Link Building – how does it affect SEO and how to carry it out safely?

Link Building constitutes one of the chief marketing techniques applied in SEO, thanks to which we are able to build a set of strong external links leading directly to our website, strengthening it and ensuring that its position in the search results improves. Among several Link Building techniques, the most popular ones include Content Marketing and Buzz Marketing.

How does Link Building affect SEO?

We can say that apart from optimisation, Link Building influences SEO and the position of our website in the search engine in the most powerful way. The more links lead to our website, the higher positions in the rankings it will achieve. Obviously, we must take other factors into account, such as the domain’s age, content published on the domain, the method of linking, etc. Yet, external links acquired by means of Link Building techniques supply our website with the greatest power from outside.

How to link in a secure way?

If we want to make sure that Link Building will take place successfully, we must follow the main security principles. Above all, we must not spam with links by means of programmes and tools designed for this purpose, as our website can be exposed to a Google penalty, preventing it from reaching the desired high positions in the search engine ever again. On the other hand, such penalties are observed less and less frequently, as the algorithm has practically stopped taking very low-quality links from “suspicious” sources into account. We can draw clear conclusions from this situation, namely: using linking spam bots is both a waste of time and a loss of money.

However, the question remains in what way the links should be placed, as an appropriate method can influence the power of the produced links. To be precise, it should be considered whether the link will be placed using an anchor, the URL to the home page or subpage itself or in the form of a graphical reference, a linked source, etc. We must remember that the way of placing the link should look as natural as possible as well as encourage the users to click on it at the same time. Moreover, actions related to Link Building should be diversified, which we will talk about further on.

When it comes to linking with the help of anchor text, we should pay particular attention to the most commonly made mistake, namely an excessive use of the so-called “exact match anchor links”, i.e. linking with identical words that our website is positioned to and writing articles so that a given phrase fits into the text perfectly, which looks even bizarre at times. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with this linking method, however, it should be carried out skilfully and not overdone with regard to the number of anchors. There should be much fewer anchors than regular URL-based links or ones added together with the brand’s name. It is also vital to decide on the proportions of anchors used and URL links in an appropriate way. In this case, we can change keywords according to the context and the meaning of the given word so that the linked phrase appears as natural as possible.

Sources of links

The types of websites from which we acquire links are also extremely important, including:

– general-interest / information portals

– thematic portals

– blogs

– Internet forums

– and supply bases

Obviously, the best source of links to our website can be found on thematic portals, i.e. websites whose content closely reflects the industry within which the linked website operates, as the relevant articles published on such portals prove to be the most powerful. It is clear that apart from the suitable theme, such a portal must be appropriately optimised for SEO, have the largest traffic and a reasonable number of links directing to the website. These parameters can be evaluated most effectively by means of tools such as Ahrefs or Senuto, which will demonstrate approximately what keywords-based traffic a given portal is characterised with. Yet, the most crucial aspect in choosing such a portal is taking actions in accordance with your own experience and common sense.

Comments on forums and blogs

Apart from publishing sponsored articles on blogs, it is also possible to leave comments under already existing articles related to the theme of our website as well as in threads on Internet forums. However, in half the cases, such links contain the “nofollow” parameter, i.e. they are not powerful at all. Fortunately, all is not lost. This type of links will come in handy in diversifying and increasing the number of domains linking our website. Ideally, if there is large traffic on the blog, our comments are capable of transferring a small part of this traffic to our website.

Link diversification

We must also bear in mind that the links to our website should not derive only from one source, such as Internet forums, because we will fail to achieve a high-quality effect in such a case. The link profile ought to look natural and remain as diverse as possible. What we also mean here is the scripts on which the websites are based – for instance, if it is only WordPress, it is virtually obvious that most links derive from private supply bases.

Conclusion

As we can see, Link building has a tremendous impact on SEO and no one can deny this fact. In order to carry it out in a secure manner and not to be exposed to Google penalties, we should follow the aforementioned principles, and above all, we should never go over the top with the number of links on low-quality websites diverging from our website’s theme.