Digital Campaigns, Training & Consultancy deeply rooted by SEO
X

BLOG

LATEST BLOG POSTS

How to win business with a sparkling SEO strategy: 8 great linkbuilding ideas

1 October, 2014

seo blog 3

Have you been baffled by the explanations of some unscrupulous search engine optimisation analysts? Do you know what SEO is, but have never really understood how it works? Perhaps you’re a small business owner and want to optimise your website, but don’t have the budget for big SEO campaigns.

Next Wednesday I’ll be speaking at Brand Yorkshire, explaining how search engine optimisation works, debunking the myths and uncovering the tactics and tools you need to improve your website search engine rankings. I will be sharing advice, tips and campaign ideas that you can implement yourself straight away.

Brand Yorkshire 2014 Conference

Wednesday 8th October 2014, Pavilions of Harrogate

The Brand Yorkshire conference brings over 1,000 Yorkshire business people and decision makers together with 90 exhibitor stands and 10 guest speakers. Through my talk ‘Win business with a sparkling SEO strategy and brilliant blogging techniques’, I will be examining the fundamentals of search engine optimisation (SEO) and how to use blogging to both connect and engage with customers and clients, and to boost your website’s search engine rankings.

Registration is completely free to delegates and anyone can attend.

Brand Yorkshire logo

SEO is all about getting search engines to rank your website highly in search engine results when customers type in search terms that relate to your products or services. Good search engine optimisation or SEO techniques are the building blocks of a successful website: i.e. one that has a lot of visitors and a high conversion rate.

There are two elements to SEO:

  • Onsite (keywords, content, technical aspects, site speed, usability, relevancy and schema)
  • Offsite (offsite linkbuilding, reviews, guest blogs and reputation)

I’ll be talking about all of these, and how you can use blogging to support your website search engine optimisation campaigns.

We’ll cover how to undertake an SEO audit if your current site to identify any problems, and how you can fix them. I’ll take you step-by-step through how to do your own keyword research.

Linkbuilding

Offsite linkbuilding

Linkbuilding is an important part of the SEO process. Search engines like to see good quality links between your website and other respected and relevant websites. This is something you can work on yourself without any technical knowledge of SEO.

Here are some great offsite linkbuilding ideas to get you going:

(1) Social sharing

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. In an age of smart phones and a need for constant, current information; any website not giving it’s readers the option to follow them on their favourite network, is taking a big risk. Social networks allow you to build a community around your brand, encourage users to share your content, and ultimately, widenen your potential audience.

Initially setting up the pages can be time consuming, but it really is worth it in the long run. If you’re overwhelmed by the variety available, pick one or two that your customers regularly use (I’d recommend Twitter and Facebook for B2C or LinkedIn for B2C) and concentrate your efforts on those.

(2) Social bookmarking

Much like Social Networking, Social Bookmarking when it is done well, can be a very valuable tool. As with Facebook and Twitter, StumbleUpon & Digg buttons are an almost essential part of any great web design. Again, there are a huge number of platforms to choose from, so do a little research and decide which are a good fit for your project.

(3) Local engagement, with local shops and communities

If you have a bricks and mortar retail unit, speak to local shops and local communities to see if you can guest blog, link to each other and offer each other resources online.

(4) Do something for charity

Charities are always looking for content from and about their supporters, especially if there are great photos to go with it. This tends to get the charity or an online article linking to you.

(5) Suppliers

Speak to suppliers and see if they will link to you. Most are happy to have the backlink.

(6) Blog commenting

A quick search for ‘[your niche] blog’ will return countless results of blogs you can get commenting on, and this can be a great way to build new links. Be selective though – choose blogs that are relevant to your business, and make your comments useful and relevant too – avoid just a ‘great post!’ or ‘I agree!’ – These just look spammy and won’t encourage people to visit your site.

(7) Forum commenting

Look for relevant forums to engage with. For example: babycentre and mothering.com for baby related products; charity forums for particular audiences; animal trust for pet care etc. But please do check with the forum administrator before mentioning your site, as many have strict policies around links, and breaking them will alienate your audience.

 (8) Create Link Bait

Link bait is any content or feature, within a site, designed to catch people’s attention and interest. For example, a funny photo, a great info graphic, a ‘must have’ app. Anything that people are drawn to and feel compelled to share with their network.

Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive. There are many other ways of successfully building links, but if you’re just starting out, these ideas can help build a solid foundation to build on.

Remember too, that linkbuilding is not just about getting your name out there. It’s about networking, building relationships and trust to grow a solid, diverse and ever expanding profile of back links to your site.

Use the ideas above and challenge yourself to create ten new backlinks today. Do the same tomorrow, and then again everyday for a week. As your traffic grows, you’ll see for yourself how worthwhile the process is. Good luck!

 Link-Building

If you’d like to find out more about search engine optimization or talk to me about ideas for growing your business online, do come along to Brand Yorkshire. If you’ve already signed up and are coming along, give me a shout on Twitter and say hi! @jrconsultancy

Want more free SEO tips and ideas delivered to your inbox every week? Sign up to my blog.

Click here to find out more about SEO training for you or your company.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 

PEOPLE WHO TRUST US