Most customers come to the site from search engines. The user rarely goes further than the first page of search results. That is why being in the top 10 for the target queries is the basis for a stable flow of clients. Here SEO-optimization comes to help – not only the internal but also the external. Today we will consider its main method – link building (the formation of external link mass).
What is link building for?
Link building is the placement of external links on various third-party sites. Search algorithms tend to rank the most interesting and popular sites. If the site is referenced by many people, especially authoritative sources – therefore, it has quality content and is interesting to users, and it is worth ranking higher in search results.
Every year the requirements of search engines are becoming more and more complex. Previously, it was enough to buy a mass of links from any resource, but now the search engines are tracking their naturalness and the quality of donor sites. Today, when you increase the link mass you should be careful. If the algorithm considers the links obtained unnaturally, the site may fall under a search engine filter. Filtered sites can drop out of search and lose position. According to the research conducted by Writemypaperbro.com, in 2020 over 85% of the websites that were filtered from search engine results were punished because of the detection of unnatural link building. So link building should be done slowly, gradually increasing the number of links, carefully selecting the sites for placement.
Sources of external links for the site
You can get external links using the following methods:
Link exchange markets.
In most areas where there is a lot of money, eventually, there will be people who offer to solve your problems for a fee. Link building is no exception. There are many exchanges on which you can pay to place your links. But also in such spheres, there are scammers. So first it is worth looking carefully at the market or use a proven market.
Outreach method – posting links through personal communication with webmasters.
Link baiting – the process of creating materials that make users want to share them.
Link baiting can be:
- viral posts;
- video tutorials and manuals;
- Interviews with celebrities;
- electronic books;
- useful services;
- giveaways and contests.
Crowd marketing – the main purpose of this method is to attract users to the site, and it also helps dilute the link mass and increase the popularity of the brand.
To use it, you need to find platforms that are interesting to your target audience. Register on them and fill out the profile as much as possible with information about the company and services provided. Then the resource is filled with discussion topics of interest to users. Further, users should be provided with constant assistance in solving questions that arise and not limited to just posting links.
Crowd marketing requires quite a lot of time, for this reason, it is most often outsourced.
Topic directories
Placing links in various thematic and parathematic directories is a quite simple and fast method of link building. Therefore, it should not be neglected.
Private Blog Networks
Such networks allow the user to build link mass in areas where obtaining a link is quite a difficult action. Often, PBN is used in the foreign segment, where the opportunity to create your own network can be many times cheaper than to buy a high-quality link.
It is also possible to organize your own network of private sites. Forgotten and unused domains can always be purchased at auctions held periodically by domain registrars or through special services.
Link building mistakes
As we said above, you should not place links thoughtlessly – it can have the opposite effect. The most common mistakes made in the process of link building:
- anchor text was chosen incorrectly;
- a large number of anchors leads to over-spamming;
- placing links on pages that are closed for indexing;
- excessively rapid growth of the link mass;
- the choice of poor-quality donor sites;
- links placed on pages with an excessive number of links;
- links placed in the form of images.
Rules for increasing link mass
1. Smooth development
This indicator is deservedly one of the most important. The main thing – do not overdo it. Sometimes you can see graphs where the increase in link mass occurred without any control, with a sharp amplitude of activity. For any search engine, such a graph looks suspicious and can be perceived as malicious search engine optimization. Such violations may result in the site being filtered out of search engine results.
2. Diversification
Many people know this method, but in practice not everyone applies it. It consists in obtaining links from a variety of sources. For example, when placing links exclusively on forums or social networks, the profile will look rather strange and one-sided.
3. Domain zones
A special influence of the ratio of domain zones on the effectiveness of promotion has not been revealed. However, it is logical that it is more natural when a site is referenced by sites of the same or neighboring regions.
For example, a link profile, in which all links to a Korean site are from domains in Poland, will look suspicious. Because it is unlikely that many Poles will link to sites in Korea.
4. The ratio of the number of domains and the number of links
It may seem that it is enough to place as many links as possible on one or two sites with a good reputation to promote the site. Why should you constantly be looking for new donor sites? But, alas, only the number of links to the promotion does not affect. Search engines are counting not the total number of links, but the number of domains on which these links are placed. Therefore, you should place links on different domains, which in turn should be on different IP addresses.
5. Relevance to the theme of the site
A particularly important point to promote the resource will match donors to the theme of the site. If there are not too many of them in your area, you can apply and perithematic platforms, in varying degrees, relevant to your business.
6. Closed and open links
Preference is usually given to open ones, they are expected to be much more useful. However, the naturalness is also important for the search engine, so it is better to alternate open URL with closed, for the sake of naturalness.
7. Variety of anchors.
Anchors can be divided into several types:
- with direct occurrence – a complete match between the anchor and the keyword gives the site the most weight;
- with phrase matching – anchor is slightly different from the keyword;
- diluted – in the presented structure some keywords are separated and may differ slightly;
- anchorless – a link is offered without the anchor content, it can be an image or a banner;
- Branded anchors – the anchor contains the name of a brand, of a web resource, or an organization;
- URL-anchors – the text of the anchor will be a link.
8. Distribution of links on the pages of the site
All links should be evenly distributed across the pages of the resource. The ideal method would be to place links to sections of the site, depending on the importance and popularity of each of them. Accordingly, the higher the interest of visitors in a particular section, the more links are sent to it.
9. Quality of links
For a complete analysis of the link mass obtained it is necessary to analyze each donor in terms of its quality. But do not evaluate only the technical parameters.
Pay attention to the visual component, namely:
- design;
- usability;
- the presence of content;
- the loading and updating speed of the donor site;
- the absence of a large number of ads.
You should also pay attention to the age of the resource, the number of its pages in the index, and the amount of monthly traffic.
10. Social signals
For example, if a resource is present in various social networks, it will be an indicator of its successful promotion, for several reasons at once:
- The presence in social networks significantly improves the indexing of the site;
- It can bring in additional traffic;
- It adds naturalness to the link profile.
The concept of naturalness has increased importance, because search engines will pay attention, first of all, to public signals: likes, comments, reposts. Therefore, it is worth registering companies in social networks that are most popular in the region of promotion.