Content marketing is an amazing tool in 2018. With Google accounting for over 79% of all global search traffic and content marketing being one of the best ways to show up in search results, marketers everywhere are onboard with content marketing.
It’s not just bloggers or YouTube stars who are using content marketing in their business strategies either. 76% of B2B marketers use blogging as part of their marketing strategies.
With content marketing being such a great way to build content, the question is how do you get that content to rank higher in Google?
Organic link building is one of the best ways to improve your search rankings, and in this article, we will share why organic link building is important, and how you can get started implementing it.
What is Organic Link Building?
Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks or backlinks from other websites to your own. A link is a way for another user to reach your site from another page on the internet.
Search engines use these links to explore the web, they ‘crawl’ the links between all of the different individual pages of a website and the external links to other websites.
There are a lot of different techniques for building links, and organic link building is the process of gaining backlinks to your website without paying or using any black-hat methods.
Black hat link building methods refer to methods that don’t comply with Google’s guidelines for building links. While white hat link building methods comply with Google’s guidelines and are usually the preferred method of building organic links.
How Are Links Created?
Links are an integral part of an organic link building campaign, so it’s important to understand the different elements of a link.
You place links on a website using HTML code, or by using an inbuilt interface like WordPress. Your links can be either plain links, such as www.backlinks.com or you can place them inside of anchor text.
Not All Links Are Equal
It’s important to understand that when you are building an organic backlinking campaign that you aren’t aiming just for the highest quantity of links. There are other important aspects to a link that determines how useful Google considers it.
Link Juice
One of the first factors of a backlink to considering is the amount of link juice a website has. Link juice is a phrase used across the industry to describe the amount of influence a website carries when recommending other websites through backlinks.
Google considers websites with high domain authority, or DA to be a trustworthy source. When a high authority site recommends another site through a backlink, it’s sharing some of its link juice with that website.
This means that as the Google bots crawl that link, they can see it’s a strong recommendation, based on the authority of the website.
The Authority Of a Website
To gain as much authority within the eyes of Google, you should try to receive backlinks from high authority websites. This can be easier said than done. A backlink from a highly credible site like Forbes or The Wall Street Journal isn’t something they give out at county fairs.
The process of an organic link building campaign is to try and gain backlinks to your site naturally, through creating amazing content that these high-authority pages will create backlinks to naturally.
This is usually because the content you create is useful. By solving a problem website, visitors can see it as valuable.
It’s important to consider the authority of websites when building links. A lot of links from low authority sites Google can consider being spam. This can sometimes lead to Google negatively impacting your website.
The Relevance Of a Website
Another important factor to consider is the relevance of a website. Google wants to link it’s users to the best quality and most relevant content it can.
This means that if your website is about gardening, it’d be strange for you to have links from a car repair website or a law firm. Instead, it’s also important for you to gain backlinks from relevant sites related to the content you are sharing.
Instead, a gardening website might look to gain backlinks from sites like lawn mower review websites, landscapers, home decor sites, etc.
The relevance of a website is an important signal for Google to how useful the content is and how relevant it is to the target keyword or topic.
Why Is Link Building Important for SEO
Link building is a huge aspect of SEO because, without backlinks, Google isn’t going to rank your website highly. Backlinks are Google’s way of knowing whether they can trust your website.
Think of it as a recommendation. If you are considering a business and the president of the United Nations gives it his approval, you can be sure it’s a solid business.
Alternatively, if the only person vouching for the business is the mailman at the end of the road who’s got a DUI, you’ll be less likely to trust that recommendation.
Organically growing your links allows your website to grow over time, through recommendations from trusted authority sites. This can impact your site hugely and help it to soar to the top of the Google results.
How Can Link Building Benefit Your Business
As we’ve outlined above, links are a very important signal for Google to push your results higher up in the search rankings. That means the more high-quality backlinks that are pointing to your site, the better your website will rank.
It’s why many people see the benefits of working with a link-building company. As a business, this can mean you can get more traffic which is more potential leads for your business.
Backlinks are also a direct way that relevant sites can send traffic directly to your website. If you gain a backlink on a website that has a lot of traffic, you can expect to receive a lot of traffic from that website through your backlink directly.
How Will You Start Your Organic Link Building Campaign?
The benefits of organic link building for your website can be huge. If you can gain high authority backlinks alongside great content, you can dominate the search rankings and gain a lot of traffic.
