Link building for SEO: The Ultimate Guide for 2024

What is Link-building?

If you have ever encountered digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or website management, you’ve probably heard about Link Building. But what is Link Building exactly? It is the process of building links, obviously. 

Easily explained, as a field of digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO), link building is a process where you try to get links referring to your website from other websites. 

As a result, link building is intertwined with communication, playing a significant role in establishing connections and relationships between different websites and online entities.

The backlinks, otherwise hyperlinks, are crucial for increasing a website's visibility online and search engine rankings. 

Why are Links Important?

Maybe you have heard that backlinks are considered the company’s votes of confidence. If one website gives the other a backlink, it means that it deems that website a valuable and trustworthy one. For instance, when a reputable website links to another site, it signals to search engines that the linked website holds value and can be trusted. 

Accumulating high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources elevates a website's overall authority and credibility in its respective industry or niche.

Backlinks are essential for search engines as they influence a website's visibility, authority, and ranking in search results. These links represent one of the foundational elements that search engines like Google utilize to evaluate a website's relevance and credibility. Here's why they are so crucial:

• Search Engine Rankings: Backlinks form a critical part of search engine algorithms. Websites boasting a diverse and robust backlink profile are more likely to secure higher rankings in search results for relevant keywords and topics. Consequently, backlinks influence a website's organic visibility, attracting more potential visitors.

• Relevance and Content Quality: The context in which backlinks are embedded holds significant importance. When a website receives backlinks from related and relevant sources, it signals to search engines that the content is valuable and aligns with users' interests. This relevancy factor further enhances the website's chances of ranking well for specific keywords.

• Discoverability and Indexing: Backlinks are pathways for search engine crawlers to discover fresh content and web pages. When a website obtains backlinks from various sources, it increases the likelihood of those pages being indexed by search engines, qualifying them to appear in search results.

• Competitive Advantage: In competitive industries, having a strong backlink profile can make a website stand out. Websites with a more significant number of high-quality backlinks are perceived as more authoritative, translating to increased market share and online visibility.

• Referral Traffic: Backlinks strengthen search engine rankings and drive referral traffic. When users click on a backlink from one website and land on another, it can lead to a steady flow of targeted visitors. If the content on the linked website proves engaging and valuable, this traffic can convert into leads, customers, or subscribers.

• Long-term SEO Impact: Amidst the ever-evolving landscape of search engine algorithms, backlinks have consistently remained an essential ranking factor. Securing quality backlinks represents an investment in a website's long-term SEO strategy as they deliver value over time, contributing to sustained search engine success.

As you already know, what is link building, and why is it so important, let’s understand what kind of links there are in the context of SEO. 

What are the Types of links?

There are several HTML Hyperlinks that are extremely important as well. But in the context of SEO, there are:

• Backlinks
• Internal Links
• External Links

As we have discussed, what are backlinks and their importance? Let’s understand the other two types. 

Imagine reading a book and finding a word you want to know more about. You ask your teacher or a friend who tells you to look at another book to get more information about that word. That's like an external link on a website! It takes you to a different book or website to learn more.

Now, let's talk about internal links. Have you ever seen a table of contents in a book? It shows you all the different chapters or sections in the book, right? You can turn to that page to read more about a word or topic in a branch with a number next to it. That's like an internal link on a website! 

So, external links are otherwise called outbound links, and they point from one website to another. And internal links, also known as inbound links, lead from one page of a website to another inside the same website. 

What is Domain Rating or Authority? 

There are two significant Link Building metrics that every link builder or SEO specialist must know:

• Domain Rating
• Domain Authority

Technically, DA and DR show the domain worth of a website. Domain Authority (DA) is a measure created by the Moz tool, which helps with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It gives you an idea of how well your website might rank in search engines.

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Domain Rating (DR) is a measurement developed by the SEO tool Ahrefs. It helps determine how strong a website's backlink profile is, considering both the quantity and quality of its links.

Consequently, you can use Moz and Ahrefs link building tools to measure each statistic correctly. 

What are the Anchor Texts, and What Kinds of Anchors are there? 

You have probably seen blue, bold, or underlined texts or phrases while visiting a website. When you click on that text, it will bring you to another website. 

That’s what the anchor text is, in short. Anchor text should have one or more clickable words to link two internet locations. 

There are different anchor texts, but we will discuss the main types. So, let’s understand each of these types with proper examples. 

• Generic anchors: You can often see the call-to-action (CTA) texts in a website's content. For instance, check this out, give this a try, click here, here, and so on. These anchors are called generic. The disadvantage of this type of anchor is the need for more context. It is mainly advised to utilize more descriptive and keyword-rich anchor texts that give the linked material obvious context for improved SEO and user experience.

• Naked text anchors: Also known as URL-based anchors, this type of anchor text looks like this: https://www.example.com/page. These anchors are clear and direct but lack content as well. Overusing naked URL anchors can harm SEO, just like overusing generic anchors. 

