What is link building and what is the impact of link building on SEO?
How familiar are you with link building? For some, a well-known concept; for many, a somewhat less familiar term; but for most, link building is something they are not yet actively engaged in. In this blog, we 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 will know.
What is link building?
In the SEO world, there is often confusion about link building and all the terms used around it. Apparently, we need ‘backlinks’ to work on our Domain Authority and Page Authority. But how these relate to each other often remains unclear. So, we start at the beginning, the definition: 
Definition of link building
Link building is the active acquisition of links to your website from other websites, with the goal of improving your position in Google’s search results.
A link from another website is called a backlink and is the desired result of link building. In that 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 got the opportunity to place a link back to our website:
The underlined text “an article” is the anchor text of the link, which then leads to the Merkelijkheid website.
This technique is called ‘guest blogging’; you write an article for a site other than your own in exchange for, among other things, a link. But also a so-called ‘outreach’ campaign where you alert websites in your market to your unique content or link reclamation are commonly used techniques.
With link building, you simply use various methods and techniques to give other websites a reason to place a 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 findability. Whatever 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 an increasingly important part of your SEO activities. Are you unsure what SEO is or how to take the first steps in SEO? Then first read our definition of SEO or 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 explain how link building works.
How visible are you on Google?
Link building explained: SEO and authority
Search engines want to display the best result for every search query. For you as a source, this is sometimes quite challenging because the competition is fierce. On many topics, there are dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of websites offering information. How do you get to the top and ensure your target audience finds you?
No one knows exactly how the Google algorithm works, but some 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 values your website based on the content of your website 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. Collect enough links around relevant topics from various well-regarded websites, and you will see 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 published PageRank for years, but for many specialists, it remains an intangible benchmark of their performance. A website that consistently ranks higher has a higher PageRank.
When Google stopped publishing PageRank, the market cleverly responded by introducing Domain Authority.
Measuring your website’s authority: Domain Authority
The success of your online efforts can, of course, be measured 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 the search results. Domain Authority ranges from 1 to 100, and the higher your score compared to your competitor, the greater the chance that your website ranks at the top in Google.
Domain Authority was developed by MOZ, and the value is determined by various factors, such as the age and quality of your domain. But by far the most important factors are the number of links and the number of different domains from which you receive links. Because of this, your Domain Authority is a good general metric to monitor the effect of your SEO and link building activities.
A recent Domain Authority scan of Merkelijkheid.
What Google says about link building
As we mentioned earlier, Google does not 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 obtained links are severely penalized. A widely shared opinion is that Google only does this because links are indeed important for search results.
You might now wonder what bad or improperly obtained links are and why Google cares so much about this. It may seem altruistic, but Google wants to show the best result. If you quickly find what you’re looking for, you will use Google again next time, giving another chance to show ads. Google’s entire platform and services are built around this, so it is very important to maintain the authenticity and authority of its search results.
Google uses links as an important predictor of the quality of a page and thus of a search result. If Google sees that you obtain links on many different sites with high-quality content, it will reward this behavior. If you exchange links or buy links on a website with a high spam score, this will be penalized.
Link building in your SEO strategy
For many of our clients, link building is initially not the activity that achieves the most in the short term. Many websites have existed for years and have already built up a certain authority. In that case, making good use of that position should be a priority, and only then the Online Marketing
But we also regularly work for new or very young brands. For example, some time ago, we launched a new industrial brand and managed to get the Domain Authority of their website to a competitive level within a year. Link building was one of the tactics we applied in that first year.
In short, link building has an important, fixed place in the Online Marketing strategy of every company. But for not every company or market is its importance equally great; this is determined by various factors. And that is no rocket science; in an introductory conversation, one of our experts can explain this effortlessly.
Want to read more about SEO, link building, and online marketing? Check out our online marketing page, where we collect all our articles about online marketing.