Good strategy and good marketing had always been about competing effectively. In today’s digital world, the competition also moves to digital platforms:  companies need to enhance their online presence and create solid web profiles: become easy to find, easy to buy from. 

Link building, which is an incredibly effective tool, plays a very important role in accomplishing this goal. With carefully planned tactics, your website can rank higher, generate more traffic, and more successfully contribute to your bottom line. 

Why is link-building so important?

Search engines consider links from other relevant and trustworthy websites as a key factor in determining a website's visibility and authority. The acceptance and linking of these external sites, ideally authoritative ones, indicate the value and relevance of your content. Consequently, building connections with such sites through link building significantly impacts organic search rankings and overall online success.

What is link building? 

So, what exactly is link building? It is the process of acquiring links from other websites that point back to your own. These links are valuable because they help both users and search engines navigate your website, leading to improved search rankings. Backlinks, specifically, are highly valuable as they serve as endorsements of your content's quality and relevance. 

The process itself is quite straightforward: research websites with relevant audiences and high authority, find ways to give them reasons to be linked from them. Finding this reason is the hard part. As almost always, providing high-quality content they might use to enrich their own offering is the most positive way to go. Such ideas include 

• quality guest posts, whitepapers, and infographics (these might get picked up via socials without you even having to reach out) 
• inviting them for interviews, events to present or other options, so that they have a reason to refer back to you or reshare your content
• and possibly joint ventures, such as joint research or offers.

The ultimate goal of link building is to acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable and relevant sources, enhancing your website's credibility and search engine rankings. But what makes a link "high-quality"? Nowadays, a "good" link encompasses more than just the content written on a website. In recent years, Google has placed greater emphasis on user experience, considering these factors as benchmarks for achieving good SEO. Hence, reputable websites score high on other factors too, such as loading speed, ease of navigation, and mobile-friendliness. 

How can link building support your brand? 

1. Enhancing online visibility: By building links on reputable websites, your brand gains exposure to its audience, increasing your online visibility. This can drive more traffic to your website, increase brand awareness, and attract potential customers.
2. Improving search engine rankings: Search engines consider the number and quality of links pointing to your website as an important ranking factor. High-quality backlinks from authoritative websites can boost your search engine rankings, resulting in increased organic traffic and improved brand credibility.
3. Establishing brand authority: When other trustworthy websites link to your content, it indicates that your brand is a reliable source of information. This helps to establish your brand as an authority in your industry, which can build trust and credibility among your audience.
4. Expanding your network: Link building often involves reaching out to other websites, bloggers, influencers, or industry leaders for collaborations or guest posting opportunities. This allows you to expand your network, connect with relevant stakeholders, and potentially collaborate on future projects, which can all contribute to building your brand's reputation.
5. Increasing referral traffic: Links from other websites can act as pathways for potential customers to discover and navigate to your website. As other websites refer their audience to your brand through links, you can experience a significant increase in referral traffic, leading to greater brand exposure and potential conversions.

If you need more proof that link building is effective, we have a collection of interesting statistics for you:

And note, all these links in our article are backlinks to the sources, hopefully boosting their ranking in the process too. 

Since Link Building is an essential part of SEO, here are some effective strategies to implement and improve the visibility and authority of your website:

1. Outreach: this step includes contacting relevant websites and asking them to link to your site. Personalise your outreach and explain why your content would be a valuable addition to their website. Consider guest posting, requesting reviews, partnerships, or other collaborative opportunities. Who should you contact?;  those who have mentioned your target keyword in their articles and those who have linked to related articles on the subject.
2. Guest Blogging: Writing guest blog posts for relevant and authoritative websites is a great way to earn quality backlinks. Make sure to provide original and informative content. 
3. Create and promote infographics: Visual content like infographics can attract attention and generate backlinks. Share infographics on your website and encourage others to embed them on their own sites with proper attribution.
4. Broken link building: Identify a broken link that is relevant to your website's content. Develop a resource similar to the one that is no longer available. Request individuals who have linked to the inactive resource to instead link to your functional resource.
5. Conduct competitor analysis: Analyse your competitors' backlinks to identify potential opportunities and understand their strategies. This can help you replicate successful strategies and explore new possibilities.
6. Unlinked Mentions: When websites mention your brand name without including a link to your website, these are referred to as unlinked brand mentions. If a website mentions your brand by name, it indicates that they are already acquainted with your brand, which increases the likelihood of them being willing to include a link.

To summarize, link building strategies play a vital role in the success of an SEO campaign by enhancing a website's authority, visibility, and rankings on search engine result pages. It is straightforward as a process, however great content and some creative outreach tactics are crucial to be referred and linked to. Also, search engine ranking rules change all the time: it is very important to regularly monitor and adapt your link building strategies to ensure their effectiveness. Staying up to date on search engine algorithm updates and following SEO best practices guarantees long-lasting and favourable outcomes from your efforts.

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RESOURCES - and great reads to dig further

9 Easy Link Building Strategies (That Anyone Can Use) (ahrefs.com)

Link Building Strategies: 8 Ways to Build Links in 2023 (semrush.com)

25 Stats That Prove Why You Need Link-Building in Your SEO Strategy (hubspot.com)

Link Building: The Free SEO Beginner's Guide - Moz

Link Building Terms You Should Know: The Ultimate Glossary (searchenginejournal.com)

Does Link Building Help SEO? - 5 Strong Correlation Factors (linkdoctor.io)

Link Building Is Half of Your SEO Success (comradeweb.com)

Key Ways Link Building Has Changed Through The Years - BEYOUROWN

The Impact of Link Building - Aira

The 31 Irrefutable Laws for Creating an SEO-Friendly Website That Ranks in Search | Databox Blog

We Analyzed 912 Million Blog Posts. Here's What We Learned About Content Marketing (backlinko.com)