How to build links back to your new website

Getting your new website up and running with a web design that is fresh, modern and functional is an important milestone. The next step is to ensure that as many people as possible see the fruits of your labour and that’s where link building comes in.Link building is important for two reasons; think of each link as a pathway or road into your website. The more you have, the more ways internet users can find you make their way to your site. Links are also critical to search engine optimisation success, and that also means better visibility when Google users are conducting a search for your exact product or service. So, how do you go about building links?

1. Have a plan There is no way to sugar coat it – link building can be hard. Competition for links is intense due to their importance to site owners and, that means lots of your rivals will be jockeying for the same links as you. Having a plan in place before you start the link building process means you can proceed in a strategic manner. Your plan should detail the kind of links you want to build, have a rundown of appropriate anchor text, list pages that should be linked to and even shortlist those sites you’re targeting for that all-important referral. 2. Do your research The task of link building is never complete so you’ll need to factor in time at regular intervals to research link partners. This could mean keeping abreast of bloggers and media outlets in your field. More likely, you’ll also want to keep a close eye on where competitors are getting their links from. There are lots of software programs around which take the leg work out of this for you and will result in a spreadsheet of domains linking back to selected rivals that you can then use for your own link building efforts.
3. Get your outreach right There are many ways to reach out for a link so you’ll want to test a few and use a variety of methods in rotation to get the best results. You may send a PR out to relevant media for example in the hope of building up a store of industry links or, you may offer a free product sample to bloggers for review purposes and create links that way. Building citations is another option, as is joining local networking associations or chambers of commerce.
4. Create link worthy content One of the most important elements in successful link building is regularly creating content pieces that are actually worth linking to. That could mean topical articles or educational pieces such as whitepapers. Opinion pieces, interviews and videos are also worth considering too. Just keep in mind that the better quality your content, the more likely it is that others will want to link back to it and promote to their own audiences.