Linkbuilding
In Gotoclient, within our digital strategy services, in which SEO is usually important, we establish relationships with owners of interesting websites for quality linkbuilding collaborations.
Beyond the traditional approach to linkbuilding for SEO backlinks, we focus on managing long-lasting partnerships where possible. Request a free linkbuilding management consultation
Solicítanos una consulta gratis sobre gestión de linkbuildingWhat is link building?
Linkbuilding – also known as link building – is the acquisition of inbound links – commonly known as backlinks – to a website.
It is an off page SEO technique that has been developed in recent years because of the great weight that has on web positioning the fact of having quality inbound links.
There are different ways to get backlinks for a website, although at Gotoclient we usually frame it in a more global project of digital strategy and relationship management with potential partners, in this case in terms of websites that may be interesting for the company in terms of content collaborations.
Learn more about SEO strategy and other important positioning considerations.
How link building works
There are different elements that influence the positioning in Google and other Internet search engines, such as Bing.
In fact, there is no absolutely reliable definition that clearly and precisely defines what they all are and what specific weight they have.
That said, it is well known that one of the ranking factors that Google values the most is the fact that a website receives quality backlinks. That is to say, that other websites have links pointing to that site.
The so-called SEO power is transmitted from one website to another – and, within the same website, from one url to another – by means of what is known as link juice.
It is precisely link juice that is achieved by receiving backlinks.
How to build link building
Given that what we want to achieve when we do linkbuilding is that part of the so-called link juice from one website goes to another, this other website being the website for which we do the linkbuilding strategy.
In this sense, we must differentiate the links that we get basically in two main types: the links that transmit link juice and the links that do not transmit it, but that can end up having an impact on the positioning of our website in the medium-long term.
In order to do so, it is necessary to understand the difference between links.
Dofollow and Nofollow links
It should be noted that an inbound link or backlink can be:
- Dofollow
- Nofollow
This in concept, because these nomenclatures are actually based on the html tags that are used to indicate certain aspects to the crawler spider of the Internet search engine in question, mainly Google, by means of attributes.
In html, there is the rel =” nofollow” tag, but there is no ‘rel do follow’ tag. Therefore, a Dofollow link is simply a link that does not contain the rel nofollow tag.
Ok, so what is the difference between a Dofollow link and a Nofollow link? That said, what is the difference between a Dofollow link and a Nofollow link?
A link containing the Nofollow attribute does NOT pass linkjuice – SEO strength or authority – to the website it points to.
Therefore, when we get backlinks with the nofollow attribute we are not really getting better authority in terms of SEO in a direct way.
But in SEO direct linkjuice is not everything.
Keep in mind that if these websites that place a nofollow link redirect us quality traffic (visits), over time the increase in traffic to our website will improve our authority on the subject in question, so it will end up having an impact on the SEO of the web in the medium-long term.
Linkbuilding strategy
In our experience, the most advisable linkbuilding strategy is to focus on getting backlinks not only in terms of direct web positioning, but also with the mentality of medium-long term success.
That is, if we focus only on getting backlinks without the rel =” nofollow” attribute, which as we have said are links that transmit link juice directly, you will probably be missing opportunities to get traffic that will also impact your SEO in the future.
In addition, it is often unnatural for a website to only get links without this attribute. Therefore, at Gotoclient we recommend you not to close yourself only to backlinks that transmit link juice.
Linkbuilding KPIs
When we carry out linkbuilding efforts, we must measure the results. Otherwise, we will not be able to determine if it is worth the investment of our time in such a tactic.
We recommend measuring these linkbuilding KPIs:
- Number of liaison opportunities, especially the following:
- News and PR
- Link exchange
- Guest posting
- Number of attempts to reach the owners of the websites with which we want to establish a relationship so that they will place a link for us. Given the weight of bloggers in this area, it is often referred to as blogger outreach.
- Percentage of positive and negative responses
- Average quality of the links obtained (backlinks). We recommend you to evaluate them mainly according to these parameters:
- Domain authority or DA
- Page Authority or PA
- Link type (with or without rel=”nofollow” attribute)
- Potential traffic we can get with the link
- Potential for expanded collaboration (perhaps the link in question is not 100% worthwhile, but from there you can develop a collaboration that goes beyond linkbuilding).
