To get results, link building must be done after a good SEO foundation has been established, unique quality content published and on-page SEO completed.

Without these elements, you can build as many links as you want; but it will be very difficult to move the needle.

What Is A Link?

Links (hyperlinks) allow visitors to jump from the page they’re reading to a new page (or a new site) when clicking on it.

Their main goal is to help people navigate their way around the internet and find the content they’re looking for- quickly- without much effort.

Links can be attached to:

Texts
Images
Videos

…depending on the context.

So now that you have a clear vision of what links are, let’s go a little deeper into link building basics.

Link Building Strategy

Link building is the process of getting links placed on other websites that point to your site.

Links can be viewed like ‘votes’. And for a long time, the more votes/links you had pointing to your content, the better you ranked.

The problem is that people abused this system by building ‘poor quality/spammy links’ to get ranked…

… which didn’t please Google.

So now, Google has changed its algorithm to favor the quality of the links over the quantity.

In other words, if you don’t want to get into trouble with Google, you need to build high-quality links only (of course the more high quality links you have the better).

And by ‘high-quality links,’ I mean:

Placing your links on high-authority sites that have high organic traffic and are relevant to your niche. You also need to avoid any sites that advertise the sale of links or blatantly offer guest contributions (write for us pages) as this is like a shining neon light to Google that the links on this site are unlikely to be genuine.

Types Of Links

Before telling you why links are vital to reaching online success, it’s essential you understand the two categories of links and that both are equally important.

External Links

External links (or backlinks) are the links that point to another page on a different website/domain.

I’ve been speaking about these links most of this post, so now I want to focus on the other type of links: internal links.

Internal Links

Internal links point from one piece of content to another within the same site.

In other words, internal links help visitors to jump from the page they’re currently on to another related page within the same website.

Internal links have a number of huge benefits. They help Google find newly published pages, they can spread ‘link juice’ from higher authority pages to weaker ones and they can guide your visitors to your power pages (money pages).

But that’s not all.

Famous e-commerce stores use internal links to boost sales.

How?

By suggesting related or complementary products or services to visitors.

Just take a look at Amazon as an example:

See how they use internal links?

The ‘Frequently bought together’, and the ‘Products related to this item’ sections are full of internal links.

And if Amazon is making tons of money using internal links, it would be stupid not to follow by their example.

Why Do You Need To Build Links?

Link building is mandatory for growing most kinds of online businesses – from SaaS companies to growth hacking agencies.

Why?

Because links (whether internal or external) maximize your SEO results.

This means that link building can help you increase your:

Online visibility
Search traffic & rankings
Revenue & sales

Links are also perceived as a ‘trust signal’ for Google and humans. For Google, having links pointing back to your site is a positive ranking signal. It means that your content is relevant, valuable to visitors, and can be trusted.

And if Google trusts your site, it’ll send it up the SERPs and rank it well.

But that’s not all:

People tend to trust well-ranked sites over low-ranked sites.

But whether you decide to build your own links or hire someone else to do it, there is one more topic we need to cover to complete the link building basics.

What Makes A Powerful Backlink?

All links are not equal. There are both good and bad links out there. And links with stronger SEO power than others.

But how to recognize the quality of a link?

Well, you can distinguish a high-quality link from a lower quality link by simply looking at its anatomy.

Indeed, a good link will follow these four principles (when a bad link won’t):

1. Relevancy

Good links are placed on relevant pages/websites within your niche.

For example, if your content or site is about cooking, you want your links ideally to be placed on other cooking sites. Or at least sites where cooking is a main category.

Make sense?

2. Domain Strength

Ideally, you want your links to be placed on high authority websites.

In other words: if you manage to get a link from, let’s say, the BBC, it would be worth a lot more than a link from your local newspaper.

A natural backlink profile will be made up of links from all DR (Domain Rating) ranges but lower authority links will come in naturally, so it’s a pretty safe bet to target high authority sites when you are building links.

3. Page Strength

The page where your link is placed plays a significant role.

You want your links to be placed on pages with high search traffic and a decent UR (URL Rating) to get the maximum SEO benefits from the link.

4. Anchor Text

The anchor text is the text your link is attached to. It is always recommended to have a variety of anchor texts-

Branded
URL
Target
Topic
Misc

…as this builds a more natural-looking profile.

When you reach the first page of the SERPs you can even go one step further and analyse your competitors anchor texts to see which type Google favours and use that data when deciding which anchor to use during your link building campaigns.

Wrapping Up

These link building basics are going to help you reach SEO success.

All you have to do is follow this advice and you will be able to start building your own links, or at least have the knowledge to not get tricked by low-quality link building services.

Remember, poor links can get you penalized, so you must focus on your links’ quality rather than quantity.

And one last thing:

I know we spoke mostly about external links but, please, don’t forget that internal links are just as important- if not more- depending on your business.

Ralph Wunsch

author

Ralph Wunsch is working as a web publishing consultant for Writebrain, a blog analytics tool. He is currently based in South Africa. He has amassed a wealth of knowledge in online publishing and blogging from his experience in online media management. His other interests include business, media, and pop culture. Although he is a writer at heart, Ralph is a digital marketer by profession. He manages to balance this by working full-time by day and a freelance writer at night. Ralph believes that digital marketing is the way of the future. That’s why he keeps on learning new things about digital marketing every single day. Someday, he wants to make a name in the digital marketing industry, so he connects with influencers and bloggers and is constantly writing industry articles in the form of guest posts or blog posts for Writebrain and Spiralytics. Birthday: March 3, 1985 Birthplace: Pretoria, South Africa