There are various links that are advantageous for your blog and website. Internal links are links between pages and content within your website, while outbound links are links to other websites from within your site. The links that are most helpful, though, in terms of driving new visitors to your site and improving your rankings with search engines, are inbound links. Inbound links are links to your website from other websites; when people click on these, you receive referral traffic to your website.
The most valuable and the most difficult link to receive is an inbound link. Furthermore, all inbound links are not treated equally. Therefore, focusing efforts on generating high-quality inbound links from authoritative sources is the best use of your time. The quality and quantity of traffic you generate from inbound links will vary based on the popularity and credibility of the website(s) linking to you. Inbound links bring visitors and potential customers to your website for free, and this In turn helps search engines determine the value of your site, which then leads them to push you higher up in organic search rankings. This is the beauty of Inbound Marketing. The number of visitors to your website improves your search engine rankings, which then puts you in front of more visitors, which in turn continues to improve your rankings and visibility.
Here are a few simple ways to get started:
- Link to other blogs within your industry and outside of it to start building relationships. The more you link to others, the greater likelihood they will link to you. So get started by adding outbound links where applicable within your blog.
- Start news jacking. Can you put a unique spin on a popular, newsworthy topic? Jump on relevant stories while they’re at the forefront of people’s minds, and news feeds, by working your topic into the conversation if it’s applicable. Caution: this is not a time to be promotional; consider it an opportunity to build awareness by making a point that hasn’t been voiced yet.
- Comment on relevant blogs. Don’t even think about just commenting with a URL and/or generic comment, that’s spamming! It is important to take time to read the blog post and respond with an insightful or helpful comment that includes a link to a relevant post or page on your website.
- Guest blog for others. Posting your content on complementary blogs outside of your own site will expose you to an entirely new network of readers, generate inbound links for your site, and help you to build relationships with those you are guest blogging for. You can return the favor by asking them to guest-blog for your site as well. For example: a mortgage broker can write valuable guest blogs for a real estate website, and vice versa. Keep in mind that blogs should be informative, not promotional.
Want more ideas delivered right to your inbox? Subscribe to our email newsletter!
Now it’s time to use this information to better tailor your site blog content to visitors’ behavior and enhance your SEO.
Want to learn more, or see if what you’re doing is leading you in the right direction? We offer a free website or online marketing assessment for website visitors. Contact us today to get started.
