Last Updated on January 15, 2021 by msj484
…here we go!
Link building… this is by far one of our most topics to talk about here at Nomvo.com. Why? Since this aspect of digital marketing is probably one of the most dynamic areas when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). In addition to that, it’s essential to keep in mind that one single link from a highly authoritative and related website can be the difference between ranking #1 for your target keyword and not ranking top100 in the search engines. Such a link can bring in tons of referral traffic for literally years and possibly be the determining factor for someone to choose your website as a preference over one of your competitors.
Source: wpresstic.com
With that type of importance and impact from one potential link, someone might think that this area of online marketing would be clearly understood and overused by competitors… but quite the opposite is the reality. Of all the requests we receive from visitors to Nomvo.com, a better understanding of and acquiring non-blackhat links has to be by far the most requested topic. It’s for that reason that we’d like to address one of the requests we often receive… that is, whether or not it’s worth investing in a high-quality backlink package or service from one of the many link building agencies currently advertising these services. To address that and similar topics, below, you’ll find four ways we’ve noticed that building quality backlinks or working with a link building company can impact both your business and custom acquisition.
#1: Improved Organic Rankings – Positive Impact
As mentioned above, having a handful of well-chosen and sought after links can make a drastic impact on rankings for both new and old websites. When you find a company that offers a link building package, don’t just focus on the numbers that they advertise or the projects they might provide you with. Instead, ask for current examples of websites and keywords that experienced an improvement as well as examples of good backlinks supplied to other clients in the RECENT past.
Source: buildalittlebiz.com
Doing this could be the difference between you having better rankings across the board for a number of your keywords, not just the ones associated with the page(s) that received the backlink. As we’ve discussed in other areas of Nomvo.com, a few good links can positively impact the rankings and authority across an entire website.
#2: Un-Natural Backlink Penalty – Negative Impact
Obviously, there are tons of ways to get backlinks for websites in a variety of industries, but the goal is not to get as many links as possible… but as mentioned, the goal is to get QUALITY links. Overlooking this simple, age-old step can be the difference between a website being penalized by a search engine.
Source: gochange.it
If you’re wondering why we’re even talking about this type of link building and the negative impact… we felt we had to address it because truthfully, many, if not most, backlink packages include some form of spammy blackhat practices that can kill a website’s presence online as it relates to rankings in the organic listings of the search engines.
#3: Referral Traffic – Positive Impact
This is probably one of the most overlooked positive aspects of link building, referral traffic. It’s one of those areas of online marketing that sadly isn’t talked about much, neglected, and undervalued. However, once a person has a steady flow of referral traffic, it’s a channel that is both measured positively manipulated.
So if you’re considering purchasing a link building package, it might be helpful to ask for specific examples and websites that will be targeted for link building so you can check their popularity; in the social media space via Alexa and organic rankings. Added to the direct referral traffic you can receive from a high traffic website, it’s very likely that the content on such a website/blog will be syndicated and posted on other websites, resulting in your link being added to other sites as well.
Finally, as it relates to social media and the signals that such a high traffic website might received… every time the content is shared, liked, retweeted, followed, etc… you’re social media portfolio will be improved as well, which will help your site in several ways that is covered in a different article about the impact social media has on the organic SERPs.
#4: Low Quality Backlinks – Negative Impact
Above we already addressed un-natural link building, but this is a bit different. Another popular link tactic used by agencies and contractors is building low quality links; just to be able to tell their client a link(s) was built. Many times this is done using software or an assistant/intern that can simply type in a link, give it a title, and a brief description. That doesn’t mean that these types of links are always bad; a good example is listings in a local business directory. When it comes to local search terms, listings on those types of websites significantly impact how Google and other search engines rank their top10 as well as listings shown in the map format… like Google Places listings.
Source: tnooz.com
However, it’s important to know some of the most comment identifiers for understanding what a low-quality link is or not. When looking at the linking page/website:
Does the website/page offer any UNIQUE content that actually helps a person?
Is the content on the page 100% original, or taken/copied from another website?
How old is the website?
Does it appear that it was made to simply link to other websites?
Does it link to websites from just about ANY industry you can find on and offline? (This isn’t always bad, Wikipedia is an excellent example of doing this the right way, meaning the website is structured correctly with the intent of giving factual/informative information… not creating a bunch of links)
Does it rank for anything in the search engines?
Does the website have any REAL social signals?
Do any authoritative websites link to or feature the site?
Does their backlink profile appear to be spammy?
Does the website relate to your industry in any way, shape, or form?
Based on the answers you come up with from these and similar questions, you should be able to clearly determine whether or not a site linking to you is low quality or not. Some skeptics will go onto say that these types of websites get them results and page one rankings in the search engines, and to be honest… they’re probably right.
