Link building forms a major part of any comprehensive SEO work. If you’re serious about ranking well for your keyphrase (particularly if it is competitive) then it is absolutely something you should be investing it.
What are the benefits of link building?
Link building is about building your domain authority. Historically, the more links you had pointing towards your website the more credible, reputable and authoritative it would seem in Google’s eyes and this would result in an improved search engine ranking.
However, nowadays quality is far more important than quantity. And nowadays updates brought about by Google Penguin means that low quality links will actually harm your site.
The gist? There are no short cuts. Only hard work and being genuinely good at what you do will see your business rewarded.
DIY link building
There are 3 simple ways to do DIY link building, which is something that all startups and small businesses should consider if they want to stay competitive
1) Inbound marketing – blogs, ebooks, infographics, courses, free tools
2) Guest blogging
3) Researching into where the best places are for you to post your content for your industry
If you want to learn about Inbound Marketing then I highly recommend subscribing to Hubspot and Copyblogger’s blogs. The essence of Inbound Marketing is to create compelling content which people are naturally drawn to. It is not a quickly learnt skill, and if you are committed to going down this road then it is worth recruiting a member of staff who has strong enough writing skills and enough creativity to learn the knack of it for your business and industry.
For a lot of small businesses you will find that you are able to have plenty of success with link building through a reasonable number of targeted blogs. However if your business is expanding, or you work in a particularly SEO competitive area then you should consider either hiring some in-house talent to take this on, or hiring a professional.
Why you should be investing in professional link building
If you want to ensure that your website is at the top of page 1 for your targeted keyphrase then you need to be investing in professional link building.
It can seem expensive, but it really isn’t worth paying for a cheap service – it’s actually more likely to hurt your website by creating poor content and poor quality links. However, the monthly fee is a very small figure compared to the increased number of leads and conversions this kind of activity will bring your business.
When it comes to professional link building you definitely get what you pay for. The more you pay, the more time you are getting for a professional to research what content will resonate most strongly with your audience, write it to a high standard and research where the best places are to publish it.
However you won’t regret the investment –inbound marketing is set to be the future of marketing for a reason; it really works.
Do you want to find out more about professional link building options, or inbound marketing training?
At British Design Experts we’ve recently been putting together affordable, yet effective SEO options for small businesses. I’d be more than happy to speak with you about what you are hoping to achieve and how our team could help, and we can also recommend a number of other reputable SEO and link building companies for different budgets. Give us a call on 01256 845 815 and say that you’re interested in discussing our small business SEO options and packages. Or if you’d like more similar tips on SEO, online marketing, logo design, web design and more then subscribe to our small business advice blog here.
