Today, links remain a vitally important factor for SEO and have a strong correlation with first page rankings. Although link building can do more harm than good when executed incorrectly, businesses who constantly build and maintain links will reap the rewards. SEO requires links and this marketing technique is a long-term investment.
What Is Link Building?
Link building is the task of obtaining hyperlinks from other unique websites to your own. A hyperlink is a way for users to navigate between different pages on the internet. There are many different ways to build links, and while they vary in difficulty, SEOs tend to agree that link building is one of the most difficult parts of the job. For that reason, if your business can master the art of building high-quality links, it can truly put you ahead of your competition.
More Links Correlate With Higher Rankings
It has been found that higher rankings generally go hand in hand with the number of external links found from unique websites. While seemingly obvious, many businesses are still not taking advantage and using this data to their benefit.
Building Relationships
Link building often involves reaching out to other relevant websites and blogs in your industry. A common goal of outreach is to build a link, but outreach can also help build long-term relationships with key influencers in your industry. This relationship itself is invaluable as you are creating genuine advocates for your business.
Referral Traffic
A good link from a popular relevant website can lead to an increase in traffic and as an added bonus, chances are that the traffic is also relevant to your business, leading to an increase in sales. The value of the link isn’t solely about SEO — it’s about customers, because devoted followers of one blog are more likely to take the advice of the blogger than an unknown source.
Brand Building
Proficient link building can help develop your business and establish it as an authority figure in your industry. Link building techniques, such as content creation, can demonstrate to viewers the expertise of your company, which goes a long way toward building your brand. When a business does outreach and attempt to get links to the content, you are showing your expertise and asking other people in your industry to help spread the word and show others.
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