Link-Building Strategies for the Modern World

By Brandon Cornett
© 2011. All rights reserved

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a hot topic among small business owners. It's often a key component of the small business marketing strategy. And you can't talk about SEO without a thorough discussion of link building.

In this tutorial, you will learn some effective link-building strategies that can help you boost your search engine rankings. Let's start with a brief definition.

Link building is the act of acquiring inbound links from other websites to yours. It is a key component of any search engine optimization campaign.

The goal of a link-building strategy is to improve the websites "link popularity." This is the quantity and quality of links pointing to a particular website. Search engines like Google use this as a measure of website popularity. It is part of the computerized algorithm they use to rank and evaluate websites.

So the long-term goal of a link-building campaign is to improve the website's search engine ranking. This results in a higher level of website traffic, which is something every small business owner wants. So by boosting the number of links pointing toward your website, you will eventually increase the number of visitors to your site.

Outdated Strategies For Acquiring Links

In the early days of the Internet, link building was fairly simple. You could submit your website to a dozen or so web directories, and suddenly you would be on the first page of Google for your key phrases. You could also trade links with other webmasters to boost your link popularity (a practice known as reciprocal linking).

But both of these strategies have become outdated. So it's best to avoid them entirely.

There are several reasons for this. For one thing, there are many more websites online today than in the 1990s. The size of the Internet has increased tenfold in the last few years alone. This increased competition makes it harder to achieve first-page rankings in the major search engines.

As a result of this competition, search engines have raised their standards in terms of website evaluation and ranking. Submitting your website to directories simply doesn't work anymore. If you want to improve your Google rankings in the modern world, you must acquire links from reputable and authoritative websites. This is the kind of link-building strategy a small business owner should pursue. And we will discuss it in more detail below.

Google's Evolution, and What It Means to You

Search engines are constantly evolving. They adjust their ranking algorithms on a regular basis, in order to provide better results to their users. This is why certain link-building strategies become outdated, useless, and downright harmful over time.

Take reciprocal linking for example. Trading links with other webmasters used to be an effective strategy for search engine success. But now it is frowned upon by the major search engines.

Here's what Google says about it:

"Some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking ... This is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site's ranking."

Why would you use a link-building strategy that has the potential to hurt your site's performance in the number-one search engine? It's downright foolish.

This all makes perfect sense when you think about it. Link popularity is supposed to be a true indicator of a website's value and popularity. But reciprocal and paid linking schemes are manipulative nature. They are not a true measure of the website's quality. They are artificial indicators.

This is why search engines are constantly adjusting their ranking algorithms. They perpetually seek new ways to identify and discredit websites that try to manipulate their way to the top. At the same time, they want to reward websites that acquire links naturally by offering great content. This reward comes in the form of higher rankings, which is something every small business owner wants!

I mentioned a key word in that last paragraph -- content. Creating quality website content is the most effective link-building strategy in the modern world. And that's what we are going to discuss next.

Link-Building Strategies Of the Future

Whenever I discuss the subject with clients, I always stress the importance of a natural link-building campaign. This strategy revolves around quality website content. It avoids the manipulative tactics we talked about earlier. The goal of this strategy is to publish useful information that will naturally acquire links from other websites. This is a fundamental requirement for SEO success in the modern world.

In theory, this link-building strategy is straightforward. You publish website content that other people find useful, interesting, engaging or entertaining. Some of the people who find this content will link to it from their own blogs and websites. They do this naturally, out of the desire to share your information with their readers. They do not do it because you have paid them or traded links with them.

Remember, the search engines are constantly adjusting their ranking algorithms to discredit manipulative tactics. Trading links with other webmasters in order to artificially boost your rankings is considered a manipulative tactic (refer back to the Google quote from earlier). Buying links on other websites is considered a manipulative tactic. Publishing quality content that naturally acquires links is highly encouraged by the search engines.

In fact, here it is in their own words:

• You should "create a useful, information-rich site," says Google.
• You should "develop great, original content directed toward your intended audience," says Bing.
• You should publish "original and unique content of genuine value," says Yahoo.

