Video – What Are Some Good, Organic Link Building Strategies?

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Hey everyone, it’s Jason Hennessey from Atlanta SEO agency EverSpark Interactive. Today, I’m going to talk a little bit about link building. Link building is what we call an off-page factor, which means it is something that helps your search engine ranking but doesn’t actually live on your site. If you think about it, the reason the search engines- especially Google – would value incoming links from other sites makes sense. If other sites link to yours, it indicates that they view you as an informational source, or an authority.

Being considered an authority on the web is even more important now, in light of the Panda update, than it ever was because Google wants to ensure your site is useful, valuable and most of all, high-quality. Though link-building is no longer the end-all be-all of SEO, since content has gained importance, it is still an important way to establish your website as an authority. If you are an authority in your niche, chances are you fulfill these requirements for Google as well (otherwise others wouldn’t look to you for information). So, with the importance of link building in mind, what are some good, organic link building strategies?

First, let’s talk specifics here for a minute. White hat SEO link-building tactics, which are those that help you naturally and organically climb the SERPs, include legitimate ways to achieve links. Engaging in less than white hat SEO – like mass blog commenting – can possibly get you banned and will not be good for your SEO strategy. That’s an important thing to keep in mind. We all remember what happened to JC Penney during the holiday season last year: the store’s rankings were docked (they dropped from position 1 to position 71 for many terms) in the Google SERPs for Black Hat paid linking tactics. Why were their rankings deliberately plummeted by Google? Because thousands of web sites that had nothing to do with J.C. Penney’s keywords were found to be linking to the company’s website. The SEO company representing J.C. Penney was paying for a massive amount of links in order to get the company high rankings for nearly every keyword related to the business. Paying for links that appear to be organic is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Also, you should keep in mind that all links are not equal. The best links – and the most effective ones- are those that include the keywords for which you want your site to rank. So, say, for instance, you are a florist, and you want to rank for the keyword “Atlanta florist.” The best thing you can do is blog about flowers, linking back to the page you want to rank, hyperlinking that particular keyword.

Three Strategies for good, organic link building include blogging (and guest blogging), utilizing directories and submitting articles. If you set up a WordPress blog and add content often, you can feed the Google Spiders what they want as well as build trust with your customers. This will also help you build links almost effortlessly, as long as you include keywords in your blog posts and link them back to the specific pages you want to rank. Additionally, guest blogging and linking back to your site in a similar way will also contribute to your link building efforts because your content will send people back to your site. In a similar way, directories can also be useful when it comes to link building; If you can find the directories in your niche that have the highest Page Ranks and become a part of them, you can garner some great one-way links (which Google values).What’s another thing Google values? Content – from written text to informative videos. Another form of content that will help your site climb the SERPs is article submission. Links included in articles that are submitted to directories (like ezine) are extremely valuable; if you can build an account with article directories and syndicate original and well-written pieces through them often, you will likely drive a great deal of traffic to your site.

One of the most important things to remember is that link building takes time. You may not see results right away, but that does not mean that your efforts are not creating positive results for your website’s rankings. If you have any questions about improving your site’s link-building strategy, our Atlanta SEO agency we’re here to help. Visit our website or call us at (800)429-0558. For further information about search engines, SEO or anything going on in the search marketing world, visit our daily blog for updates and news. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time!