Do you want to get started with link building? Get more out of your efforts with these 8 expert tips.
Before you get started with link building, it is good to take a step back. What do you actually want to achieve? Do you want to boost specific pages? Or do you want more visitors to the homepage? Do you want to generate leads for a campaign in the short term? Do you want better visibility of a specific product or services page? The sharper you can answer the why question, the more targeted you can use link building.
Do you have clear objectives? Then the next step is determining which specific web pages you want to boost. That can be the homepage, a landing page, or a combination of several pages.
Tip 2: Choose meaningful anchor text
It is important that search engines understand what your web pages are about. This way they can offer these in a more targeted way for relevant search queries. You can help search engines with meaningful anchor texts. Anchor texts are the words under which the link is placed. Make sure that these words make it clear what the underlying page is about. This allows search engines to better understand the meaning and content of your web pages. Visitors with a clear anchor text will also not be faced with surprises. Avoid meaningless anchor texts like 'Click here'.
Tip 3: Use link juice calculators
Links geven SEO-waarde door. In vakjargon noemen we dat ook wel ‘link juice’. Niet alle links geven evenveel juice door, en bovendien kunnen jouw webpagina’s ook weer juice ‘weglekken’ door links naar andere pagina’s of websites te geven.
How do you ensure that the right pages take maximum advantage of all the incoming link juice? There are special tools for this. These provide insight into how much SEO value flows in and out of a page. If you are serious about link building, these tools can make an important difference.
Tip 4: Don't forget internal link building
Link building is primarily about gathering backlinks. But there is another element that marketers regularly overlook: the link structure of their own website. Those links also contribute to better SEO.
That has two reasons. Search engines see web pages with many references from their own site as more important. In addition, the search engine bots are more likely to visit the page regularly. This is especially important for pages that receive regular updates.
Is it a matter of giving the important pages many links? Unfortunately it is not that simple. Internal link building is a complicated discipline. The reason is the link juice mentioned in the tip above. Careless sprinkling of links will cause the page providing the link to drop in SEO value.
You can, however, strategically distribute the link juice across your site via internal links. Do you have loads of valuable backlinks to your homepage? Then you can let the juice saved there flow through backlinks to underlying pages.
Tip 5: Make use of domain authority
Not every backlink is equally valuable. An important indicator is the authority of a website. Search engines no longer provide universal dimensions for this. However, various SEO tools have developed their own authority score. One of them has a lot of authority in the market: Domain Authority (DA) from Moz.com. This score ranges from 1 to 100, with the top rated websites closest to 100.
The DA of a website gives a good indication of the extent to which search engines label them as valuable and leading. Links from websites with a high DA score are generally more valuable than links from low-ranking sites. You can check the DA of a website for free via the website of Moz.
Tip 6: Provide a natural backlink profile
With the above tip in mind, you may be tempted to only hunt for links from the highest ranking websites. However, that is not necessarily wise. Search engines look at all backlinks and then take stock: how credible is this backlink profile?
Do you only have links from the highest scoring sites? This may indicate deliberate manipulation and purchased links. A natural-looking 'link profile' is therefore important. That makes your website more credible. That is why a mix of links from good and less well-scoring websites is valuable.
It is also important that the websites that link to you are relevant to your business. As a supplier of workplaces in the cloud, do you receive a link from a well-known zoo? Then that link may be valuable in terms of domain authority, but it won't do much for your website.
Tip 7: Provide up-to-date links
It should be clear: search engines do not all weigh links equally. In addition to domain authority, the topicality of a link is also important. In short: the more current the link, the more valuable for SEO. Link building is therefore not a one-off exercise, but a discipline that you have to keep up with.
Valuable links from the past provide a good SEO basis, but make sure that you also continue to score current links. A good mix is also important here. Search engines see this as a sign of a naturally acquired backlink profile, and also as an indication that your website or webpage is still relevant today.
Tip 8: Be wary of spam links
Not all backlinks contribute to the success of your webpage or site. Some backlinks are actually harmful to SEO. These are links from domains known to search engines as “spammy.” For example, think of link farms. These are often websites created solely for SEO manipulation. Search engines know how to recognize these links flawlessly.
You can detect spam links with SEO tools such as Majestic or Moz. These solutions can provide a complete overview of all backlinks, including 'spam score'. You can easily recognize spam links because these tools mark them as such.
Do you suffer from spam links? Always contact the site administrator to request that the links be removed. Doesn't work? Then you can use the free SEO tool Google Search Console request to ignore these links. You do this via a 'disavow' request. Always provide full domains here, not individual links. This way you know for sure that all links coming from that site get a disavow.
Do you want to know more about link building? Need help with your link building activities, or maybe even outsource them altogether? Please feel free to contact us for more information.
Raymond Luijbregts is een ervaren SEO- en contentspecialist met een achtergrond in journalistiek en digitale media. Hij is oud-hoofdredacteur van diverse technologie- en businessmagazines.
