You built a website. Then you went about ensuring it was clean, easy to use, and blazing fast. It even looks great on a smartphone!
Now what?
The reality is that SEO is never done, but how would you like to let other websites do some of the work for you? Would it not be great to harness another team’s efforts at no expense?
If this is the case, then you need inbound links, also known as site backlinks. What are inbound links? Well, create some free and informative content and we will tell you all about them.
What Are Inbound Links?
Most folks are familiar with internal links in their websites. But, outbound and inbound links can be a mystery. As linking is a powerful tool, let’s remove the mystery.
Outbound links are from your website to another website. As you can imagine, Inbound links are from another website to your website.
You have full control over the creation of internal and outbound links. Those inbound links are out of your control. Or are they?
When it comes down to it, these links come in when you have reliable, powerful, and relevant content on your pages. So, it stands to reason, you have to keep creating this content to get more inbound links.
Why is Link Building So Powerful?
Google weighs its website rankings on many factors, including where quality sites themselves link to. As more sites link out to your site, Google will boost your ranking on relevant keyword searches.
Additionally, all this linking and higher listing prominence create trust. As your site becomes more trustworthy, more sites will link to it.
This is the kind of reinforced behavior you need. Trust is powerful and translates into more sales of your products and services.
So, you are already benefitting from those great search engine results. How about an added benefit: all those inbound links also create referral traffic. This is traffic you may not have otherwise gained.
Think of it like this: your website through your efforts gains x amount of traffic. But, now that another site links to yours, any efforts they make also benefit you. It is a winning position to be in!
Good Inbound Links Vs Bad Ones
It is not enough that another website links to yours. There are a few factors that contribute to Google rewarding you for that link:
- The website linking to yours must be an authoritative website
- Use proper anchor text
Anchor text is the hyperlinked text used to refer to your website. This text needs to be natural and fit in well with the rest of the content on the page. And, do not worry: “learn more”, “click here”, and other such generic phrasing is fine.
What is unnatural text? Anchor text plus keyword rich optimization. In other words, if you are optimizing your page for “bananas” and every anchor is “bananas” Google will penalize you.
By now you must be asking “How do I generate inbound links?”
There are many ways to create inbound links, though some are easier than others. Let us boil it down to a few …
Content & Link Submission
Have you considered creating more content that other sites will host? If said content contains links to your website as part of its natural flow you are thinking right.
Are you offering a new service or product? Have you done anything else newsworthy? If so, consider issuing a press release and submitting it to various outlets.
Press releases are great because you can at least generate one inbound link back to your main site. You may even find you can add extra links to other relevant pages on your site.
You can also generate inbound links by leveraging directory websites. Look for websites listing companies that provide similar services or products as your own.
There is a niche directory for about every category of services and products. Do some digging and submit your website and product/service links to benefit.
Consider creating guides for distribution. By placing your links in your content, and giving it away for free, you can create an inbound link implosion.
While you will need to find the right sites to submit your content to, there is a greater value to be had. Consider not only hosting the content on your own site but on your social media as well.
And, lest we forget, content does not only have to be written. If you can create great infographics, do so!
Additional SEO
While you are busy creating content for distribution, let us look at some good practices for your own website. After all, we have to ensure folks want to link to your page!
Ensure that you have spent time creating internal links on your website. These links are anchor text that refers to another page within your own site.
Internal links help the web crawling bots understand how to read and index your site. Additionally, if you are not internally linking, why would anyone else link to you?
After you have yourself all linked internally, take some time to look outside your own site. If you see relevant content your audience will enjoy, write about it and create that link! After you have linked up, it would not be a bad idea to let your target know…
Ask for the Link
You can network and leverage your real business relationships to get the inbound link. Speak to your distributors and suppliers to see where a good fit can be.
You should also look for companies that sell complementary products or services to your own. Maybe you can work together? As long as the link exchange is logical you both benefit.
Make sure you spend time nurturing the relationships you created with those that link to your website. Being proactive can not only make it more likely they will do so in the future, but they may be willing to tell you what they need to be even more supportive.up, it would not be a bad idea to let your target know…
Get A Head Start
Hopefully, by now, you have gone from “What are inbound links?” to “I need inbound links!”
It may seem like an exhaustive task like all SEO seems to be, but the payoffs are enormous. It is no wonder that inbound links are rated so highly.
But, having said that, maybe you need some help. After all, this takes time and planning to achieve and you need results fast.
If you want access to hundreds of blogs without having to contact each blog one by one, we have your back. Contact us today!