Tactical Link Building Strategies For 2019

A solid link-building strategy is a must for marketing and growing your business.

The practical benefits are clear: more links mean more people are seeing your website (whether that’s your home page or a specific landing page). More eyeballs on your site mean more leads, and more leads means more conversions, and more conversions mean more revenue (at least that’s the plan). This is true whether you have an eCommerce website, run a service-based small business, or are a marketing VP in a mid- to enterprise-level B2B.

Link Building

What is link building?

Quickly, for those not in the know, links are the connections made when someone hyperlinks from their website back to your website. This could be a citation in a newspaper or blog post; inclusion in a list of resources, and so forth. It’s a sign that someone thinks your content is good; it is, in essence, a recommendation.

Links have historically been an important way that Bing, Google and the other search engines understand what your content is about, and validate your website. “Links are the single most important ranking factor for Google,” said Scott Henderson, president of Search Commander, Inc., an internet marketing consultancy.

It used to be the more links you had, the better your search engine results. As a result, more than a few businesses (“link farms”) have sprung up over the years offering to sell hundreds and thousands of links to your site. That isn’t the case anymore, Henderson said, as Google and the other search engines have taken steps to thwart those that try to game the system.

Today, linking factors evaluated and weighed in Google’s algorithm include the number of links to your site, the quality of those links (including the authority of the site linking to you) and the anchor text used in creating those links (the highlighted text that you use to hyperlink to an internal or external webpage).

How do I build links for my business?

When asked by clients for the best way to build links, Henderson answers, “Did you cure cancer? If you cure cancer, everyone will link to you.”

Hidden in the sarcasm is the reality that great, targeted content will earn you the links you need and want.

“Definitely, the term ‘link building’ stirs up the wrong connotation with a lot of folks,” said Kevin Getch, founder and director of digital strategy for Webfor, a creative and digital marketing agency. “They should really think of it as good marketing.”

He said building links takes both time and a strategy.