Link building is defined as the process of getting other websites to link to a page on an individual’s website. These hyperlinks are called backlinks and they are an incredibly important part of the process of SEO. While the end results seem clear and desirable, the process of achieving this can be difficult and time consuming. This process of link building is essentially based on emailing strangers and asking them to link to your website.
Link Building
For the purposes of explaining this process, three scenarios will be used. Each scenario is based on the idea that an individual has a digital marketing blog and would like to develop backlinks to their blog. In the first scenario a stranger called Tim emails you and asks you to link to their content on your blog. In this example it is highly unlikely that an individual would consider linking to this strangers blog. It is far more likely that the email would just be ignored altogether.
The second scenario is quite different. An individual has been following an SEO YouTube channel for three years and they have used the techniques which the channel has suggested. Using these techniques the individual has been able to see results and improve the SEO on their content. The person responsible for the YouTube channel emails an individual and asks them to consider linking to their content on the individual’s website. In this scenario the individual may consider creating the backlink but it would not be a done deal by any means.
The third scenario involves an individual receiving an email from their mentor in the digital marketing space. In this article the mentor asks the individual if they could link to an article on the mentor’s site from a relevant article on the individual’s site. This scenario is the one in which it makes perfect sense to create the backlink because there is an established relationship between the individual and the mentor.
The purpose of these scenarios is to establish the fact that link building is highly dependent on relationships. Additionally, link building can take far more time than an individual may expect it to. In the first scenario, Tim is propositioning an individual from out of the blue and he is not offering anything in exchange for the link building which he desires. In the second scenario there is somewhat of a relationship which has been developed through YouTube and the support which this channel has provided to the individual. In this case it is more likely that the individual would accept the link building proposition but it is by no means definite. In the third scenario there is a well-established relationship which has been formed and the link building is definitely going to occur. This is because the individual knows the mentor well and feels a sense of respect and duty to their mentor.
While an individual cannot and should not try to become friends with everyone which they reach out to for link building the process is heavily dependent on creating relationships through the process of email outreach. The best backlinks will often come from these relationships. It is now time to redefine link building for the remainder of the articles regarding this subject. Link building is the process of building relationships with other relevant website owners who want to and will link to an individual’s content because it enhances theirs.
Effective link building is a difficult process and it is important to understand why it is worth the effort. The short answer is that backlinks are used by search engines such as Google to help rank web pages. It has been this way since 1998 when Google created Page Rank. Page Rank is a mathematical formula that calculates the “value” of a page by analyzing both the quantity and quality of the other pages that link to it. Google themselves have stated the importance of backlinks by claiming that if other pages link back to a page it is a good indication that a page is of a high quality. An SEO agency conducted a study of a billion webpages and found that backlinks had a direct correlation with the amount of organic traffic which a webpage receives.
Final Thoughts
The process of obtaining backlinks is a difficult and time consuming one, it is absolutely essential in the process of ranking for competitive keywords. These are the keywords that have the most potential to drive traffic and revenue to a business. While the process of outreach has been discussed in this article it is not the only way of obtaining backlinks. The next article in this series will discuss three other methods of obtaining backlinks as well as their level of difficulty and their effectiveness.