• Branded anchors: These anchors include the company or brand name instead of keywords. For instance, IBM company can be an excellent anchor text if you want to improve online visibility. Indeed, they have a few disadvantages, but branded anchors are preferable from the SEO perspective in contrast to the previous two anchor types. 

• Exact match anchors: Exact match anchors match the linked page's primary keyword or phrase. Simply said, the words used in the anchor text are the same as the specific keyword the linked page is focused on. 

For instance, if the target page is about "healthy recipes," an exact match anchor would be healthy recipes. They inform search engines of the linked page's relevancy to a specific keyword. For the positive SEO effect, exact match keywords should be used naturally. 

• Partial match anchors: What’s the difference between exact match anchors and partial match anchors? We had the healthy recipes anchor, if we add the word delicious to this anchor, we will get the partial match anchor delicious and healthy recipe. So, your partial match anchor text should include only a part of the linked page's target keyword or key phrase. These anchors make the anchor text natural and relevant. 

• Image-based: If you have an image that can encourage clicks and is highly relevant, you can freely use image-based keywords. This way, your image will become the clickable text instead of the text. 

• Long-Tail: Anchor texts that have three or more words and are more specific, known as long-tail keywords. They can lower the search volume despite being more precise and less competitive. So, if we turn our healthy recipes keyword into a long-tail anchor, it can look like healthy vegan recipes for weight loss. 

Note that the type of anchor text should be chosen depending on your specific SEO strategy, website niche, and the primary purpose of the link insertion. 

Google wants to see everything natural!!! Do not remember to keep your anchors natural and do not create only exact-match backlinks. You can choose different types of anchors to keep everything natural.

Small advice: You can ask webmasters to choose the anchors on their own as they know their content better and they will fit your link naturally.

What is the Importance Link Position?

After learning the importance of anchor texts, let’s understand where we can put them. Is the position of the link important or not? The answer is YES! It is essential from the perspective of both SEO and UX. 

• Important links should be placed at the beginning or near the beginning of the content. This way, users are likely to see them more.
• Taking into account the fact that a lot of people use their phones and tablets to access the internet, you should insert links within the mobile-friendly design of the website.
• Links should not be inserted in pop-ups because many users find them intrusive. 
• Avoid placing your links in illegible or unreadable texts.
• Refrain from placing links in the first words of a paragraph or any heading to avoid confusion. 

What About the Relevancy of the Website?

To conduct natural link-building, consider the website's relevancy. Relevancy is a term that describes how closely a website's content, target audience, or subject of study relates to your website or the page you wish to promote.

This is one of the top things that you need to consider while creating backlinks! Relevant websites will bring much more juice to your website.

In simple terms, the importance of having a relevant website in link building is connected with several factors below:

• Search engines, like Google, consider relevancy a crucial factor when determining the worth of a backlink. Backlinks from relevant websites carry more weight and are seen as more valuable than those from unrelated or low-quality sites. Getting backlinks from relevant sources can positively affect your search engine rankings, boosting your website's visibility and organic traffic.

• Building links on relevant websites means that the audience of those sites is more likely to be interested in your content or products. When you receive traffic from relevant sources, you increase the chances of attracting users who are genuinely interested in what you offer. This targeted traffic will likely engage with your content, resulting in better user metrics and higher conversion rates.

• Search engines use various signals to understand the content of your website and how it relates to other sites. Linking to and receiving links from relevant websites strengthens these signals and helps search engines better categorize and understand your content. As a result, your website may appear more prominently in search results for relevant queries.

• Relevancy is a crucial aspect of natural link building. Websites link naturally to content that complements or adds value to their content. Creating high-quality, relevant content increases the likelihood of attracting organic backlinks without actively seeking them.

• When you want to build links with other websites, relevance plays a vital role. Websites are more likely to accept your link request if your content aligns with their audience and fits naturally within their existing content.

Do You Have to Create Your Link-Building Strategy?

Any website or online company that wants to succeed in search engines must use a link building strategy. 

A website's search engine rankings can be significantly enhanced by gaining high-quality backlinks from reliable and pertinent sources, improving the rankings and increasing organic traffic. In addition to improving SEO, link building helps a website develop its authority and credibility in its sector. A solid link-building strategy also enables companies to diversify their traffic sources, lowering reliance on one basis and reducing risks. Networking opportunities and potential partnerships are further improved by developing meaningful relationships with other website owners and influential individuals. A carefully considered link development strategy is crucial for enhancing online presence, staying competitive, and driving sustainable growth in the digital landscape.

So, what kind of successful strategies are there?

• Content contributions and guest articles
• Skyscraper technique
• Broken link building
• Listicles
• HARO

The thing is, “ranking higher” is all relative. You might be a new site or SEO beginner looking to rank higher than page sixth for your blog post, or you might be looking to move from the sixth spot on page one to the number one spot.