Link building is the combination of a couple of different skills: sales, programming, content creation, and marketing to make people link back to your site. 

For Google, backlinks are one of their top three ranking signals.

Why are links so important? Through links, engines not only analyze the popular websites based on the number of popular pages linking to them, but they can also analyze metrics like spam, authority, and trust. Reliable sites link to other trusted websites. And spammy sites receive almost no links from reputable sites.

Through links, engines not only analyze the popular websites based on the number of popular pages linking to them, but they can also analyze metrics like spam, authority, and trust. Reliable sites link to other trusted websites. And spammy sites receive almost no links from reputable sites.

Thus Google now focuses on link quality rather than quantity. 

We know this might sound overwhelming, but it’s not hard to become a link building expert. We will teach you everything you need to build quality links. 

Are you ready? Let’s dive in!

6 Tips on How to Become Link Building Expert

When building backlinks, the following two things may happen: you can build high-quality links which enable you to sit back and watch your traffic skyrocket or it can do nothing due to poor backlinking strategy. Google might penalize your site because of low-quality links.

1. Understand What Competitors are Doing

Step one in the process on becoming a link building expert is to know what works for others. If you want to compete with the sites that rank high on search engines, you will have to play the same game. 

There are platforms that enable you to search several websites and see which backlinks they have in common. If several have an inbound link from a specific site, then it’s a reliable source for your industry. 

2. Create Business Relationships

After you determine sites you want to target, start building relationships with influential companies. 

No one likes spam and people typically ignore requests from people they don’t know. To get noticed, you need to be involved in their communities. 

Every enterprise has a contact information you can easily find on their website. Start a conversation by introducing yourself and providing valuable information to its staff. It’s more likely that you’ll get noticed when you offer something useful rather than a simple cold pitch. 

3. Try Guest Posting on Relevant Sites

Writing guest posts on related sites is the best way to become a subject expert. 

Before pitching to the website editor, understand the voice and tone of the publication. Read the submission guidelines and come up with a topic that fits within it. 

To utilize guest posting as a link building SEO strategy, include links in the content under different anchor text. This will show Google that your site is a relevant source for the keywords related to the subject. 

4. Comment on Other Relevant Blogs

Commenting on blogs is often perceived as spammy. But it doesn’t have to be. Generally speaking, comments are a great way to promote content and build out a natural link profile.

However, it becomes spam if you start to automate, outsource, or even comment on spammy sites. 

To avoid all this, you need to find a high-quality blog in your niche. Researching can be time-consuming, plus not all blogs have commenting enabled. 

What to do instead? Becoming a link building expert involves doing an in-depth search via Google and use search operators. Here is an example:

Imagine you want to promote your eCommerce accessories store. You would want to enter following search terms and operators:

• spring fashion trends “submit comment.”
• spring accessory trends “comment.”

This way of searching on Google gives you blogs based on the keyword and those who have comments enabled on the sites. 

Afterward, you need to check the authority of those blogs at Ahrefs or a similar site. 

Once you identify blogs that are worth your time, go ahead and drop a link in the comment section of their blog. 

Get Your Comment Approved

Almost all the blogs have comment moderator enabled on their pages. This means that the owner has to approve your comment before it goes public on their website. 

Don’t just drop the link and say nothing. This won’t get you anywhere. Instead fill out all the fields required to submit a comment: your name, email address, website (you can skip it since you already include a link) and a positive remark. 

Read the post and pick one point that’s most relevant to the link you are adding and elaborate on it. 

If your comment gets an attention of the owner, they might even share it on their social media networks too. Not only you got your comment approved on an authority blog, but also got exposure on a different platform. 

Bottom line? One simple, thoughtful comment might set off a chain reaction resulting in more traffic on our site and more engagement on your social media. 

5. Look for the Dead Links

It’s very frustrating when you click on a link and all you get is the “page not found” notification. However, a link building expert can turn someone else’s failure into their benefit. 

