Understanding SEO: A Beginner's Guide to Link Building

Search Engine Optimization is not just about strategic practices within the coding of your Web page, it’s about how your page interacts with other Web pages on the Internet. The two most important ranking factors for Google are links and content. Therefore, you could say that your Web page is only as good as the sites that link to it.

Link building is the practice of boosting credibility and trust by linking within your site internally and to other sites externally. There are many shady practices that revolve around link building, which is why many website owners shy away from links altogether. This is a detrimental move for their SEO because Google values links. Link building can be done both externally and internally.

External Linking

External linking happens when a website that is not part of your domain links a portion of their content to one of your Web pages. When it comes to external links, you have to earn your links over time. The desire to have numerous outside Web pages linking to your site is a big temptation on SEO campaigns. Some people attempt to buy links or generate fake Web pages to increase the amount of links they have. These tactics are highly discouraged and can result in page ranking punishments.

Before we cover a few ideas on how to generate external links, know that excellent content is at the core of link building. The biggest question for every blog post, product demonstration, and ebook should be, “Is this content the absolute best it can be?” In order for other websites to link to yours, you have to offer unique content that is trustworthy. Don’t neglect other SEO efforts for the sake of creating as many links as possible. Users must be able to find your Web page on the SERP before they can even link to it.

After you are satisfied with the quality of your content, consider being a guest blogger. If you have an established brand and have knowledge of a particular subject, write about it for a credible website. Guest blogging should never be done just to gain links to your website (don’t forget that content comes first!). Instead, write because you have knowledge to share and treat the links as the cherry on top.

Infographics are another great way to boost external links. Since it’s easier to copy an infographic and cite its source within the article than to create one on their own, website owners commonly share infographics around the Web. This is why you should create an infographic and make it accessible for others to use.

Internal Linking

While there fewer options when it comes to linking from one page on your website to another page, internal linking helps users navigate your website and contributes to page ranking. There are right ways and wrong ways to link internally.

As a general rule, don’t go overboard with your internal links. If every other word in your article is a link to a different page on your website, then you are abusing the internal link method. In the same way, don’t add an internal link in places that are unnatural for the reader, such as links on conjunctions or on only part of the word.

Pay attention to the literal words you select to contain the link. These words are known as your anchor text, and their relevance to the page it links to can actually increase or decrease its credibility. You should also link to more than just your homepage. Since it’s generally harder for the deeper pages of your websites to earn links, share the spotlight and link to the lesser-known pages, as long as they are still relevant to the content.

Bonus Tip

Here’s a WebRevelation practice that we’ve adopted in our link building endeavors. When you link to an external Web page, be sure to adjust the link’s target in your settings so that the link opens up in a new window. When you link to an internal Web page, the link can open up in the same window. The reasoning behind this is so those who explore external links on different websites can easily return to your page in order to finish reading or shopping.