As a business owner in Connecticut, you should know that SEO can improve your business in terms of sales, online visibility, and customer base.
It is quite difficult for a business to thrive without the help of SEO, especially in the 21st century.
Although, some businesses still prefer to take the traditional route by using paid advertising to boost their business. This method is effective to a point. However, SEO still prevails over every other marketing tool.
As great as SEO is, the problem lies in the fact that SEO tools are not easy to implement.
This is because there are different SEO tools and factors that need to be considered before you can get results.
Of all the SEO tools, there’s one that’s not often paid more attention to and that is link building.
Link building is one of the best SEO strategies that can take your business to its rightful position way above competitors.
This article will explain to you what link building means, why you need link building for your business and how to get quality links.
What is Link Building?
The process whereby you build hyperlinks from another website to your site is known as link building. This link is an avenue for users to access other websites easily as they browse.
Search engines carefully observe the links from the original website to other websites to determine if they are quality links. If these links are from an authoritative website, it consequently increases your site’s authority.
When another website links to yours, it alerts Google that your website is a trustworthy source of information. It is a proven fact that the more quality backlinks a site gets, the higher it ranks on search engine result pages {SERPs}.
There are different link-building methods and this method can prove difficult to implement. Notwithstanding, link building is important for your website to thrive among others.
White hat SEO vs Black hat SEO
To get links, there are two different ways, while one is accepted by Google, the other is not. For you to enjoy the benefits of link building without having to worry about your website getting shut down, use White hat SEO.
White hat SEO is the right way recognized by Google for link building. It’s an organic way to get external sites to link back to your site and improve your online visibility.
This method is time-consuming, however, the rewards are fulfilling. It is fully encouraged by Google as it usually yields good results after a good deal of time.
How do you use white hat SEO to build links? There are some techniques involved and they include:
- Guest posting.
- Promoting your content.
- Creating infographics.
- Building online relationships.
- Commenting on authority blogs and blog posts.
- Using website directories and business listings.
Black hat SEO involves using underhanded methods to get backlinks for your site. This method is not encouraged by Google and offenders are usually punished. The punishment could cost you your rankings and all your years of hard work.
It’s better to not engage in it because offenders will surely be caught. With Google’s yearly improved algorithms, it’s harder to hide after using black hat SEO to earn backlinks. Black hat SEO methods include:
- Hidden links
- Link schemes
- Doorway pages
- Keyword stuffing
- Automatically generated content
- Abusing structured data or anchor text
- Anything malicious or spammy
Why is Link Building Important?
- Increases Your Rank
For your site to achieve a higher ranking on search engine result pages, you can’t do without link building. Before users choose a brand, they first search out their queries on search engines. When the result of their search comes up, it’s either an authoritative or a site that has quality backlinks. And without negotiations, these sites are always the first three results on SERPs.
Search engines rank some websites because others naturally link back to them as a result of their quality content.
This is a plus for them because otherwise, they’ll have to earn those backlinks to rank high on SERPs. You can’t skip the process of link building if you want your website to rank higher.
- Drives Website Traffic
The ultimate goal of every website is to drive massive traffic to itself. Because the more traffic you get, the higher the chances of potential customers turning to pay customers.
Link building is one of the SEO tools that can help to drive traffic to your website. It is not enough that your site ranks higher on SERPs, what matters is how much traffic your site gets.
Although it is almost impossible for users to skip a website that’s ranking first all through to third. The more quality backlinks from the authoritative website (with massive traffic), the more traffic your website gets too.
In other words, when an authoritative site has your link on their site, it’ll make readers want to explore your site since you come in highly recommended.
- Increases Brand Exposure
Link building goes beyond improving your site ranking and
driving traffic. It can also improve your brand awareness. Just like other authoritative sites, your site can also become a popular site through link building.
The ultimate goal behind link building is to get a site that links back to you. In a way, this already increases your brand awareness because an external site was able to find you.
With time, getting backlinks from another authority site can help your brand become an authority website too in your niche. For the fact that your site was linked back to, it shows that you’re worth your salt and that your brand can be trusted.
- Relationship building
Link building often requires that a website reaches out to another website to link back to its site. The process of reaching out is like building a relationship. And getting a backlink is just one of the benefits of creating a good relationship with other sites.
Maintaining good relationships can earn you other benefits like building your brand, connecting you with other top sites, and building your network. It also presents your business as trustworthy and reliable.
With link building being the starting point, your business can transcend to a bigger one within a short time.
- Greater sales opportunities
The more quality backlinks your site gets from other sites, the more traffic you gain to your site. More traffic signifies more potential customers.
The moment your potential customers turn into paying customers, you start to make more sales. The bigger your customer base gets, the more products or services you sell. This of course causes an increase in your business revenues.
How Do You Get Sites to Link to You?
There are several strategies you can implement to get backlinks from other sites. Below are some examples:
- Content Creation
As you know, content is King, and so to get external sites to link back to you, your content must be top-notch. Only by creating unique and stellar content will external websites agree to link back to you. If your content is bad and lacks quality, it will ruin the reputation of the site that links back to you. Also, you can promote your content through email marketing and social media. People will find your content faster and easier.
- Ask for links from your friends and partners
Link building isn’t as hard as it is painted to be. You can easily ask your friends and partners you know that own a website to link back to you. However, you need to remain focused on websites that are relevant to your industry. Asking for backlinks from websites that don’t relate to your niche is a total waste of time. Whenever you’re asking for backlinks, remember to stay relevant.
- Ask for mentions and reviews
Asking for mentions and reviews is a good way to get authority sites to link back to you. By asking industry leaders and influencers to promote your service or products, you’re making your products public. Other websites are taking notes and watching for the best. You’ll be lucky if your website gets picked and given quality backlinks. But first, ask for reviews by building a good relationship between this industry and influencers.
- Utilizing a link outreach service
Another option that has proven effective in building links is employing the service of experts. People that can’t find the time to get backlinks from other sites often resort to this method. It’s easier, safer and faster. It lets you focus on a more important aspect of your business while the agency runs the link-building errand for you.
There are different outreach services in Connecticut. Seek the best and ensure they have a record of getting only quality backlinks.
Conclusion
For any business or website that wants to improve its ranking using SEO, link building cannot be overlooked. With link building, there are tendencies that it takes time to yield results but the results are always worthwhile. It is one of the best SEO tools that can get your website its desired ranking and traffic.
As a business owner in Connecticut, link building is an essential tool if you want to outperform your competitors. Surely, there are outreach services that can help you with the whole link-building process in Connecticut.
