For a long time, link building has been considered one of the cornerstones of search engine optimization (SEO), but have you ever wondered why that is the case?
What are the benefits of link building for search engine results?
Link building is proactively increasing the number of backlinks to your website. In other words, it's a method of building links and getting third-party websites to link to your website.
This post sheds light on the importance of link-building for SEO.
Whether you have a blog, online business, or personal website, you can earn higher search engine rankings through third-party indicators through backlinks.
We also list some of the most notable link-building benefits of any website.
What Are The Best Link-Building Benefits?
Building backlinks and creating high-quality blog posts will be more critical than ever for website growth.
That said, only build links from sites you want to work with. More links don't always mean better.
Let's review the biggest benefits of link-building and learn how to create more authority with effective link-building strategies.
1. Build Your Page and Domain Authority
Link building is a surefire way to increase your site and your page rank and authority.
The more high-quality links you acquire, your website and page authority will strengthen.
Website authority is another term for DA, while web page authority refers to how well a page ranks on Google.
Link building is the most influential factor affecting site and page authority. Most SEO programs rely on link building as their number one strategy to create a credible site.
Note that various SEO tools represent site/domain authority using different terms.
For instance, Moz uses “Domain Authority," whereas tools like Ahrefs and SEM Rush use “Domain Rating" (DR) and “Authority Score,” respectively.
Favorite SEO Tool
With backlinking and page/domain authority, remember that quality is more important than quantity.
This means you'd be much better off acquiring one or two relevant links from a high-authority website than getting several low-quality backlinks from low-authority sites.
Therefore, please don't make it your goal to acquire as many backlinks as possible. Instead, acquire only high-quality backlinks from high-authority sites, even if it's just one backlink.
2. Improves Search Engine Rankings
People usually don't look past the first results page when they type a search query.
This is why ranking your website and web pages as high as possible on the SERPs is essential.
One of the ways to boost your rankings on search engine results pages is through link building.
Google and other search engines rely on factors like credibility and domain authority scores to determine their website and page rankings.
Doing this while optimizing your content will lead to more web traffic.
They count the number of backlinks different websites and web pages receive. Then, they assess the quality of those backlinks to determine the appropriate rankings.
As we stated earlier, the more high-quality links your website acquires, the more authoritative and credible it will be in the symbolic eyes of Google and other search engines. This, in turn, translates to higher rankings.
3. Passes Credibility to Your Site
Acquiring backlinks from high-authority websites automatically increases your website's perceived authority and reliability, establishing it as a credible source in your niche.
The coolest part is that establishing high domain authority in your niche or industry triggers a backlinking snowball effect. With the increased perceived domain authority, you can expect to receive even more backlinks from other websites.
An analysis conducted by Backlinko found that pages that rank first on Google tend to have an average of 3.8x more backlinks than those ranking second to tenth.
This is why a link-building campaign is one of the most powerful search engine optimization tactics, if not the most! When done right, it becomes a gift that keeps on giving.
4. Increases Organic Traffic
The term “organic traffic” refers to the number of visits your website gets organically. These come from users conducting a search query and clicking on one of the various search results.
Organic traffic is the opposite of paid traffic, wherein visitors arrive at your website through paid ads on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Amazon Ads, and so forth.
A significant benefit of link building is that it helps get more traffic organically. This is expected since link building leads to more organic traffic and higher site ranking. This, in turn, makes your website easier to discover.
To solidify this benefit, an analysis conducted by Ahrefs of over a billion web pages found a strong correlation between organic traffic and the number of backlinks a web page acquires.
5. Creates Relationships With Other Bloggers
There are two main ways you can proactively go about acquiring backlinks. You can either buy them or personally reach out to other websites in your niche to have them link back to your website.
There are pros and cons to each approach. Buying backlinks is definitely more accessible and less time-consuming than reaching out, but you'll have to pay a reasonable sum of money.
Reaching out, on the other hand, helps you establish relationships with other quality sites in your niche or industry. The more connections you build, the more widely you'll be regarded as a trusted authority in your niche.
The outreach approach takes time and effort. Unfortunately, not everyone you connect with will be willing to link to your site and promote your content, so patience is necessary.
