In order to have an excellent SEO campaign, you need a few things that Google loves (other than stellar copy and keywords) and one of those things is excellent link building. However, through working with our clients, we’ve realized that a lot of businesses don’t really understand much about link building.
To help with that lack of understanding, today we’re going to run down some of the best rules to follow for a successful link building campaign.
Best Rules for Link Building
- Is the link of value? What will it do for you? Is it authoritative (does Google like it)? You need to have a reason for the link (more traffic, it’s relevant and relatable, etc.) and the link needs to come from a trusted source.
- Get your details in online local listings (inclusive of a link to your website, of course).
- When others mention your business, your blog, your products, etc. be sure they’re linking to your website and if they aren’t, just give them the ask, they’ll do it.
- Be sure all of your pages are linked so no one is pushing traffic to 404s (dead pages). It’s easy to redirect by giving the old link a 301 and giving the authority to the new page.
- Be a stellar business and get stellar attention. Give to charities? Host events? Involved in the community? These are smart ways to get your link out there.
- Give the WWW some super unique, truthful, and interesting content and people will share it, comment on it, review it, and all of that generates more views and more opportunity for links to get out there. This is how to create shareable content.
- Just ask. Asking strangers may be hard, generally, no one responds to that, but ask influencers or others with authority that you already know.
Worst Rules for Link Building
- Buying or selling links is bad unless you’re attaching a no-follow (which does nothing for your link building).
- Linking wherever you want, whether it’s relative or not. Only link where it makes sense or you’ll become spam immediately.
- Leaving comments with your link attached. Again, spam, unless it’s truly beneficial for the readers.
- Using tools that create links for you. These links end up all over the place and Google knows what you’re doing.
- Link schemes and link exchanges are a thing of the past. They corrupt the authority of any website and any link involved.
Okay, link builders, get to it. Follow the best rules, avoid the worst rules and you’re off to a good link building start.
Have some more questions or want some advice on creating a link building strategy? TGO is here for you. Give us a call.
