Off-Page SEO: Backlinks and Link Building
Off-Page SEO
Link building and backlinks might be a lesser-known off-page search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to those outside of or just beginning in web analytics. As it turns out, link building is one of the most beneficial off-page SEO tactics a business can utilize to achieve success in the world of web analytics. However, link building and gaining quality backlinks requires some foot work from the business itself. While there are some minor, avoidable pitfalls to link building, a little bit of work can go a long way in terms of business benefits and return on investment.
(Saleem, 2019)
Link Building - Intended Use
“In laymen terms, off-page SEO helps search engines understand what others think about your product, services, or website. Even having just a few links from strong, relevant sites with high levels of authority will increase your chances of ranking higher,” (Saleem, 2019). According to Backlinko’s 2021 Definitive Guide for Link Building for SEO, “Link building is the practice of building one-way hyperlinks (also known as ‘backlinks’) to a website with the goal of improving search engine visibility. Common link building strategies include content marketing, building useful tools, email outreach, broken link building and public relations.”
In the pre-Google days of the internet, search engines like Yahoo! and Alta Vista ranked their search results 100% based on the content of a webpage, (Banklinko, 2021). Now, with Google’s famous PageRank Algorithm, instead of analyzing the contents of a page, Google looks at “how many people linked to that page,” (Banklinko, 2021). And now, with updates like Google Penguin, Google now focuses on link quality and not just link quantity. In fact, the authority of a page linking to another page elevates the ranking of a page more than any other factor, (Backlinko, 2021). This is because the authoritative pages pass on more authority to the pages they are linking to.
(Backlinko, 2021)
Attaining backlinks requires a bit more work by the business/ brand/ website administrators than some might think. Harsh Agrawal says, “Most webmasters feel that writing quality articles will help them in getting links, but that’s not 100% true. Unless you specifically try to get links, it will be hard for you to do so,” (2020).
Expected Benefit
Link Building’s expected benefit is to increase the likelihood of the website ranking highly in the search engine results page (SERP). Ideally, the higher the rank on a SERP, the higher the chances are for a page to receive more traffic, as well as increased brand awareness. According to Virteom, link building helps businesses in three ways:
· Builds relationships: building links requires businesses to reach out to other businesses, “often to relay information about promotions and other activities related to your business,” (2017). However, doing this also fosters long-term relationships that can be mutually beneficial to both businesses.
· Referral business: “Strong links can improve traffic to your site as well as improve your ranking. If your site is linked to a relevant and often visited site, it can boost your sales as well. Further, those sales can easily turn into repeat customers, so you can reap the benefits far into the future,” (2017).
· Brand building: As mentioned earlier, good link building helps to promote a business’ brand. “It can also help to promote the expertise of your company as well as the strengths of its goods and services,” (2017).
Agrawal lists some other benefits of link building as:
o More visibility of your blog in search engine results.
o Receive traffic from other websites linked to you.
o High-quality incoming links mean your site will be admired as a valuable resource. This can be easily done by writing quality content (more on this later).
o Link building also helps in getting indexes in search results quicker.
o Link building is also considered an important aspect of SEO.
(2020).
Pitfalls to Link Building/ Backlinks
One of the pitfalls of link building for some businesses and brands on the smaller side might be achieving quality backlinks to begin with. There are many strategies that aid with link building. Some are listed by Agrawal as:
o Writing epic content (content that is linked to naturally).
o Guest blogging.
o Infographics.
o Epic videos.
o Directory submission.
o Write pillar content and inform bloggers.
(2020)
It is understandable for smaller businesses and brands to struggle with this as they may not have a dedicated team to help understand some of these aspects and therefore have no help with some decisions regarding what might be better suited for the business. In these instances, it is beneficial to hire help or to outsource to a company that specializes in this area.
(Peek, 2018)
Another pitfall of link building and backlinks is broken links. Saleem says, “Broken links usually happen when web hosting expires, or site assets are messed up during migration. They can also simply be the result of typing mistakes,” (2019). Broken links can be located on one of a business’ own pages, or on other pages or blogs attempting to link to a business. One strategy to fix this is with broken link building – or finding broken links, contacting the owner of the resource and providing an updated link (Saleem, 2019). Another strategy is to find outdated competitors’ links and offer a replacement link with similar content to that competitor’s old link. Broken link building helps to reduce the number of redirects and 404 page errors, resulting in better user experience, (Saleem, 2019). In turn, with more legitimate quality backlinks, the page’s authority will be higher, and the page will be ranked high on the search engine results page.
Conclusion
Practicing link building and obtaining quality backlinks has the benefit of better search engine visibility. Better search engine visibility means a better chance at a high ranking on the search engine results page. A higher rank on a SERP means more traffic to the website. More traffic to the website could mean more brand awareness or conversions. There’s no doubt if done correctly, this off-page SEO strategy can be greatly beneficial for businesses and brands looking for success. Below is a graphic that depicts Mozlow’s Hierarchy of SEO Needs. The hierarchy can be found true for link building as well as other SEO strategies.
(Moz, n.d.).
References
Agrawal, H. (2020, January 3). What is Link Building in SEO & What Are The Benefits of Building Links? Retrieved from https://www.shoutmeloud.com/what-is-link-building-and-benefit-of-link-building.html
Backlinko. (2021). Link Building for SEO: The Definitive Guide. Retrieved from https://backlinko.com/link-building
Peek, A. (2018, April 5). Fix Your 404 Page Not Found Errors. Retrieved from https://www.doyouconvert.com/fix-your-404-page-not-found-errors/?utm_source=Instagram&utm_medium=apbiolink&utm_campaign=404_blog
Saleem, M. (2019, October 6). 11 Smart Off-Page SEO Techniques You Need to Use Right Now. Retrieved from https://optinmonster.com/off-page-seo/
Virteom. (2017, December 26). The Importance of Link Building. Retrieved from https://virteom.com/the-importance-of-link-building
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