What is Link Building and Why it is Important in SEO?

November 24, 2020

Do you trust what a business says about itself more than what other people have to say about the business?

If you’re like most people, you give more merit to what others have to say than what the business says about itself. And that’s how search engines think.

When you think of it in those terms, the importance of link building begins to become clear. 
 

How Important is Link Building for SEO?
 

To put it bluntly, link building is very important for SEO. Long gone are the days when sites could buy backlinks to game the search system. You’ve got to earn those links now, which makes them just as important as ever. 

You can see this in the dramatic uptick in content marketing. Websites have realized they have to create a lot of quality content across a lot of channels to garner backlinks that boost search ranking. 

 

What is the Importance of Backlinks in SEO?
 

To Google, Bing and other search engines backlinks are what websites say about each other. It’s mostly a signal of trust and endorsement. One website is connecting their users to another website, creating a bridge. It’s like leaving a positive review for search bots to read. 

Those backlinks also inform search engines about the topical matter of the web page that’s linked. It’s why anchor text matters for SEO. Descriptive anchor text is also informative for users, creating a better experience.

Those are two very big reasons why backlinks matter for SEO. 

 

What is Inbound and Outbound Links in SEO?

Let’s take a step back and clarify a common misunderstanding about backlinks. There are so many terms for links that keeping them straight can be a challenge. Inbound link is just another name for a backlink. They can also be called incoming links.

Outbound links are a separate thing. These are the links going to other websites that you add to your pages. It’s your vote of confidence in another website that search engines take into consideration. 

 

What are some of the most popular types of link building?

There are a lot of SEO link building strategies, but some are more common than others. Below are a few examples.

Content Link Building
This is a very broad category. Basically, content link building includes any and all content that is created to encourage linking to your site. This can be content that is published on your website as well as other websites and social media platforms. 

Broken Link Building
This is an example of technical SEO. When links are broken it can have negative consequences for SEO. Broken link building involves identifying broken links, finding a good alternative for the link and making the changes.

Another take on broken link building is identifying broken links on other websites that you have targeted for backlinking. You can then reach out to the webmaster to alert them of the broken link and offer a link to your own site as an alternative. 

Reclamation Link Building
The opposite could be the case if you use reclamation link building. This is when you identify broken links to your website that are on another website. You can reach out to the webmaster to let them know the link is broken (which is bad for their SEO) and provide them with the correct link. It’s also a good idea to go a step further and even provide the suggested anchor text. 

Outbound Link Building
You also want to put some thought into which sites you link to and what anchor text is used since it’s a connection between your websites. Outbound links can also be used to encourage other sites to link to you.

Internal Link Building
The idea here is to improve your internal link structure and add links so that A.) it’s easier to navigate and encourages users to stay longer and B.) provides a clearer site architecture for the search bots.


SearchRPM can help you with a variety of link building strategies that can have a positive impact on your SEO.  Contact our team to line up a one-on-one consult. 


 

Article author

Michael Ramirez is the Founder of SearchRPM, an Austin, TX based search marketing company that’s well-versed in Search Engine Optimization best practices. You can follow Michael Ramirez on Twitter @searchrpm to see what he’s up to next.