HSG Global Services

By many measures, link building (the process by which third party web pages link TO the subject pages) accounts for around 45% of the ranking algorithm with search engines like Google. Each of those links is like a vote or an endorsement. The more quality votes a web page has, the more trusted it is by the search engines and the more likely it is to rank for certain keyword phrases.

Links to your web site offer two major benefits.

1. Increased rankings in search engine results
2. Direct traffic from the referring web pages

These two factors can make or break the success of your web site and greatly impact your site traffic. That is why link building is a critical process of any B2B online marketing campaign. Even if you have decided to hire an outside firm to manage your link building campaign, there are several tools and resources you can use to ensure they are doing the job correctly. Educating yourself about the process will also make your communications with your SEO firm more effective.

Baseline Assessment

The first step is usually to assess your current web site and compare to your competition. No doubt you already know who your online competitors. The quickest way to confirm this is to perform some Google searches for your primary keyword phrases and note what sites constantly appear in the top ten results. Make a list of those sites and then enter your URL and theirs at the following sites.

• Open Site Explorer – this free tool will show you what pages are linking to your site and your competitors and more importantly, which of these pages are the most authoritative and are sending the most value to the competitor’s web pages.
• Web Site Grader – this tool by HubSpot will rate your web site on a scale of 1 to 100 and compare it to your competitor’s sites at the same time. You can quickly scan the results and look for areas to improve your web site in order to make it more ‘linkable’.

How do I get web sites to link to our site?

This is a question that I get asked a lot at public speaking events. Once people grasp the importance of increased the number of quality links to their web site, they want to know how to do this. There isn’t a simple answer but here are some things to keep in mind.

1. High Quality Web Pages Attract Links Naturally – the best way to increase your links is to develop unique, valuable and useful content for your site visitors. This includes putting as much helpful content like how to videos, client testimonials, product data sheets, photos and anything of value you can think of on your web site. Other content suggestions are to create a forum or blog where your staff can be industry experts and answer questions regarding your products and services. Create a free ebook or whitepaper that includes useful insight that will encourage other web sites to link to. The higher the quality of your web site and it’s content, the more likely other web sites will link to your site on their own because they see the value in it.
2. Link Partners –You can seek our link opportunities from your existing relationships with industry partners, suppliers and clients. When appropriate, these companies may be willing to link to your web site from theirs.
3. Vertical Directories – there are industry-specific search engines and directories where you can look for paid or free links. Sites like Business.com which is the #1 B2B search engine offer several paid opportunities.
4. Research Competitor Backlinks – using the tools in the last section, you can see exactly what web pages are linking to your completion. Visit those pages and look for a place to add your link or contact the web site owner to see how your site might be included. (this is an easier sell if your web site offers more quality content, is professionally designed and looks ‘better’ than your competitor’s site)

Successful link building campaigns start with an organized plan and research. By keeping track of the sites you speak with, who you have requested links from and reviewing your competitor’s sites for additional link opportunities, then you will be able to maximize the time you spend on link building.

Tags: google, link building, search engines, seo

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 9:12 am and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.