Link Building Tips

If you have a website, you need to know about link building. It's nothing new, but it is an evolving process that must be closely kept up with; otherwise, your site will be lost in a sea of search results, which will inevitably be detrimental to your entire website and, by extension, your business. With the arrivals of Google's Panda update and most recently the Penguin update, many are falling in the rankings faster than ever before. To prevent your site from following suit, take some time to review the following tips. Some are tried and true while others are more abreast with today's SEO happenings.

Know the importance of inbound linking. External links are great for link building but every site should begin with their own internal links first. They are a part of the foundation of your site which is important to your rankings. If search engine spiders can easily navigate and index your website, then your organic search visibility will improve. Try to ensure that your website is not setup as a web where every page has to link to every other page.  Instead setup your site similar to that of a tree with many branches.  One branch leads to another branch, which then leads to another branch and ends up with a leaf.

Check your hyperlink text (anchor text). This is vital to your link building efforts. Anchor text refers to the term associated with the link.  In this sentence, the words "web developer" is the anchor text to the link pointing to liQuidprint.com.  Anchor text should indicate what to expect from the link's content. It should show what's at that URL. You will have a better chance of showing up at the top of SERPs if the term you use is related with the page it leads to. Do this by having more links using this term and pointing to the URL with information pertaining to that term.

Vary your anchor text naturally. Google doesn't look kindly on over-optimization; so, don't try to force your rankings. All of your links shouldn't be using the exact same keywords within anchor text. That just seems suspicious. Google will know what you're up to immediately with outside sources if you don't differentiate your text.  Natural links will come in several different variaties, with anchor text as the url, varying keywords or even images.  If you keep that natural flow but still push your keywords a bit you'll see positive results.

Get links from high profile, related sites. Quantity is not going to be an asset as much as good, quality sites will be. In fact, Google is taking strict action against those that have lots of links from untrustworthy sites in an effort to provide its users with less spam. Getting linked with industry directories or specialty guides will prove most valuable. You will more likely acquire traffic with decreased bounce rates and boost your reputation with search engines.

Don't syndicate your articles. Search engines filter out duplicate information to bring one primary source to their results. Copies will be removed from SERPs because they will be seen as useless. Furthermore, search engines will devalue the links with that page.

Push your social platforms. Your various social media accounts are key sources for further distributing your content to your audience and beyond. Providing that content frequently and consistently will gain you likes, +1s, retweets, shares, repins, etc. These are all great for today's SEO efforts.

Commit to the process. Link building takes time and effort. Invest into it responsibly. Review your linking policy often so that it is updated and always providing your company with optimal results.

Remember: content will forever be king. No matter where link building goes in the future, this will always be true. Your rankings will go up because users had a good experience on your site. Those experiences can be judged by decreased bounce rates, which means visitors are staying longer on your site. This inevitably will be because they enjoy your content. When you're providing quality content, you won't necessarily have to be so concerned with link building for ranking.

What are some tips that have proved useful to your business when it comes to link building? Please share.