Online Marketing: Link-Building Strategies
An effective tool for bringing in more unique hits to your website is using a strategy called link-building. Link-building is essentially putting your website’s link on another website under a specific keyword or key phrase. These words and phrases are what are commonly googled for that niche.
Having a successful link-building strategy does two very important things for you. The first is obvious. It brings people, hopefully who are in your demographic, directly to your website through click the link. However, the second thing that it does is less obvious and much more beneficial. It increases your Google search ranking.
When you post your websites link on other high profile websites, it makes your website appear to be a reliable and trustworthy website that isn’t going to be spammy to people online. Google then rewards you via their search algorithm with a higher ranking among other websites. In turn, you will gain more organic traffic flowing into your website who are searching for whatever you’re writing about on your website.
So what are a few actionable ways to link-build that you can start today?
Start With The Easy Sites
It’s important to begin with the low hanging fruit. This includes places such as social media if you haven’t hit them yet. You won’t be able to place a keyword with your website link on sites like Twitter and Facebook, but having a link will help your search ranking and will provide you with occasional direct traffic.
Don’t just stop at Facebook and Twitter though. You need to create an account for every social media platform because the more links you have connecting to your website, the better. Go after sites such as Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg and whatever else you can grab.
Website Directories
Another low hanging fruit are website directories. A directory is a compilation of similar websites that includes links to those sites. Find directories for your niche and e-mail whoever runs the directory to get your site posted.
For instance, if you blog about being a registered massage therapist, then find web directories on topics such as massage therapy and health. This will boost your site ranking and help people find you. It also has the added benefit of helping other bloggers find you for potential partnerships.
Inter-link Your Online Content
Inter-linking on your own site is also a form of link-building. When you inter-link content on your site you’re doing a few things. One thing you’re doing (which is the big thing) is you’re mapping out your website so that Google is able to index your site easier. Google has “site crawlers” who scan content and make sense of it. It’s easier for these site crawlers to index your site when everything is linked together nicely.
Inter-linking will also reduce the bounce rate on your website, which is the rate of how long people spend on your website. The smaller your bounce rate, the more committed your readers are and the more traffic Google will direct to your site. When you inter-link you’re showing website visitors other content they might find interesting.
Guest Post One to Two Times Per Week
Guest posting is the biggest link-building strategy you can use. Find websites where you can write blog posts about your niche. These websites can be bloggers or bigger content sites such as ThoughtCatalog. Send e-mail pitches to websites you’re interested in publishing on and as a reward you’ll be able to link to your site.
Keep in mind that with bloggers it’s important to go for ones within your league. This means that it’s unlikely you’ll get published on the biggest bloggers site because they constantly get e-mail pitches for articles. Instead, find bloggers who are active and about your size via website directories. In return, you can allow them to post on your site too.
Link-building is the best marketing tactic you can use for your online business or blog. By using these tips you’ll be able to explode your website traffic overtime, with benefits beginning immediately.
About the Author
Christopher Porteus Chris Porteous is a veteran in the tech space, founding Framestr and writing about his experiences scaling startups. When he's not working, he's writing about the latest tech products and providing insights on how to utilize technology to improve your life.
