Okay, it looks like you’ve been allocated the task to perform some SEO by the boss, “want to increase the company’s organic traffic” he’s stated, and now you’re thinking to yourself: “Easy, all I need is to launch a Facebook Ad campaign, create some viral content and it’ll all be sorted.” Right? Well, that may yield results in the short-term, but the results are not sustainable over the long-term. If you’re looking to establish reliable authority within your industry and build some rankings on Google for the long haul, you would likely be very interested in link building. Link building when done correctly is probably the easiest and simplest form of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that can help increase your organic traffic, through improved rank on a Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP) such as Google. So if you’re thinking “this sounds great, where do I get started so I can start impressing the boss, and probably get that promotion & pay raise you asked for!” read on.
What is Link Building?
In a nutshell, link building is the process of getting backlinks from another site to your website through a blog with a hyperlink that directs to your business website. To put it into perspective, think about someone talking about your product, of course they say any publicity is better than now publicity but we of course also strive for positive content. The more people you have talking about your product, the more likely your website is going to rank higher up on Google’s ranking pages, as it is deemed highly informative & relevant by Google’s algorithm’s, in this case the larticle you’ve written and submitted as the individual that is talking about the product. The more posts you get, the more relevant you are because Google’s algorithm will assume your product is more relevant than your competitors. Here are the basic steps to follow when building links.
Step 1: Finding websites that accept links.
To find websites that accept links, you can use this simple operator sheet to get you started:
Insert the keyword that is relevant to your website followed by the operator command in the quotation marks in your search engine task bar. For example, if the job was to do link building for SYNQ Digital and the target keyword was Social Media Advertising, I would insert ‘Social Media Advertising “Write For Us”’ into Google. What you’ll get is a list of websites, and from these you’ll have to enquire to see if they accept articles. Keep in mind that you will have to find websites that are relevant to your niche or you will risk getting a penalty from Google. For instance, a website about Tech would be relevant to Social Media Advertising but a fashion blog would not, so pick your websites carefully or risk having a negative effect with your SEO campaign.
Step 2: Outreach
Once you are happy with the list of websites you’ve compiled, it’s time to do outreach. If you are successful and receive a reply to your initial outreach contact email the outreach email. It is important that you present as engaged in contributing quality content to their website, and not just for link building purposes. Write an email that would capture the interest of the recipient by telling them what you can offer to their website, rather than just a generic email. It is also very important that you ask for a “do-follow” link, as these links are responsible for allowing Google’s to crawl their website to yours. Below is an example of a basic outreach template:
“Hey [name],
Hope you’re well. I’m enquiring on behalf of [insert company name], and I would love to contribute an article for your website. I took a look at your website and I feel like I could further contribute to it from my expertise in [insert niche]. I was really hoping we could work together, and I have a few great topics in mind that could benefit your audience, all I ask for in return is a “do-follow” link back to my website.
Best Regards,
[Name]”
Step 3: Writing the article
Once the website has responded saying that they’re interested, it’s time to write the article. Make sure that you follow all the guidelines and specific requirement for each website such as word count, writing style and number of links allowed. Make sure the written article is intended to educate and benefit the websites readers, as some website administrators will not accept the article if it is written solely for obtaining a backlink, furthermore these are usual the websites who are hosting domains that are established with a high Domain Authority, making a backlink from them far more valuable than from a website that does not value quality content. If you’re not a confident writer, or are perhaps time poor you can always reach out to our team here at SYNQ Digital to write the article for you. One handy additional hint is to always be sure to include keywords that can be used as a hyperlink that can be linked back to your website. Once the article is ready, send it back to the website. Depending on the website it may take them time to review your article, so don’t expect a reply in 24 hours.
Step 4. Going Live
Once the article has been reviewed & published, go to the website and make sure that everything is correct, as we are all human and the website administrator(s) may make one or two errors while uploading your article. If you’re happy with everything, congratulations! You’ve got yourself your first live link! Now go forth and repeat this process and start growing a portfolio of quality backlinks and watch your organic rankings improve via Google Analytics.
This has been another insight from the team here at SYNQ Digital
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