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What exactly is a backlink?
A backlink is a link that comes from another website to yours. The link could be placed in text, in an image or as a button, once it sources to another website then this is defined as an inbound link. Backlinks are very important for SEO purposes as they are one of the most important ranking factors for every search engine out there.
Outbound links – also known as external links, direct visitors from pages on your website to other sites on the internet. Unlike inbound or internal links, these links send visitors to other websites. If another website links to a page on your website this is known as an outbound link also.
What is Link Building?
Link building is actively building and trying to increase your site’s number of backlinks which can be links from another website to yours. Link-building is an effective method of SEO. If a lot of high authority sites link to yours then search engines such as Google will categorize your content as authoritative and of high quality. Your site is then more likely to rank higher in SERPS. It’s incredibly difficult to get that kind of endorsement from Google, especially for small businesses. However, while there are over 200 known google ranking factors, backlinks count as one of the top eight most important ranking factors. Not to mention that link building drives new traffic to your site which means new audiences, and good news for your business.
1. Social Media Links
In order to claim your brand presence on Google, you must be in the first page of Google results, especially when it comes to your brands keywords. Your social media profiles can be one of the most powerful factors when it comes to SERP, especially if you decide to include your “About” website page link in your social profile bios. Social shares are also crucial as in B2B, high-quality content gets a lot of attention and social shares. The more shares on your content, the better the chances for your content and page to be noticed by websites with a larger following base in the industry. They could offer your content as high-quality content and a valuable resource to link back to.
2. Broken Link Building
This is a link building tactic that requires searching for broken links on a specific website and notifying the website owner that you’ve created useful content that can replace the existing broken link. You provide valuable advice to the website owner and earn another backlink to your website. Neil Patel wrote an informative piece on this in link building in modern times – https://www.quicksprout.com/broken-link-building-guide/
The quickest and easiest way to discover broken links is using a online tool such as Ahrefs, which is a research tool used by some of the best in the business. By simply inputting an URL into a search bar you can discover broken links. By checking the links thoroughly, you can then offer resources and content to fill them in. This will also enhance your B2B link building.
3. Reclaim Unlinked Mentions
Reclaiming unlinked mentions is the easiest and fastest way to build top quality backlinks. It’s easy to do as you can keep a close eye on who is mentioning you and your brand on blogs or in the news. You can do this by using Google alerts which is free and easy to use. If you want more detailed analytics and insights into the number of shares or domain authority of the website that has mentioned you, you can use tools such as Ahrefs or Buzzsumo (https://buzzsumo.com/). Often times you might notice that the author of the content hasn’t referred a link back to your website or brand, that’s when you can send them a quick request asking for a proper link attribution. This will also enhance the readers experience of the authors piece which will bring value to them also. This tactic can work for many other things to claim links for that your brand has done such as events you hosted, employees’ names or reports you may have published.
4. Create Contextual Links
In some blogs or written content there may be a ‘Read More’ section, these links that are embedded in the text of an article are called ‘contextual links’. Search engines such as Google see these links as stronger ‘recommendations’ than a link. Your brand getting featured in a ‘read more’ section of a website is extremely valuable for your SEO performance. The key to gaining contextual links for your brand is to find the right prospect to reach out to those who specialise in the same field as you and you already have a ‘Read More’ section featured on their website. For example, if you have a new article/blog post about mobile marketing, try look for other articles about marketing trends or social media trends to be featured in.
You can also find these ‘Read More’ sections for you to be featured on in Google if you want to go down the extensive research method. Hubspot outlines that you can do this research on Google by inputting.
5. Get Featured in the ‘Best …..’ list
Consumers today want value for their money, therefore they will look into all available options before making a final purchasing decision. It’s human extinct to use comparison websites and articles on the product/service that you’re looking into purchasing to see what people recommend. Getting mentioned in articles that list the best products like the one that you offer is a highly effective way of reinforcing your brand, get more people to try your products/services and to earn more backlinks.
In order to see if getting featured in an article is worth it, you should use a keyword research tool such as https://moz.com/explorer and check for the monthly search volume of a search related to your business’ nature.
