Did you know that out of all the factors used by Google in ranking web pages; proper backlinks, internal links and external links built through link building provide the best results for getting your website higher among search engine rankings? These essential linkages don’t just materialize out of nowhere – they’re created through a practice called link building.
Whether you’re a small or medium sized company, a common issue faced by many organisations is not knowing where to start or completely ignoring altogether the importance of local search and link building techniques.
This is a terrible mistake. Why?
The more links you provide and have with preferably widely recognized websites, the better your website will perform on Google’s search rankings. This means that your site will rank higher and more effectively on the search results of various search engines, making it easier for any potential customers and clients to find your business.
After all, we can’t ignore the impact of search engines in our increasingly digital world. In August of 2014, Google’s servers crashed and 40% of the internet’s global traffic plummeted!
But what’s the process behind search engines including your site into their search results and how is your position determined?
Let’s find out together.
The Mysterious Ways of Search Engines Unveiled
Today, there are about 1.7 billion websites on the internet today and the number is steadily rising. With such a plurality of websites available on the internet, how do search engines possibly list all of them and align them best with a user’s search query?
It sounds strange but a search engine sends forth a near unlimited amount of digital “crawlers” to scan the entire world wide web for information, which is then stored and assessed in its index.
These digital web crawlers use links and bridges to navigate and assess many different web pages online. Once they’re assessed, these web pages are stored in Google’s own indexed library to make make them available for the users’ searching needs
This may sound simple on the surface, but the entire story is much more complicated. Google uses hundreds of different algorithms to scan and index the internet’s many million webpages. Some of these algorithms are made public while others remain mysterious.
One such , public algorithm is RankBrain.
RankBrain is Google’s algorithm to rank web pages in its search results. It measures the importance of website pages by counting the number and quality of links to try and rank the website in importance. The assumption is that the more credible and important the website, the more likely it is to be linked back to by other websites.
So in other words, search engines are extremely determined to find web pages that best fit a user’s searching needs. without links, they’re unable to find, assess and store your webpage in its database.
Therefore, making your content unavailable for the quadrillions of search queries Google processes everyday.
With the inner workings of search engines unveiled, let’s take a closer look at how link building techniques really work.
Link building won’t be effective without relevant keywords. Learn more in “How to Analyze Keywords: Guide to Search Intent, Keyword Type and More.”
How You Can Begin Link Building
If you want to really be noticed in Google’s search results, you’ll need specialists, or at least an experienced team. These creative and technical experts are known as SEO specialists.
SEO is short for search engine optimization, which is a branch of SEM (search engine marketing).
These specialists will use various techniques to either partner and collaborate with different websites and organizations so they’ll give your webpage a shoutout (a link) within their own content.
However, this form of link building, also known creating outbound links, is only one of many pieces to an overall SEO strategy.
Another important piece, a similar one at that, is the process of building a network of links within different pages of your own website. A strategy known as inbound link building.
A good SEO team can do both strategies, along with many other relevant SEO strategies effectively.
Here’s an overview of the field of SEO.
SEO’s 3 Main Branches
While many SMBs and marketers consider all things SEO to fall under one umbrella, there are essentially
3 branches to be addressed: Technical SEO, on-page SEO and off-page SEO.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO in a nutshell means making your whole website primed or “optimized” for the search engine’s crawling and indexing phase.
This includes elements such as domain and server architecture, redirects, page speed and more. This portion is guided usually through your SEO team’s SEO technology stack or the SEO tools they use. When this is done, search engine crawlers are able to better rank, assess and interpret your website for indexing.
On-Page SEO
This branch of SEO refers primarily to the UI and UX of your website, especially in terms of content. Here you’ll “optimize” your content for the right keywords, meta tags, image alt tags, headers and more. When this is done correctly, your website is A LOT more likely to be found by relevant search queries.
Off-Page SEO
This branch of SEO covers what we’ve mentioned above, that is, the various link building techniques like inbound and outbound linking. When off-page SEO is applied effectively, search engines are better able to assess your website’s relevance, and thus, provide it with a more accurate rank.
Penguin Algorithm: Why you Shouldn’t Manipulate Your Site
When it comes to making your website more effective in rankings, you need to be aware of Google’s Penguin algorithm that made link building more crucial than before. The search landscape has changed a lot in the past few years as Google began penalizing illegal link building sites and pages.
If you have too many spamming, low quality links, usually your ranking would be either automatically or manually dropped. There’s been a prioritization on quality content, establishing authentic presence online and a clean link profile where other third-party sites cite your website on their pages.
This is why you must aim for quality link building and use correct anchor text, avoid thin content pages with little unique content, or pages consisting of duplicated content offering no original value.
SEO is a complex and time-consuming job, particularly when you’re busy running the day to day of your business.
Key Takeaways On How Link Building Can Better Rank Your Website
If you want traffic from search to reach your website, you need to regularly secure quality links from relevant websites. Here’s 3 key takeaways on why link building is so important.
Links are crucial for getting discovered. Securing a link on another website gives another audience direct access to your website, and can pass on referral traffic.
Links are essential in search engine optimization (SEO). They are a strong ranking factor in a search engines’ search algorithm.
Links are important for marketing. Not only do search engines value links, people do as well, and inherently associate links as a signal of authority and trust. Links also help direct people from one website to another.