The link-building strategy I am recommending starts with great website content. This is exactly what the search engine companies want. Nothing else matters if you get this step wrong. Before you start promoting your website to acquire new links, you must have something worth linking to in the first place.

I refer to this as link-worthy content. This kind of content helps people achieve a certain goal or solve a certain problem. It covers the subject matter in great detail. It offers original research and analysis. It provides a unique insight that is not available on other website. It is well written and easy to understand. Your link-building strategy should be built around this type of website content.

Once you've created a large volume of quality content, the bulk of your work is done. Creating useful information is the hard part. Promoting it for link-building purposes is fairly simple. In fact, if you do a really good job creating useful content, you might not have to promote it at all. People will find it and link to it without any extra effort from you.

This creates a snowball effect in terms of search engine optimization. Here's how it happens...

You work hard to publish excellent content that serves your readers. Other publishers find this content and link to it, in order to share it with their own readers. This improves your link popularity, which in turn will boost your search engine ranking over time. With better search engine visibility, your website will attract more visitors. This means even more publishers will find and link to your quality content. This improves your link popularity even more, and gives you an additional boost in the search engines. It's a snowball effect. But it all starts quality website content.

There is no limit to the results you can achieve with this link-building strategy. There is no limit to the amount of content you can publish onto your website.

This is a highly effective SEO strategy in the modern world. It helps you stay on the good side of the search engines. It helps you avoid penalties that can result from manipulative tactics. It engages your readers with useful content and keeps them on your website longer. It helps you convert casual visitors into actual customers. It supports your company's brand and image. So you can see that it's not just a link-building strategy. It's a recipe for online marketing success.

An Example Link-Building Strategy

This will all make more sense if we look at a real-world example. Here's a strategy I've used many times in the past to acquire new links to my websites.

1. I start by conducting a survey of my readers. I use a program like SurveyMonkey to invite my readers to take the survey.
2. I keep the survey running until I have a significant number of responses, even if it takes two or three months.
3. Next, I publish the results of the survey onto my website, along with some eye-catching charts or graphics to support it.
4. The survey could stand alone as interesting website content. But I choose to add my own commentary about the findings, in editorial fashion.
5. Now comes the link-building part of the strategy. This is where I promote my findings to a select audience.
6. First, I contact industry websites. This might be professional associations, organizations or magazines. I share my findings and give them a link to the survey results on my website.
7. Next, I would contact bloggers and other Internet publishers who cover my industry (anyone that doesn't fall into the group above).
8. I would then write a press release about my survey / findings, and publish it online. I could use PRWeb.com, PR Newswire, or any number of other press-release services.
9. I could also share the results through any social media websites my company is using. This might include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
10. If I had a list of professional contacts and colleagues, I would share the survey with them as well.
11. Lastly, I would find out if there were any college or university departments that covered my field. I would send these professors a link to my research. (For example, if my survey relates to the economy in some way, I could send the results to economics professors.) It would be great to pick up a few links from college websites -- they are authoritative in nature, so they go a long way toward SEO.

This is the kind of link-building strategy that will yield the best results in the long run. It revolves around interesting website content. It avoids tricks and manipulation. It seeks legitimate links from authoritative and relevant websites.

Conclusion and Summary

Link building is the act of acquiring links from other websites in order to boost your search engine rankings. Some of the link-building strategies of the past are no longer effective today. Reciprocal and paid links are two examples of outdated strategies.

To succeed in the current Internet environment, you should develop a content-based linking strategy. This is where you attract links naturally by publishing useful and engaging content on your website or blog. This kind of tactic will never fall out of favor with the search engines. It will always be a safe and effective strategy for SEO success.

But it's also hard work. Creating quality website content is challenging. If it were easy, everyone could do it. With the proper training, you could create this kind of website content for yourself. Or you could outsource it to a professional web writer. Either way, you must ensure that you only publish useful information on your website. This is the key to link-building success and better search engine rankings.

How We Can Help

We talked about the importance of website content, as it relates to your link-building strategy. This is one of the services we provide for our clients. We can help you create a large volume of quality content for your company's website or blog. This gives you the gift of time. Instead of spending hours every day writing website content, you can focus on other aspects of your business. Best of all, you'll know that the centerpiece of your link-building strategy is being handled by a professional.