When you find a broken link, contact the editor of the publication and point out the issue along with offering an alternative link to your page.

To succeed, you might want to explain why that broken link is hurting their web traffic and how your content will help their readers. 

6. Utilize Social Media

Social media continues to gain more significance for determining search results. Obtaining backlinks on social media shows search engines that your content is reliable and actively shared by individuals. 

You need to have social-media sharing buttons enabled on every page of the website possible. Having a user-friendly website helps the reader to navigate and share the content easily.  

When Google notices that a page is resonating on social media platforms, it indexes the page and sends to search quality rankers to determine why. This is how pages rank on the first page of Google.

As you can see, backlinks are an essential part of growing your online presence and prooving Google that your website is authoritative.

It inevitably requires some time and commitment, but it’s not hard to master. Do you still have any questions regarding link building? Feel free to contact us with your inquiries. 

Nabbing authority backlinks is arguably more important than it has ever been. Gone are the days when businesses could get their sites to rank high by optimizing their content for relevant keywords.

Sadly, though, getting those backlinks is much harder than strategically choosing and placing keywords. If you want backlinks, you’re going to have to work for them.

And we mean really work for them.

So what type of work do you have to put in to get those natural backlinks? Here are some tips that should you have swimming in backlinks.

Be On The Lookout For Broken Links

Broken links are bad for business. Content which is full of broken links does not reflect well on a business.

And what does this have to do with you?

As it turns out, you can turn an authoritative site’s broken links into an opportunity for yourself. In order to do so, you should first comb an authoritative site for broken links. After you’ve found them, you should reach out to the appropriate party.

Let this party know that there is a link that needs updating. You should also let him or her know that you have some content which could replace it. Just make sure that your content is compelling enough to make a good impression.

Create Useful Content

We mentioned “compelling” content above, but what exactly is that? How can you ascertain whether or not your content truly is appealing?

Generally speaking, content which provides readers with some information that they didn’t know before is useful. This means that fluff and surface-level content just won’t cut it. The content should also be relevant to your niche.

That said, try beefing up your content with statistics and quotes. This will make your content look more authoritative, which will definitely help you get more authority backlinks. You also shouldn’t stray too far away from your niche since you want the content on your site to be focused.

Offer Guest Posts

Some people are wary of doing guest posts. They feel as if they’re getting nothing for something.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Guest posts are a powerful tool which businesses can use to get authority backlinks at the price of content. And, if you ask us, that’s a small price to pay for a quality backlink.

If you’re not extremely knowledgeable on how to approach guest posts, we suggest that you look around for some advice. There are plenty of online articles which exist to help people like you learn how to do guest posts.

Reach Out to Influential Content Creators

You’re the newbie here. Your site is new and doesn’t have much traffic. As a result, you shouldn’t wait for people to reach out to you with opportunities.

You have to be the one to initiate communication with your industry’s big names.

Perhaps, however, you shouldn’t aim high in the beginning. Start with well-known yet smaller businesses. Try to get some natural backlinks from these companies.

You can then move on the big fish. Just leverage the experience that you have with the smaller organizations in order to get your foot in these companies’ doors.

Give Testimonials 

Whether you’re a big-time entrepreneur or a small business owner, you’ve used some sort of your product in the past. Why not, then, try to use this to your advantage?

You should start by reaching out the company from which you’ve made purchases. Communicate to this company that you’ve used and like the product and offer to give a review which reflects everything you’ve said about the product.

Or, as they’re officially called, testimonials.

Some of these businesses will definitely link back to your site in your testimonial. Needless to say, though, these backlinks are only worth something if the company is reputable.

Let Someone Interview You

Your business is presumably small, so not many people are going to be mowing each other down to get to you.

In any case, it’s possible that someone with a humble blog or site might want to interview you. If such a thing ever does occur, you shouldn’t hesitate to accept the offer. 

There is no such thing as an online interview which doesn’t link back to the interviewee’s site in some way. And, as long as the interviewer’s site has even a little bit of credibility, you’ll benefit that backlink.

