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This how-to guide was created by Zabisco This guide has also been edited by TomMcHugh and WEditor
How to make the most of link building in SEO
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CloseThings you'll need
- A basic knowledge of SEO
- Willing to invest time
- Be ready to make industry friends
Link Building; it’s something you have probably heard of, and something you probably think your charity should be doing. Link Building can make a huge difference to both the SEO of your site but also your online reputation. It does take time and maybe a little perseverance but if you invest in the right areas it can really pay dividends.
What is Link Building?
Think of “link building” like building a solid foundation for your house. It’s no secret that Google uses links to measure the authority of your website; links for Google are pretty much like social validation. Google’s algorithm ranks pages on the basis of validations they secure online. I.e. If a web page attracts links from other pages, Google will rank the page higher in search listings. It seems simple right? Ask friends to post links to your site and your charity will go up in Google’s search rankings? If only it where that simple…
Different links have different values
“Links are votes. Not all votes are equal” (Ian Lockwood at The Internet Marketing Conference 2010)
Google is a business too and thus will rank the value of links your secure. When you begin sourcing links to secure think about what these links will say about your charity. It’s best to think about this in terms of ranking sites you propose to yourself (text description at bottom of the page):
How to secure links
Think about sites that are interested in your organisation or could potentially be. As a charity you are a niche organisation and have the potential to provide a lot of expert content to various high ranking sites. A link from one of these sites will push a great deal of traffic to your page and boost your rankings; so it’s worth investing time in forging new relationships. Offer to be a guest blogger either giving advice or encourage debate about up to the minute topics in the news. Contact site administrators or editors direct. Approach them in a friendly manner as they are real people too! Most of the time you will find that this will be the start of a great virtual friendship and allow your charity to gain some useful contacts for future projects.
Make the most of your organisation
Link Building is not just for Businesses. Being a charitable organisation, ask people if they are willing to support you simply by putting your logo on their site. This is a great and easy way to drive brand awareness with most being willing to support you. And of course, you will get some links along the way!
Make the content you offer interesting. It’s too easy to send an email saying” we can provide content”. Provide examples and be imaginative. Make the most of blogs and make sure your charity is already actively blogging before you approach other pages.
Keywords are key
Think about the headlines to your guest posts. Using the right anchor text that’s linked to your site matters. Make sure the keywords you use are relevant to your site; this is your chance to speak to the search engines. Of course, don’t spam your headlines with just key words; make sure it is relevant otherwise people won’t be engaged!
Further information
Things to Remember;
- Not all links you secure are equal
- Google does and will rank links. Google needs to ensure they are supplying good sources to users.
- Use link building as a positive way to make new contacts and even new friends
- Offer something new to people when link building
- If you do have the funds look into agencies & PR who will link build for you or give you some help along the way
- Don’t give up; it will pay off!
Take a look at Zabisco with the importance of link building & how SEO can help your content marketing.
Text description of build you own SEO pyramid
The image is of an Egyptian pyramid with different possible linking sites running from hardest to achieve to easier to achieve
- High authority sites e.g. BBC (hardest)
- Key influences
- PR & basic social media partnerships
- niche directories, article sites etc.
- Blogs, forums, profiles and email lists
- General directories and classifieds (easiest)
A Pharaoh graphic says "It's a no-go unless you improve your SEO"
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shaneB wrote on Sep 28, 2011 12:01 PM
Link building is not about search engine optimisation, it’s not about boosting your Google PageRank, it’s not about publishing a link directory and it’s not about swapping links with as many other websites as possible.
A successful link-building strategy should think about both the quantity and quality of incoming links. A back link is most valuable when:
* it comes from a respected site with a high page ranking of its own - especially if it also has relevant content to the search term
* the back link's anchor text (the text which is clicked through to reach the target website) is well worded and relevant to the content of your site
The easiest way to begin a link building strategy is to blog on other websites like yours. You want sites with high Google Page Rank to link to yours and therefore research is crucial. Find an online tool that helps you determine page rank. [url=http://optimizationtutor.com/2008/11/link-building-strategies/]Search Engine Optimization Spokane[/url] can give you some tools which shows the “authority” of the page you are looking at. That way you don’t waste time blogging on the wrong type of websites.