It seems to me that the most challenging part of SEO comes in after all the optimizations to a website have been made. Tools can guide you to make recommendations on technical issues and keyword usage, but what happens after those changes have been implemented? The real fun starts when its time to get other people to link to your site.
Quick Definition: Link building refers to the process and actions intended to increase the number and quality of inbound links to page. In the past we have discussed the importance of link building and what it can do to your domain and page authority and how it can ultimately lead you to a higher rank on search engines. To read more about this click here: Link Building – The Road to a Higher Rank
THE PROCESS OF LINK BUILDING
The process of link building always begins with planing. Each one of our clients is different, which means that a different link building strategy will be required for each.
The first thing that I do when preparing a link building strategy is to brain storm on the client, their industry and glance at the competition and who is linking to them. Afterwards I go through a pre-made list of strategies and filter through strategies and identify which links that can be considered “low hanging fruit” or “prime” links.
I won’t bore anyone to death with a plethora of strategies. Remember, not all strategies work for everyone. I present to you three basic link building strategies that apply to most, regardless of the industry.
BASIC STRATEGIES
1. USE KNOWN RESOURCES
This is a basic strategy that applies to everyone. Whether it be partners or bloggers that you may know that put out relevant content to your industry, the easiest and fastest way to acquire links is through using the resources available. For example, I asked on of our clients for a list of partners or known bloggers. The client in turn provided me with a blogger who creates content that is very relevant to the industry and their page rank is good. Just from that, I already have one link in the bag. This strategy should be fairly quick and could potentially yield several valuable links.
2. CREATE A BLOG
This is my opinion is probably one of the most (if not THE MOST) single important strategies to obtaining worthy links to your site. Coming up with content on a regular basis builds links internally by linking out from your posts, but the content also serves as a natural link bait. Creating new, good content regularly gives you opportunities to utilized relevant keywords and adds value to any site. It is a MUST. This is an ongoing strategy that can yield very high quality links but the dependencies require that you develop content and design.
3. SCOPE OUT THE COMPETITION
A great strategy for deciding which links you want to target is to look into what your competitors are doing. Who is pointing to their site? You can use tools such as Open Site Explorer to identify inbound links. (Remember that “nofollow” links will not pass SEO juice. Look for only “follow” links.) This takes a lot of the legwork out of searching for valuable links. If people are linking to your competition, why shouldn’t they link to you?
The three strategies that I provided should be a good starting point for any brand/company/person who is beginning the link building process. Together, those three strategies can help you lay the foundation of link building. Once you get one link, it only becomes easier to get the next link and so forth.
