Do I Need Link Building to Rank in Search?

In one word, yes.

Why do you need link building?

Every day people make more than 85 billion searches on Google, and the only way to ensure your site or business is visible to audiences is to rank higher in the search engines. This is easier said than done, especially now that Google changes its results pages. However, all hope is not lost. According to a study by Ahrefs, 94 percent of online content has no external links, and more than 90 percent of web pages don’t get any organic search traffic. As noisy as the market is, there’s still the opportunity to raise your rankings.Usually, when people want to do this, they think of things like SEO content, the page's user experience, and how well the site loads on mobile phones, amongst other things. However, something else matters, and that is link building.Link building is a way of increasing traffic to your page by getting hyperlinks of your site posted on other high authority websites. These links that connect other websites to your own are referred to as backlinks. These backlinks help Google and other search engines rank and categorize your website. The keys to link building are the link’s quality and the anchor, or words linked to, that determine how the link will benefit your SEO.

Benefits of link building for your website

Brand Awareness

Link building helps you improve your brand's visibility and authority. This is a simple correlation — if more top sites hyperlink your webpage, people will begin to see your brand as a leading site for information. As time goes on, and this continues, the number of people who search directly for you will increase. This is because the brand becomes synonymous with particular niche information, which is the ultimate goal for any website. Of course, it’s not just about SEO rankings but we’re here to discuss those, so you can visit our media relations and social media content to see other tactics that work for brand awareness.

Increased sales

If you offer a service or product, having increased brand awareness should translate directly to sales. To sell on the e-space, you do not necessarily need to reach the general population; you just need to reach a targeted one. Link building helps you do this because if your website is linked to other related pages, the problem of finding targeted traffic is already solved. All you need to do now is sell to them and keep them invested when they come to your page. Further, the increased awareness drives more traffic to your site increasing its reach. This leads us to…

Enhanced traffic to your website

This one goes without saying because that is the primary goal for any website. If you do link building properly, more people will come to your website, causing an increase in your rank on search reports. If more people know your website, they will be more likely to backlink it without you actively campaigning for it. As we mentioned earlier, this is very important for search engine algorithms as they will deem your site relevant, thus ranking them higher.

Your bounce rate becomes lower

Bounce rate is the ratio of people who effectively read through and engage a website to those who don't. Driving traffic to your site is one thing but getting people to stay is another. When your website is backlinked from another highly relevant site and is clicked, this means that someone is searching for specific content or information. So, they are more likely to navigate your website more thoroughly.

Establishes credibility

Another reason you need link building is the fact that it gives your business/website credibility. Your site will be seen as a trusted one, especially when it comes from sites that are seen as an authority. Look at it like this, Google 'knows' credible sites, and if these sites backlink to your site, any search engine will automatically see your site as credible too. Again, we're talking about digital marketing in this article but the gold standard of credibility building is always going to be media relations. Some may argue with us on that, but we're holding firm. Don't believe us? Check out our portfolio for examples.

Wrong practices in link building

You may be thinking that the more backlinks you have to your website, the better you will rank. Well, it is not that easier. People have been known to abuse this. Let us point out some practices that you should avoid at all costs.

• Hidden links: these are links on pages that people can't see. In SEO, it is considered deceptive and a Google Webmaster Violation
• Doorway pages: these are pages that are misleading and don't direct you to the correct search keyword they fall under
• Link Schemes: this can include anything from link spamming to buying and selling links

To ensure link building works for your business, you must organically build your links by creating content and infographics, using directories, commenting on authority websites, and promoting your website's content.Need some help? We're here. Let us know how we can assist you by filling out this form.