Based in Essex, we have been a link building agency for almost 12 years. We work on behalf of our clients to secure them good quality links. This is through various avenues in order to boost their recognition on search engines such as Google.
Link building essentially refers to when other people mention your website through the way of a link. This could be on their own website or social media page. There’s a whole host of reasons this is important but ultimately; it is a brilliant way of getting people familiar with your brand and boosting your sales.
The History Behind Links
You wouldn’t think it but actually, link building has a whole backstory that is important to know if you want to do this effectively. Historically, the Yellow Pages (now known as yell.com) started a revolution when it comes to business directories. This set off a chain reaction and business directories began popping up everywhere. Soon after this, companies quickly caught on to the fact that being listed on these directories was a good way increase their Google rankings; simply by building links. This meant that Google was then swamped with back links making matters difficult. How were they to know who to trust and therefore rank?
In a bid to stop this, Google then made it so that these links would only be viable if they were industry specific directories or big, well-known ones. For example, our link building agency would only gain good quality links when appearing in marketing specific directories or the likes of Yell or Google My Business to name a few. This meant that the amount of opportunities businesses had, more than halved. From thousands of listings to no more than 10, businesses then needed to find another way of promoting themselves.
This then led onto spamming comment sections. Whether it was in videos or on forums, specific to your industry or not; businesses started spamming their website link in the comments of these platforms. This made it difficult for Google to yet again, determine what they should be showing their consumers.
Fast forward to 2020 and Google has really pulled up their socks when it comes to what they allow back-linking to mean. Whilst this is great for them, it definitely makes matters more difficult for businesses.
How to Gain Links
This then leads us nicely onto how to gain these links. If you can no longer spam comments and register in countless directories, how else can you do this? Our link building agency are often asked for help in this area due to our (hopefully) obvious expertise. The simple answer to your question is through public relations.
Some people often panic when you bring PR into the mix. They worry that this strategy won’t deliver results and it can be a slow way of marketing. This is not the case. In fact, it really is the best way to link build. With our international contacts in both mainstream and industry specific media; our link building agency have successfully delivered for hundreds of clients when it comes to this niche.
You may be wondering how PR and link building connect and actually, it’s not that difficult to wrap your head around. Naturally, people want to make their articles or posts as helpful for the reader as possible. It’s for this reason that when you appear in a news or magazine article, often, they will include a link to your website. Getting opportunities to appear in well-accredited publications can be massive in terms of link-building. This helps get a lot of engagement surrounding your brand and these count as good quality links.
How This Can Help your SEO
To further help you understand; lets touch on how our link-building agency can also help boost your SEO.
When it comes down to the basics, Google like to use the EAT anagram to rate your ‘worthiness’. EAT simply stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Let’s refer to it in shorthand from now on, it rolls of the tongue much easier…
When you want to buy a new pair of shoes, it’s only natural that we move with the current fashion trends. Therefore, if there’s a particular brand or pair of shoes that lots of people are talking about and sharing, you’re more likely to go into the purchase feeling confident in your decision. Similarly, this is how Google view backlinks.
When quality people are sharing links to your website or products; Google figures this is a pretty good indicator that you are trustworthy. Hence, they’ll boost your ranking on the search engine results page (SERP for short.) Furthermore, if everyone is raving about the Vans shoe brand, naturally, they’ll stand out to you as a big name in the industry. Someone who are experts in what they do and have authority over the smaller brands. The principle is exactly the same when looking at SEO.
Why You Need an Agency
The truth is, you don’t need to be an expert to understand that link-building is pretty integral to not only your SEO; but also, your target audience’s familiarity with your brand. However, just in case you want me to reaffirm this for you – research shows 52% of marketing experts believe mentions impact your search ranking astronomically.
Of course, you’re more than entitled to think that you don’t need the help of a link building agency and you may not. Where you may find one helpful however is when time is short.
Link building and PR is something you really have to put a lot of time into. By outsourcing this to an agency, you’re taking this away from your workload so you can focus your time elsewhere. What’s more, PR can be difficult to do on your own if you don’t already have established contacts. As mentioned before, this is something we do day-in day-out for our clients so we have a plethora of high-quality contacts.
Contact Us
If link building is something you think your company could benefit from, you may want some more ideas on the direction to take with it. For a quick chat and our expert opinion, get in touch today by clicking here!