Link building is a search engine optimisation (SEO) technique that increases your search engine ranking. This SEO technique involves the acquisition of hyperlinks from other websites to your own. Implementing a hyperlink enhances users’ ability to navigate between web pages on the internet as well as assisting search engine such as Google to crawl through a website. This crawl process allows search engines to copy its URL to an index which plays a role in a websites ability to rank higher in the search results page.
Anatomy of a link
HTML CODE
<a href= “www.ignitesearch.com.au” title= ”SEO” </a>
There are 4 elements to a hyperlink’s HTML code.
- Opening link tag: This is the “a” section in the HTML code. It is a signal that indicate search engines that there is a link is presents on the web page.
- Link referral location: This is the “href” section in the HTML code and stands for hyperlink referral. This is followed by the URL to which the link is pointing to in quotation marks.
- Anchor text: This is typically the text displayed on the web page users see, and on which users will need to click if they want to open the link. The anchor text is usually formatted in a way that distinguishes itself from the surround text.
- Closing tag: This is the final section of the HTML code. This signal indicates search engine the end of the link tag.
Why is link building important?
Links are an important factor in how search engines determines which site rank for which keywords. There are two fundamental ways that search engines use links.
- To discover new pages: Search engines use links to crawl through pages on the web. In that process, they extract content and add it to their indexes.
- To help determine how well a page should rank in their results: Once search engines have completed their crawl and all relevant pages are indexed, they connect these web pages and assign relative values to them. These values can be positive or negative and determines where in the results the page will appear
The more high-quality websites that link to a web page, the more likely it will rank well in search results.
PageRank
PageRank is a search engine algorithm by Google that ranks sites based the number of links pointing to a specific web page. In simple terms, PageRank is a popularity contest. The more links that pointing to a web page the more useful it will seem. This process is done by using the link equity model, by which a link between websites will pass a PageRank point or colloquially know as link juice. Link juice refers to the value passed from one page to another in forms of hyperlinks. Google classify this as a vote by other websites and deems it valuable and ultimate determines your position in the search results page.
Links are very important signal that search engine use to determine rankings. For a business, link building can increase online traffic to a website and enhance brand awareness. For more information on building quality links read our blog on white hat links.
Here are a few examples of how to build links:
Directories
Online directories such as Yelp help make up a valuable link profile. These directories link web users to relevant businesses based on their search terms and link businesses to potential customers. They are low cost, effective and easy to set up.
Blog posts
Guest posting provide websites the opportunity to display relevant content to a target audience. It is critical to get your content published on the right sites. This link building strategy should focus on developing valuable content that will link back to your website’s products or services. The benefits of this link building strategy can significantly increase traffic, brand exposures and build relationships with key industry influencers.
Partnership links
Links from complementary businesses within your industry with similar target audience can be mutually beneficial for you and your partner. This form of link building strategy can be applicable to suppliers, stakeholders and many more. Partnership links can effectively increase the relevance of your website and boost organic traffic. For example, Google sends a partnership badge with their AdWords certification program.
Ahref.com
There are several tools available to identify how many links are on a website. Ahrefs.com is a well-known tool set for backlinks and SEO analysis. Ahrefs.com’s Backlink Report can provide users a complete backlink profile for any website. This report can enhance your link building strategies by identifying and replicating your competitor’s backlinks.
To access your competitor’s backlink profile:
Go to ahref’s site explorer
- Go to ahref’s site explorer
- Paste your competitor’s domain or URL
- Go to the Backlinks Report on the left-hand menu.
By doing so you will see backlinks pointing to your competitor’s website, plus other data including referring page, anchor text, traffic and first seen.
As we’ve discussed, links are a very important signal that search engine such as Google use to determine rankings. By increasing the number of high-quality links pointing to your website can significantly increase your chances of ranking well. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure you develop a sound link building strategy that is relevant to your business.
