Every time you want to look for some information on the internet, you will go to a search engine such as Bing, Google or Ask, enter the search item and the search engine will provide the relevant websites to what you are looking for. So many different websites offer the same services but search engines choose to pick some websites over others. This is because of search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization is a collection of various techniques used by websites to obtain high rankings in search engines and this increases the number of visitors to the page. Most people will often click on the first five options given by the search engine and this is the aim of most websites. In order to run successful website online, you need as many people as possible in your target niche accessing your website and this is mostly the people searching for that specific search term or rather keyword.
There are various types of search engine optimization strategies
Black hat SEO
Black hat SEO has been often used in the past to raise the rankings of websites in search engines in a matter of hours. However, just as the name suggests, black hat SEO techniques are in conflict with search engine guidelines. They simply exploit weaknesses in the algorithms and get rankings for websites. Most search engines today are keen at sniffing out these black hat techniques. If the website is detected, it could be banned from the search engine.
White hat SEO
Although white hat SEO may take longer in getting top search engine rankings, websites that use white hat SEO maintain a great position in search engine rankings for much longer. White hat SEO is the recommended way of optimizing your website using the search engine guidelines. Search engines such as Google love white hat SEO websites. There are various white hat SEO techniques such as links, social media posting, Meta tags, inner pages and so on.
Link building
Link building is one of the most important search engine optimization techniques. Link building is a challenging SEO skill, in the past people have opted for quick and easy black hat SEO techniques by creating many spam links. Today however, search engine algorithms have improved to valuing quality rather than quantity. Therefore, it is essential to build quality links from relevant and authoritative sites in order to get high ranks. Link building involves a combination of skills such as:
- Content creation
- Sales and marketing
- Psychology
- Programming
The following are some Link Building tactics that you can use for your site
Research your competitors
Your competitors can be a good source of where to find the best links that are relevant to your website. You can ride the success of your competitors with obtainable links such as high quality niche directories. You can even get links from indirect competitors that sell products similar to yours. A for instance if you sell make up, you can find great links from other businesses that sell make up application services.
Use profile links
Some websites will allow you to create a link when you open a profile. You can use social media profiles to link or open profiles in niche-related websites where you can get direct or indirect links.
Link out
If you are not in a very competitive industry, you can link out and enjoy the returned favor from the competitor that you link out to. You can use linking out to gain favor with other businesses.
Get quality content
Social media, brand awareness and content marketing are very crucial to link building. You need to find the right people to write content that will attract people to your brand. You should consider segmenting your content in order to increase its readability. You should also avoid using content that has a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes. Make sure that your content is timeless so you content can be rediscovered and linked again in future. If you can offer content in more than one language for the non-English speaking readers, you can also get more traction.
Create a blog
Posting content consistently builds internal links as well as attracting links naturally to your content. You can even use the blog for linking out to other competitors.
Webinars
You can also attract links naturally by conducting a webinar at least once every month. Create a page on your site that is dedicated to webinars and you can enjoy attracting links on a long-term basis.
Create free online tools
Most people like using and sharing free things online. You can create simple online tools such as calendars and calculators in order to attract links. Many people will use these tools and share them with friends online.
Quizzes and tests
You have probably received countless requests to participate in quizzes and tests on your social media pages or through your emails. These tests attract quite a lot of links. People like to test their knowledge and see how well they perform in comparison to their friends or family. Quizzes and tests are a huge hit for building links.
Creating micro sites
Fun micro sites can be a great way to attract links back to your main site. Micro sites do not have to be very fancy therefore do not be worried about making too big of an investment. Simple interfaces that are easy to navigate with at least a link back to your site will do.
Update old content
There may be some information that still gets traffic especially if you used a highly searched keyword. However, this content may not be able to link back if it is outdates and useless to the reader. Updating this information can help you take advantage of the high traffic that this old content still attracts.
Conclusion
There are so many ways through which you can use links to optimize your website for search engines. The key to great link building is being proactive. An active website with great content that is regularly updated and has useful tools to internet users can attract many valuable links and eventually gain top rankings on search engines.
Author Bio: Lalit Sharma is an SEO consultant who runs a SEO house called Ranking By SEO. He is specialized in link building and other SEO related activities. You can also find him on Twitter, Google+ and his personal blog.