The ongoing debate about link building has never gone obsolete. Gone are those days when people used black hat techniques such as paid links or spammy content for this purpose. In 2012, Google decided to interfere in eliminating these black hat techniques with its famous algorithm update, that is ‘Penguin’. From then onwards, link building solely depended on quality content creation.
However, as mentioned earlier, the debate about the legitimacy of link building for SEO is still on. While some of the SEO strategists have vouched for the process marking it as necessary, on the other hand, some strategists refuse to give it the due credit.
So, knowing the truth has turned out to be crucial at this point when every SEO strategists are trying to give their best shot to top in the search engine ranking. Let’s follow the trail below and find out the answers indicating the relevance of link building.
Building the Links or Earning the Links – The Big Question
All types of old sayings in regards to link building say that creating quality content for your website is the only way out for link building. However, later on, experts have pointed out time and again that link building is never enough for SEO.
Practicing for building links that increase the ranking is not a good practice. However, creating quality content will fulfill two criteria together – one is earning links and the second one is to driving traffic to your website.
“Earning the Links” – that’s the secret for the success today, and you cannot let it go. The only way to write quality content lies in understanding the user intent. Once you can match your words, phrases and most importantly the keywords, you are on the right track.
Creating Content is not enough for Link Building, It Needs Promotion
Well, if you have thought that you have won the SEO game with quality content, you are in the wrong boat. Think about it this way – if you create perfectly articulated quality content for your readers that too to earn links from the fellow bloggers from the same niche and nobody notices it! This means, all your efforts are for nothing.
Sometimes, after writing content, you will see ‘0′ comments under it, and there are not more than 10 people who have viewed it. Your fellow bloggers might take a note of your blog and give it its due credit only after you share the link of your post to them in the comment section of their blogs.
So, the secret of earning useful links is not only limited to creating quality content but to share it, promote it or market it. Visibility gains organic traffic and that indeed leads to SEO boost.
Is Link Building a Black Hat SEO Strategy?
Before the blog moves further in understanding how to make the link building worthy for SEO, it is essential to find out the most debatable questions that keep on popping up, especially in the heads of newborn SEO strategists.
Well, to cut the big story short, it can be said that link building is not a black hat SEO strategy. However, links can be built either following white hat SEO techniques or black hat SEO techniques. Let’s find out the striking differences between these two methods.
Black Hat Link Building
Black hat link building is a technique that is only used for driving traffic to a particular website through using different loopholes within site. In this technique, offering user experience does not matter, but the hacks are implemented just to boost the page ranking. However, the updated algorithm of Google is meant to find such practices and penalize the websites when the black hat strategies are exposed.
One of the most common and popular strategies that black hat strategists often follow is creating spam comments on other websites. They forcefully include their website’s link to another page’s comment box even when there is no relevance in the subject of both the posts.
The link builders often take the help of link farms too. It is nothing but a website that includes a series that they link to other content or website pages without the presence of any content. This strategy may prove to help drive enough traffic to the website, but the user experience becomes entirely NIL.
White Hat Link Building
Completely contrary to the techniques used in black hat link building, in this process, the link builders follow authentic SEO tactics. They put the link of any of their web page or content to the other’s comment box when it is really relevant. Also, this technique is meant for enriching the user experience, giving some value to the readers and then trying to earn links from them.
The Steps of White Hat Link Building
- Understand the audience or user intent
- Create a list of websites that has similarity to that of yours and can help you to get backlinks
- Create quality content that is well researched, informative and written from the users’ point of view.
- Use the social media platforms for sharing the links of your content and getting organic traffic.
- Post the links in other websites only if the content perspective matches.
- Reach different site owners and ask them for sharing links based on the merit of your content.
Understanding E.A.T Score before Link Building is Crucial
Go through the ‘Google’s Quality Raters Guidelines’, and you will see how Google has prioritized the E.A.T score in the current time.
Initially, it was all about the quality of the content for Google. However, currently, the ‘E’ or Expertise is a great deal. Today, Google does not only see how well researched and articulated a piece of writing is. Instead, it checks the expertise level of the writer through the author’s bio before pushing those content into top position.
Next is ‘A’ which stands for ‘Authority’. The website or websites you are linking to your content must have an authority on the internet. It basically means that the site you are linking to have high-quality editorial content.
And, the final one is ‘T’ which means ‘Trustworthiness’. You might have built a lot of link on your website. However, if those are not secure or don’t have SSL certificate till now, Google will not grant the credibility of your website too.
The website that follows the E.A.T rating strategy for link building automatically comes in the good book of Google. And, the result is quite evident – high ranking on your way!
How is the Link Building Strategy going to be in 2019?
Previously when it was all about asking for the links from the fellow bloggers, this year and in the coming years too, it might come to you organically if you put focus on specific areas.
- Content Marketing
It is undoubtedly the most appropriate step to be taken in the current year to make sure the strategy of link building keeps on working. In the last 1 year, 90% of the content marketers have claimed that creating lengthy content (1800 -2000+ words) have created better link opportunities.
The other survey reports further pointed out that almost 70% of the users still get to know relevant information about any product and services through content instead of advertisements. Unless and until good quality content will be created, mobile optimized and promoted well; there is no hope for link building.
- Guest Posts
If you are yet to buy the idea of guest posting, you should not delay any further. Start it from this year as this strategy has been counted as the most effective ideas to get high-quality links. However, don’t overburden yourself with the thought that you might have to do it in a ransom quantity. The survey reports pinpoint that working on 1-5 guest posts per month has given a good lead to 60% of companies recently. You can stick to the number for great results.
The Verdict
So, the point is quite evident here. Link building will certainly remain relevant for SEO in 2019, and hopefully in the years to come until and unless Google brings any major update. Following white hat strategies and authentic techniques of link building will be sure to get you traffic and also create brand loyalty among the readers. As long as you keep your focus on creating relevant and engaging content for the users, those will undoubtedly contribute to your high-quality link building methods.
