Nobody outside of Google knows exactly how they determine what sites rank in the search results but it’s believed that backlinks account for nearly 25 percent of the algorithm.
In other words, links are an important part of making a high-ranking site. Let’s look at what links are and how you can build them.
What Are Links and Why Are They Important?
In the early days of the web, search engines were little more than directories with lists of websites. They often made arbitrary decisions about what sites to rank at the top of the results and those sites weren’t necessarily the most helpful.
Google changed this with their Pagerank algorithm. This algorithm ranked pages based on the number of other websites that linked to it. Their reasoning was that more sites linking to a page must mean that page is more helpful.
Google’s algorithm is much more advanced than it was when it got started 20 years ago but links are still a major factor in how it ranks the search results.
Is There Such a Thing as a Bad Link?
When Google started using links to determine how pages ranked in the results, it didn’t take long for people to figure out ways to game the system. In the early days, any link was considered a “vote” for the page it pointed to, regardless of where that link was from.
To avoid having people game the algorithm to get low-quality sites ranked, Google started considering the quality of the site the link is on. In some cases, a link from a “bad neighborhood” will get penalized, causing your rank to drop.
So yes, there is such a link as a bad link.
Link-Building Strategies for a High-Ranking Website
The fact that Google discounts or even penalizes some link-building strategies doesn’t mean you can’t develop links to your website. It just means you have to do it using strategies that won’t get your site into trouble.
Easy Linking Strategies
There are several ways to create links to your website that don’t take a lot of time, effort, or technical skills. These strategies can help your site rank higher but don’t expect miracles. Easy-to-implement strategies are easy for everyone so you’ll have a lot more competition.
Some easy link-building strategies include:
- Social linking on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
- Buying links on other sites (be careful with this though – Google frowns upon it)
- Adding your site to free directories
Medium-Difficulty Strategies
Taking your link-building up a step, you get strategies that take more time and effort. They’re still relatively easy to implement but because it takes more work, fewer people do it and you can get better results.
Some of the strategies in this category include:
- Writing for blogs, both your own and as a guest post on other sites and including a link back to your website
- Link sharing, also called link exchanges, where you link to another site in exchange for a link back to yours
- Contributor networks, which are another form of guest posting but on larger, well-known websites
More Work but Also Most Effective Linking Strategies
At the upper end of the difficulty scale, you’ve got strategies that are much more powerful but take more work. They’re also more long-term since you need to spend time developing content and your reputation.
These strategies include:
- Getting media exposure on high-profile websites like CNN, Fox News, or industry-specific sites
- Creating high-value content that other sites will want to link to such as resource lists, in-depth instructional articles, and video or other multimedia content
These strategies can be a lot of work so you may want to consider working with an SEO consultant who has experience with these methods.
Getting Help with Your Link Building
Putting these link-building techniques to work to get a high-ranking website can take a lot of time and effort. It’s also a moving target since Google and the other search engines are constantly adjusting their algorithms.
If you’d rather focus on what your business does best and leave the link-building work to experts, consider working with an SEO consultant. An experienced consultant will be up-to-date on all the latest changes with Google and they’ll be able to do the same work in much less time – and probably more effectively.
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