How To Get Started With Link Building Research
One of the challenges for new and even well-established websites is to rank high enough in search engines to produce a decent amount of relevant traffic.
Drive relevant traffic
Consider someone searching “windshield repair” – they are most likely interested in pricing information, whether they should pay cash or submit a claim, the types of glass used and perhaps warranty information. They might want to know costs for having it done at a shop vs. on-site replacement.
The more comprehensive the content in terms of answering common questions, the more likely the search engines will rank it well, but quality content isn’t enough. You want to have links to your pages so the search engines can evaluate how many other people are vouching for your page.
The competition for some search phrases can be fierce, so outlining a strategy to ensure your site appears for the keywords you want is critical.
Link Building Is an Ongoing Process That Is Constantly Evolving
One of the most important items within that strategy is to acquire links to your site, preferably using the keywords your site is attempting to rank for in the anchor text. For example, if you want to rank well for “windshield repair”, your link building efforts would be to get links using those keywords in the anchor text.
But today, it’s all about quality over quantity. 1000 links from sites without much authority might not send you a fraction of what one link from a very reputable and authoritative site can.
Not All Links Are Considered Equal
You won’t make dramatic improvements in your site’s rankings by going after the easiest sources, such as profile links, or blog comments. So to make it worthwhile, you’ll need to do some research on what sites will bring the most value if you should be able to acquire a link from them.
In this post, we’ll share some tips on how to find the most influential link building opportunities.
Search Traffic Continues To Grow and Become More Competitive
Before jumping into the tips, let’s discuss why spending valuable time, and or hiring an SEO consulting firm to work on this task for you.
The competition between sites to appear on the first page of Google is increasing as more people do their shopping and research online.
You can review data from Google Trends to see if there has been an increase in demand for your most valuable keywords, and it’s a good idea to use the Google Keyword Tool we’ve talked about before to make sure you’re going after keywords that have existing volume.
Why Do People Use Search Engines To Find Information and Make Buying Decisions
The immediate gratification we get when entering as few words as possible to explain what we are looking for is extremely beneficial. It saves us time; it gives us what we want without having to wade through tons of irrelevant information.
With the abundance of information at our fingertips we’ve transformed how we navigate information. Quite simply, we scan pages in seconds looking for what we want.
Google Must Deliver What We Are Looking For Or People Will Use Other Search Engines
The ability for Google to remain the leader in the search industry depends almost entirely on it’s ability to provide us with the quickest and most accurate information as soon as we hit submit.
Google’s algorithm grades sites and determines whether it contains the content that would be useful to someone searching for information. But there is a big difference between having an ad that is on the first page of Google, and showing up on page one of the organic results.
Google can sell a single click for $50 to a business that sells car insurance.
That business can pay $500 a month for 10 clicks or it can earn a position in the organic search results and not pay a dime.
80% of clicks go to results that are in the organic listings. By optimizing, there’s another 40 clicks on the table that won’t cost anything if the site can rank.
Google Analyzes Your Site and The Quality of Information It Provides
The number of links and the quality of each link is part of how Google determines how well your site solves a particular search user’s query. The link represents a vote from another website, and it means the other site has a degree of confidence in the content your site provides.
Of course, the challenge here is how to attract more links and ensure that your site has enough to be considered an authority on the topic.
One way to identify a valuable link opportunity would be to enter the URL into a tool used by many SEO’s called Open Site Explorer.
Take note of the Domain Authority and Page Authority, those will be the two primary numbers you’ll want to be as close to 100 as possible.
The closer to 100, the harder it will be to obtain a link.
Use this tool, as well as other free tools, to analyze the value of a potential link.
As you become familiar with the phrases that send you the most business, you’ll start to see where the good links are available by looking at the websites you are competing with.
Create better content, improve the user experience, become more active in social networks so that your site gets mentioned by influencers in your niche, and study your traffic for indications that could identify more opportunities for traffic.