What Is Link Building and Why Is It Important for SEO?

Google’s algorithm is far from simple, but it is not impossible to understand.

In earlier SEO times it used to be a lot easier to rank. Over time, the algorithm has, naturally, become more complex in order to:

1) scale well

2) consistently provide the relevancy of the search results

That made the practice of SEO change eventually to give space to the more technical SEO where it is natural for the new website owners, to get easily confused with the abundance of terms and steps to take to optimize a website.

Let’s put it in simple terms: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a way for Google to rank websites. When you search for something online, you’re greeted with a list of top results. These are what Google deems the most relevant and high-quality of the billions of results. Optimizing your site for search engines helps you rank in those top listings so users can find you faster.

However, when it comes to SEO, not all actions are created equal.  There are some things that are certainly more welcome than others. If we had to put in as little words as possible it would be: optimize your site, create amazing linkable content and build links to it.

That being said, there’s a right way and a wrong way (and a horrible way) to approach link building if you want to avoid Google’s penalty.

This guide will delve deeper into link building as a strategy so you can start getting closer to ranking on page #1!

Link Building Defined

Put simply, link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other sites linking to your own. When search engines crawl websites, they look for these links to find similar pages. For instance, if you’re building a site about coffee, getting a link on a high-authority coffee blog will show Google your website is on a similar topic and of equal quality.

There are two main parts that form hyperlinks, and you want to keep both in mind. There’s the referral destination which is the URL to which the link is pointing. It can be a site homepage, a specific blog post, or even an image.

Next, there’s the anchor text. This is the part of the link that users actually see and click on to travel to the destination page. These are usually relevant keywords relating to the linked website.

Search engines use hyperlinks to find new web pages and ultimately determine page rank. According to Moz’s search ranking factors, links are said to play a significant role in the algorithm. It’s important to note that Google will not favor any link per se and that you need to keep an eye on acquiring high-quality links.

That means it’s not enough to have links on a variety of poorly-performing sites that don’t advocate a high level of quality.

You need a targeted, authentic approach to building hyperlinks to have the most success.

Why Use Link Building?

As you can see from the definition above, link building is an effective way to let Google know you’re serious about your content.

Brian Dean did a study of over 1 million Google results shows that links affect rankings more than any other factor. Even Google has spoken about the importance of backlinks in their ranking signals.

Still not convinced? Let’s break down the main reasons to use link building as the backbone of your SEO strategy.

• Increase Page Ranking – Anyone who’s ever attempted to optimize their website for search engines with methods like keywords and meta tags knows how slow this process can be. A quick way to organically increase your page ranking is by obtaining high-quality hyperlinks from authority sites 
• Referral Traffic – While page ranking is often motivation enough, you can also earn some welcome referral traffic. Highly-visited pages linking to your site or blog post will direct a percentage of that traffic your way. Who doesn’t want a larger audience?

• Build Authority – People trust links on other quality websites. If you want to be seen as an expert in your niche, you need these backlinks to show your expertise.

These reasons should encourage you to focus some of your SEO energy on link building. It’s essential also to recognize the difference between low-quality links and high-quality links. Don’t peddle your link out to any publication willing to link back. You want to be selective to make the most of Google’s algorithm.

What’s the formula for a high-quality link?

• Relevancy – First and foremost, your link needs to be relevant to the site you’re linked from. A Google engineer even went so far as to admit a link from a relevant site is more important for your PageRank than a backlink from a highly ranked page. That means you need links from authority websites in your niche.

• Authority – Yes, higher authority links do hold greater weight—only if they’re relevant—so it is worth working with the top experts in your niche when possible.

• Dofollow/Nofollow – There’s an attribute within hyperlinks known as “nofollow” that prevents the link from registering with Google for page rank. These are most often used for blog comments, forum posts, or advertiser links. For SEO, you need dofollow links.

• Location – The best place to have your link is in the body of the page’s content, not in the sidebar or footer.
• Authenticity – Your link won’t be as effective if it isn’t natural. Keyword stuffing, unnatural hyperlinks, and exact-match anchor texts are spammy and can get you penalized. Instead, focus on authenticity.

Of course, quality backlinks don’t always come easy.

It takes a lot of work to network with relevant publishers, guest post, and create quality content that’s worth linking to. None of these strategies are overnight miracles.

That said, it’s more than worth your time to invest in long-game link strategy. Start with two things: networking in your niche and creating high-quality content. With this, you can’t go wrong.

Boosting Your PageRank

Like all of SEO, there is no quick strategy to take your website to the first page of Google.

However, if you want to stay competitive today, link building is a must. First and foremost, you need a site worth linking to. Build content that stands out in your industry. From there, start some outreach with other leaders in your niche.

Your backlink strategy needs to be based on authenticity and quality. That’s how you build trust with both Google and your audience. Building something worth linking to takes time, but it’s worth every second.