Infographics

We hate to jump around here, but let’s briefly revisit content standards. As we said before, you’ll need useful content to procure authority backlinks.

And do you know what one of the most useful types of content is when done well?

Infographics.

Simply put, infographics are (for some people) preferable to walls of text and long videos. Some people would honestly rather just read an infrographic and be done.

People who link to external content know this, so they don’t hesitate to link to any useful infographics they can find on the web. Try making one of those infographics yours.

Find Out How Competitors Get Their Backlinks 

You are a super sleuth, whether you know it or not. Your job is not just to produce good content; you have to keep up with the competition as well.

More importantly, though, you have to keep track of how your competitors are landing their authority backlinks. In other words, you should take some notes from your neighbors.

Those notes will give you some idea of what types of sites you should be reaching out to for your backlinks. They’ll also give you some idea about what your competitors are up to, which isn’t a bad deal.

Authority Backlinks Are An Important Part of Any SEO Strategy

Don’t get us wrong. We don’t want you to ditch your efforts to optimize your content. The core elements of search engine optimization are still important, so don’t neglect them.

All we’re saying is that your backlinks should take some priority over some of the other aspects of your strategy. If your current strategy is balanced enough, it shouldn’t take much more than a few small tweaks.

Need help building a new backlink-oriented strategy? Contact us to get some help with hammering out your new SEO strategy.

This is a guest post by Adam White from SEOJet.net

Ever since Google decided to really crack down on unnatural backlink profiles, SEO agencies and marketers have been forced to guess at how to build a natural link profile.

Everyone should know that too many exact match anchors is a bad thing, but how many is too many? And what should take the place of an exact match anchor?

These are the questions I set out to resolve once and for all so I could stop doing guess-E-O and start moving more quickly to the top of Google.

I looked at thousands upon thousands of backlinks researching anchor text profiles of #1 ranked websites as I built out SEOJet.

I found 5 traits that every #1 ranked site had in common.

1. Homepage Branding

The first big discovery for me as I looked at the back link profiles of #1 ranked websites was how lopsided the homepage anchor text profile was toward branded and URL anchors.

In other words, 80%-95% of the backlinks pointing at the homepage had either the brand name as the anchor text, or some form of the URL (Website.com, http://www.website.com, www.website.com etc).

They weren’t targeting key phrases on their homepage, they focused on building brand trust with Google.

I also noticed the large majority of links pointing to their sites were pointing to the homepage.

So the majority of your links need to point to the homepage and 80%-95% of those links to need to have the brand or some form of the URL as the anchor.

Note: The other 4 traits apply to inner pages of a website and not the homepage.

2. Very Few Exact Match Anchors

When the big Google updates started hitting in about 2011 they really cracked down on anchor text profiles that had too many exact match anchors.

Since that time many business owners and even SEO companies have been too scared to really delve back into link building.

As I was doing all of the backlink research for SEOJet I expected to see very little (if none at all) exact match anchor links.

I was surprised to find that the typical #1 ranked website actually had 10%-20% exact match anchor links pointing to the page that was ranked at the top.

Keep in mind that these links were almost never just targeting one single keyword, but several.

For example, a page might be targeting 4-6 keywords and the 20% exact match anchors would be made up from a mix of all the keywords they were targeting.

A single keyword by itself would appear as an exact match about 3% of the time, a far cry from the way things used to be.

3. Keywords Blended Into Anchors

If on your inner pages you can only have 10%-20% exact match anchors, what do you focus on with the other 80%-90% of your links to that page?

In order to strike a natural balance you need to still get about 35%-45% of your links with URL or branded anchors.

That leaves you with about 50% of your links that you still need to decide what to use as your anchor text.

This is where you can really make a backlink profile get natural.

The remaining links should fall under the keywords mixed into your anchor text category.

This means that if your keyword is something like “SEO services” a typical anchor text in this category might be something like “can find SEO services that will work”.

