Search engine optimization (aka SEO) is a multifaceted and complex model for website promotion. We suggest biting into small pieces of the pie and dealing with essential concepts gradually, one at a time. Link building is on the menu today: increasing the link mass and the number of links on external resources that lead to your site.

 

Link building is one of the ways to improve the visibility of a website, information or content project, or landing page in search engines. High-quality external links will increase the site's ranking and, at the same time, the content's value.

 

How does link building work?

 

Let's start with the basics. The basic concept of link building is backlink or backlink. 

Suppose there is a website on the Internet (a blog, a forum, or a community on a social network). Hyperlinks to other - third-party - resources are organically integrated into the content of this site. These links are called backlinks of external sites. 

 

Backlinks are SEO ambrosia for your site. According to statistics, sites that rank at the top of Google's SERPs have almost four times as many backlinks as sites in lower positions.

 

So, link building is filling content with links to your resource that will generate traffic for you. Link building is natural link building if you suddenly want to show off a professional lexicon. The more such links to your site on the network, the more people will interact with your content.

And yes, good link building makes your site more visible to search engines. Accordingly, you get even more clicks and traffic.

 

Remember the main thing: links should be relevant to your content on the topic, benefit the reader, and not be spam. It is not worth inserting a link into an article about animals that leads to an automotive site. Search engine algorithms are rapidly getting smarter. They have already learned the semantic analysis of the text. They can recognize low-quality and paid links. Search engines are constantly tightening the requirements for the quality of links in the content. 

 

A hyperlink on the words "search engines are constantly tightening requirements" is an excellent example of link building. So we contributed to building up the link mass for the Cossa website. Yes, and in the Cossa article, we see backlinks to other sites - according to the words "link building" and "link spam":

 

Today, outdated link-building methods (link buying, spam software, URL manipulation, low-quality links) are easily identified and eradicated by bots.

 

Another important thing. What matters is the authority of the site and the page that will bring you traffic. The power and status of pages with backlinks to your resource increase your site's ranking in search engines. Here's what makes a link authoritative:

 

  • good page traffic, a large number of visitors;
  • high citation;
  • quality information.

 

In other words, if you place backlinks to your resource on a site with harmful content and low traffic, there will be no sense.

 

Methods and examples of link building

 

Here is an example of link building on online education services. They must attract customers in different geos, so good search engine rankings are critical. 

 

Link building will help. The service can partner with educational portals (like Mela, Theory, and Practice) and create helpful content by sewing links inside. To do this, it is enough to write to the e-mail of the editorial office or the site's administration with a proposal for cooperation. 

So, the online education service is preparing a helpful article for the popular Chalk. Let it be, say, an in-depth study on the pros and cons of online adult education.

 

Unobtrusively sews inside (say, in the phrase "It has been proven that when people take online courses ...") a link to the service, thus increasing the authority of their site and at the same time advertising themselves. 

You need to understand that authoritative sites will not link to just anyone. After all, by referring users to you, they vouch for your content and product. 

 

The method is suitable for any online entrepreneur: from novice bloggers who sell products using affiliate links to online store owners. 

 

A little more about link-building methods.

 

  • A little more about the guest post example mentioned above: the essence of this method is mutual benefit. The publication receives high-quality content, and you are a backlink to your resource.
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  • Make a list of publications that might be interested in articles related to your product. Send requests for content - and immediately suggest topics or an outline for an essay. Study the requirements and redaction policy of the portal where you want to publish. Be ready to make edits: editors of quality resources carefully proofread guest posts and often ask for something to add or correct. 

 

  • Broken links. Look for inactive, non-working links in the articles of an authoritative resource, and suggest replacing them with a link from your site (relevant in content, of course). Not all SEO specialists consider this method effective, but it is popular. 
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  • To help: google "services for checking broken links on the site."
  • Exchange with authoritative backlinks for related content. Here again, you need to contact the administration of sites that you like and are suitable for you with a proposal: you link to them, and they refer to you. It's like a cross-promo.
  • You mention your site on collection resources: directories, aggregators, bulletin boards, catalog sites, geo-services, and listings. Usually, to get to such resources, it is enough to apply, register, or write to the administrators.
  • You mentioned regular selections from authoritative publications and media. If you have a blog about needlework and a sizeable DIY portal periodically tells readers about the best blogs in this direction, you can try to light up there. Write to the editor.
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  • Positive feedback from loyal users, readers, or customers posted on review sites, forums, and in the comments of articles. You can also insert backlinks into them. Ask people to share their opinion about your resource and offer small gifts or bonuses.

 

  • And you can do everything with your own hands. For example, register on a forum or media that suits you on a topic, a question-answer site, and look for comments you could answer with a mention of your resource.
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  • Tip: no spam, only answers and recommendations on the case - to those people who will benefit from a link to your resource. 

 

Services and tools for link building

 

Doing link building manually is a chore and not always rewarding. We have collected services that will make your life a little easier - at least in link building.

 

  • SEMrush. A universal service helps track potential resources for link building and analyze links on any domain. Tariffs
  • Ahrefs. Powerful and popular SEO tool. It offers various functions for working with links, from authority analysis to checking broken links. Here, there is a helpful blog where they write, among other things, about link building. Tariffs
  • Buzz stream. An English-language service is suitable for large-scale projects with a massive mass of backlinks. Through Buzzstream, you can connect with influencers and evaluate the effectiveness of link-building campaigns. Tariffs
  • Majestic. Allows you to conduct a full-fledged analysis of the reference mass - your own and competitors. Tariffs
  • URLProfiler. Detailed SEO analysis of competitors from this English-language tool will help you choose all the available options for link building. Tariffs

And a few more services with narrower but essential functionality. 

  • Xrumer and Allsubmitter programs are convenient for automatic link building.
  • Proposing provides site and blog owners with guest posting opportunities. The service operates in 100 countries.
  • Linkbox is a convenient software for storing and organizing link-building campaigns. It also knows how to check the indexing of links.
  • The quality and authority of link-building sites are checked on CheckTrust, and site traffic is limited on Similar Web.
  • X-Parser is helpful for content parsing, including those with backlinks.
  • Zebroid will help fill the site with content with relevant backlinks.
  • MegaIndex and PR-CY are used to analyze the link mass of competitor sites.