Link building is an essential part of any successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. It helps to improve visibility, improve search engine rankings, and establishes your website as a trusted resource.
I’ve run numerous link building campaigns for niche websites of my own and for clients. I’ve seen the benefits of building links firsthand.
In this article, we’re going to look into eight benefits of link building. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll hopefully understand why backlinks are one of the most powerful ways to grow your website and brand.
But first, let’s look more into exactly what link building means.
What is Link Building?
Link building is the process of creating links from one website to another. It involves building inbound links (also known as backlinks) from reputable websites. Putting together a solid link building strategy will help you increase your website’s visibility and give you higher search engine rankings.
In layman’s terms, backlinks help Google and other search engines understand you’re a quality resource of information. A place where people want to come to find an answer to a question, a service they can use, or a product they need to purchase.
Building backlinks is essential for SEO success and should be an integral part of any successful SEO plan.
Now let’s look into the biggest reasons why building backlinks is so important.
8 Benefits of Link Building
1. Increase Domain Authority
When deciding which web page to rank higher in search results, Google looks at a lot of different factors. However, one of the biggest is going to be your reputation.
While domain authority isn’t a ranking signal for search engines, it is a metric for understanding how credible you are.
That being said, link building is a great way to increase your domain authority. However, there’s one important piece of information to keep in mind. Always focus on building links from high quality sites. If you have a single inbound link from a quality website with a strong domain rating, that’s going to be much more effective than a bunch of links from lower quality websites.
Remember the popular phrase, quality over quantity.
2. Improve Your Rankings on Google Search
When you start putting together your link building strategy, there’s one thing to remember. Google loves quality backlinks and more often than not, they’ll rank web pages with strong inbound links ahead of pages without.
3. Increase Organic Traffic to Your Website
Piggybacking off the last link building benefit, web pages that rank well and are higher up in search engine results, get more traffic.
Backlinko analyzed more than 4 million search results and found that on average, the #1 listing in Google search rankings has a Click Through Rate (CTR) of 27.6%. That’s 10x greater than the web page in the #10 spot.
Are you starting to notice a trend here?
Quality backlinks from authority sites lead to higher domain authority. That leads to higher placement in SERPs. The end result is more organic traffic.
4. Can Reduce Your Cost Per Sale
Depending on your digital marketing strategy, you might have several growth techniques.
Some companies use paid ads through social media or search to drive leads or sales. Each conversion comes at a cost.
But now think of the organic traffic you receive. You might pay for someone to write the content or to handle your link building. But beyond that, you’re not paying for the web traffic you receive through search engines.
This “free traffic” is going to help reduce the overall costs to acquire new customers.
5. Builds Credibility for Your Brand
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, you need to build credibility. People want to do business with brands they trust. If you’re continuously being featured on the first page of Google, your customers (and potential customers) will notice.
However, it goes beyond search results. Having your brand mentioned on high authority websites is also going to boost your credibility.
Let’s assume you were reading an article on Forbes. If they mentioned a new financial product, you’d believe that it was something reputable. A brand like Forbes isn’t going to talk about just any product.
6. Increase Your Referral Traffic
As you continue the link building process, you’re going to benefit from more than just an increase in your organic traffic. Link building is also going to help boost your referral traffic.
Let’s assume you use HARO to build links and you can build several placements from high traffic articles. These articles are going to be great in the eyes of search engines, but they’re also going to help drive significant referral traffic.
7. Build Relationships
Another benefit of link building is the ability to build relationships.
Link building can be a difficult process. It also takes a significant amount of time. However, as you start reaching out to other sites you’re going to have the opportunity to build relationships that can be beneficial down the road.
Maybe you want to write a guest post for them in the future. Or maybe they have a connection at another high authority site and you want an introduction. These relationships that you’re building are not only great today but can benefit you years from now as well.
8. Makes You Produce High Quality Content
All link building strategies need to include one important thing.
Great content.
If you’re not producing great content, your link building campaign is going to be an uphill battle. Brands aren’t going to want to link to content that doesn’t add value.
If you’re going to start link building to benefit your search engine optimization plan, you need to make sure your content is outstanding.
The Bottom Line on the Benefits of Link Building
In conclusion, link building is a powerful tool for SEO success. When used correctly, it can help improve visibility, boost rankings and authority, drive more traffic, and much more.
Investing time and resources in link building can be highly beneficial for any brand or company looking to achieve its SEO goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an authority site?
An authority website is a site that has been built to be the go-to source for information about a given topic. Authority websites are typically backed by reliable information, often from experts in the industry or field, providing visitors with content they can trust.
Are nofollow links as beneficial as dofollow links?
Nofollow links can be just as beneficial as dofollow links when it comes to link building. While a dofollow link carries more SEO ‘link juice” and can help boost your website’s domain authority, nofollow links should not be overlooked. Nofollow links can help provide referral traffic but also help to diversify your link building efforts.
Are there consequences to poor link building?
Link building is an important part of SEO and plays a vital role in improving visibility and website rankings. However, it comes with associated risks if done incorrectly. Poor link building can hurt your site’s authority and impact its standing on SERPs negatively. That being said, link building should always be done cautiously, keeping search engine guidelines in mind at all times.
Is link building still effective?
Link building may be one of the oldest SEO tactics, but it’s still working. After all, it’s an important way to build quality backlinks, improve your SERPs, and increase referral traffic.