You can see that I wrote that anchor as if it was in the middle of a sentence. That is because it should be in the middle of a sentence.

This is why guest posting is still alive and works extremely well. There is no easier way to get an anchor text like this that looks extremely organic.

4. Huge Variety of Anchors

The best part about keywords mixed into anchors text is the combinations of anchor text are infinite.

You could essentially get a million links that contain one of your key phrases and none of the anchors are exactly the same.

This is why it looks so natural. When you have repeats for anchor text you also start to develop patterns.

Remember that patterns aren’t random and you want your backlink profile to looks as natural as possible.

Your brand name and URL can be used over and over again without issue but other anchors need to be as large a variety as possible, all the while including parts or all of your key phrases.

That is how you get Google to trust your backlink profile, and if you think about it, if you got all of your backlinks naturally that is what would happen without you trying.

5. Relevance & Randomness

The final trait that was common among all #1 ranked backlink profiles was both the relevance of the links that pointed to the sites, and also the randomness of the authority of the sites linking to them.

Relevance – Another reason guest posting is such an effective link building strategy is you can have great control over the sites that link to you.

There are huge categorized lists of blogs that accept guest posts and you can find a large number of them in any category.

There are also plenty of link building services that offer blogger outreach.

You obviously can’t control which sites link to you naturally but as you go out and link build, there is no reason all of your links can’t come from relevant sites.

Randomness – When I talk about randomness I am referring to the Domain Authority or Domain Rating of each site linking to your site.

For example, it would look extremely unnatural for a website to only have links from sites that were DA 50 or higher.

Considering that the overwhelming majority of the sites on the internet fall below DA 40, most of your links should probably come from sites DA 40 and lower.

Having said that you want to have as good of a variety as you can with your links.

You need some high DA links and you need some low DA links. Keep it random but make sure you have a good mix and again most of your links should fall into the 20-40 DA mark.

Conclusion

So lets recap. If you want to have a backlink profile that matches #1 ranked websites there are five things you need to focus on.

Build brand trust with Google by hitting your homepage hard with branded and URL anchor links. Get very few exact match domains for any single keyword you are targeting. Really focus on getting a huge variety of links with keywords mixed into anchors naturally in a sentence. And finally make sure the links are as relevant as possible and have a mix of all Domain Authority levels.

The world of business has gone from knowing the right people to reaching the right people. 

The internet has leveled the playing field to make it anybody’s game. Instead of entrepreneurs using connections and networks in real life to get ahead, many startups are taking to the internet for their success strategies.

SEO for startups plays a critical role in the early success and ongoing growth of a company.

It takes more than a pretty website to make the big bucks. Entrepreneurs have to know how to win and engage with potential customers. 

There are strategies to getting found and gaining momentum in the online market.  How much traffic is your website getting? How do you engage with customers in an online world?  

Keep reading, we’ve got some tips for you. 

Here Are Five Tips For Entrepreneurs To Best Utilize SEO for Startups

1. Go Mobile 

A desktop is no longer the first place people go to get online. Most consumers only have to reach in their pocket and unlock their smartphone. 

To best reach your consumer, go where they are.

Make your website mobile for more success. It looks better and works better.  

This means re-formatting some things. A phone screen and a desktop are not the same size, nor do they function in the same way. Mobile-friendly menus and pages will get you a lot farther than sticking with one traditional setup. 

However, no matter where your consumer goes there needs to be efficiency and cohesiveness. Make sure the brand is still recognizable and the messaging matches up. 

Don’t make the mobile too different from the desktop. Pages should be easy to navigate and key items easy to find, like your company’s contact information, products and services, or special events and sales. 

2. Know Your Keywords

Words matter. Keywords, especially, have an important role in a startup’s success. 

Keywords are what consumers are already actively looking for. They are phrases in common questions and stand out words in Google searches. Keyword research digs deep to find out what is on the customer’s mind.

It gets in their head to better understand what they want. It is in their search history, and search histories have patterns in any target market. 

