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Businesses are always looking for ways to rank high on Google and on other search engines across the web. To this day, search engine optimization (SEO) directly correlates to getting your content seen by your target audience. One component of this never-ending race to the first page is backlinking. Not sure how to get started on building out a strong SEO strategy? Don't worry—we've got you covered.
Focus on backlinks
Backlinks have many names—inbound links, incoming links, one-way links—but they all mean the same thing. Backlinks are simply links that connect one website to another. Google and other search engines view backlinks as “votes” for a specific page, adding value and credibility to each piece of content. The pages with multiple backlinks or “votes” tend to increase in-search engine rankings.
But here’s the catch—not all backlinks are created equal. Having five solid backlinks from credible sources provides more value than having hundreds of unrelated, low-quality backlinks. Here are a couple tips and tricks to keep in mind when hashing out a backlink SEO strategy:
1. Gain links from trusted websites with high domain authority: High-quality links help turbocharge your own site’s credibility. Would you rather get a shout-out from The New York Times or linkylinkz.com? Mic drop. When searching for publications and brands of high credibility, explore tools that measure domain authority and/or page authority.
2. The best results come when the site linking to you is related to your site or topic: Keywords and relevant content—is there a better duo? Any good SEO or linking strategy needs to guide visitors to high-converting pages across your site (or to a site with high authority).
If you are presented with the opportunity to be back linked to and you can impact how it’s being done, keep these 2 tidbits of information in mind:
1. Include your target keywords in your link’s anchor text: Anchor text is ‘clickable’ text in a hyperlink. By including your targeted keywords in the anchor text, search engines can crawl the content and attribute a higher value to that resource.
2. Be sure the link is a “dofollow” link so search engines can crawl from one site to another: “Dofollow” links allow search engines to point back to your website or blog. The benefit? A lower bounce rate across your site and higher domain authority by showing these search engines what other sites, blogs, and posts are linking back to your content.
Backlinking best practices
Backlinks are not the only factors that determine where you rank in search engines, but they are a crucial element in boosting website and referral traffic. Now that you understand the importance of link building, how can you start building up that backlinking catalog? Let’s break down a few content ideas that are proven to boost rankings and improve domain authority.
1. Create high-quality content.
Quality content directly increases website visitors, lowers bounce rates across your site, and drives higher conversions. But here’s the million-dollar question, what is high-quality content? Ultimately, the content you write should reflect the interests of your audience. You must dive deep into your buyer personas to truly understand your target market. What are their interests? What news is important to them? What ‘problems’ are they trying to solve by coming to your site?
Hats off to those trying to tackle content and blog generation independently—we know first-hand how challenging that journey can be. Here are a few words to the wise to help you create high-quality content that search engines will love:
- Again, write for your target audience.
- Think about search intent.
- Keep your content updated and on brand.
- Utilize SEO, but don’t forget your brand and voice.
2. Write for third parties or guest blogs.
Creating high-quality content on your website is necessary to build a strong brand presence online. But remember, improving search engine rankings is a long game. To help improve credibility, organizations can publish/co-publish content on third-party websites or guest blogs. And there are a few key benefits to this particular link-building strategy:
- Reach a new, relevant audience when you publish to popular sites within your industry.
- Build strong partnerships with vendors, influencers, and industry experts.
- Boost domain authority, and, in turn, brand visibility.
3. Collab with your partners on social media.
While social media cannot be crawled for keywords by search engines, they provide a great opportunity to build up your link strategy. But that’s not all! When you partner with another organization or influencer, you’ll reach their loyal followers and drive social traffic to your website. Not to be a broken record, but more relevant site traffic means a higher SEO ranking. And if all else fails, your business will gain valuable brand visibility by collaborating with an organization or influencer trusted in your industry (and by your target audience).
4. Get featured on related round-ups and listicles.
Listicles are articles in a list-post format. They’re easy to read and cover the topic from A to Z. What’s not to like? An example of this may be an article about the “Top 10 Best Places To Work.” This type of article is (more or less) guaranteed to be shared and promoted by all ten featured companies, a good chunk of their combined workforce, and other outlets that may share related content. Holy guacamole—that’s a lot of eyeballs.
5. Incorporate a mix of internal and external links.
Businesses need to link to other pages within and outside of their domain to help lower their website bounce rate, improve site-wide navigation, and boost their domain authority. When linking to external sites, it’s essential to link to content that’s relevant, trustworthy, and from a quality resource. When it comes to SEO, this tip helps you appear to be an authority on the topic.
6. Use tools like Semrush to get started in the right direction.
We’re lucky to have access to several killer tools to help track and improve our client’s SEO rankings. But one tool that’s relatively affordable and great for businesses at any stage in their SEO strategy is Semrush. Semrush is an SEO tool that does your keyword research, compares your keyword strategy with your competitor’s, runs an SEO audit of your blog, looks for backlinking opportunities, and a whole lot more. Check this external link here - Semrush is a great tool for SEO. Peep those target keywords! Oof.
Building backlinks can be a big challenge – let us help you supercharge your B2B link-building strategy! Get in touch with our team.
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