What is Link Building and Why it’s Important for SEO

So your website is up and now you’re waiting for that traffic to start rolling in. Days go by and nothing happens. All of your friends and family have visited your site so you’re out of options. 

A newly developed website won’t survive without putting in some work with Search Engine Optimization. One of the foundations of SEO is link building. 

The Basics of Link Building

You’ve probably heard about it before have never bothered to dig any deeper. 

In short, building links is the process of finding other websites that will link back to yours. Google and other search engines use what is known as “bots” to crawl the Internet to find relevant information by tracking links between pages. If you don’t have any links to your website, you’ll never be found. 

Search engines use these inbound links to determine how important your website is when compared to the competition. The higher the importance, the higher your ranking in search engine results. The more high-quality websites that link to you, the higher your rating will be. 

Other Aspects of SEO

Generally speaking, there are hundreds of factors that Google uses to rank your website in search results. These include social metrics, page-level link features, domain-level keyword usage, domain-level link features and more. For most business owners, hiring a SEO company or someone in-house will yeild better results than trying to manage it yourself in addition to running your business.

It’s a well-known fact that if all the other ranking factors are the same, the quality and amount of links leading to a website will be the deciding factor. 

The Difference between Follow and Nofollow Links

The term “nofollow” is confusing for many people, but comes with a rather easy explanation. 

The “nofollow” link tells Google not send any PageRank across to the other website through that link. Websites normally do this when do not have any control over what links are added where. Some samples of this include Yahoo Answers, Guest Post signatures and more. 

Follow links simply allow for Google to pass PageRank to other pages. 

Using Link Building for My Business

Building inbound links is the foundation of any online marketing plan. It helps send referral traffic, build long term business relationships, and expand brand recognition.