Why Is Link Building Important for SEO?
Successful SEO consists of different elements, each of which plays a role in where your site ends up in the rankings. Many people focus on the importance of keywords and content optimization, but the importance of creating strong links should not be overlooked, either.
Creating and maintaining strong links are important for a number of reasons: they connect you to other businesses, they help increase your results on SERPs, and they help people find you more easily. Let’s take a look at what you can do to ensure your site links are optimized and of the right number and quality for your site.
What are the elements of strong links?
As mentioned above, site links are important for a number of reasons. There are several things you should keep in mind when creating links from your site to others. Remember that the quality of places you link to also plays a role in the way people will perceive your site, so it pays to do your research on who you link to in advance.
In building your site, there are two major categories of links that you should pay attention to: your own site links and the backlinks that lead from other sites to yours. We will take a look at each of these categories separately and consider the relative importance of each of them. If you need help, the Mellow Promo can assist you in optimizing your links and providing analysis of what you need to do in the future to keep your site in optimal condition.
Site links to other sites
As mentioned above, the first thing you should think about in building your site is the links that you create which lead to other sites. There are several factors to keep in mind when you create site links:
- Links that you create should be relevant to both your site in general, as well as the specific page that you put them on. It won’t help to have big corporations listed on your site if their business isn’t related to yours.
- The links that you create should be to sites that themselves have high ratings, and also ones that are also applicable to your target audience in terms of demographic, income, etc.
- Your links should be up-to-date and fully functional. Be sure to check them on a regular basis, because you never know when someone might have gone out of business or a link might have become corrupted. If you do come across links that no longer work, you will need to either remove them, or replace them with links to other businesses whose sites are fully functional.
Backlink creation and maintenance
Just as important as the links that you create to other sites are the ones that you receive from other sites leading to yours. These links not only play a role in your SEO ranking, but they lend you credibility in the eyes of the public. If you have strong backlinks, people will be led to your site when they need products or services similar to yours. In addition, having other people create these links demonstrates that they want to be connected to you. They serve as an endorsement of your efforts by other sites.
Things to keep in mind with regard to backlinks include the following:
- There are good and bad backlinks. You want the backlinks that you get to be ones that come from high-quality, respected sites, and sites that have relevant themes to yours. It is important that you stay on top of your backlinks frequently so as to ensure that you haven’t received any from undesirable places. You can check this via Google Analytics, or seeking help from a professional group.
- You can ask for backlinks from groups or companies that you want to be connected to either by contacting them directly, or by offering a product or service in exchange. This might not work every time, but it never hurts to try.
- If you do find low quality backlinks in your analysis, there are different ways that you can deal with them. There is a mechanism by which you can “disavow” the links so as to demonstrate that you do not reciprocate the desire to be connected to certain sites. You can also ask the group(s) in question to remove them.
Check your site analytics regularly
It is a good idea to keep on top of your site links, backlinks, and the other aspects of your site that play a role in SEO on a regular basis. Many of the factors that go into site rankings change frequently, so you want to be sure that your site is always in good shape and fares well on SERPs. If you need help, seek the assistance of a professional company in your efforts.
