Link building is one of a number of SEO disciplines that has become highly specialized in recent years. So much so that a website owner can now hire a link building agency that does nothing else. The existence of such highly specialized agencies is sufficient proof that link building is not dead.
Solid link building strategies are by no means random or loosely applied. To win the link building game, an agency has to do things a certain way. An agency has to know and fully appreciate the three pillars on which solid link building rests.
Pillar #1: Traditional SEO
Link building has always been primarily about improving search engine performance. SEO companies like Salt Lake City’s Webtek Digital Marketing relied heavily on link building to drive better page rankings. They still do to some degree.
Although Webtek is not exclusively a link building agency, they still put a great deal of effort into generating high quality links for clients. Why? Because Google and its competitors still rely on internal and external links to determine relevance and quality.
In moving on to the next point, it must be made clear that the SEO aspect of link building is not superior to the other two. Remember, we are working on the pillar concept here. All three pillars are equally important. Obsessing over SEO exclusively will not get the job done for a link building agency.
Pillar #2: Building Relationships
The best thing that could happen to a company in terms of link building is having other websites link to their content without being asked. In the early stages of a link building campaign, this is not likely to happen. Thus, link builders have to reach out to others in the industry to facilitate link sharing opportunities.
Building links in this way accomplishes two particularly good things. First, it allows organizations within the same general niche to benefit from cooperating with one another. It allows organizations to build relationships that can lead to good results for everyone involved.
Second, building solid relationships increases the likelihood that those other organizations will reach out to your company when they need assistance. The stronger the relationship, the more likely those companies will create links to your content on their own sites, without being asked.
Pillar #3: Establishing Authority
Finally, solid link building strategies are designed to establish an organization’s authority online. Authority takes time to develop, but it proves invaluable over the long run. An organization with genuine authority achieves better page rankings. It generates inbound links without having to go out and get them.
How is this sort of thing achieved? By combining link building strategies with high quality content. It turns out that the content aspect of the equation is what so many link builders ignore.
Google introduced a new way of analyzing links with its 2012 Penguin update. In order to combat link building abuse, the Penguin update included various ways Google’s algorithms could analyze the quality and relevance of a page’s content. Google has only become better at this task in the years since.
If they care so much about quality content, link building agencies should as well. There is no point in building links to content that Google doesn’t like. The same goes for content that end-users do not care for.
Link building used to be a pretty basic exercise that just about any SEO provider could handle. That is no longer the case. Specialized link building agencies exist because the practice has become highly specialized. What is the lesson here? That it is worth hiring an expert to handle your link building.
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