Understanding how consumers think makes it much easier to grab their attention. Keywords make SEO for startups simpler because they get the vocabulary right. They help shape the way blogs are titled, taglines are worded, and so on. 

The right words could make the difference between getting found and not even popping up in an online search. 

3. Invest In More Than Ads

As new companies hit the web every day, the competition is getting thick.

Everyone is online, and everyone wants to get noticed. Some make the mistake of thinking ads are the one and only way to go.  

What used to be as simple as paying for an ad to get a consumer’s attention has become much more. Startups have to be tactical in reaching consumers from multiple angles on more than one platform.

The more defined the online reach, the better the ROI. 

SEO for startups is not just throwing money out to get clicks or boost traffic. Pay per click is only one tactic. 

Successful campaigns run across multiple social channels and networks in fun and exciting ways. Companies have to focus on the interaction before they can worry about the buy. 

Ads are just a small piece of the puzzle. 

The best way to approach SEO for startups is to think of the big picture. Does your consumer see your ad when they search for something similar on Google? Will your brand come up again via Facebook ads or by funding an Instagram campaign? 

By combining different strategies with the right messaging and funding, entrepreneurs are boosting their startup’s chance for success.  

4. Content Makes Connections

Campaigns are effective, but there is nothing more powerful than creating organic traffic. Great content does that. 

When people get excited about something, it spreads like wildfire.

Think of the hashtag trending this morning, or the podcast everyone at work is talking about right now. Content is everywhere and SEO for startups is no different.

The catch is it has to be engaging, relevant material.  

This is what gets traffic going. Engaging a potential consumer enough to the point they comment, share, or talk about a page is key to expanding a startup’s reach.

It also boosts entrepreneurs’ chances of getting investor backing. Having data to back the market’s genuine interest in the trending new brand or product shows room to grow.

Organic search traffic is also free, and that is a word most investors can agree on.    

5. Have a Call to Action  

This is the closer. 

SEO for startups is just one part of the sales story.

It gets consumers interested to see more and drives traffic to your site. The traffic has to then be converted into sales. A powerful call to action brings everything together in the marketing funnel. 

Placing a good call to action all over your website and in your social media messaging makes the sale. 

A smart call to action does more. It makes a lasting connection with your consumer.

Directing potential consumers to landing pages or prompting them to subscribe keeps an open door of communication. It offers one place for entrepreneurs to go for leads. They can then continue to offer value in a direct, personal manner. 

Ranking up a contact list of customers can create a community, too. Some startups will get website visitors excited for a social media challenge, a big announcement, or a flash sale.

Any news is big news with the right message and delivery, but it has to start somewhere.

The call to action is both a customer’s opportunity to buy in to what the company offers, as well as the company’s chance to hook a consumer. 

SEO for startups can take many different directions, but it has one clear goal in any industry – getting found online and creating a bigger presence in the market. 

To learn more about improving your startup’s SEO tactics, connect with our team today. 

Link building is essential to any strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

The goal of link building is to increase the number of external websites that link to your site. This increases your page’s credibility and results in higher search engine rankings.

If you’ve had an SEO strategy for any length of time, then chances are you’ve worked on building backlinks to your site. What you may not realize, however, is that your company’s public relations team can be a powerful resource for building links.

Let’s take a closer look at why your company should use press release SEO to build your backlinks.

The Difference between Public Relations and Marketing

Public relations and marketing teams have always had different, yet complementary roles in a company.

To put it simple terms, the main goal of a public relations expert is to build a positive reputation for the company. By contrast, the main goal of a marketer is to advertise a company’s products.

PR and marketing experts also differ in their approaches. For instance, PR folks usually focus on generating positive media coverage and public appearance. Marketers create content that directly promotes the company to consumers.

In the age of digital content marketing, it’s more important than ever for these professionals to work together.

Developing a press release SEO strategy can help your company kill two birds with one stone. With this approach, you can promote your business and increase your website’s reputation. These outcomes will help marketers generate more leads.