6. Gives Link Juice to Your Internal Linking Structure
Your link-building strategy shouldn't revolve around inbound links alone. You can use this powerful SEO technique to reinforce your internal linking map, which will help give you more ranking power or "link juice."
Internal links are essential because they improve navigation and user experience, spread link equity around your website, and make it easier for search engines to grasp your website.
On that account, improving your site's internal linking map via link building reduces bounce rates and boosts your chances of ranking higher on search engine results.
7. Get More Referral Traffic
In addition to increasing your website's organic traffic, a solid link-building strategy also helps increase referral traffic.
This refers to visitors who land on your site through other websites, not through a Google query.
Getting more traffic can also increase sales since more people will be exposed to your products or services. On top of that, it can lead to more engagement and subscribers.
The great thing about link building concerning referral traffic is that once you've acquired a quality backlink, you'll continue to get more traffic for as long as the backlinking website is active.
This makes link building one of the most efficient ways to generate more website traffic than paid ads.
This is because once a paid ad runs its course, your stream of traffic ends with it. This isn't the case with backlinks, though.
8. Builds Topical Authority
A strong, relevant backlink profile can also lead to topical authority from the right external websites.
Guest posts can increase organic traffic if you are pointing links to the right pages on your website.
As you get links to your topic clusters with proper anchor text placements, this can help you build authority throughout the site.
Is Building Links Worth It?
Link building is probably worth more of your time and effort than most other aspects of SEO. Numerous data-backed studies indicate just how vital link-building is.
Link-building strategies are far from a fad. Backlinking has been one of the most dominant factors regarding ranking since the 1990s.
Back then, Larry Page, one of the founders of Google, created the PageRank algorithm to measure a page's quality based on the number of backlinks.
Also, keep in mind that backlinks will be even more critical in the coming years. 59% of SEO experts are convinced that the value of backlinks in the next few years will be much higher than it is now.
So, is link-building worth it? Absolutely!
You should invest as much time and effort in making your website credible and link-worthy. Do this by creating relevant, high-quality content, providing much-needed services, and selling sought-after products
Creating high-quality content will be the best way for most bloggers to acquire backlinks. A recent study by Moz indicates that 90% of marketers rely on the content as their main source of backlinks.
Link Building vs. Link Earning
You've probably seen several SEO experts preaching the concept of link earning over link building, but what is the difference between the two?
Link building is an all-encompassing term for all your work to acquire backlinks. The work you do can be anything from networking to buying backlinks.
Link earning, however, refers to your reward after all your hard work. The prize is the backlinks, of course.
Link earning is all about high-quality content. If your content provides a lot of value, you are guaranteed some backlinks because web admins will naturally link to your content.
That being said, link earning doesn't apply to small-time bloggers. Most SEO experts who swear by link earning are usually associated with big-name entities that offer large budgets.
Naturally, earning backlinks will be challenging for a small-time blogger with a limited budget, especially if their niche is saturated and crowded with competitors.
Side Note:
Unlike an authority site, a small niche site owner must start by building relationships and connecting with more people.
This will allow you to earn more links through personalized link-building campaigns.
This doesn't negate that high-quality content is still essential. It's just not enough for a small-time blogger. More efforts need to be made to gather backlinks.
Some effective strategies that can help you as a small-time blogger include:
- Creating images and infographics
- Guest posting and connecting with influencers
- Finding missing backlinks and fixing them
- Conducting a competitor link analysis regularly
Link Building and Social Media
According to a link-building survey conducted by Neil Patel, most SEO professionals made their link-building efforts through social media and digital marketing.
The same survey indicates that link-building through social media is the third most effective way to acquire backlinks behind paid ads and research.
So, don't hesitate to link to your website in your social media profiles and bios. And if you can, have other people link to your website on their profiles.
This might seem trivial and simple, but it can make a notable difference.
I've been using Twitter to create content that links to my blog post. This can lead to more people reading your content and potentially linking to your site. It doesn't hurt to gain more social media followers by repurposing your content.
Final Thoughts on Link Building
The power of link-building is undeniable. It is the most powerful SEO strategy.
The benefits of an excellent link-building approach are of great value, from improving your website's rankings, organic traffic, and referral traffic to increasing its authority and credibility.
Hopefully, with the information in this article, you'll be well on your way to acquiring as many backlinks as possible. Just remember: high-quality content is king.
