Links are still a very important component of search engine optimisation. The Penguin update really tried to focus in on and make part of the algorithm, people who were trying to manipulate the rankings by getting a whole lot of back links.
So it is vital to keep a natural links profile, make sure you’ve got good quality links coming to your website from a variety of different places with a variety of different anchor texts. Use social media to get your audience back to your site. Article marketing and press releases are good ways to secure links, but avoid low quality content just to get a link.
Here are a few things you should know about link building strategies after Penguin:
Make your links natural.
If you have all the links coming to your website saying ‘planning for kids’ and every single link that points at your website has that specific anchor text or the specific keywords, Google is going to say, that’s not natural. You should be getting a whole lot of links pointing at your website saying ‘janesmith.com’. That is more natural. It’s ok to have some links through to your website with anchor text with the keywords you’re trying to rank for, but the vast majority probably wouldn’t be those.
They put in place a whole lot of rules to make sure that your link profile looks natural to Google. Getting links where it links back to that specific page is a good idea. Try to do it naturally. You may, for example, have a blog post with the keyword ‘Website User Experience’. You could make the title of the post ‘How to Create the Best User Experience’ rather than just ‘website user experience.’ That makes a bit more sense.
Link to someone else’s website.
You could link to someone else’s website. Let’s say you link to Dale Beaumont. By linking to his website, he’s getting a link which is great. But you’re also linking to him with his actual URL as the anchor text, which is natural, which is good. So he’ll get some good quality signals from there.
SEO will start to happen naturally.
It’s very easy to get caught up in this whole linking thing. It’s an important ranking factor, but as you start to create good quality content and people start to share it, you’ll get SEO start to happen naturally. By its very nature, people will start to share it.
You’ve got good quality material and you’ll get links and then that’s when it will build a bit of momentum. But if you can help it a bit along its way, that’s going to be good as well.
We just want to make sure we’ve got good quality links coming to our website from a variety of different places with a variety of different anchor texts and have it grow naturally over time.
Syndicate your content.
One of the best places you can start is just thinking about how you syndicate your content. You can get some of your links through your social media platforms. First think about where is your target market? Think about who it is you’re trying to attract.
You might be looking for mummy bloggers. That is your target market. The question to ask is, are they on LinkedIn? Are they on Google Plus? Are they on twitter? Maybe they’re not on LinkedIn. If that’s the case, don’t feel like you’re forced into setting up a social media platform on LinkedIn. The whole point of social media is to think about where your target market is and put good, useful, relevant content in front of them on those platforms. Then encourage those people to come back to your website.
Get your audience back to your website.
These social media platforms are a way to drive traffic back to your website. You don’t want to be building a platform or an audience on someone else’s platform. If your centre point is Facebook, and you’ve decided right, my whole strategy is I’m going to build up this Facebook page, I’m going to get all my users over here and this is my strategy.
The problem with that is Facebook can change the rules for whatever reason. They might decide, I don’t like what you’re doing over here, I’m going to cancel your Facebook account. You put one too many ads here or maybe they’re going to change the way people interact. You never know, because it’s on someone else’s platform.
All of these social media platforms should be feeding back to your website. That is the primary purpose, to get them back to your website, to get them to opt into your newsletter, get them to engage in the content on your site and let the social media platforms feed your site. That’s why it’s important to think about where your target market is. Only pick two or three social media platforms where your target market is.
As you create content, www.authoritycontent.com/. Take little snippets of it, post it on your Google Plus account. Say, hey, this is just a snippet, I’ve done a new post here and you can go check out more of it back at my site.
That is a good way to think about it. That is step one and a good way for you to start thinking about building some links. You create great quality content and then think, right, what are two or three platforms where people are engaging and let me build up a social media presence there. I will start sharing content that will push people back to my blog. That’s a better way to be thinking.
Many strategies for building links.
Let’s think about some other types of links. You may have heard about different strategies for building links. Oftentimes you’ll hear people say, that particular method is dead. A little while ago people said guest posts are now dead. Matt Cutts who is a Google engineer, a spokesperson for them came out recently and said, we’re targeting guest posts. Then a whole lot of people, particularly in the blogging industry said, oh, we shouldn’t be doing guest posts. This is horrible, it’s not good for SEO.
A few months ago the thing that was in Google sights was article marketing. Article marketing doesn’t work anymore. Before that it was press releases. Press releases don’t work anymore. With these different strategies, you’ll get a bit of rolling fear that comes around. Really what Google is trying to do is to target people doing something dodgy around those specific strategies.
Don’t try manipulation.
If someone is trying to manipulate the rankings by doing, low quality guest posts just for the sake of getting a link, then they’re going to squash that tactic. It just makes sense. Similarly, if someone is doing a press release and they’re doing it solely for linking, or if they’re just doing some article marketing just to get the link back to their website, it’s manipulation. Google doesn’t like it.
That doesn’t mean that these strategies or techniques are dead. Linking is still a very important part of the way the web works. It is a very important ranking factor. If you were offered a guest post on CNN, you’re not going to say, I’ve heard that guest posts don’t work anymore and I’m going to say no to CNN, or theage.com.au or something like that. You’re not going to turn away those types of links.
It’s the low quality, manipulative work that Google doesn’t like. So you still want to be doing some article marketing. You still want to be getting some press releases, you still want to do guest posts. You still want to get your friends, if you’ve got them, to make posts on their website linking back to your website.
Just follow the rules.
As long as you follow some basic rules, you’ll be fine with your link building strategies after Penguin. You want to make it look natural. You want to get a variety of links from a variety of different sources, so they’re not all one particular type of link. You want to get them with a variety of anchor text. So you don’t want them just saying the same keyword. You want to get them pointing to a variety of destinations, so different points on your website. It doesn’t link just to the home page, it links deep within your site.
If you follow those three rules: get a variety of sources, a variety of anchor text to a variety of different destinations, you’re going to be well set up. That’s going to keep you safe.
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