Although link building can be time-consuming, it is a great SEO best practice to follow. You may choose to outsource SEO link building due to the amount of time that you could save your internal team. Another reason to outsource SEO link building is so that you can benefit from the experience of an outsource SEO consultant who may understand the link building process more than someone in house.
What Is Link Building?
Link building is when you gain links from other sites that link back to your own site. This can help improve your credibility which, in turn, could increase your site’s domain authority. It can also help bring in traffic to the site, since the link serves as a referral to content, services, or products on your site.
There are two types of link building, internal and external. Internal link building focuses on links within your site that link back to different pages. External links are links from other sites that link back to pages on your own site. It is ideal to have a combination of both, and you can outsource either one or both types, depending on the amount of effort you want to work on in-house.
Internal Link Building
Are there links on each page of your site? How many of those links direct traffic to other pages within your site? Internal link building is a great way to refer traffic on your site to other relevant pages that they may be interested in. This can help keep them on your site longer, increasing the average duration of page visits. It can also show your target audience that you have plenty to offer that they are interested in, showing them that you are a reliable source for the information that you are providing.
There has been a lot of studies and Google’s John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst shared how important internal linking is:
“I think it’s one of the biggest things that you can do on a website to kind of guide Google and guide visitors to the pages that you think are important.”
John Mueller, Google
If you have a site built out that does not have internal links on its pages, you are missing out on crucial off-page SEO benefits.
What Kind of External Links Can I Use?
External links that you can use for SEO link development include directories, guest blogs, editorials/press releases, referrals, and even reviews. Any links that are on other sites that link back to your site are considered external links. The amount of traffic to the site linking back to your, as well as their own authority score, can impact the SEO boost you receive.
The process of external links can involve reaching out to sites to request a link back to your site, submitting your business info to directories, or even drafting guest blogs that must be reviewed and approved by other sites.
Directories
Directory sites are a great place to start building out quick and easy external links. Major directory sites tend to have a high domain authority and a lot of organic traffic.
The biggest benefit to including your business in relevant directories is how quick they are compared to other external link strategies. With most directories, adding a link to your website is as simple as creating a login and filling out your business info, or submitting a request with your business information included.
Guest Blogs
Guest blogs are blogs that live on other sites that link back to your brand’s site. Unlike other types of external links, guest blogs provide an additional value of providing information to readers that proves that you are an expert in that topic. It can help improve your credibility with readers and build a strong relationship with potential customers.
There are plenty of sites that accept guest blogs. Sites like Medium allow anyone to post their blogs on there. Other sites may require you to fill out a submission form and follow certain guidelines. In some cases, you may have to pay to post a blog on their site.
Guest blogs can be more time consuming than other types of external links. For this reason, you may want to outsource them to a company experienced with link building. Another reason you may want to outsource guest blog writing is to benefits from having expert who already knows which sites to submit guest blogs to and who has the connections to build out those blogs/links efficiently.
Editorials/Press Releases
Editorials or press releases differ from guest blogs in the sense that they might specifically highlight your brand, services, or products. For example, you might have an editorial where a major new company highlights how your startup brand is becoming more popular. In this case, the editorial might include a few external links back to your site, or a major call to action for something on your site. In a guest blog, the external link back to your site might use you as an example when explaining a larger topic.
Aside from building out external links, editorials and press releases can be great for spreading brand awareness. The downside is editorials and press releases are much more competitive to get posted on another site. Some sites may only create these types of content pieces if they choose to reach out to you first. For these reasons, you would want to outsource editorials and press releases to someone with connections, who could reach out to news and media outlets for you.
Referrals
Using client and customer referrals could be a great external linking strategy. Clients or customers using your products or services could mention you on their own websites and include a link back to yours. You can also become a partner to another company, such as Rise’s partnership with SEMrush.
The biggest benefit of referrals is allowing your client’s website users to see your brand recommended by a brand or person that they already trust.
Reviews
Some review sites allow you to post a link to the brand, product, or service that you are reviewing. If that is the case, encourage your customers to post their reviews to those sites. The reviews can then have links back to your own site. This allows potential customers to read the positive things about your products, services, or business and immediately click a link to begin engaging with your brand.
Need Help Building Out Internal and External Links for SEO?
Link building for SEO can be time consuming. If you are interested in outsourcing your SEO link building efforts, fill out the contact form to get in touch with Rise’s SEO team!
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