Google stated that there are three top factors that go into their search ranking algorithm: RankBrain, their artificial intelligence system, content and links. They also then clarified that the top two factors were content and links. Not trying to put words in Google’s mouth, but I would venture to say that links are the most important and powerful part of SEO.
Links are how search engines determine what a site is, how relevant the site is, how pages are related, etc. They show search engines how to rank your page, so you want to make sure that you have a strong link building strategy as part of your SEO plan. Links are one of your most powerful assets, and they take time and dedication. Below are four tips to help you acquire higher quality backlinks for your site.
Sources of Higher Quality Backlinks
Trustworthy Sites
Not all links are created equal. Some sites provide better SEO juice than others. Think about it this way. Lets say that you are up for a promotion at work. You would rather have your manager or direct supervisor tell your boss how good of an employee you are instead of the intern who has been there two days. Why? Because a manager or supervisor has more authority than the intern. That’s not to say that the intern is useless or unwanted. It’s just their opinion is probably going to hold less weight in the eyes of your boss.
Same goes for SEO. A link from a site that has been deemed authoritative on its topic, like the Wall Street Journal, is going to give you better results than a link from a newspaper source that has been around for two months. These high-quality sites are more trust worthy to search engines and will give you more of an increase in the SERPs. Reach out to newspaper sites, education sites, .gov sites and .org sites to see if they would take your content, which will give you a backlink.
Guest Posting
Guest posting or guest blogging is when you offer to write content for another site in order to get yourself in front of their audience and then get a link back to your site. Guest posting is perhaps the best way to generate high-quality, lasting inbound links. You get more control over the links and URLs and over the content in general. However, this takes a little more effort than some other techniques.
Make sure you find well-known and trusted blogs to send your content to. Write a relevant, and quality piece of content and send it to these publishing sites. If it works for their audience, they will post it and you get your name in front of people you never otherwise would have and you get a backlink pointed at your own site. Also, guest posting helps you to build relationships with other sites and their readers.
Competitor’s Links
One great way to increase your link building strategy is to analyze your competitor’s links. This will give you ideas of sources that you should be using for links for your own site. You can use Monitor Backlinks to examine their links.
After seeing what links your competitors have, make a list of those sites and try to get links from those sites or similar ones. Maybe take a piece of content they have on another site and rewrite it to make it better, and then send it out and try to get a link back.
Social Media
Even though many social media sites use no follow tags, I still believe that social media can definitely help you acquire better links for your overall strategy. Social media links might not increase your placement in the SERPs, but they are still links that are pointed to you that search engines can crawl, and as search engines continue to get better about using social sites to rank websites, it is something you want to use to your advantage.
However, one piece of advice. Make sure that you use the links on your social profile wisely. You want to send your viewers back to your website. That’s the end game.
Conclusion
Links are one of the top three factors that Google considers when deciding ranking, therefore, it is imperative that you have quality backlinks pointing to your site. If you work hard on your links, you should see real improvement to your rankings and your overall SEO.
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This article, “How to Acquire Higher Quality Backlinks” was first published on Small Business Trends