Online Marketing

What is link building and what is the influence of link building on SEO?

How familiar are you with link building? For some, it’s a well-known concept, for many, it’s somewhat less familiar, but for most, link building is something they’re not actively engaged in. In this blog, we’ll tell you about the basics of link building. What is it, how does it work, and what influence do link building and backlinks have on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? By the end of this blog, you’ll know.

What is link building?

In the world of SEO, there is often confusion about link building and all the terms associated with it. We need ‘backlinks’ to work on our Domain Authority and Page Authority, apparently. But how all of this relates to each other often remains unclear. So, let’s start at the beginning, with the definition:

Definitie linkbuilding

Link building is the active process of acquiring links to your website from other websites, with the aim of improving your position in Google’s search results.

A link from another website is called a backlink, and it is the desired outcome of link building. In this context, for example, we published a substantive article about Google’s AMP on the well-known marketing blog Frankwatching. By providing value on that platform, we were granted the opportunity to place a link back to our website.

This technique is called “guest blogging,” where you write an article for a website other than your own in exchange for, among other things, a link. Outreach actions that alert websites in your market to your unique content or link reclamation are also commonly used techniques.

With link building, you simply use various methods and techniques to give other websites a reason to link to your website.

Why work on link building?

But why do you want more links to your website, and is link building something you should actively engage in?

It’s all about your online visibility. No matter what you do, whether you sell products online to consumers, use your website for B2B lead generation, or maintain a personal blog, you want to be visible and found in search engines.

Link building is becoming an increasingly important part of your SEO efforts. If you’re unsure about what SEO is or how to take the first steps in SEO, read our definition of SEO here or learn how to create an SEO strategy in 3 steps.

Are you ready to take your SEO to the next level? Then it’s high time to work on link building! We’ll explain how link building works.

SEO en linkbuilding dragen bij aan je online vindbaarheid in zoekmachines zoals Google

Hoe zichtbaar ben jij in Google?

Link building explanation: SEO and authority

Search engines want to display the best results for every search query. For you as a source, this can be quite challenging because the competition is fierce. On many topics, there are dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of websites providing information. How do you get to the top and ensure that your target audience can find you?

No one knows exactly how the Google algorithm works, but a few things are clear:

Websites with online authority are displayed earlier and in better positions in the search results
A link from a website to your website is seen as an important sign of authority
Google also evaluates your website based on its content and the keywords used.

Link building is about building your online authority. A link to your website indicates that you are an authority in this specific area. Gather enough links around relevant topics from various well-regarded websites, and you will see that your online authority and your position in Google rise.

A commonly used term is still PageRank, which refers to the score from 1 to 10 that the Google algorithm assigns to your website. Google has not been publishing PageRank for many years, but it is still an intangible benchmark of performance for many specialists. A website that consistently ranks higher has a higher PageRank.

When Google stopped publishing PageRank, the market cleverly responded by introducing Domain Authority.

Measuring the authority of your website: Domain Authority

You can naturally measure the success of your online efforts using various KPIs. Domain Authority is one of the standard KPIs we use.

Domain Authority is an algorithm that predicts how your website will perform in search results. Domain Authority ranges from 1 to 100, and the higher your score is compared to your competitors, the greater the chance that your website will appear at the top of Google.

Domain Authority was developed by MOZ, and its value is determined by various factors, such as the age and quality of your domain. However, the most important factors by far are the number of links and the number of different domains from which you receive links. As a result, your Domain Authority is a good overall indicator to monitor the impact of your SEO and link-building activities.

MOZ Domein Autoriteit scan voor Merkelijkheid

Een recente Domein Autoriteit scan van Merkelijkheid.

What Google says about link building

As we mentioned earlier, Google doesn’t reveal much about its algorithms. However, Google provides a lot of information about how to handle various types of links and makes it clear that “bad” or improperly acquired links can result in harsh penalties. A commonly shared opinion is that Google only takes these actions because links are indeed important for search results.

You might be wondering what constitutes “bad” or improperly acquired links and why Google cares about them. It may seem altruistic, but Google wants to display the best results. If you quickly find what you’re looking for, you’re likely to use Google again next time, providing another opportunity to display ads. Google’s entire platform and services are built around this concept, so it’s crucial for Google to maintain the authenticity and authority of its search results.

Google uses links as a significant predictor of the quality of a page and, consequently, a search result. If Google sees that you’re acquiring links from many different sites with high-quality content, it will reward this behavior. However, if you engage in link exchanges or purchase links on a website with a high spam score, it will be penalized.

Link building in your SEO strategy

For many of our clients, link building is not initially the activity that achieves the most in the short term. Many websites have been around for years and have already built up some authority. In such cases, prioritizing the effective use of that position is essential, and link building comes into play later in the online marketing strategy.

However, we also frequently work with new or very young brands. For example, we recently helped launch a new industrial brand and managed to bring their website’s Domain Authority to a competitive level within a year. Link building was one of the tactics we employed in that first year.

In summary, link building has an important and established place in the online marketing strategy of every company. But the significance of link building varies depending on different factors and may not be equally important for every business or market. This is not rocket science, and one of our experts can easily explain it during an introductory meeting.