However, you have to decide what’s more important to you. Ranking a website while following the TOS for a specific search engine OR using whatever method/tactic possible to get the rankings you want no matter how short term and short-sighted the way of building links might be.
Conclusion:
If you came here to decide whether or not you should purchase a backlink service, hopefully, the above information will help you see how such a package can impact your business one way or another. Our recommendations to everyone is to do link building yourself since links are a primary part of the foundation for any website looking to maintain and increase organic traffic.
Source: xactsoft.com
If you’re not in a position to learn how to do this, or you simply don’t want to… there are plenty of good marketing companies out there that can do the job for you. Just make sure you ask the right questions, keep a close eye on what they do, and know that there are at least 4 ways link building can impact your business and customer acquisition, negatively or positively. Nomvo!
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions):
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How much does link building cost?
Link building can range anywhere from $100 – $50,000 per month or more. The actual cost for backlinks largely depends on the number of links needed, the niche and types of keywords you’re hoping to rank for, as well as the kind of links being used.
Rather than just looking at what the cost of a link building campaign might be, a better use of time resources is usually getting answers to the following questions:
a) Is the content of my website, and are the products/services being offered with getting high quality links from other websites?
b) If considering buying services from SEO agencies, are the link strategies they use white hat, or are they outsourcing this service and selling it as white label link building?
c) Will the focus be on building quality backlinks AND a supportive content marketing strategy?
d) Is an outsourced link building service really needed, and if so, will the strategy used be safe both short and long term?
e) Will the best link building strategy be used? Some of the most common are listed below, although not necessarily recommended:
Broken Link Building – Finding and removing broken links.
Guest Posting – Writing or sponsoring high quality content, and getting relevant white hat links placed in that content.
Blogger Outreach – Reaching out to bloggers to work with them for links and content, for short term and long term link building strategies.
Press Release Links
Links In Case Studies
Link Profile Cleanup – Find blackhat and toxic backlinks to remove or disavow, and replace them with links that come from white label link building services.
Content Marketing & Content Creation – To encourage organic link acquisition, doing this the old fashion way, creating useful content to earn links.
Citation Building – Often includes a backlink.
Avoiding Spammy Links – An ongoing link building strategy that is ignored too often when working with an SEO agency that is merely selling white label link services.
Consultations With Link Building Experts – Having an expert monitor link acquisition is a great way to ensure that quality white hat links are what is being built for a website.
Buying Links – Either paying for one of the services above or getting contextual links placed in content.
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Does link building still work?
Link building works in 2021; it is not dead. When looking at and considering some of the most impactful ways to rank well in search engines, backlinks are arguably at the top of the list. For any business or individual that is investing in link building services, but is not ranking well in the search engines or continues to see their backlink profile get worse… the issue is the SEO agency and the links being acquired.
Simply put, if the goal is to increase organic traffic via the search engines… improving the backlink profile of the target site is a requirement by way of tried and tested link building strategies.
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What is white label link building?
White label links are backlinks that are sold by SEO agencies but are fulfilled by 3rd party link building companies. Often times, white label links are confused with white hat links and white hat acquisition of links.
Understanding the difference between these two is vital because most people view quality white HAT links as the best type of link to pursue. However, if there is confusion here, white LABEL links might be sought after, although many popular link services offer low quality backlinks.
- Should I pay for backlinks?
To buy links hoping to rank better in the search engines is a common strategy for SEO, but should you? Rather than focusing on backlink building by simply paying for them, it’s better to look for the best way to invest resources into link building efforts that will create an acceptable ROI.
When considering investing in link building services, it’s important to keep in mind that there are other important aspects of the link building strategy that must not be overlooked. That includes things like content marketing, only working with high quality link sources, keyword research, and other full service SEO tactics and monitoring.
- What are link building strategies?
Link building focuses on gaining or building links from other websites as a hyperlink; as backlinks as coined in the SEO (search engine optimization) digital marketing industry. These services from vendors and SEO agencies include tactics such as high quality content marketing, broken link building (finding links that no longer work on other sites to be replaced with working links), guest posting, backlink profile cleanup (removing spammy/harmful links), publishing and promoting business case studies, blogger outreach, press release campaigns, and other link building strategies.
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Does backlinking still work 2021?
Backlinks still work very well in 2021, as long as they are quality links that are both relevant (very important) and accompanied by quality content; in most cases. With that said, if you’re considering working with one of the SEO agencies that recently reached out to you or paying for link building services from a link building agency… building links is still a good idea in 2021 if done naturally and logically.
Some of the most common strategies that link building companies use include content marketing (it creates organic link growth), guest posting, publishing and creating quality content, blogger outreach, and tons of other creative ways to generate natural inbound links.