- Cost per link. It can be calculated either by using as costs only those that have required a direct economic investment or also include in the costs aspects such as the salary of the people dedicated to this task.
The frequency of this monitoring will depend on factors such as the importance of linkbuilding in the strategy or the resources available.
Generally, we recommend a weekly to monthly frequency.
Linkbuilding vs content marketing
Often the linkbuilding strategy aimed at getting other websites to link to ours involves establishing relationships with bloggers and so-called guest blogging.
In this sense, linkbuilding is often framed within the content marketing strategy.
In fact, nowadays, linking content as a collaboration should not be done in a forced way. For this reason, framing linkbuilding in the content strategy is a good practice.
Linkbuilding and blogger outreach
As we have said, in the linkbuilding strategy we may be interested in different websites. But often it will be blogs that we will seriously consider for our backlink generation strategy.
For this reason, having a good blogger outreach strategy is usually very important.
As a general rule, we recommend that we present ourselves normally and directly to the blogger, who – if he has a website of a certain authority – will be used to interacting with requests of this type.
A few years ago, when Google still did not take into account the naturalness of the links, it used to request the placement of a link in any way, but now it is best to make this approach knowing in advance that we must provide quality content to the blogger in question if we want a link on his blog.
It’s a guest blogging approach, rather than mass link building, especially if you are starting out in linkbuilding.
Clarifying link building concepts
Difference between linkbuilding and backlinks
Linkbuilding is the discipline that deals with getting inbound links to a website. That is, its function is to get backlinks, which are these inbound links.
However, both concepts are often confused and/or used as if they were synonyms. They are not. To put it plainly and clearly, the function of one (linkbuilding) is to get the other (backlinks).
Difference between linkbuilding and link baiting
Link baiting is actually a form of link building. In this sense, link baiting consists of the strategic creation of a content – in whatever format – that initiates its sharing.
This persuasion will lead to sharing, and getting shares means getting inbound links or backlinks.
Normally when we do link baiting we do it by dedicating efforts in creating highly complete contents to be shared and receive inbound links.
Quality guides or tutorials – not in eBook format, but in open format – are two examples of content that can be used for link baiting.
Where to linkbulding
We have already seen that it is important to generate quality inbound links for a website. In this sense, there are a number of places where you can carry out your linkbuilding efforts. The following are 6 of them:
- Blogs through guest blogging: you can publish articles in interesting blogs for the type of business you have. Don’t just focus on the subject matter. For example, if you operate in a company dedicated to FMCG technology products, you can look for both technology and FMCG marketing blogs, among other options.
- Forums through comments that add value: another option you have is to have a presence in thematic forums where you can really add value. Traditionally, you have acted under the perspective of just leaving a link to a website or blog even though you do not add value with the comment, but we recommend that you think not only in terms of SEO, but also in terms of brand image and the perception that consumers will have when they see your comment.
- News aggregators: it can be very helpful to share your blog articles in news aggregators. There are basically 2 types of news aggregators:
- Horizontal: the subject matter is not specific, but transversal. For example, Menéame, Bitácoras or Karmacrazy.
- Vertical: focused on a specific topic. For example, MktFan for Marketing or Divúlgame for scientific dissemination.
- Infographics: when we create quality infographics, they are usually shared on social networks. In this sense, this infographic -if it is hosted in a blog post type url- receives backlinks, so it is an interesting element for linkbuilding.
- Testimonials on review websites: if there are product review websites in your sector, you have a good opportunity. You can leave comments there, not so much on your products, but in general terms to add value. For example, for the link you can use a post from your blog.
- Your own newsletter: sending a newsletter is also a potential source of backlink building. The reason for this is that the recipients could share the articles contained in the newsletter.
So, we have given you the keys to linkbuilding or quality link building (backlinks). We recommend that, in general, you frame your linkbuilding efforts within an SEO strategy for content and, above all, under a Content Marketing perspective.
