Link Building Strategies for Small Businesses

Put simply, ‘link building strategies,’ are all about gaining links back to your website to improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) rankings.

Here, FreshOnline takes a bite-size look at why this strategy is important to small businesses and how you can get the most out of these techniques.

Why Is Link Building Important for SEO?

Well, it all comes down to trust. Having multiple links connecting you to other bonafide websites strengthens your business validity to the search engine algorithms – whose No1 objective is to list the best possible search results for its users in order of relevance, trust and quality. Link building strategies can push you further up the ranking tree, giving more visibility to your products and services whilst generating qualified leads.

Currently, link building is considered one of the most effective SEO tactics and is especially useful for small businesses that don’t have access to huge advertising budgets as these results can be achieved through stealth rather than hard cash. Search engines rate the links they find on trusted sites, as these signal a quality resource worthy of a high ranking status. So here are some ideas on how to reap these rewards.

Freshonline’s Link Building Strategies for Small Businesses to Try

1. Online Business Directories & Local Listings

Having your website URL in national and local directories listings, such as yell.com, is a big tick for your link building strategy. It is usually FREE to add your company to these sites, and being on them validates you as a genuine business to the search engine algorithms.

2. Adding Links to Your Social Media Posts

Pop links into your status and have them in your social media profiles and posts. If you have a pinned post – then make sure your website is on that too. Social media is growing rapidly, so embrace its reach and deposit links where you can.

3. Use of Strategic Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the most popular link building strategies. Historically, the sheer number of guest blogs you pumped across the internet was enough to boost your SEO, regardless of quality or targeting – but all this has changed.

It’s now all about creating quality content people want to link back to.

• Produce unique content for your guest blog sites, don’t just copy and paste old material. This quality will give your links traction.
• Blog selectively: Make sure the sites you select to blog for compliment your business and services.
• Be audience savvy: Does the site featuring your blog attract the kind of audience you want?

By following these strategic rules and adding your links to quality and industry-relevant guest blogs, you are well on your way to link building SEO success – achieving higher rankings, with increased traffic and quality leads. Remember though, it’s QUALITY over quantity – write interesting blogs that both users and search engines will love to get your links noticed.

4. Create and Distribute Infographics

Infographics are the visual pie-charts and graphs used to make it easier for viewers to digest the statistics in your content. These can play a vital role in your link building strategy.

• Not only do they look great and break up your copy they can also generate a steady stream of traffic to your blog.
• They increase the chance of appearing as an image in relevant searches. Boosting ‘likes’, ‘shares’ and ‘comments’ which can also increase your SEO efforts.
• By sharing your infographics on social media posts you can increase their reach.

5. Check Competitors’ Backlinks

The secret to any decent marketing campaign is keeping one eye on your competitors. If they are ahead of you on the SEO rankings, there are ways to understand why. It just requires a bit of spy work. Seeing which websites your competitors have links to is extremely useful. It’s easy to find out, once you know how…

Here is a nifty FREE tool to check up on your competitors’ backlinks. Ubersuggest and pop in your competitor’s URL. Then click on their ‘backlinks’ box – scroll down and see which sites are linked to your competitors. Use this information to improve your own business backlinks, after all, if it’s working for them – it could work for you too. Voila!

6. Earn Editorial Links

These editorial links are the golden goose of link building strategies even though it may take time to win them, they are 100% worth the effort because if you get chosen, your links can get a vast amount of high-level exposure and clicks.

Without meaning to be repetitive, success here is also about ‘producing quality content.’ Online influencers within your industry will only link to your words if they are compelling and add genuine value to their readers.

To boost your editorial appeal you could try strategic blogging about what you do to demonstrate your expertise within your area, or maybe offer tutorials to get you extra industry kudos.

7. Look for Resource Pages

Look out for bloggers and businesses who post lists of resources for their readers about your industry and target them to get your link added too. You will have to persuade the webmaster for each site that you are worth listing, and not all of them will agree – but, if you don’t ask, you won’t get!

Having your links listed on high-authority websites within your marketplace has the potential for bucket loads of quality link clicks. A fantastic addition to your link building strategy.

8. Connect With Other Bloggers

Okay, so this bit is all about schmoozing and building relationships – because influential bloggers within your sector are more likely to endorse a link from someone they know rather than a stranger – but building these connections takes time.

Target bloggers that you respect and win them over by interacting and commenting on their posts and asking questions. By starting a dialogue you may get on their radar and get them to start taking an interest in what you are doing. If they see value in your content, they might share your links with their subscribers which could lead to vast link-worthy rewards.

To conclude:

Creating 100s of random links back to your website is no longer the goal for small businesses as modern search engine algorithms are more interested in the experience you create for their users. Instead, make your link building strategies all about earning quality, trusted and natural links – because this is where the SEO traction is. Good luck!

At FreshOnline, we provide a comprehensive digital marketing service to help you stand out online. If you think we can help, please do contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!