Link Building is part of SEO strategies and seeks greater visibility of content in the digital environment, as well as increasing the relevance and authority of a domain or page in search engines, through gaining backlinks . In other words, other companies pointing links to your website, recommending your content.
The main objective of this practice is to increase and strengthen the authority and relevance of a domain or specific pages.
Read on and check out how to correctly apply this strategy to reap all the benefits and good results of this practice.
Why is it an important strategy?
Building good Link Building can make all the difference for your website, this is due to the importance of this practice so that Google can know that your website is good and recommend it to more users.
It is one of the great pillars of SEO strategies , as, in the long term, it is responsible for increasing and maintaining a domain’s authority.
The digital world is made up of countless links and Google needs to do a more in-depth reading of each one to define which ones should appear first on its pages, ranking which links are better than others.
This metric is called Domain Rating and is one of the main ones to be considered by Google when presenting its search results. According to research carried out by the Conversion agency , the average domain authority to be on the first page is 70.
In other words, the more links pointing to your website, indicating that it is important and relevant content , the more this rate will increase, and with it, your chances of appearing on the first page of Google.
What does Link Building have to do with off-page SEO?
Off page SEO consists of a series of strategic SEO actions, focused on external factors that influence the brand itself and the indexing of pages on a given business’s website.
It will also work to build the authority and relevance of the site, however, the search for backlinks is just one of these possibilities. Link Building is part of these actions, focusing here exclusively on building links that can point to your website.
Google evaluates your links
The search engine constantly evaluates the links on your website and, through a series of factors, determines whether these links are good and deserve to be highlighted, whether they are average and may appear later, with less priority or even whether they are bad links, which it does not want. (and will not) encourage disclosure.
Some of these factors to determine whether a link is good or not are:
Authority and Relevance
Something very important for this Google evaluation is the authority and relevance of this backlink. It will analyze factors such as who made the link, what your Domain and Page Rate, for example, to determine both points.
Anchor text
The selection of the text that will receive the link matters . Be careful to choose good anchor texts, which in themselves make sense and convey the idea behind the links.
Follow / Not follow
Basically, each link has two characteristic possibilities: follow and not follow.
Follow tells Google that your site is very good and relevant and therefore chooses to share its authority with you. Not follow, despite having a mention and a backlink , tells Google not to crawl your website, interfering with the quality of this hyperlink .
Regardless of whether it is follow or not follow, the most important thing is to get at least one mention , but clearly, having follow links is more advantageous for companies.
Positioning and Target
A reader is more likely to click on links that appear at the top of the page than at the bottom. Therefore, if you can obtain links in prominent places on third-party websites, the better.
Links that are very hidden, in sidebars and without due emphasis may be rarely accessed. Prefer to use different colors for the links, giving them more prominence, in addition to choosing more strategically where to position these links. We know that you don’t always have control over these points, but it’s worth mentioning their importance.
What are the main techniques for doing Link Building?
Building and applying Link Building is not difficult, however, it requires perseverance , as the fruits will be reaped in the long term. Below, we have selected the options that we most recommend you use to put this strategy into practice:
Link Juice
Link Juice occurs when, through hyperlinks , one domain points to another and in this process a “transfer” of authority occurs.
It’s as if one site lends its relevance to another and, by doing so, Google understands that you are also good and important.
To obtain good Link Juice, it is essential to have backlinks from different domains , this way, the authority given is more powerful and constantly reaffirmed. Not that having backlinks from just one site is bad, but you need to work to achieve this diversification.
Naturally, the domains that contain backlinks to your website must be of quality , so that they can also “lend” you this authority. Very unqualified links can end up harming your strategy more than helping, as the search engine may understand that your website is also bad.
You know those pages that you feel from afar are spam and that only serve the purpose of pointing out links? Prevent your domain from going there.
Backlink prospecting
You can’t expect the strategy to work alone, in a completely passive way, can you?
Benefit from partnerships with other brands , whether for co-marketing or active prospecting for partners who can give you some backlinks, mainly through press offices.
With a press release, you invite another brand, through this intermediary, and thus, obtain quality, true and ethically uncompromised backlinks.
Recover and redirect broken links
If the links pointing to your website are so important, we don’t want this process to be interrupted by a broken link, do we?
Therefore, it is essential to actively monitor the backlinks your website has and get in touch with whoever is referencing you to request adjustments.
There are some SEO tools that help you with this task, automating this process and making everything much more agile and accurate.
This is also a great action to further enrich your Link Building , showing Google the strength and authority of the pillar content, increasing the chances of it being better indexed.
What you should NOT do when it comes to Link Building
It is common for more inexperienced professionals in SEO, or, more specifically, in Link Building , to make some mistakes that hinder the desired results.
Check out the main Link Building mistakes and don’t make them again:
Buying and selling links
Google condemns the practice of selling links, as it tries to deceive a true and quality indication for users.
Here, both cash payments and “partnerships” are valid, sending gifts in exchange for positive reviews or even exchanging goods or services for links and reviews.
Guest Posts
Guest posts are blog posts completely written by third parties , such as guests. They were a popular and widespread practice a few years ago. They occur when a company gives up its space and audience for another partner company to post an authorial blog on its channel.
The big problem with this practice is that Google doesn’t look favorably on it, as it generates a lot of spam in search results, in addition to not being a legitimate indication.
Automatic release trigger
Some companies may use an automatic release trigger: a practice highly condemned by Google, as it can constitute spam.
Use the press office strategically, sending releases manually and selectively, building a relationship between the people responsible for the companies.
