Why You Need to Build Links to Your Website and What a Good One Looks Like
The other day, in the HubSpot client forums, I asked the question, "What's the most difficult part of your internet marketing plan to execute?"
The resounding response was that "link building" was the most challenging thing to do effectively.
And I agree. It's not as easy as starting a blog, doing keyword research, optimizing pages on your site for search placement, setting up ppc campaigns, using social media sites, etc. Assuming the right tools are in place, with a little internet marketing training, a marketer or small business owner has complete control over those processes; Most of inbound marketing just requires an investment of effort in hours or an expenditure of money. It's not rocket science. You can do internet marketing yourself OR you can hire someone to go do it for you.
Link building is different...
Unlike other inbound marketing activities, link building - done right - requires participation from other people whose actions you'll never get to control.
Why Link Building is Critical
Before we get into the "how" of link building, I think it makes sense to talk about the "why". There are two reasons to build links to your site.- Direct Traffic: Links send direct traffic to your website that could convert into leads and clients.
- Search Engine Optimization: Links are the key to getting you ranked on the first page of the major search engines for your target keywords. This search traffic is very likely to convert into leads and clients.
What Makes a Good Link
Just to make sure we're all on the same page, we should also talk about what a good link looks like. Here's an example of a good link: Internet Marketing Software. A good link has a keyword phrase in the anchor text, the clickable part of the link. In the link above, "Internet Marketing Software" is the anchor text of the link. When someone does a search for "Internet Marketing Software" at the major search engines, we want to come up high, because that's what we sell.A good link also comes from a site that is authoritative. For example, a link like the one above from CNN.com or Seth Godin's blog would help us increase our search rank for "internet marketing software" more than a link coming from a brand new blog or little known news site. Additionaly, the anchor text of a good link should match the "on page SEO" characteristics of the page it is pointing to. To see what I mean by that, click the "Internet Marketing Software" link above and take a look at the title tag of that page. It says "Internet Marketing Software".
How Do You Build Links?
Now that we have the "why" and "what" of link building defined, it's time to talk about the rocket science part of link building, which is the "how". In presenting how HubSpot's Inbound Link Analysis tool helps marketers build links more intelligently, I've had to come up with ways to succinctly explain the process of link building.I'm not very good at being succinct. So, I'm making a request... Before I attempt to explain the process, I'd like to learn what all of our smart experienced link building readers have to say. If you've purposefully built links to your site, please explain what methods you've used in the comments below. (Please use your real name and link to your website, so I can quote and link to you in my next blog post. Please share results too, if you feel comfortable doing that.)
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