Your website is great, and it really hits the right spot with everyone who gives it even a bit of attention. If you could only get some visitors from those high-opulence websites, man, that’d be awesome.
You wish those guys would wanna point some of their folk towards your domain, and you’ve noticed that one of them even has an article about something you elaborated thoroughly on your own page. Well, you’re in luck.
Chances are, “those guys” can actually benefit from linking to you. All you have to do is ask. After reading this, you’ll understand what’s to be done, why, and most importantly, how.
Table of Contents
In Case you’re Waking From a 20-year-Long Slumber…
Well, more like a 24-year-long slumber. That’d be the year between writing this soon-to-be-evergreen article and the time SEO became “a thing.”
If your first thought when you read this was: “What’s SEO?” well, we’re glad your slumber is ending, and you’re with us now. You’ll find many things have changed, especially on the internet.
You’re in luck, though. The web design companies in New York know this so well that every team member they have could recite a personal, experienced-backed definition of SEO, even if woken up at 4 AM by a fire alarm.
Search Engine Optimization is, simply put, a digital marketing strategy for optimization and adaptation of your page and its content so that they’d become appealing to any and all search engines.
Different tactics can and should be used to influence this, and you see more in this thorough overview of SEO writing.
Now That you’ve Had your Coffee…
That slumber indeed was long. And boy, oh boy, don’t we all know how it is when you wake up well-rested, only to have a sudden sense of urgency overflow you because of all the things you’re supposed to do, and you might not have even started.
Well, we got you.
The essence of link building is easy to grasp. Just look at it as an “off-page” supplement to your “on-page” SEO. Basically, you’re ensuring the placement of direct pathways towards your page through influencing, or rather, implementing, passageways to your own web presence.
If a search engine relevant to you and everyone else on this planet (let’s not name any names here, but let’s stay open for guesses) registers that other strong websites are pointing in your direction, it takes a hint.
You get registered as a stronger page, and instantly you become deemed worthy of being ranked better for relevant keywords.
If you do this correctly, you’ll need to expand your support operation to accommodate all the visitors that’ll be flooding your virtual gates. After all, the future of service is digital.
Simple, right? Let’s dive in deeper and build a basis for mastery on top of the base we established just now.
![What role will link building have for SEO in 2020? [Updated] – Adlibweb](https://www.adlibweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/link-building.jpg)
There’s More to it Than Meets the Eye
Even though links are sometimes easy to be placed, and we’ll talk more about that later, let’s discuss some ways to implement them so they appear more credible to both the person who you want to click them, and the search engine that’s about to give you that sweet placement rise you’re doing this for.
If your link is dropped at some out-of-context spot, like between the paragraphs, it’s actually negative, in at least two ways:
- The user might just overlook it because they relate it to spamming advertising unrelated to their research (thank you, poor editing of most online magazines)
- Putting a link outside of the main point of context alienates it, both visually and perceptively, even if it might fit right into what the page was about
Obviously, both of these have a detrimental effect, in the sense that they might ward off the user from ever knowing what’s on your page and rob you of consequent visits, shares, and recommendations. And we don’t want that.If the context is right and the breadth of the message is understood by the one relaying it, there won’t be an issue for your link to actually make perfect sense. What’s more, if this is performed correctly, the user will be built up towards wanting, or better yet, needing to see what’s behind the blue highlighted text.Once they do, the link needs to deliver, and you need to make sure there’s a high chance of actually providing enough value for them to stick around in the future.
Value, P roven
As mentioned before, the relevance of what’s behind your link isn’t just a patch to fill a hole in someone else’s content. It’s proof of quality. A different website establishing that what you have is exactly what they need speaks in itself.
If it happens to be a website with a high domain authority rating, that’s a point of recognition by a significant peer, and the user will pick up on that easily. That link towards your page basically says: “This is useful, it makes sense, there’s benefit to be gained from it.”
Imagine your recipe for homemade tomato honey sauce being linked to directly from Martha Stewart’s “Secrets For A Perfect Autumn Dinner.” There’d be a lot of people shocking the mouths of their loved ones with the sweetly dense sauce they never knew existed.
Editor’s Recognition
In case your article might be placed by a third party on its own accord, well, I guess you could say that’d be kinda flattering. It’s not just flattering; it’s efficient as well.
As we’ll understand further, most link building happens through outreach and collaboration/cooperation inquiries.
You find a spot where you think your link will fit, and you reach out. The link might be implemented, so it seems organic, or the person in charge might simply slam your link the way they believe is best, which might be great but not perfect.
However, if you weren’t pitching that sweet and sticky sauce to Mrs. Stewart (or at least her team), but you just received a call from one of your own, letting you know Martha loved it and had her team post it? You can bet that link will be exactly where it should be.
What Not to Do
We’ve all met people in our life who were just plain out difficult. They spoke in a manner which was unpleasant to listen to, they always made the air denser, everyone felt at least a bit worse after spending time with them?
Simply put, they were plain toxic.
Well, not that you’d ever do that, but knowing some dirty tricks might prove useful one day, if nothing else, for recognizing someone else’s toxic links. These links are:
- Coming from a website that is not vaguely topically relevant
- Obviously forced blog comments
- Hidden in website footers
- Displayed on every single page of a website
You can immediately recognize how the use of these tactics is foul play, and it’s reasonable to assume that malpractices like these are numerous, yet frowned upon by the community. More importantly, by the very search engine we’re looking to woo.
So What’s to be Done?
There are plenty of experts, and there’s a lot to be done. This New York Web Design Company can help you by putting all the cogs you might have into an engine (not a search engine, more like, you know, an actual engine).
Once you’re all optimized and set up, there’s gonna be a lot of outreach activity going on.
Your online presence might be amazing, and there might be another authority website that has a great place to show what you’ve got. You just don’t know about each other, and there will be no spark to light that fire
Some steps to be prepared for and to get good at:
- Seeking out good prospects
- Being aware of the importance of the email subject
- Sending engaging messages that’ll practically ensure collaboration
Keep in mind that you’ll almost always be doing this through email, so develop a casual tone.
Not too casual though, you might be reaching out to an organization that takes itself pretty seriously. Someone to who you definitely don’t want to have a closed door.
Try to avoid templates because these will never work. Try writing by following a formula, but personalize, personalize, and personalize some more. Think of it as two creators getting to know each other and setting up something which is good for both.
If someone you saw for the first time spat out 50 words they’ve memorized and use when meeting everyone, rather than speaking to you like people actually talk, well, I suppose they wouldn’t really have a chance to witness your future unraveling, would they?
This is more of art than science, and working with someone who’s already putting out results and is happy to put in the work might just be the shortcut to your link-building prosperity. Or at least to build good links.
Embrace the fact that this task can, and will be, both engaging and pleasant. Building links will increase your professional circle, help drive traffic, and ultimately, be something you won’t want to go without, whichever direction you might be going. Make it count.
Author Bio:
Tomas is a digital marketing specialist and a freelance blogger. His work is focusing on new web tech trends and digital voice distribution across different channels.