Keyword Research

As you probably know, search engines use a complex algorithm to determine your rank in the results.  Getting those high-ranking results will help you gain more traffic, and convert more leads into sales, and how you do that is through proper SEO.

One very important aspect of SEO is link building. Links are basically a way to show search engines a level of authority and popularity. If the search engine sees your site as being popular and with high authority, it will rank you higher.

Not all links are the same. This is because search engines like Google don’t only care that another site is posting a link to your site, they care who is doing it.

When a site posts a link, they are basically saying they vouch for the site. So, when a popular site is vouching for another site, Google considers that a big deal, because Google trusts their authority.  However, while getting links from lesser known sites is still good, Google won’t give it as much merit which means less SEO boost.

A site can link another site in a variety of ways. For example, in a blog, the writer might use anchor text where they then insert a link for the text to a relevant site. This is particularly helpful for SEO when the anchor word or phrase is a keyword that the site wants to rank well for.  Google also acknowledges links shared via social media, however, they do not receive as much weight as anchor text links.

So how do you get sites to give you one of these sought after links?

There are different types of links. First, there are natural links. These occur when a site (hopefully a high authority site) simply decides to post a link to your website. They simply do it because it is relevant to their topic or expands on it in more detail. These links are great because they do not require you to do anything other than producing great content. While these are the most ideal, it may not be the wisest method to just sit back and hope someone will eventually link to your site.

The next method is my reaching out to relevant high authority sites in hopes of gaining links. One way to do this is arguing that your product or site is useful to their visitors, and thus would be of value to them. Another option would be by doing something like writing a guest blog. Some sites accept guest blogs and you can link back to your own site this way. Often the blog post will not be paid work, but you still get a significant benefit.

The last way is through posting comments. Sometimes sites have a comment section which includes a section for you to post a link to your own site. Google does not consider these links nearly as important as other links, but if you are just starting out, frequently commenting on relevant sites may be a good place to start.