7 link building tips for starters
Have you just started your business and made a great website? Or do you manage a number of websites that would like to make you more public? Link building is a great way to attract more visitors. However, outsourcing often costs a lot of money and that is why many start-up companies or website managers try to do this themselves. In this text we give 7 useful link building tips for starters.
What is link building?
Many website managers talk about link building these days, but what exactly is this? And more importantly, why does it work? Link building is the process by which you collect backlinks from other websites that refer to your site. Search engines index these links and see that your website is popular with others. As a result, they will assess your website higher and so you can increase your ranking in the search engines. Link building is years old and some points have really changed in recent years, but it still works if you do it the right way. You do this by collecting links in such a way that search engines think that the links are of course placed. The following link building tips will help you to collect backlinks in a natural way.
Tip 1: Too many links – spammy
Of course you want your website to rank as high as possible in the search engines and that is why you actually want to provide hundreds of backlinks immediately. Unfortunately, that's not going to work. Search engines see that a large number of links are placed at once and this is suspicious for them. It is also quite strange that a website that has only recently been in existence is already so popular. Especially if the website itself has little to no visitors. You can get penalty points for this and disappear completely from the search results. Of course, that's not what you want. Therefore, do not get too enthusiastically and place (especially at the beginning) no more than a few links per week.
Tip 2: Variation is a priority
There are several strategies to gather links. Some fairly simple ways include: enrolling in business directories, logging in to home pages and posting guest blogs on article websites. However, business directories and article websites are very common and do not specifically deal with the subject of your website. These links are often not worth that much and too many links from these types of websites can bring penalty points. Home pages are about specific topics and you can really choose a relevant homepage. Often these backlinks are worth more than links from business directories and article websites. Good home pages with a low spam score are yourpage.com and links.co.uk
Are you good when you log in to 20 homepages? - No, certainly not! This is also suspicious for search engines and this can also involve penalty points. It is best to log your website to a number of home pages, to a single business directory and a single article website. In addition, it is important to collect links from quality websites that are about the same topic as your website. Think of your suppliers, your partners or informative blogs. You can also look for website administrators with a relevant high quality website who would like to exchange a link. So choose mainly for qualitative, relevant sites and place a link on a business directory, home page or article website from time to time.
Tip 3: AB link exchange is not done
Have you found a website manager who would like to exchange a backlink with you? Then don't choose AB link exchange! This means that you place a link on your website (A) to the site of the website administrator (B) and then post a backlink to your website (A) from his site (B). It is not wrong to do this once or a few times, but search engines place less value on the link. This link building tactic was often used in the past and the algorithm of the search engines has now been modified to prevent this. However, an ABC link exchange is possible. For this you have to have a website under control yourself or the website administrator must have another site where he can place a link. If the latter is the case, you will post a link to its site (B) from your site (A). The administrator then posts a backlink from his other website (C) to your site (A). Search engines can not make a clear connection and the links therefore have a higher value.
Tip 4: Guest Blogging works!
You have already read something about guest blogging in one of the previous link building tips. If you choose to guest blog, you often do not have to place a link back to the other’s website. You only deliver a guest blog with one or a few links and the website administrator will place it for you. You get a link or a few to the left of him and he gets a free text in return. The advantage is that you have an in-text link immediately and you can relate the website on which the article is placed to your website with the text in the guest blog. This will make the link even more relevant!
Tip 5: Clarity is important
A good way to link building is to approach managers of other relevant websites. No matter how you do this, always be clear! Some link builders are convinced that it is best to send an email with all kinds of compliments in which you then tell that you came across a site that fits the subject of his website. Most website administrators are already aware of this tactic and then know exactly what it is about. Since you are not completely transparent, they are less likely to place the backlink in front of you. It is best to be clear and explain why you contact them. It is completely easy if you immediately indicate which link you want and where you can place back or you immediately provide a guest blog with links. This saves a lot of emails back and forth and saves you and the website manager time.
Tip 6: Keyword & brand anchors
The anchor text of a backlink is the text you see instead of the link. It could be "Click here." This text lets the search engines know what the link is about and what it refers to. This way it is also indexed which subject your website (or the page) is about. Is it a good idea to give each link the main search term as anchor? No, it's not at all. The search engines also see that the backlinks are not placed naturally and they can pay your website here. A normal link profile consists of links in which keyword anchors and brand anchors alternate. Brand anchors refer to the company name and the URL of the website. Furthermore, you can use a completely different anchor text a number of times, such as 'Click here'.
Tip 7: Keep track of the links you trade
When you switch multiple links, it is important that you have an overview for:
- Prevent yourself from using the same anchor texts.
- The websites can check again if your links are still getting up. Also check if your links are not NO-follow made. Unfortunately, this happens more and more often.
- Continuity at the pace of link building. Record the date of the exchange.
Software for backlinks
If you do not feel like keeping everything in a file or you are going to exchange a lot of links, it is wise to use software for this.
Highly recommended is monitorbacklinks When you are logged in, we immediately look at which links there are all links to your websites.
It is also possible to add links that you have just exchanged. Write down the email address of your link partner so that you can easily contact it later when there is something.
This software is paid for, but with many links it is really worth it. A big advantage is that all your links are made every 5 days to erroneous whether they are still present with your link partners. Even if your link partner would give you an NO follow-up tag, you will be informed.