Link building strategies have evolved greatly through the
years. While earlier it was all about securing a large number of links for your
website, now it has come to focus on quality more than quantity.
With Google’s changing algorithms, link building has also
gradually changed to something that cannot be accomplished instantly. You need
consistent and motivated efforts to get it right and see positive results in
terms of search rankings and incoming traffic.
There are some proven ways to build links, raise rankings in
SERPs, and ensure more visitors to your web pages. For businesses that offer
professional services to clients, link building is important to grow a network
and increase credibility. At the same time, it distracts from their core line
of work, thus creating a crunch of resources.
In such a scenario, the key is to zero in on some effective
link building strategies that will work wonders for professional services
businesses without putting a strain on their resource pool. But before we dive
into these strategies, let us discuss what link building is and how it benefits
professional services businesses.
What Is Link Building?
Link building is the process of securing links to your web
pages from external sources on the internet. These hyperlinks generally connect
related topics, provide references, or work as a reading guide for visitors by
directing them to a relevant topic.
It is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) as
search engines use backlinks to judge the credibility and relevance of a web
page. Based on that, search rankings are assigned and website visibility is
determined.
Why Do You Need Link Building?
Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., check how
many web pages have links to your content. The authority of these web pages and
the quality of these links are also checked before assigning you a search rank.
The more high quality and authoritative sites link to you, the
higher your website reach becomes. This will lead to more traffic, higher
engagement, and increased revenue for your business. Links also help users find
your website, discover your content, and connect to your brand.
More than 60% of SEO experts believe that link building impacts
search rankings greatly. In addition to this direct benefit, there are some
other ways in which link building can benefit professional websites.
●
It ensures long-term and organic success.
●
It builds brand reputation and confidence in your
content.
●
It boosts revenue and gives better ROI.
●
It creates a customer base that is keen on returning to
your business for further purchases.
Since link building is such a major aspect of running an online
business, you must be aware of certain strategies that help you accomplish this
faster and easier.
5 Link Building Strategies for Professional
Services Businesses
Professional services websites can make use of the following
five link building strategies to get the job done without taking up too much
effort with too little results.
Content Repurposing
The best way to build organic links is through superior
content. If your content is worth linking to, you do not have to pay other
websites to add links. And a big part of keeping your content fresh and
relevant is through repurposing.
With evolving data, technologies, and scenarios, it has become
necessary to update old blogs and repurpose content that is no longer valid or
relevant. Content repurposing is basically the process of reusing your old
content and updating them for the present or adding some value to them for your
audience.
This way is easier and less time-consuming than creating
content from scratch. It also brings in new visitors who might have overlooked
your blog the first time it was published.
To make your content more engaging, you can opt for one of
these techniques.
●
Change the content format. For instance, turn a
paragraph into a flowchart or list, replace text with infographics or images,
add videos to the web page, and so on.
●
Add current data to the content and link it with
relevant occurrences of the present.
●
Turn old and rehashed paragraphs into conversational
content.
●
Improve keyword targeting and optimize for search
engines.
●
Add a nofollow
tag but also make sure the rel canonical tag
is present for proper indexing.
●
Publish the content on your website and make sure the
link works correctly.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to secure
backlinks to your website. Through selective guest blogging, you can bring in
some of the most authoritative and traffic-pulling links for your website.
Guest blogging or guest posting is when you write content for
another website to attract traffic back to their site and boost their domain
authority through external links. Generally, guest blogs are written for topics
in the same industry, for which relevant content can be found on your website.
However, you must do selective guest posting outreach for relevant and high-quality websites. If you continue writing guest blogs for random websites,
Google will flag you and your search rank will fall.
For guest blogs, write unique content that has thought
leadership. Do not include a large number of backlinks; instead, focus on a few
relevant ones. Look for trending keywords and include them in your content.
Also, write for websites that can be connected to your website organically.
Through successful guest blogging, you will earn higher search
rankings, more traffic, and better leads.
Social Media and Infographics Marketing
Social media platforms are perfect for marketing content. They
can contribute greatly to link building efforts. An active social media profile
draws more followers, attracts new visitors to your website, and builds a
reputation for your brand.
By sharing posts, images, and videos regularly on your social
media handles, you can boost engagement and catch the attention of people who
might find your content link-worthy. Undoubtedly, it will help you improve your
link profile with credible sources.
Another way to build links effectively is through infographics.
Having these on your website draws organic traffic and genuine links. Along
with elevating the quality of your content, infographics also send the message
that your content is unique and should be referenced in other blogs.
Broken Links Leveraging
Broken links are bad for a website. Period. But they can be
leveraged to create a link building strategy. If you find backlinks on
websites, you can use them as an opportunity to insert your own link. After
all, no website owner would like their content littered with broken or expired
links.
When you find a broken link on a relevant website, reach out to
the website owner and ask them to link to your content in its place. If you do
not have similar content available, it is a good idea to build content that
will suit that hyperlink.
There are several tools like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and Broken
Link Checker that can find dead pages on high authority websites in your
industry. Use them to look for such links and then gather the contact details
of the website to suggest the replacement.
Unlinked Mentions
Unlinked mentions are those when a website mentions your
content or business without providing a link back to you. These mentions are
easy to find and can be used to build a link profile. If the website owner has
mentioned you but not linked you, you can contact them and ask to add a
backlink to the relevant web page.
You can use tools like Google search, Ahrefs, and other brand
monitoring tools to get a real-time report of all brand mentions.
Conclusion
Link building is a long and consistent effort, be it for a
personal blog or a professional services business. However, if you follow these
five strategies, you can speed up the results and see a quick rank boost. A
good idea is to use link building services to create and
follow backlinking strategies for your website.
