SEO is often broken down into two parts: Content & Backlinks. If you are new to SEO, imagine it like this: On page SEO, like a well-designed website & writing good keyword optimised content, compared to building yourself a space shuttle. Pointing links to that content is like putting fuel in the rocket and turning on the ignition. Links are what fuels the rise in rankings in many cases. Constantly, there are debates about the impact links have on your SEO but they never fail if you build your shuttle correctly.

What are Backlinks?

They are a hyperlink from one website to another. It shows Google that your business/brand/website is building real relationships with other webmasters. Google’s endgame is to provide genuine, authoritative and informative content to its users. The more links to your website, in theory, means more trust, respect and authority in your field. If your website is rubbish or looks like it is riddled with viruses, nobody will want to link to it – on the flipside, if the content is relevant and useful, and the website looked amazing, you’re more likely to get a link. Google also looks at the Type & How Relevant your links are too, so you have to be particular about which website you want your website to be associated with

Links for SEO

The links that Google is looking for are authoritative and relevant. So it should be related to the topic of the page you’re trying to rank, and from a website that also has lots of links pointing to it/ has authority within its field. For example, We got several links from influential Edinburgh food blogs for The Black Hoof- A Spanish Restaurant in Edinburgh. This kills two birds because they are locally relevant (being Edinburgh/Scotland based food blogs) and they are also talking about food, and even more specifically, Spanish Restaurants.

Good link opportunities are high quality/regulated business directories (118, Thompson Local etc…). Make sure you choose directories that have a vetting process because websites where you can freely add links, are less effective and may land you a ‘spam score’ if you get a load, and loads of irrelevant and low authority links. Google may not punish you, but it will see your website is hanging about with the ‘wrong crowd’. These days, Google is better at working out bad/toxic links (meaning your SEO isn’t always detrimentally affected) but they should still be avoided. 1 good quality link is better than 10 rubbish ones.

Why are Links so difficult to get?

Imagine somebody emailed you out of the blue and said ‘Can you put a link from your website to mine?’. Most of the time I would imagine that ‘no’ would be the answer. You don’t know what that website is, and what benefit will it give your website? To overcome that reaction, you must demonstrate value to the other website. That is why creative & targeted content is so important. It is about finding an opportunity, create unique content and constructing your email to demonstrate your value.

How to get Good Links?

For example: ‘Hello there, Ahrefs. Today, I noticed that your page ‘Example’ (amazon.com/example) talks about link building? I am writing today to ask if you would be interested in attributing a link to our blog post; ‘Web Link Building’ (SEOfife.co.uk/web-link-building) which goes into more details on the topic. I think it would be great for your customers because it gives a really great insight into what is behind building great web links. 

Is this something you can do for us?

1. Tell them what part of their website you are emailing about
2. Tell them what you want/ask directly
3. Why is this of value to their website?

This is a weak generic example, but you can see the structure. It is your opportunity to get really creative about how you can demonstrate real value. A little bit of advice I was given many years ago was to ‘write as if you were writing to somebody you respect, but you know they are busy’. Like a boss. If it’s too long they won’t reply so be direct and concise while still remaining polite.

We find that having initiative, being creative and unique draws the best results. Especially if you are spearheading a content-driven outreach strategy (like the example above) it could pay to think way outside the box and write about something nobody else has thought of/ go really long tail. Get right into the topic and create a really interesting piece of work. When you peak the interest of the webmasters and consumers, your content is more likely to draw in links.

Something that it is often overlooked in link building is making real-world connections. It is a really good way to get some links. Use the real world exposure as much as you can. You can tie in your real-world marketing into your link building strategy.

Get yourself onto Reddit or facebook and talk to other people involved in your topic, once again demonstrate your value and use that as an opportunity you work and directly ask if a link can be attributed. Obviously, you have to be genuine. Make friends naturally and network… just like real-world marketing. It is a lot of work, but what is it worth if it was easy?

An example of this working was part of an e-commerce project recently. We contacted niche and relevant publications and asked to feature an interview (you could try to send products for review but that is how Expedia got their penalty so you have to be careful). Some may say this is comparable to buying links, (which is kinda true) but it is a way to demonstrate value and also get some brand awareness. Why not!?

Technical outreach like broken link building, un-linked mentions and advanced content techniques we will keep up our sleeve. Don’t want to be sharing all of our secrets now, do we?!

Bad practice is rife in website link building services. With anything that takes lots of time & is hard, it is easy to take shortcuts to match client expectations or for quick wins. Unfortunately, if you put bad fuel in your shuttle, you are going to explode at some point. In the ‘good old days’ of 2000’s SEO, webmasters could employ or create networks of websites and domains which had the sole purpose of providing a tone of links to their own, or a client’s website. Google is catching and cracking down on the ‘cheating’ but SEO’s are also getting smarter…or more despite. Take your pick.

PBNs

Private Blog Networks (PBN’s) are a common strategy for link building with ‘grey hat’ SEOs. PBN’s are a collection of websites that you own (or are owned by somebody else/a collection of people) that only really exist as a tool to provide links for SEO. If I owned ten websites selling SEO services, I would point them at this site, and Google will think I am really authoritative and that my site has lots of friends; in reality, you are linking to yourself. If you are a pro/know what you are doing, a PBN could be very effective at fooling the Google algorithm. Although, it does take a tone of time, can cost a bomb (with your domains, separate hosting systems etc… all designed to avoid Google’s punishing eye) it may help you rank a client website, or make you a tone of money from affiliate or eCommerce websites.

Sounds amazing, right? Up front hard work to get easy links that you can control? You’re right. It is amazing. The big issue is that it is a direct contradiction to the rules of Google’s game & can land you a manual penalty or for your websites to be deindexed. If Google catches you ‘cheating’,  your website/websites could be wiped from Google and ruin all the hard work you have put in. Playing with a PBN with your own website is a pain for white-hat SEOs but long as the risk is worth it, the technique is fair-game. It is, however, unforgivable if an SEO or agency use a PBN for a client because it could extinguish their livelihood. It isn’t really fair to risk somebody else’s business like that.

 A couple of the most visible SEO’s in Scotland have bragging the rights to say they are either top, or first page of the ‘SEO Scotland’, ‘SEO Edinburgh/ Glasgow” terms and it is fairly obvious that they have to use a network of PBNs between them (being top for SEO terms serves as an example of how good you do your work).

There was an article openly endorsing the use of the technique published recently with an associate of SEMrush, and there are some good points made but we would prefer to make solid foundations and a start with a robust long-term approach. You know what happens to castles made on sand.