A few years ago, link building was believed to be dead. Google’s updates like Penguin imposed heavy penalties on link farms and PBNs.
However, with the evolution of Google’s Webmaster’s Guidelines, the marketers also evolved. And as we can see today, link building is amongst one of the most important SEO strategies.
However, some practices involved in link building have seen a decline, while others are still ruling the world of off-page SEO.
So, here are some of the link-building strategies that you must always hold on to.
Mend Broken Links
One of the most effective practices that you should definitely include in your SEO is identifying broken links.
It is well said that broken links can harm more than active backlinks can benefit. It is perhaps, noteworthy that fixing broken links is well under the white hat link-building practices. And doing so would only help with improving rankings in SERP for your website.
There are plenty of tools that you can use to identify broken links. Moreover, you can also get plenty of information on how to outsource SEO, and get it done from professionals. Notably, you can either disavow bad links or ask for mending the broken ones.
No matter what you choose to do with your broken links, the key point here is to take note of these links. For they are only dragging your website down in the SERP rankings
Competitor Analysis
The digital space today is vast and vivid in all aspects. You can find almost everything between earth and the moon, there is to know.
Evidently, it is very likely that you are not the only one providing the services within your industry or niche. Thus, you cannot ignore the importance of your competitors.
To put this into perspective, for your backlink building efforts to be successful, you must acknowledge the fact that your competitors are doing well online. And likewise, you can also use their strategy to create your own link-building strategy.
It is a guarantee of sorts; what’s working for your competitors would bring you positive results too.
Seeking Brand Mentions
For your business to become a brand, it is important that your target consumers recognize it. In simple words, your target audience should be able to quickly identify your brand and distinguish it for its services and products.
It is noteworthy that brand mentions are an integral part of white hat link-building practices. And you simply cannot ignore it. Moreover, seeking brand mentions is also one of the most budget friendly SEO strategies that can earn backlinks for your website. It would not only help your website earn authority and recognition online but also help with building your brand-specific keywords.
Experts believe that seeking contextual brand mentions is more effective since they appear naturally and are also compliant with Google’s Webmaster’s Guidelines.
So, if you have been ignoring it until now, you should rethink and invest in brand mentions, right away.
The Gist…
As Google would keep rolling out new updates, the digital marketing space is bound to become more and more competitive. However, some practices would still prevail. And link building is surely one of those practices. Though, the way it would be carried out may change over the course of time.