Why Your Company Needs a New Backlinking Strategy

If you’re a marketer by trade, you may be starting to wonder why you need to work with your company’s PR folks. Perhaps you’ve been managing your company’s SEO strategy for a long time. Why start using press release SEO?

The short answer is because SEO is always changing.

Every SEO strategy relies on the algorithms search engines use to rank search results. SEO experts work to optimize their content so that it reflects what search engines look for.

The challenge is search engine algorithms are always changing. This means that SEO marketers must adapt their approach to fit the new algorithms.

A Brief History of Links and Search Engine Algorithms

In the early days of SEO, one of the primary ways search engines evaluated a website’s credibility was by its backlinks. The assumption was if many websites linked to a particular page, then that page was likely a reliable source.

At its core, this wasn’t a bad assumption. The problem was that once marketers figured out the algorithm, they began looking for ways to game the system. For instance, some marketers would create websites that existed for the express purpose of linking to other websites.

For this reason, search engines like Google constantly tweak their algorithms. This is to make it harder for marketers to increase their rankings inorganically.

In other words, these algorithms strive to prevent marketers from taking a “get rich quick” approach to SEO. Search engines don’t want marketers to take shortcuts to increase their rankings. Instead, they want websites to increase their rankings by producing better content.

Every marketer already knows that the best way to improve their SEO strategy is to create great content and earn links organically. The problem is that achieving these goals can be extremely difficult. It’s also time-consuming.

That’s where press release SEO can become a great resource for marketers. With this strategy, marketers can earn high-quality links for their company’s website. The key is to work with the channels the PR team already uses to promote the company’s reputation.

How Press Release SEO Works

One of the main strategies public relations teams use to build a company’s reputation is securing positive press releases.

Prior to the internet, this press coverage would often be in the form of a newspaper article, a TV new clip, or a radio segment. These are great strategies for building a company’s reputation. But they don’t always directly connect consumers to products.

But the internet age has changed the way that public relations and press releases work. This opens the door for press release SEO.

Nowadays, media coverage for a company is usually published online. This can be through a newspaper’s website, or even through a popular blog. And, as any good marketer knows, any content that is published online will include links.

This is the heart of press release SEO. When your PR team earns media coverage, it’s important to make sure that the published article contains links to your company’s website. Because these links are coming from trustworthy sources, they are high

Because these links are coming from trustworthy sources, they are considered high quality. Earning high-quality links through press release SEO can help improve your website’s rankings.

Best Practices for Success

Keep in mind that earning media coverage is not a free pass to fill an article with excessive links to your page. It’s still important to follow best practices for linking.

Putting too many links in an article can backfire in a couple of ways. For one, search engine algorithms will identify multiple links in an article to the same page as link scheming. Having your content flagged this way could hurt your rankings.

Additionally, filling an article with links can trigger red flags for readers. Consumers are savvier than ever and don’t like to feel advertised to. If they see too many links in an article, they may be turned off.

Another good rule of thumb is to vary your anchor text for your links. Rather than overusing keywords, you can use your company name. You can also use a phrase that invites readers to get more details.

Effective press release SEO focuses on quality, rather that quantity. A good press release that shares interesting, relevant information will be much more successful than one that packs links and keywords.

Are you ready to get started on your company’s press release SEO strategy? Then contact us. Our experts will work to build an SEO campaign customized for your needs.

If you’ve Googled something on your phone lately to find out the latest scoop on your favorite presidential candidate, you have probably already noticed Google’s AMP Carousel appearing at the top of search results.

But what is AMP?

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is a Google-backed open source project to help pages load faster on mobile devices.

The difference with the AMP carousel is when a user clicks on it from search results, the article loads instantly.

How instantly? It takes less than half a second on AMP enabled pages compared to the average of three seconds.

