The Best Approach To Link Building
By
Emma-Julie Fox
Although the Google Penguin update has rocked the SEO industry yet again, link building still plays a very important role in SEO. This age-old SEO practice has always been the quintessential force that drives the campaigns of every SEO company.
Emphasis on “Valuable”
As seasoned link builders have always said, quality trumps quantity anytime when it comes to links. Besides, too many worthless links littering your link profile would only raise red flags for Google and may even result to your website getting penalized. The best way to approach this then is to understand what links will add weight on your profile and find out how you will get them.
Gauge Link Value
What makes a link valuable?
1. First of all, quality links are hosted by high-quality websites. That’s the point of this entire concept. When higher-ranking websites host links leading to lower-ranking pages, the credibility and value of the former spreads and gives leverage to the latter.
2. It is imperative to have links in websites that are superior (or at least equal… but superior is still better) to yours in age and page rank. Those websites should also be indexed by Google and other search engines, otherwise there’s no point in placing links there.
3. More value is added to a link when the anchor text is a word or long-tail that fits in perfectly, grammar and context-wise, within the text of the page. Technically a link will still be recognized as such no matter what anchor text is used; however, it will be more beneficial for you if you use a keyword or keyword-rich phrase as anchor text because of the following reasons:
- The relevance and influence of the keyword is preserved.
- There is a higher chance that the host page will show up in organic results for searches related to your keyword. Take not that in this instance both you and your host site will stand to benefit.
- A keyword with a subtle call-to-action or descriptive adjectives is more likely to convince SEO-jaded readers to click on the link for more information.
Using “click here for more information” can also work equally well in getting people to click on links. It must be written in such a way that readers can see that you truly want to direct them to another informative article on a different site.
Choose the Right Website Host
Besides the qualities already mentioned above, it is also important that you consider the nature and overarching subject of the websites where you plan to leave behind a link. Link builders often gravitate toward sites and blogs that are related to their own websites. This makes sense because there’s a higher chance that they will approve a link build if your targeted keywords can be related to their articles.
Strengthen Your Link Profile
By approaching link building as described above, it will be easier for you to strengthen your link profile. At a time when negative SEO can happen anytime to anyone, having a strong link profile from the start will be your best defense.
