As we head on into 2019 it seems the murky waters of search engine optimization (SEO) are still no clearer for many marketers. While SEO is a crucial and important component of online success, the way in which to tackle it has been more mystery than anything else.
But tackle it businesses must. Some 94 percent of B2B buyers claim to search online before making a purchase, according to Accenture. On the consumer side, meanwhile, GE Capital Bank estimates that 81 percent of shoppers research online before making a decision to buy.
For any business seeking to grow its presence, and customer-base, online, achieving high-visibility in the relevant SERPs (search engine results pages) can be a crucial path for success. But with Google and other search engines keeping their algorithms close to their chest, marketing professionals are often left guessing which SEO tactics will drive the best results.
Factors such as declining organic traffic, high bounce rates, and decreasing off-page SEO are red flags signaling that it’s probably time for your business to revisit its SEO tactics.
One essential component for optimization is the number of inbound links to your website. However, there’s no question that building great inbound links is by no means an easy task. But when done successfully, you can expect it to significantly boost your SEO success.
Why? Not only do inbound links provide validation that your content is good (give yourself a nice little pat on the back), but they also signal to Google that your site is authoritative. And this is what makes your SEO rankings soar.
So without further ado, let’s get you started with some ways you can work on your inbound link strategy.
Maintain a regular blog
One of the best things you can do to improve your chances of ranking high in Google is to start creating regular, high-quality blog content.
While blogging is often viewed as a laborious, time-consuming task for marketers, good content can really make a huge difference to your sites SEO performance. This is due to a number of reasons, including keeping your website fresh and current, increasing the chance of keeping visitors on your website for longer, and also gives you the chance to target those all-important long-tail keywords.
Regular website blogs also provide an excellent opportunity to strengthen your internal-link strategy. If you’re regularly writing great topical content, other websites are likely to link to your page.
The proof is in the numbers. HubSpot discovered companies that have a blog on their website earn up to 97 percent more inbound links.
Another great way to increase internal-links via blogging is to write up weekly or monthly “round-up” content linking trusted sites. For example, you could write a blog on “10 content marketing blogs that will help you increase your visibility”, linking popular blogs and websites.
From this, you can then send a simple email to all those you have included, telling them how much of a great resource their blog was and that you have included it in your weekly round-up.
At the end of the email, mention how you would be very appreciative if they could cite, share or mention your blog. The likelihood is that they will, since you’ve mentioned their source as a leader in the market.
The power of guest blogging
We’ve discussed how maintaining a regular blog on your own website is great for building internal links- but now let’s talk about guest blogging.
Many businesses have seen excellent SEO results by writing good-quality blog content for other authority sites that backlink in exchange for the content. This is also a great way to promote your brand name and establish yourself as a thought-leader in the industry.
To do this, you first need to research where there are reputable guest post opportunities for your relevant niche or industry. You want to ensure that the blog’s audience is one that is interested in your industry, the content is focused on your niche/market, and gains a good amount of engagement from readers.
Make a pitch to the owner of the blog, ensuring the content you present them is of high-quality and relevant to the market. Try and get your content in as many blogs as possible- but the quality really counts here! It’s not just a numbers game.
Up your social media activity
Social media platforms have truly revolutionized marketing for businesses of all sizes and across varying industries. Put simply, if you aren’t active on social media, then you are doing your brand a big disservice.
The world of social media is a hotbed for engagement and building relationships with both customers and other businesses.
By actively posting content across all your channels, you can expose your brand name and site URL to more pairs of eyes! Thus, you are more likely to have your great content shared and internal-links boosted.
But while social activity has been shown to help SEO, simply spamming your follower’s feeds is no good. According to Hootsuite, while regular posting is important, if you aren’t offering your audience value then there’s no point.
So here we have it. While these are just three examples of how you can up those internal-link numbers, it’s a good place to start!
