What do you think of when you think of link building? Maybe it reminds you of the Lincoln Logs or building blocks that you played with as a kid. In a sense this is correct, because link building does take some creativity and planning. Let take a few minutes to navigate the world of link building (in simple terms, no jargon) including how to tips and bigtime benefits for your business.
What is link building?
Let’s start with the “what”. What exactly IS link building? Link building focuses on search engine optimization, relationship building and website traffic using three types of hyperlinks.
1. Linking within your website.
2. Linking to other relevant websites.
3. Linking from other websites to your website.
Search engines, like Google, use hyperlinks to crawl the web; they crawl the links between the different pages of your website, and the links between entire websites. You want your site to be seen!
Why is Link Building Beneficial?
Now let’s move on to the “why”. Why should I spend my precious time on a link building strategy? Here are some key reasons and how to get started with each of them.
Reason One: Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
You want YOUR website to display towards the top of a web search related to your business or industry. You want your target audience and potential customers to find your website.
How To: Create a link building strategy (look for a future RV Tech blog on this topic) that includes adding relevant links to each of your website pages, blog posts, event pages and more. Hyperlink to pages within your website to help visitors navigate and lead them to the next step in your sales process. Link to other relevant websites and ask them for referral links. It’s a great way to build relationships and provide more informational resources for your visitors.
Reason Two: Relationship Building & Increased Website Traffic.
You want to become known as an expert in your industry. A go-to for not only purchasing your product or service, but a go-to for questions, advice, and ideas…ultimately leading to a possibly future purchase.
Relevant links from other well-respected industry websites will help increase traffic to your website. Chances are their visitors are also your target audience. This is a great way to reach them!
How To: Reach out to other relevant websites and blogs in your industry. Let them know about a new blog that you’ve written, new infographic you’ve designed, or new video that you’ve created. It is best to stick to promoting informational resources. Other sites are less like likely to share ANY media that is trying to directly sell something. Unless they are a vendor of yours. Beyond link building, this is a great way to network with key influencers in your industry and set your business apart.
Tip: Attend industry related conferences, meetings and more. Meeting with people in the biz face-to-face is networking gold!
Reason Three: Decrease Bounce Rate.
Your website bounce rate has to do with the amount of time a visitor spends on your website and how many pages they visit. You want them to be on your page long enough to get the information that they need to either get their question answered or make an informed decision to purchase your product or service.
How To: When you are creating content on your website, keep SEO, and link building in mind. This applies to creating top navigational pages, subpages, blog posts, event pages, and more! As you write content, be sure to focus on including key words that customers might search for to find your website, products or services. Then link those key words or phases to other pages on your site, or another relevant websites, for more information.
Tip: Be sure that if you are linking to an external site to direct that link to open in a new page or tab.
Additionally, at the end of each of your pages, posts, etc., be sure to add a call to action. Here are five examples:
- Click to get started. (Link to on online form or landing page)
- Read these blog posts for more information. (Link to more blog posts, yours or not.)
- Contact us or visit us. (Link to contact us page, email or Google maps)
- Find a supplier in your area. (Link to your dealer locator page.)
- Follow these step-by-step directions. (Link to a blog post or page that helps customers complete a task or place on order.)
How to get started?
Finally let’s get to the “how”. How do you get started? Start by talking with your team about the benefits of SEO and link building. If they understand the why, they are more likely to be invested and put in the time and effort that you are striving for.
Then, meet with your team to discuss implementing a few of the how-to’s in this post. They are the very basic beginnings of a link building strategy. Building a foundation of understanding early on will contribute to successful link building as your website and business evolve.
When you are ready, it’s time to create a Link Building Strategy for the future. We can help! Look for future Redwood Valley Technical Solutions blog posts on Website Link Building Strategies soon! Of course, we will add a link to it here too.
