Remember your thesis paper? One of the most important facets of completing it included collating all references used into one properly-formatted list. It was tedious, but you fought on knowing how important authenticity and credibility are in any piece of work. This could also be observed in the digital space, particularly in marketing.
If ensuring the credibility of information in published research papers through properly cited references is important, presenting information in today’s digital age is the same. One of the ways some sources are presented (because not everyone is akin to skimming entire pages for APA or MLA-cited sources) is through linking back to the original source via a link or URL. This is known as link building. Link building doesn’t just help in proving credibility; it also improves a brand’s chances of visibility by ensuring higher rankings in search engine results.
In this post, we talk about how your brand can get started on link-building for your own blog to hit goals like brand awareness and visibility.
The Basics of Link Building
Link building is the process of using external links or using URLs that link to other websites not native to the pages on your website or own domain. This is often done by backlinking or linking one website to another using anchor text or relevant bits of text. In contrast, using internal links means linking your own web pages to content where it may be relevant. For link building, external links are best.
Having these links for link building is one of the major ranking factors in Google. Search engines consider backlinks as references that enhance the authority and credibility of a page, pushing them higher in the search results ranking list. It plays an important role in inviting more organic traffic to your website through search engines, particularly when it is built within your SEO and digital PR strategies.
Although pages with more backlinks tend to rank higher in the search list, brands and organizations must be wary of spammy link-building techniques. For instance, Google’s system detects the excessive use of links, linking unrelated words or phrases, and repetition of keywords as spam. It applies safety measures such as taking down deceptive sites to ensure that the searchers are not harmed or misled while accessing information. Accordingly, the prevalence of such misguided approaches in providing information causes searchers to be turned off by any content that feels unnatural. To achieve long-term organic search success, link building must be done with quality and relevance.
How do we tell whether a link is effective or not?
Going about link building
Each search engine has its own complex method to assess the value of each link. Having a good link is crucial to ensure that your link building strategy works. As such, the SEO and link-building community presented four main approaches to explore and achieve link building. It is, however, important to note that they are not always guaranteed to be successful. Assess how your brand performs when applying these approaches and adjust accordingly!
- One of the most common approaches to link building is through buying links or spending money to get the link you want. While some brands and organizations manage to get away with this, buying links is often not advisable for it is a ‘high risk, low reward’ venture. This approach could taint the trustworthiness of your website, or worse, penalize it. Without the proper technology for link building, it sets you up for more losses than gains.
- Adding links is also one way to link-building. It involves visiting another website and adding your link manually. However, the likelihood of getting significant results or a competitive advantage using this approach depends on the situation because your competitors could easily do the same. Still, this should be the bare minimum approach. It can be helpful in certain cases such as business directory submissions or social profile creation.
- Asking for links is another approach to link building. This is the process of coordinating with another website owner to get them to backlink your page. In a perfect world, other website owners would gladly accept a candid offer but brands and organizations allocate resources to these assets. Therefore, asking for links and entering such negotiations requires some kind of leverage, or better yet, an incentive to the other party involved.
- Finally, link building could also be done through earning links. As the name suggests, this is when other websites backlink any of your pages without anything in return; simply because they find your content relevant to them. Thus, it is considered to be cost-efficient and the most organic of these approaches.
“Earned links come as no magic; they require you to produce quality, trustworthy, relevant, and timely content every time so that other websites willingly mention and link your page.”
However, promising content does not instantly guarantee rich website traffic. In some cases, promotion is still needed. After all, what good is any content if your target audience never sees it?
This is where digital PR comes in handy.
Digital PR matters!
Digital PR refers to communication efforts that are mediated online: online publications, social media, virtual events, and more. Its main contrast against traditional PR is that it allows for two-way communication between organizations and the public.
As technology advances, so does PR. With all the exchanges and transactions taking place in the digital space, digital PR has proved helpful and necessary for brands and organizations to navigate the market better.
While there is potential, the key to success is intention. Brands and organizations must put in the consistent and quality work to be more visible to the public. Eventually, they grow their market and their market grows to trust them. Regardless of the quality of content and linkable assets, it is practical to consider digital PR to support your link-building strategy early on.
Launching your digital PR journey
A digital PR company can help in link building through digital content promotion which could be done in innovative ways:
Influencers and communities
A known tactic for link-building is tapping key persons in niche communities that are relevant to your brand. This includes collaborating with influential people and content creators that help amplify your content and digital marketing campaigns.
Advertising
No resources or efforts go to waste on content done on purpose. For this reason, it would be productive to go the extra mile and promote your content by using paid and targeted ads on various social media and online platforms for it to reach your target audience.
Growing the audience
Once your content reaches the audience, take the opportunity to build a sincere and genuine relationship with them. Digital PR gives you the agency to spark this relationship by compelling your audience to follow or subscribe to your channels so they could stay updated about you.
These are just a few ways to show how an effective digital PR strategy can boost your link-building efforts, so why not invest in consulting a reliable digital marketing agency?
NGP Integrated Marketing Communications (NGP-IMC) has been the PR and digital agency in the Philippines that prioritizes offering personalized, purposeful, and effective solutions to your communication needs. With a portfolio ranging from local, homegrown businesses to big, international corporations, we value sincerity in our partnerships to ensure that your stories are told and shared in meaningful ways.
Let’s connect your brand story today.