- What is the best link building strategy?
The best link building strategy that any website can use to help their site more useful and relevant to their target audience is one that is focused on users, and not search engine rankings. Far too often we get complaints from companies and website owners that have invested in what they were told were the best link building service providers to only end up with no positive impact on their business, website traffic, or investment of time and resources.
There is no one strategy that is best and serves as a one size fits all strategy when it comes to building links to your website. If you’ve been told otherwise, we highly suggest you quickly go in the opposite of any link building agency or expert that suggests that.
- What are the benefits of link building?
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- You can acquire links from quality and related websites.
- It results in services SEO agency experts provide.
- Quality link building is one of the top ways to get new links from other web pages that help with SEO rankings & brand awareness; which results in relevant and quality traffic.
- They help get creative content and quality websites like yours to get discovered.
- A link building service can help you get thousands of links from high domain authority quality websites.
- Learn more from SEO announcements found here from SearchEngineLand: Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Phone (203) 664-1350 [for advertising].
- How do links to your site help you?
Using link building tactics to help your website get placed on related and high authority websites and brands in your industry can bring in quality organic traffic. Whether that means you do manual link building or pay for some of the best link building services SEO companies offer website owners, if the focus is on getting high quality backlinks… it’s a great investment. Having thousands of links from relevant sites with a high domain authority will create all of the SEO success you’re looking forward to, regardless of what your SEO goals are.
- How do I get high quality backlinks?
High quality backlinks should always be part of the best link building tactics that can be used to improve search engine optimization rankings. Here are a few ways to do it successfully:
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- Only build links to very high quality pages .
- Don’t assume every link building service provided by an SEO agency is in your best interest.
- Have a balanced viewpoint and approach to link building; quality links aren’t usually cheap, they’re not always easy to get, but they can be massively profitable when done right.
- Cookie-cutter link building packages are almost always always always a bad idea.
- Quality link building should generally be coupled with an SEO service and strategy.
- Not all link building tactics are created equal.
- Link earning is ALWAYS better than link building.
- Not all link builders are created equal.
- Most guest posting services are very risky.
- If you outsource your link building to an SEO agency, get lots of proof of their work prior to paying them anything.
- How many backlinks do I need to rank?
Ranking in the search engines using backlinks is really based on the keyword. Far too often you’ll find digital marketing companies offering their link building service with 10, 40, 50, or even 100+ backlinks without even considering the keyword target. With that said, be sure that you’re working with a link building provider that don’t use black hat SEO strategies as described above, but instead one that uses white hat SEO tactics.
- What is an example of a backlink?
Backlinks are nothing more than a hyperlink that is included in the content of one website that is linking to another. Often times you’ll see these kinds of links in informational types of articles, guest posts, and blog posts. If you’re looking to building your own backlinks using manual outreach or hire an agency that provides these kinds of marketing services… be sure to avoid linking strategies that create links automatically using SEO tools. Far too often we see agencies advertising this kind of service, but they end up doing a terrible job or creating other issues.
- How do I get people to link to my website?
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- Get people to link to your site by using guest posting link building tactics.
- Create a case study that is useful for your target audience; people will share and link to it.
- Focus on having a useful website more than search rankings.
- Don’t overlook how valuable a scheduled blog post strategy is to your target audience.
- Do some manual outreach, and ask for a link; believe it or not it still works very well.
- How many backlinks per day is safe?
A safe backlink acquisition strategy is to focus first on a quality website and quality content. From there, if you’re getting lots of links by contributing guest posts to the various blog posts on your site… we’ve seen that it’s OK to do that, as long as automated software is not being used. For example, if you have 1 guest post go live on 200-300 different websites in a month to a lot of different blog posts one website, that should be just fine. However, having 100s of links that are from low quality websites, even if using a guest post strategy, go to 1 page of your site you’re focused on… you’ll probably run into issues.
- How can I make backlinks faster?
To create backlinks in the fastest way possible, you’ll need to not ignore the following best practices:
- Help from an in-house team that has experience working with high profile sites known to publish quality content, even if it’s specific niche content.
- Expert link building consultants or vendors that have years of experience building white hat links successfully or their clients over a long period of time. Working with a company that provides fully managed custom or branded link building (including content creation and optimization), as well as SEO audits that track the SEO performance of their link building campaigns.
- To not ignore important elements of successful white link building such as reviewing and learning from case studies, depending on and using frequent SEO audit reports to track progress, getting familiar with organic search trends for target keywords, planning for penalty recovery strategies for pages that won’t rank, starting every link campaign with keyword research, and not ignoring how powerful earning links is. (More often than not, we hear of reports from businesses that hire a link building agency that ignores the importance of making sure the website receiving links actually has linkable assets as a primary method to acquire links; which is a mistake that often results in a Google penalty.)
