketing_net
October 1, 2012 at 3:10 am
Hi Betty! Thanks for commenting.Link building is not going anywhere, we have to do it in order to keep our sites ranked.However, Google is looking more at the quality of the content and natural links that comes with it.People will naturally link to you when they like your content.
I will stand by what is going to benefit us in a long run. Link building that comes in naturally is the best way to go, although yes, the process will take a lot of time, but the rewards are worth it, instead of doing automated link building tactics that can hurt your rank later on.
James recently posted..Small Business Web Marketing Updates
Twitter: tlmarketing_net
October 1, 2012 at 3:12 am
Hi James! Automated link building does not work anymore.Sure, you can get a boost from it but it wont last.Natural link building is the way to go even if it takes a lot of time.Doing proper keyword research is also going to help a lot.