Link Building: The Company Line
Referral traffic is “interruption marketing” – putting your products in front of people who aren’t specifically looking for them. It works to the degree that they are qualified as likely buyers – even then results are usually limited. Any social media or third party website links are a marketing bonus. If you build it they will come. They are a tiny fraction as influential as impacting a real searchers click-and-bounce behavior.
Links Used to Be Everything
Long before Google bought a zoo and introduced 
us to their Penguin and Panda updates, the Google algorithm rewarded all inbound links with enhanced search engine rankings. The more links to a site, the more credible it appeared. SEOs figured this out and began gaming the system. “Link trading” and “link farms” became the norm. A poor website with a crafty SEO could reach the top of search engines by paying for a spammy link building scheme. Their links would appear all over the web, mostly on low value, foreign sites. Back then, it worked.
With Penguin and Panda, we’ve seen a shift in the importance of QUALITY inbound links. Search engines have huge incentives to recognize real value. If a search engine routinely returns poor results, their searchers will migrate towards a more trustworthy competitor. The goals of your website and the goals of the search engine are thus aligned. Build a website with real human value, pair it with the best “white-hat” SEO practices, and get rewarded with increased rankings.
Since 2011, Google has released a number of Panda and Penguin updates geared toward removing the value of low quality inbound links. Whether they incurred a direct Google penalty or suffered a drop in their rankings, websites with large numbers of irrelevant links suffered. Google decided having a huge number of inbound links was not an automatic indication of a website’s credibility. Links had to be attached to related and relevant websites to add value to your website. Sites with large numbers of irrelevant inbound links were bumped down on search engine rankings. Bad links started leading to lower rankings, less traffic, and lost profits.
Link Building Post-Penguin and Panda
White hat link building takes time and effort but is worth the energy. A few good links can add huge value to your website. Here are some of the most effective weapons in a link builder’s arsenal:
SEO Directory Listings
There are a plethora of paid and free online directories asking for your listing. Generally, a selective, actively maintained directory will have much more value than any link you can “earn” in 20 seconds. Google, Bing and Yahoo require a physical address and require verification by phone or a snail-mail postcard (Note: these three offer the added benefit of getting brick-and-mortar storefronts on their popular map listings). Start with these and other major directories before looking for any listings applying specifically to your niche.
Relevant Reciprocal Linking
While irrelevant link trading could hurt your website, exchanged links between valuable sites can offer mutual benefit. Get in touch with the people in your niche and look for link building opportunities. If you sell planter boxes consider connecting with a plant nursery and so forth. The key here is mutual benefit. Rarely will an unsolicited “link my website” produce results.
Valuable Website Content
The most important way to link build is making your website the kind of place people want to visit. Quality, interesting content will generate visitors and shares, leading naturally to valuable inbound links. Believe in the mantra “content is king.” If you create an incredibly interesting and engaging piece of copy, links and commentary on your piece are sure to follow.
Resolving Negative SEO
Even the best Milwaukee SEO specialists have had to deal with bad-link building penalties. Check out Penguin Kills Pit Bull to see what happened when one client’s old Wisconsin web developer signed them up for some bad link farms. These black-hat link builders delivered volume, not results. The iNET creative genius inspired website developers build up your inbound linking profile the RIGHT way, creating content and backlinks with real human value.
Enhance Your Inbound Link Profile
Inbound links are only as valuable as the website they point to. An iNET online marketing platform includes the value from the best white-hat link building practices backed by creative genius inspired Milwaukee website design and copywriting. With the option for ongoing SEO, your website can rank at the top of search engines for a multitude of highly-competitive, highly profitable terms. Ultimately, each link built by a SEO from iNET-Web site is geared toward getting you more traffic, more leads and more profit.