- When outsourcing link building work, be sure to only hire a link building agency that has experience in a multitude of fully managed data driven link building strategies, and that offers custom services suited to your particular industry, budget, and goals.
- Run away from any link building agency or expert that does not look at the search results for your target keywords BEFORE talking about pricing. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself simply paying for a vendor to go through the motions of simply selling you blog link campaigns from black hat sites & low quality guest post service providers. Often times these types of strategies are an update away from the end result not being improved rankings, but a Google penalty since these methods generally focus on the number of links rather than quality services SEO companies like this SHOULD BE offering. Just keep in mind that you want white hat link building associated with your site, not links from sites looking to do nothing more than sell external links on their site regardless of whether or not you benefit from organic search rankings.
- What are good backlinks?
Backlinks that are earned as a result of your site having quality and useful blog posts, or contributing content to other sites that accept guest posts is a great way to get links. Whether you’re in the B2B, B2c, small business, enterprise, or ecommerce SEO industry, the above strategy should be just fine. That said, if you’re not familiar with getting links from guest post partnerships… take a look at Nomvo.com for a few different ideas.
- How many backlinks is too many?
Since YouTube.com has more than 33 BILLION backlinks at this time, with more than 23 MILLION different sites linking to them, and they do very well as it relates to SEO and organic traffic… this isn’t really a question any business should be concerned about.
With that said, when it comes to how many links a site should try to acquire “safely,” it’s important to keep in mind a few data driven best practices such as:
- Learn from the white hat link building case studies of other websites. (If you don’t know of any, ask your link building agency or SEO expert on your team to provide some)
- Do not ignore the value of performing an SEO audit at the start of your path to earning links. It will serve as a way to learn from what your competitors are doing as it relates to how well they implement SEO best practices, technical SEO on their site gives a record of your progress in case you need to do any Google penalty recovery as a result of your link building, and just give you very helpful information that is data driven.
- Remember that at this time local SEO and national SEO strategies, which include link building have some differences that should not be ignored; otherwise you might be headed towards implementing a strategy that results in a Google penalty.
- How long do backlinks take to work?
10 weeks, 1 week, 4 weeks, or longer? While it takes time to both build links and have them “work” or help with your organic search rankings, there is no one size fits all answer to that frequently asked question. We understand that your link building agency might hint at or suggest that you should see some movement in the search engines after a set period of time but numerous experiences and case studies have proven over the years that it really depends on a number of factors. Things to consider when trying to gauge how long it takes for backlinks to work are:
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- Is the website receiving the links under some form of a Google penalty?
- Were the links acquired a result of earning links or simply the result of guest post service?
- More often than not, sites that sell links are dealing with their own penalty recovery issues because they ignore SEO best practices… you know… things like relevancy, original content, technical SEO rules, etc.
- When is the last time an SEO audit done for the website receiving the links, and will SEO audits be done in a systematic way for the life of the linking campaign?
- Are the links building built for a website focused specifically on keywords that need a local SEO strategy, or will a national ranking strategy be better suited for the website in question?
- What is a backlink strategy?
Backlink strategies should be part of any national or local SEO digital marketing campaign. While it is important that a business make sure their website, content, and product/service are of the highest caliber BEFORE investing in SEO, earning links with a calculated strategy greatly increases the likelihood of success; aka… not having to worry about dealing with search engine penalty recovery issues.
When thinking about and link building for your website, aside from actually getting links, you’ll also want to not ignore how important and impactful things like technical SEO, SEO audits, reviewing and/or creating case studies, and quality content creation is.
- How can I create backlinks for free?
A few ways to get free backlinks for your website are as follows:
- Build relationships with websites that are known to create backlinks for sites they value, trust, and know. Of course you first need to identify these sites after doing an analysis of multiple sites relevant to your industry, but it’s worth it.
- Send emails to sites that already link to you or a competitor to find if there are more ways to work together in this way. By simply reaching out to them and getting familiar with them builds the connection needed to ultimately get backlinks for free without even having to ask for them.
- Email your customers that you know have a website, and find out the ideal topics you should cover on your website when creating new content. From there, the suggestions provided can guide you as you create useful content for your target audience and you can follow up with them by sending out a monthly newsletter that highlights subjects you’ve covered with them in mind.
- Make sure that internal links are integrated within existing content on your website. That way, there is a much greater chance of pages that might otherwise be hidden, and lacking links will be found by your readers and you can earn more links if the content is both helpful and discoverable by them.
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Link Building Service Risks
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Can backlinks hurt your site while investing in a link building service?
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How do I check if link building company services are successful?
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How do I get edu backlinks via link building?