AMP does this by changing how websites structure their mobile pages:

1. AMP HTML: This redesigned version includes custom AMP commands. They are a defined set of pre-processing tags and are limited to text formatting and image embedding.
2. AMP JS: The new Javascript structure allows loading of external resources asynchronous (in the background).
3. AMP CDN (Content Delivery Network): This caches AMP-optimised content for faster delivery ensuring it doesn’t need to be requested each time.

Why should you care?

Are you happy with how fast your site loads on mobile? As someone who spends time Googling everything under the sun during my daily commutes, slow mobile pages kill my soul.

It also doesn’t help that my internet speed on my phone isn’t always fast. So when both of these play up at once, it ruins my user experience and I move onto the next thing instead of wasting my time staring holes into my mobile.

I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Page speed and mobile readiness are some of Google’s ranking distinctions that determine your site’s search result position. The faster and more mobile-friendly, the more likely you will see an increase in organic traffic.

AMP is a solution to the problem by standardizing web pages. Here’s how you take advantage of this latest Google update and use it to boost your SEO game at the same time:

The Good News:

1. AMP Optimised Pages Are Getting A Boost in Search Results

AMP pages show up at the top of search results in the carousel, meaning users do not need to scroll down. It’s an easy way for websites usually at the bottom of the first page results to jump the queue, claim a spot at the top and get more traffic as a result.

If you haven’t’ optimized for AMP, you’re missing out on prime above the fold real estate, and you’ll more than likely see a drop in clicks, impressions, and engagement as a result.

2. It Can Increase Engagement and Reduce Bounce Rates

After getting people to click through to your site, the next hurdle is getting them to stay. With AMP loading much faster, users can engage with the content quicker and are less likely to bounce.

Ezoic analyzed results from various publishers and discovered one site saw bounce rates decline from 76% to 63% a month after implementing AMP.

Their research also found that sites which saw a decrease in bounce rates also saw time on site improve as well.

3. It Can Benefit Your Mobile Keyword Ranking

With AMP designed especially for mobile users, you will probably see an increase in your mobile keywords results after optimizing for it.

This means you can expect a slight boost in organic mobile traffic, and while this isn’t guaranteed, it makes for an excellent reason to jump on board the AMP bandwagon.

The Bad News:

1. Your Link Building Efforts Are At Risk

A crucial part of SEO is building up links to increase your website’s (DA) domain authority. Your DA predicts how well your site will rank on search engines and is calculated by the number of linking root domains.

One of the negative effects of optimizing for AMP is your site will see a fewer of these valuable links. This is because the root of the URL is still google.com and is not linking to the publisher’s domain name.

For example: https://www.google.com/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/35800232#

But this might have to be the small price publishers pay to see an increase in other metrics such as UX, engagement and improved visibility.

2. Only News Publishers Benefit from the Carousel

Wait, what?

If you have a website on how to look after your pet tarantula, it’s not going to show up in the AMP carousel. News publishers benefit the most from this update and are now at the top for almost every story they report on.

But, it does not have a strong effect on their organic SEO. Your pet tarantula site can still reap from tangible, organic search results benefits by optimizing for AMP.

Users Want Speed

It’s no secret that page speed is a ranking factor for Google.

The fact that they have developed their own way of displaying content faster shows just how important this factor is to the search engine giant.

More than 50% of searches happen on mobile globally, nearly half of mobile users expect a site to load in two seconds and will only wait 3 seconds before abandoning it. With this in mind, it’s no surprise Google is throwing a lot of support towards this latest venture.

If site owners want faster speed, increased visibility, and user experience, optimization is the way forward. Otherwise, you are in danger of not meeting mobile users expectations, losing conversions and increasing your bounce rate.

All of this just from a few seconds difference.

Google’s AMP is a simple solution to boost your site’s loading time, meet mobile users expectations and make subtle, but powerful improvements to your SEO game.

Are you going to be left behind? Find out how our backlinking services can help make up for any losses you may experience with AMP, schedule your free consultation today.

