Backlinks. One of the most debated yet effective SEO strategies for new and old websites alike. Experts discuss the topic in every 10th article. Some say if you do it wisely, you can get your project to the top in the shortest time. Others say that Google is too smart for that.
We’ll discover the first variant because let's be honest, almost all sources promote this way. You can either write a guest post and request a link posted inside of it or at the end. There are also possibilities to build links on mentions that don’t have hyperlinks yet.
Some people even discuss mentions in articles with their competitors to beat them.
The opportunities are limitless, and if you’re not seizing it, the path to the top of SERPs (search engine result pages) will be much longer and contain more obstacles.
Paid backlinks are another topic that is frowned upon but is still used. And it will be used in 2021 when at least half of businesses transfer online and strive to fill their niche.
The New Age of Paid Links
Many experts say you should avoid buying backlinks. However, they mean the initial method of doing it. People used to buy links in bundles, independent of the quality of the website they are posted on.
As a result, your site would be mentioned by spammy, penalized sources, which wouldn’t really help it get to a higher ranking. Moreover, this would make the site drop and probably get a penalty from Google.
Nowadays, if you want to buy backlinks, it’s a whole other process. After finding a decent link-building company, you pay professionals in SEO and copywriting for inserting links into high-quality posts.
Basically, you pay for the time of specialists in link-building. Otherwise, you would have spent it:
- Building a strategy;
- Looking for proper websites and blogs;
- Negotiating terms with them;
- Writing articles, etc.
Every respected backlink company has a base of blogs to cooperate with. They also can offer you copywriting services, creating amazing articles about your company and the industry you’re working in.
Isn’t It a Poor Investment?
It’s not if you’re investing wisely. This means:
- Taking link-building seriously;
- Choosing a reliable, reasonably priced company;
- Participating in the control of every posted link if possible;
- Monitoring and analyzing your backlink profile;
- Balancing it with other promotional techniques.
Some webmasters don’t take link-building seriously, thinking that readers don’t care about guest posts or other mentions. However, most people are on their smartphones at any given moment, looking for a service, product, checking a company for reliability, etc.
You have to be in their sight, having links in/on:
- Websites with your niche as the main topic;
- Social media of people who are thought-leaders or experts in the sector;
- Articles people are interested in with useful recommendations;
- TOP articles with selections of the best products, services, or businesses, etc.
Going on to the next point, you need a trustworthy ally to achieve results, but we’ve already covered this topic. The point about quality control refers to the quality of the company as well.
As to the monitoring, you have to do it once a month. Simply seeing where you could have gone wrong may bring you to the top in a week or so! Use online tools, create notifications with the help of Google Alerts, fill every “hole” there is suitable for your link.
You should also balance this tactic with other methods of promotion you use. An article by myfrugalbusiness.com explains clearly how many backlinks you need to get to the top. Don’t overdo it, because this will seem suspicious to Google.
Making Sure Paid Backlinks Work for You in 2021
Backlinks aren’t going anywhere, whether you get them naturally or buy a portion. Here are some steps to consider doing this year to make sure your strategy works and it’s as automated as it can be:
- Create relative content.
No matter how great the backlink is, if your website doesn’t have what people want, they will leave. And search engines pay attention to such metrics. If there are many visitors to your website that leave after seeing one page, that’s not a good thing. They weren’t hooked (or they just found necessary info and left; it’s also an option). - Follow updates and trends.
Google updates its algorithms more frequently than you may think. Subscribe to blogs of experts in SEO and listen to them. Their assumptions may be the next big change you will have to accommodate. - Monitor the rating of the websites that link to you.
When building or buying backlinks, make sure you know their rating. Websites with poor reputations aren’t going to provide benefits to your project.
The bottom line is, backlinks even paid, are still a popular tactic that brings many websites to the highest tops of the windiest roads.