The consistent changes in Google’s ranking over the years have brought countless challenges for SEO professionals and businesses alike. Among these is the fact that getting results from link building has become tougher than ever. Moreover, the concept of building links for the sole objective of achieving a high ranking in the SERPs is no longer valid. In this scenario, you may no longer be able to achieve the desired results by following the strategy that you have always followed.
Therefore, it becomes essential to see link building with a new perspective and re-evaluate your strategy to establish one that aligns with the changing algorithms. There have always been certain rules and best practices for the successful link building process. Besides sticking to these guidelines, you need to re-strategize your plan in 2019 to get quicker, better and sustainable results. Here are some tips that can help.
Create content that is link-worthy
You may already be using blogs, articles, videos, and social media posts to build backlinks for your site. But are you creating them just for the sake of it? Unless you are leveraging link-worthy content that generates value to the users, the links may not yield the results that you are looking for. Instead of creating content to just maintain a schedule, focus on catering valuable information that the users may want to share. This will make your post shareable and make its link an attractive proposition for Google.
Do more guest posting
If you have not been doing guest posts, 2019 is the time to kick-start this strategy. It is perhaps that most effective way to gather quality and value-adding backlinks for your website. Additionally, guest posts are always meant to be top-notch content, which has the potential of connecting with the audience and building your brand’s credibility as well. Guest posting sites are a window to the business niche and give you the opportunity to extend your outreach and cover the targeted audience. So understand that guest posting is more than giving free content but rather is a means to strengthening your brand’s authority online.
Evaluate your existing link building strategy
If you have been following a specific strategy till now, step back and re-evaluate it to identify the areas where you can improve. Anchor text diversity is a key area that you need to consider. In the article How To Build Backlinks – An SEO Link Strategy From 37,942 , Adam White explains that when building backlinks, there are twelve main types of anchor texts used. The ones Google trusts the most are natural phrases, such as a brand name or a full URL to a homepage.
Build links using credible facts and stats
Conventionally, informative blog posts are used for the purpose of link building and they do have good potential as well. But you need to think beyond conventional in 2019 to make your strategy more targeted. Build links by including credible facts and statistics in the content and linking them back with case studies and research papers. You can also use reviews for backlinking because these signify the trust that real customers have in your business. Beyond the trust factor, these links can fetch you more mentions online and push you up on the rankings.
Leverage infographics to earn backlinks
The average attention span of the audience is getting shorter and they do not prefer to read through lengthy content. At the same time, shorter posts are not capable of delivering complete and relevant information to them. The best way is to opt for infographics because they render a perfect mix of visual and textual information that is valuable and appealing for the user. Start building links using infographics because they are loved by the audience and search engines alike. This will bring innovation into your strategy and probably get you better results.
Reclaim your backlinks
With the fresh year, it is time to look back at your link profile, identify the broken links and reclaim them once again. Several of the existing backlinks may return a 404 error due to change in page location, misspelled links or other reasons. When this happens, you need to redirect them to another page to reclaim them. Use a reliable link research tool to detect such links that are linking to non-existent pages. Work on recovering them and adding them back to your profile.
Check out your competitors
While it is crucial to restructure your link building tactics in 2019, you cannot ignore the competition at any cost. Evaluate their links and get hold of the strategy that they are using. Check out the guest posting sites they are using to build quality links with authoritative sources. Understand what makes them stand apart and rank higher for the keywords that you want to rank high for. Trace the gaps between their strategies and yours and try to remodel your plan by reverse engineering their strategy.
Invest efforts in Link Roundup
Link roundup refers to being able to secure a place amongst the best content in your niche. This usually happens on a weekly (sometimes daily or monthly) basis. If you are able to get your link in the niche roundup, you will be able to fetch referral traffic and boost your site’s rankings as well. Build contacts in the industry to look for such opportunities and produce quality content that you can pitch for being included in the roundups. This strategy may take some effort and time but the results that it can bring are amazing.
Link building has always been an integral part of a successful SEO strategy and will continue to be there in the future too. However, with Google becoming smarter than ever, businesses will need to focus more on quality and diversity rather than only numbers. It is best to have a team of forward-thinking professionals who have the right skills and experience to align the existing strategy with an innovative approach. Agility also matters because you cannot wait for competitors to sharpen their tactics and more far ahead in the race. Hence, it would be best to embrace these tips to strengthen your link profile and fortify your brand’s presence in 2019.
Add Comment