Even tech giants like eBay haven’t been able to avoid losing hundreds of millions of dollars for failing to understand the latest SEO updates.

That’s because changes to SEO rules can turn a great strategy into something that your business is penalized for.

And after you get a search engine penalty, your conversion rate and traffic may never recover.

Instead of banking your business on old strategies, take a look at this article to know what’s changed for search engines and how it affects your bottom line.

Which Are the Latest SEO Updates?

The most dramatic set of SEO updates in the last decade right now happened due to Google’s newest updates focused on link quality.

Until recently, one of the most effective ways to improve your SEO rankings was taking advantage of private blog networks (PBNs).

PBNs are a notorious black hat method with a name that betrays their indecency.

Really, they’re large, soulless databases of links designed to do nothing but serve an SEO purpose.

Not only is using a PBN something likely to come back to bite you due to changes to SEO, but it also makes you look childish to your customers.

The links you choose reflect on your brand. Allowing yourself to be associated with PBNs connects your brand to boring spam instead of the dynamic and engaging content you could be using your SEO strategy to take advantage of.

Today, we’re experiencing what may be the death of the PBN. But that doesn’t mean PBNs are the only type of link building abuse Google is cracking down on through the latest SEO updates.

Google is cracking down on any sort of unnatural link building.

What this means is spammy SEO link building strategies such as putting links to your content on unrelated websites and focusing on links that don’t serve the needs of any real customer or web browser will no longer be a dirty part of the business of success in eCommerce.

How Will They Affect Me?

When it comes to running a business, it’s incredibly true that knowledge is power.

If you don’t know what you’re doing with your SEO strategy, you could already be being punished.

Have a free SEO consultation with us to make sure you don’t have any avoidable link penalties holding you back, and find out what your needs are.

For most people with some idea of what they’re doing, the latest SEO updates aren’t the end of the world, but they’re completely worth taking a look at.

The reality for most business owners active on the internet is that the latest set of SEO updates aren’t going to take them down. But they will need to reconsider how they go about buying links in the future.

Here are a few helpful tips for your link building strategy.

Know What a “Natural Link” Is

The truth is that the term “natural links” has become kind of meaningless in the SEO world. But it also carries a lot of weight.

For SEO purposes, your priority should be putting your content somewhere that it genuinely fits.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy links. Link building is an important part of any SEO strategy, and not playing an active role in it can kill your digital marketing performance.

But when you build links, build smart. Put your links somewhere it can not just belong, but thrive.

This will benefit you in two ways.

First, the latest SEO updates punish brands for the content of their links.

Buying links that draw genuinely interested eyes to your brand is a safe way to build links.

Second, good links draw good clicks.

Getting interested eyes on your website is what drives a high conversion rate.

If you’re not taking advantage of link buying to do that, then the latest SEO updates will be nothing compared to the opportunities you’ve missed with your link building strategy.

Keep in mind that you have a lot to focus on when it comes to your link building strategy. Having toxic backlinks and a low link quality problem plaguing your website won’t just result in SEO penalties, but also severe damage to your domain authority.

What Can I Do About It?

Giving up on link building entirely would be a bonehead move.

Pursue a smart link building strategy that can benefit your business in spite of both the latest SEO updates and updates approaching in the future.

That means joining a community with a mutual interest in good links.

It means talking to real people and not a machine that sees you as nobody but a person pushing buttons and dispensing money.

And it means being involved with professionals who are ready to listen to your thoughts and concerns every step of the way.

Create a link buying account with us to take the first step towards controlling your SEO strategy. You will finally stop worrying about sloppy link building that might not fit tomorrow’s latest SEO updates!

Link buying accounts on our website get your links on a wide variety of sites with different categories and themes. You can either take control and hand pick the places you want your links to be, or automate the process with link building queues.

We also replace your links and make sure they’re good.

If you think we’re lying, don’t worry! We love proving just how dedicated we are to quality link building to our customers.

Get in touch with us if you have any questions and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible about next steps and take your SEO strategy to the next level.