How to use PR effectively for link building
A PR campaign can contribute to different goals. Consider increasing brand awareness or building authority in the market. Another PR goal is: link building. In this blog, you will read what link building is and how to use it effectively.
What is link building and how does it work?
Link building involves websites linking to your content. These links are called 'backlinks'. It used to be easier to benefit from link building. Enough links to your content earned a higher position in Google search results. But times have changed. Nowadays, the search bots also estimate how relevant those links are. For example, do you write about gardening and you are linked to by a company that makes pianos? Chances are the search bots will place that in the category: not relevant.
Many (relevant) links to your content is a signal to Google's search bots that you have authority. As a result, your content appears higher in search results.
How to get backlinks
- Add yourself: for example, as a comment on a blog or news item, leave a link to your content that deals with this topic.
- Asking: asking for backlinks is called 'outreach'. This can be a laborious path as website owners get a lot of requests. Always substantiate what it benefits the domain owner when he or she shares your link.
- Buy or barter: backlinks can be bought or you can barter (someone places a backlink for you, and you do the same in return.) Opinions differ on whether buying backlinks is a good idea.
- Earn: of course you can add backlinks yourself, ask for them and even buy or exchange them. But in the end, it's all about the quality of your content. If people find your message surprising, unique, strongly reasoned and recognisable, you will have a head start in getting backlinks.Don't forget to check the obtained links regularly. Do they still lead to the page as intended?
This is how google evaluates your backlinks
What do the google search bots weigh in judging the backlinks you get? Quite a list of points:
- Number of backlinks.
- Relevance: non-relevant links are often placed in the footer of the website, which is an important clue for the search bots.
- Variation of domains: are all your backlinks coming from the same site? Chances are it's a friend site.
- Reliability: having lots of links from different domains is not enough. This is because search bots also assess the reliability of referring domains. How high is their quality, age, security and information value? A link from, say, Nu.nl will yield a lot more than from an unknown, inactive website.
- Anchor text/anchor text: the anchor text of a link is the text that visitors can click on to follow the link. Such as 'Read more here'. But often it is also the keyword (and therefore a keyword) of the content being linked to. This is useful information for the search bots and it makes you appear higher in the search results when people type in the keyword. What search bots consider suspicious is when the anchor text is always the same search/core word.
- Link profile growth: do you get a lot of backlinks all at once? Search bots will usually judge that as unreliable. Especially if nothing is added for a long time after that. Normally, the number of backlinks increases gradually. Link building is a long-term approach. It won't get you high in the google results overnight.
- Follow vs. No-follow: normally it helps if you leave your links on websites. But if people are not waiting for your link, for instance because they don't like your website, they can mark the link as no-follow. This is an instruction to the search bots not to consider this backlink. This underlines the principle: quality above all else.
By the way: Google not only counts the links that point to your website (incoming links), but also the links that you yourself place to (preferably reliable, highly reputed) websites. And your internal links: through these links, search engines 'see' that you have a high information value on certain topics because you create content about them several times.
Link building in journalism
Journalists are not quick to include links in their pieces. But if you give them a good reason, they sometimes do. The question, of course, is: how do you give them that good reason? For instance, by doing data research: this is how you create your own newsworthiness.
Want to start linkbuilding yourself?
We'd be happy to help you think about what linkbuilding could look like for you and what it could bring you. Leave your details here, or contact Thomas Bekker, on +31 (0)6 193 285 84, or thomas@mediatic.eu/en.
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