This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Link building that works in 2019
Even if you’ve never done SEO, you’ve probably heard how strongly links are connected to site promotion strategies. Link placement was (and is) a part of almost every SEO strategy, but that does not mean that every link has the same value.
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Link building now is not how it was at the beginning, and the value of links changes with almost every search engine update. In the early days of SEO, it was the quantity, not the quality of the links, that mattered. Link building was mass spamming, link purchases, online directories, mass irrelevant commenting on other sites and using automatic link creation. Nowadays link building is totally different and old strategies will have a negative impact on your site.
How not to build links
We’ll start by identifying link building strategies that may cause you problems with other websites or, even worse, with Google.
If your company makes link building tactics, it's probably time to reassess your strategies. (Before Google will do it :)
SPAM Comments on blogs or forums
In the past, commenting on blogs and forums solely for the purpose of link building was the norm. The reality, however, is that many blogs and forums have little or no links. Thus, creating links using this method will not increase your site’s ranking.
This does not mean that you should avoid commenting on blogs or forums. You just need to do this with the sole purpose of providing useful, valuable content to readers who might be your potential clients.
Low-quality guest blogs and articles
Low-quality content and massive sending of it to as many sites as possible will be noticed eventually.
Google analyzes such poorly written content that doesn’t matter to web users. It will never get to the top. And sites that publish it, are ignored by Google.
Paid links
The biggest and the most obvious no-no is buying links. You should never pay for a link.
Ever.
This is an old tactic of link building, and is considered as a “black hat SEO”. Now it is a direct sign of the problem on the horizon.
What link building works in 2019
Unlike the unethical link building efforts that may cause you a trouble, you need to choose high-quality sites for link placing; with this, links can help improve your brand’s online presence in Google, get more visitors to the site and increase sales.
In fact, this is not related to the “building” of links, since this is “earning” links. These links should flow from the natural desire to serve and help clients and web users, providing useful, valuable information and initiate and facilitate sincere, authentic relationships with people on the Internet.
Content marketing
Good pay starts with quality content that gives value to your potential customers. While content that is poorly written and intended only for getting links, will get a site to be penalized, great content that people want to read will naturally encourage these people to share.
This is not just a one-time thing. You must also be consistent in creating quality content. Regular, fresh content will keep people informed and add to your brand's online credibility.
The motivation behind writing your content should be to provide useful information, not to get links.
Write a guest post of good quality to publish on relevant sites.
Write a good, high-quality blog post and outreach to other blogs in the industry of your company, asking them to publish it. When you ask, it is important that you specify the value that your blog post will bring.
It should also be more than trying to get a link from your site. This should be considered a relationship. As you work with these potential sites, you should be able to offer more value. They should want to publish more of their work in the future.
Content Outreach
Write good content that people not only want to read, but comment and share via social networks and on their blogs. Send it to webmasters and site owners that often touch the same topic. More likely they will be interested in mentioning your content.
Tools for link building
How may you know that your site or content got a link? Of course, some website owners will write you a Thank you letter and let you know that they mentioned your site. But in most cases you will be unaware. Ahrefs is the top tool in SEO arena to check your site link building profile. Backlink Monitor from Protos Red will help you immensely if you do content outreach or promote your website or content through other link building strategies.
If your company has not built any links or is stuck in the tactics of building links of the past era, you have missed a lot of potential search engine capabilities. The best link building strategies require more time and effort and are aimed at building relationships and providing valuable information, rather than gathering the most possible links.