Every day, about 5 million blog posts are uploaded onto the internet. That’s a large number of blog posts. And an even more significant obstacle for developers, startups, and other businesses trying to distinguish themselves and attract customers on the Internet. If there was ever a time for startups to begin to invest seriously in their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, it’s now.
The world of digital marketing is evolving faster than ever before. With the competition only getting stiffer, startups are getting more competent at SEO. According to data from a study conducted by Hubspot, not less than 64% of companies are investing very seriously in their various Search Engine Optimization Strategies.
To that end, mastering the practice of quality link-building has become an indispensable part of every startup’s SEO strategy. One key strategy most startups use today is to outsource their link-building to a professional link-building company. This move is guaranteed to enhance your startup’s visibility and make your SEO strategy more competitive.
Professional link-building is emphasized for a reason that is not far-fetched. When backlinks are executed excellently, they will inevitably push your startup’s content to the top of the search engine results and increase your chances of converting customers to your product. Mastering proper link-building is crucial to your startup’s long-term growth.
Hence, we’ve created a concise but complete guide to link-building for startups and developers. But first, we need a proper definition of the subject.
What is Link Building?
Simply put, link building is the process of building hyperlinks (also known as backlinks) from one website to another. This is usually done to increase a website’s discoverability. And it helps readers use web pages to navigate the internet. Some standard methods startups use to build links include email marketing, broken link building, PR campaigns, and content marketing.
Backlinks may not be the only determinant, but they play a critical role in determining a website’s position on the search page. Search engines such as Google use these backlinks to crawl through web pages. As such, they contribute heavily to your website’s content’s performance. For this reason, many startups rely on the services of a professional link-building agency.
With proxy checker tools, these agencies can ensure that backlinks are created on high-quality websites to guarantee optimal performance. Proxy checkers help link-building companies and startups identify the best sites to place their backlinks for better search engine optimization.
Not all links that a website builds are called backlinks, though. There are various kinds of backlinks, such as;
- Internal links: These link a page on your website to another blog post or page within your website. And is a standard SEO practice.
- Broken links: These could be broken backlinks or broken internal links. Broken links are links that no longer work due to their source page being removed or is no longer live. They often result in an error 404 page.
- Nofollow links: These are descriptor links used to tell the search engine not to crawl to a site. They are used when you take from another site but don’t want to endorse it.
- Dofollow links: These are the opposite of Nofollow links. Using these links tells the search engine to crawl and lend authority to that website.
- Editorial Links: These are organic backlinks to your website and from editorial sources. They are often earned by posting high-quality content on your other platforms, e.g., your social media accounts.
Now that we know the various kinds of links, next, we need to know the components that comprise a good link. There are a number of them, and they are discussed below:
Authority of the page
If your page is linked to a very relevant or authoritative page, then the search engine will grant your page greater relevance. Google takes a link from an authoritative page to indicate that your website is most likely high-quality. And so that has a significant impact on your rankings. Although they won’t share their PageRank information publicly, google uses a form of PageRank as its algorithm’s foundation.
You can use a proxy indicator to determine a page’s authority using Semrush. To do so, you just need to drop the page’s URL and confirm its page authority score.
Authority of the site
Securing a backlink from an authoritative site will contribute to your discoverability and ranking on search engine result pages. So, for instance, a link from a well-known site like the Washington Post or Hubspot will reward your site with more relevance. The search engine will interpret this to mean that your site is of excellent quality.
Of course, getting such backlinks is very hard. It will take some time and a lot of consistent effort spent investing in your brand to get these. But the rewards are worth the effort. The Semrush tool is again capable of being used here to determine a website’s authority.
Relevance of the site
It’s not enough to secure links from websites with good site authority and page ranks. While these were sufficient for the Google search engine in the past, they are not anymore. You now also want to get links from websites with content relevant to yours as much as possible.
This means that the content must relate to the same field to be valuable. For instance, if your content is generally about smartphone technology, getting a backlink from an authoritative cooking website doesn’t help your case as much.
Link Co-Occurrence:
Co-occurrences are the words and phrases that appear around your hyperlink. They help the search engine to make sense of your page better. If these texts match your content, it indicates you have good links, and the search engine rewards your page.
Anchor Text
These are the parts of your content that are clickable. Whatever words you use as your anchor text must be relevant to your general content for it to affect your rankings positively.
Utilizing professional keyword research services ensures that your anchor text aligns seamlessly with the content, boosting your SEO strategy and enhancing search engine rankings effectively.
Best Link-Building Practices
Invest in Quality Content:
Quality content is and will always be king. Consistently creating quality content is the most guaranteed way to ensure that your page will get backlinks from authoritative sites and that your site’s authority and PageRank will also increase. An editorial calendar is a great tool for creating a schedule that ensures consistency.
Submission to CSS Galleries:
If your startup has a beautiful and well-designed website, this may be an opportunity for you. CSS galleries provide startups with opportunities to build backlinks as they display your website’s design to their many visitors. Your startup may consider submitting your website to one of these.
Help A Reporter Out (HARO):
This program connects business owners to journalists by notifying you anytime they are looking for a source for their articles. In return for being their source, you get free publicity for your page.
This program has been rewarding for many developers and small businesses and could be rewarding for you as well. Be sure to sign up for your startup; you will be notified whenever someone is looking for information on a topic you know about. Reach out to offer help, and build from there.
Outreach for Guest Collaboration:
Guest collaboration is perhaps the best way to build backlinks, especially when you are trying to scale a new website. It isn’t that difficult, but you have to do what is right.
You can either buy guest posts for building high authority and relevant backlinks to your website, or you can outreach manually. With manual outreach, you need to find websites that are relevant to yours and pitch them with a mutual benefit.
Sometimes, webmasters ask for an editorial fee, and sometimes they don’t. But you need to ensure website health, relevancy, and organic performance before sending them your content. If you’re doing these things correctly, congratulations, as you’re building high authority backlinks for your startup.
Make the Best of Trends:
Every year, there’s a new trend, and each trend presents an opportunity for your website to attract multiple visitors. Making content that relates to the topic in vogue boosts your site’s attractiveness and makes it more link-worthy.
One great way to do this is to make articles with the “best of” nature. For example, “Best agencies for link-building for startups.”
Why you should outsource your link-building
While developing your link-building strategy indoors is okay, a much smarter move that you could take would be to outsource link-building for your startup to a professional link-building company. There are several reasons why startups today choose to outsource, such as:
- When it’s too complex to handle yourself. You could have been handling all the link-building by yourself for a long time, but you can only go so far being a non-expert and combining that with other responsibilities.
- When they want to secure links very quickly. Link-building companies have strategies and experience that allow them to acquire links much faster than other companies.
- Hiring an in-house link-building expert is too expensive. In-house experts can cost as much as $60,000 annually.
- To increase efficiency in link building.
And there are solid benefits to this choice as well:
- It is cost-efficient
- Saves you time
- It offers greater convenience
Conclusion
Regardless of how stiff the competition for discoverability via search engines is today, you are guaranteed to stand out with a solid SEO and link-building strategy. Outsourcing your link-building strategy to a company that offers professional link-building services is the foundation of that strategy. Several startups and other small businesses continue to rely on the services of professional link-builders to boost their discoverability. And it keeps yielding results. Outsource to us, and let your startup begin to experience efficiency and convenience in link-building.
