Now that we’ve reveiwed what the heck link building is all about, we next move on to it’s importance. Why do we need to do linkbuilding? What are it’s immediate and direct effects on your website Search engine results page rankings?
The Link Rule
We’re all trying to make our websites friendly to search engines to rank higher. It’s a no-brainer to get into the search game since it’s still the number one activity done online. So since we’re trying to rank higher, we have to play by the search engine’s rules.
And the rule is: More quality backlinks, rank higher.
It’s simple, really – the more links you have coming into your site just means that more people are referring you for soemthing you’re good at. That ‘something you’re good at’ is what they put in as the anchor text – but that’s a whole new different topic altogether.
Links aren’t easy to get – just as people’s referrals aren’t easy to get. Unless, maybe, you pay them – which I personally don’t recommend. That’s why Google used the link factor – because people will only link to you if they find value in what you have to offer them.
Your number of Links is the only way Google can see how valuable your site is to other people. And the truth of the matter is, even if you have lots and lots of valuable content, if people don’t link to you, the search engines won’t acknowledge your site as valuable. Why?
Because search engines are machines. They’re blind about how valuable your site is. They can only see through links.
To sum it all up: More links -> More value -> Rank higher -> Happy Webmaster
This entry is part of the SEO Hacker School series: Link Building Strategies
You can also check our comprehensive all-in-one guide about Effective link building strategies
About Sean
I agree Sean – Link Building is so important in building your biz. And just like anything else, it takes time. Along with link building, it helps to build valuable ‘people’ connections and possibilities for JV opportunities as well.
Saw your tweet and had to check out your blog. Good information which I will be happy to share to my fans, followers and clients.
Hi Lynn!
Linkbuilding is getting tougher and tougher to do with more and more updates from Google and other search engine’s algorithm. It’s also becoming less and less the dominant factor in ranking – especially as social signals came in. Now the pie (ranking factors 2011 from SEOmoz) shows several other factors in play. We just gotta keep up!
Thanks for visiting Lynn and thank you for wanting to share our stuff to your fans, followers and clients! Hope it helps them :)
Search Engine “bots”, also called spiders (it is the World Wide Web, after all), rely on links to find new web pages. Essentially, these “bots” use links to crawl from page to page to find web content. This information is then indexed, after which it can be found in what we know as search engine results pages. Without incoming links, it can be much more difficult for the search engines to find your content, and therefore rank your site. Bottom line: Search engines like links.
Link building is effective process to build link with other sites. If you have good back links then people will regularly come on your sites and keep your website top on SEO engine. It will make more traffic on your site and helps to connect with more people.