So you’ve decided to take the step into the world of Online Marketing and Enterprise. Welcome aboard!
Before you guys run off and start canvassing potential clients, I really think you should take a few minutes to understand an integral part of Online Enterprise, Link Building.
First off, What is Link Building?
Say for example you’re reading some content on a website and they have a word, sentence or phrase that’s underlined which, when you click on, takes you to another page or site.
A simpler example of this would be, twitter or Facebook. You know how your friends and social networks send out links to things they like? And you click on it to go to the content your friends commented on? That’s what links are.
Link Building is the act of taking linking Your content to other content online with the aim of increasing traffic, visibility and your search ranking on search engines. And this can be done in a manner of ways which are limited only by your imagination, and the requirement that the links are not falsified or irrelevant.
So if you have a website or forum that deals with weight loss, linking to another site which deals with exercise equipment is a good idea. Linking to a website that deals with Cloud Computing is not such a good idea as you lose relevance.
With that sorted, let’s have a look at 4 of the more common methods of Link Building that everyone can utilize.
Creating Inspiring, Fresh and Relevant content to encourage users to build your links.
Professionals in the Online Marketing arena will usually promote this method as the most rewarding as it relies on tight quality, content and communication methods, all of which we can control without relying on external sources. And Google loves fresh and informative content. So a double score as users like and forward your work and Google recognizes your worth.
Go Blog Wild.
A lot of search engines, especially Google, do recommend blogs and link building based on the blogs content. This is because blogs tend to have more valuable information, tend to be more organized in their format and offer advice on specific topics thereby enriching the user experience of the web as an information resource.
So get a blog running and then take part in the world of bloggers. Find related blogs and become part of the conversation on their, share your views, opinions and posts. Link back to the blogs you read and politely enquire if they can do the same. Guest blogging on somebody else’s blog, while asking them to repay the favor is also a great way of link building that is coherent and clear.
Reward Clients for Sharing your work.
A great way of increasing links is asking clients who you have successful and enriching work relationships with to help you reach out to the world. Create Graphic icons that you can give out to clients in exchange for small gifts, concessions and rewards to put up on their sites like social media icons or Google Adwords.
This will help reach more targeted audiences as word of mouth and experienced reviews still hold a lot of sway with users and potential clients.
Be Relevant, Current and Newsworthy
Not too many people will want to read your review of the first iPhone if you write it years later. Time, as with all content writing and reporting, is of the essence. And the longer you take to collate and disseminate content, the fewer readers you can expect. Traffic is essential for higher rankings and authority online. Which means you need to be up to date, informed and maybe even controversial, that’s fine (look at Drudge report, they do phenomenally due to the topics they cover and the speed at which they post news).
Now, there are some people who suggest you utilize Link building directories and maybe even link farms and such. These are places where you can get a larger volume of links to push up your website ranking. The issue though is, you can’t always trust the links provided, and if you get placed in a ‘bad neighborhood’, i.e. on a site that violates Google’s guidelines, then you can kiss all your hard work goodbye as Google will penalize you for it. Which is why I don’t suggest you flirt with such solutions.
All in all, Link Building is eminently do-able and a wonderful way of getting your rankings up and your website or blog more visibility.
And then there’s always Shahzad, Pakistan’s best Online marketing and enterprise professional, who you can approach for help on Link Building.
