What Everybody Ought to Know About Link Building

Link building is not dead

Link building is dead. I’ve heard it a hundred times, and I still don’t believe it’s true. On the contrary I think link building is becoming more and more valuable.

When I joined SEO Hacker, I started as a link builder. I wasn’t good at it. I messed things up; put links everywhere, and put the wrong anchor texts. But I found link building to be an exciting part of SEO. So I read blogs, tried it on my own site, and brainstormed with my teammates.

I exerted heaploads of effort to really learn this stuff, from prospecting to planting links, so to hear that it’s dead kind of annoyed me. We didn’t stop building links, we just developed new strategies.

Algorithms change over the years, and so do strategies, but one thing is for sure: link building will always be included in the SEO pattern.

Still in doubt? Let me enumerate the things you ought to know (things that you probably know already but neglect them anyway) about link building – why link building is one of the best SEO tactics, and of course, why you still need it.

Link building means relationship

My favourite link building strategy will always be guest posting for the reason that its main purpose, at least for me, is to share knowledge. With guest blogging, I’m able to give out information to a much larger community, and have my name on different websites, but that’s not the best bit of it. Pitching is the most interesting part because I get to talk to different people. I admit that there are webmasters who don’t like my pitch enough to even reply to me, but then there are also those who really spend time reading my email, and would give an effort on replying – that’s where real relationships begin.

My contact list is filled with webmasters that I’ve known through guest posting, and even until now I still communicate with them whenever I write articles, and they email me as well whenever they post something new.

Relationship means building connections, authority, credibility and also proves that you’re a human being.

“In fact it’s totally doable to get links once you behave like a human being. People are social creatures. They want to make friends. You have to be perfectly yourself so that people befriend you and spread the word about your content.” –Tad Chef, The Tao of Link Building

My goal is to plant links, but I do care about the pre-linkbuilding stage as well – asking and eventually gaining connections.

Link building means visibility

We know this already, but let me just remind you. We build links because we want to be visible. However, we tend to forget that more than just being visible to search engine spiders, we need to be visible to people. This makes the old style of link building not appropriate anymore. Now we choose to place links on sites that are credible enough, because we want to gain the same credibility that they have.

You see? It’s not just about putting links everywhere, it’s not just about being visible to Google or other search engines. Now it’s more about being visible to readers.

“The more relevant links you obtain – either editorially or via link building methods – the more chances to make a sale or boost your traffic conversions.” -Luana Spinetti, 14 Reasons Link Building Belongs To Marketing (Not SEO Nor Google)

Link building makes everything connected

Links make up the web. Without links, you cannot move from one webpage to another or one website to another. Link building makes these connections possible.

Check our Foundational Lessons in SEO-Hacker School to learn more about links and link building.

Last but never the least…

Link building means giving resources

If there’s one thing that I would always say to my readers, and even to myself, it’s to write for people. People should be the priority, not the search engines. Same goes with link building, people are the priority, not the engines.
Link building is a way to give readers more options, more resources, and of course, more knowledge. That’s why throughout the years, Google has been encouraging everyone to put links on the right anchor texts – it is not just for Google to crawl the web better; it’s more for readers to be lead to right and better sources, and it is also for you — yes, for youto gain more credibility and trust.

Linkbuilding is knowledge sharing

Sometimes we want to write all our ideas, but then it makes our article long and boring. That’s why we build links, so we could just direct our audience to another blog that also supports our ideas.
Link building makes giving more information possible in a way that readers wouldn’t be bored.

So, now do you see the value of link building?

Can you see now why it’s not dead, and why it won’t die?

It’s safe to say that the old style of it has lost its value, but never the whole idea of link building. I’d say it’s not dead. It just got better.

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Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.