If you ask any SEO specialist why link building is necessary, they will answer — to increase the authority of the site and improve its position in search results. This will be the correct, although not a complete answer. We will tell you in more detail why you should continuously build links and what exactly the benefits of such work will be.
The Main Task of Link Building
Link building is the process of placing backlinks to the website under promotion. Its logic is very simple — the more resources cite a certain material, the higher its authority. If people willingly share a certain article, they consider it true, useful, and easy to understand.
Google and other search engines consider backlinks the main measure of a site’s authority. But it is important to realize that for them, it is not only the number of mentions that matters but also their quality. Algorithms take into account the rating of sites for placing links, their topics, and the frequency of publication of customized materials.
Therefore, automatic posting is increasingly rare. Top services for link building place materials manually, selecting sites of relevant topics and organically inserting backlink anchors.
Unobvious Advantages of Link Building
It would seem that everything is simple. Quality links that comply with the rules of search engines increase the authority of the site. Accordingly, it improves its position in search results for certain queries, traffic volume increases, more leads are generated, and revenue grows. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, link building brings much more benefits. It triggers hidden mechanisms, which we will discuss in more detail.
1. Increasing the website’s visibility
By placing links on external resources, you create additional sources of traffic. For link building, platforms that have a regular audience are selected. In addition, they should correspond to the theme of the promoted site. Accordingly, the probability that someone will actually follow the link and familiarize themselves with your commercial offer is very high.
From this point of view, crowd marketing is effective. There are specialized services that place backlinks on forums. With the right selection of topics and anchors, they generate a large volume of traffic, attracting to the site a lot of users willing to make a targeted action.
2. Improving brand reputation
We are surrounded by advertising. It’s on billboards, TV, radio, Internet, social media, poles, food packaging, and cars. And according to Futurama, ads will soon be in our dreams. If you pay attention to the nature of such appeals, you will notice that not every one of them directly calls to make a purchase. Some simply remind you of the existence of a certain brand.
Backlinks work the same way. If a user sees a mention of an online store on one website, on five, ten, or twenty, they will eventually open this very site when it’s time to buy. The same principle works here as with authority. If different resources mention the online store, it means that it really stands out from the rest.
3. Establishing communications
By contacting the owners of platforms for publishing your content, you will create useful links that will certainly be useful to you in the future. At least — for reposting links without a long tedious search for suitable resources. At most — for a full-fledged partnership in the mutual website promotion.
To create long-term mutually beneficial relationships, you can use special outreach link building services. They allow you to quickly find resources, blogs, and influencers ready to help you with the difficult task of site promotion. Such problems give all the advantages of outreach without the main disadvantage — the need to find an individual approach to each partner.
4. Formation of an expert reputation
One of the effective link-building techniques is posting on forums, questionnaire sites, and niche directories. By responding to user queries, publishing interesting useful content, and creating high-quality multimedia materials, you will not just attract more traffic to your site. You will become one of the leading experts in your industry. In turn, this will increase brand credibility.
Beginners can earn an expert reputation by using the skyscraper method. It means that you should review your competitors’ content and offer something better to the user. If it’s an article, fill it with relevant information and quality images. If you’re good at summarizing data, create an intuitive infographic that simplifies complex concepts. This kind of content can generate a lot of organic traffic. If its quality is high enough, people will share it without any encouragement on your part.
5. Recovering lost links
Link building should be an ongoing process. After placing your material on an external platform, you should monitor its effectiveness using specialized tools, such as Ahrefs, Serpstat, SE Ranking, MOZ, and others. By making such monitoring a part of your daily routine, you will notice that some links will break. Some — by accident, due to minor technical problems, and others — intentionally, at the will of the resource owner.
Lost links create some problems:
- Broken links negatively affect the technical condition of the site;
- The reduced volume of links decreases the resource’s authority;
- A link to a competitor’s site can be added to your material, which will give you a double blow.
Therefore, link building will be an effective tool to maintain the website’s health and a tool for competitive struggle. By making it an ongoing process, you will feel a positive impact on both SEO and marketing strategy as a whole.
6. PR
Any business can get into a bad situation. Sometimes, one accidentally dropped word or one bad post on social media can lead to a big scandal. Such problems should be solved ASAP, using all possible means. As we already know, the authority and reputation of the site are among the key factors in its ranking in search results.
Link building can also be a PR tool. By posting customized content, other sites will show support for the brand. Alone, such a technique will not solve all problems. However, it will create a strong base to rely on for future postings.
Link-building tools will also work well for tracking negative mentions. With standard outreach techniques, it will be possible to contact post authors and resource owners to negotiate the withdrawal of such opinions.
7. Finding Ambassadors
Many companies engage bloggers and other influencers to promote their businesses. Often, everything is limited to a one-time collaboration. Mentioning a brand in an article or video leads to a boost in its popularity, which later comes to naught.
But some influencers agree to long-term cooperation. The company becomes their title sponsor, which provides products for reviews or simply donates products that later appear in the footage. Link building and outreach are some of the best ways to find such brand ambassadors.
Conclusion: Why Link Building Is Not Just About Traffic
Link building is considered one of the key SEO directions for a reason. It increases the authority of the resource from the point of view of search engines, but its usefulness is not limited to this. By continuously building links, you will increase the visibility of your site, improve the reputation of the company, and establish new connections. Painstaking work in the field of link building will also help you gain additional competitive advantages, create an image of a leading expert, and even find new brand ambassadors.
