subject: Getting Started With Link Building [print this page] What is link building? What is link building?
When we talk links in the context of the Internet we are talking about a Hyperlink. A Hyperlink points to a whole webpage or to a specific section within a webpage. To use a horribly 90s term someone following hyperlinks is said to surf the web. Link building refers to the practice of getting website to create a hyperlink that links to your site.
Why Build Links?
Whenever a user enters a query into a search engine, the search engine needs to work out how to display or return the best results. One important factor a search engine uses to determine which page to display is authority. One of the biggest factors in deciding a pages authority is the link profile or the number and power of the links. In raw terms if there are two pages that are equally relevant to a given search query, the page with the most links and strongest link profile will rank higher than the other page.
This brings us to why build links. Links do not just manifest themselves. As a site owner, or marketer you have to tell the world about your site and get people to link to it. No link means no relevance, which means you'll never build up your web sites to the point where the traffic meets your targets.
Where to start
Link building can be achieved using a variety of strategies, such as:
Simply asking for a link
Giving away free stuff in exchange for a link
Social media campaigns
Press Releases
Buying links
Begin by starting a campaign designed to build links. Campaigns for link building can be as varied as time and budget will permit, however most link building experts agree that the best place to start is by attempting to get links from authoritative domains, and building links from as many domains as are relevant to your site.
Authoritative domains
A good way to start structuring a link building campaign is to identify the high authority sites in a given space and then determine what it will take to get a link from them. An authority site might be a leading industry body, a trade magazine or even an industry "celebrity". The next step is to narrow down the top authority sites. The difficult part is working out what it will take to get a link created on these sites. Contacting a site directly and asking for a link is one method you could try, creating a Press Release is another way to get some attention.
Building Many Links
Getting high authority links is important however, you also need to get links from a large number of domains. Just like authoritative link building, there are many different strategies one can use to try and get links in volume. Here are two tactics you can try when building links.
Blog and Forum Commenting - Use Google's blog search to find the most recent articles published within your niche then make a genuine comment based on the content of the article, using the Name field for branded anchor text.
Guest Blogging Communities - Guest blogging is a great way to build links within your niche. Instead of offering to do a guest post write a few pages of content for them to demonstrate your skills.
Although link building is a time consuming and difficult process it becomes easier over time. Explore different method and techniques to see what works for you.
