Two of the most important ranking factors for Search Engine Optimization are high-quality content and links. But how do you build quality links to your website?
Content that answers the user’s questions is vital for earning links from authoritative websites, building your brand, and nurturing your audience. However, you can also use other tools to build links to your site. Consider the following tips from the following SEO experts.
Have Content Worth Sharing
“Your website will be one of your main drivers for growing discoverability online,” said Paid Velasquez of Zilker Media. “To boost SEO through your blog, keep your blog updated consistently with topics that tie back to your brand pillars.”
Thomas O’Shaughnessy of Clever says it’s crucial to promote your content to the right influencers by putting out high quality content. “Good link builders should focus on creating compelling, timely, and interesting content that you audience wants to share,” said O’Shaughnessy.
Businesses need to remember that content doesn’t exist solely for keyword stuffing. Content needs to be written with the audience in mind.
“With so many people creating mediocre content,” said Stephanie Fehrmann from Redefine Marketing Group, “it’s important for SEOs in 2019 to focus on creating content that people actually want to read.”
So what makes good content that people want to read? Rachel Lindteigen of Etched Marketing says readers want personal accounts.
“I believe we’ll continue to see a focus on storytelling with more emphasis on behind the scenes and personal accounts in marketing efforts due to the type of content we see on social media,” said Lindteigen. “I suspect we’ll see more of it everywhere moving forward.”
Adapt Your Content To Voice Search
“Digital marketing is continually evolving, improving, and producing a more significant ROI,” said Ryan Flannagan of Nuance Media.
There’s a common misconception that once you put your content out there, it’s out of your hands. But that isn’t necessarily true. Your content is malleable and you can always change it to adapt the content to your audience.
One of the ways to adapt your content is to use a more conversational tone. “Rethink keyword research and ensure you’re targeting conversational phrases which most people would use with assistants such as Google Home,” said Dan Honkanen of Rugged SEO.
“Look actively at voice search as queries become more conversational in nature using the Siri and Alexas of the world paying more attention to technical SEO — Speed, PWAs, Javascript,” said Prashant Deorah of Puretech Digital.
Don’t forget about adapting your website for mobile usability, either. “Fast loading pages, proper mobile optimization, and a valid SSL certificate are becoming more and more important in Google’s algorithm, and will become vital to ranking organically this year,” said Evan Ernst of Ernst Media.
Build Links Using Your Most Popular Content
Once you’ve created high-quality content and you’ve adapted it to voice search and mobile usability, it’s time to use your most popular content to your advantage.
“To refresh existing content, we segment pages — especially evergreen topics — that receive the most traffic,” Harrold continued. “Then we analyze performance, focusing on how visitors engage with the page.”
Create Tools And Programs To Build Relevant Links
“Link building is still very effective, but not as we once thought,” said Jonathan Alonso of CNC Machines. “[Build] relevant links by creating tools, scholarships, and other programs that can get picked up by relevant media.”
Scholarships and programs are considered a type of content creation and promotion. You’re creating unique, compelling content that people are naturally compelled to link to and tell people about.
These links also put your website in front of major influencers in your industry such as colleges or other popular bloggers that have a large following on social media.
Remember The Importance Of Internal Link Building
Paul Galido of Galido Networks says one of the most effective SEO strategies of 2019 is a responsive website and “relevant links.”
When businesses think of relevant links, they often forget about the relevance of their own internalized links. Internal links are not only effective for link building strategies but they’re also valuable for users who are interested in the information your website has to provide.
You can boost your internal links through anchor text, but remember to keep in mind the quality of the linking page and the page the link is aimed at. High-quality content and high-quality links go hand in hand.
It can be difficult to get your website to rank higher on search engines, but with high-quality content and quality link building you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and generate more traffic.
