Link building strategies aren't just for SEO. The true purpose of building links is to market your content...
Your content may be a sales page, a product review, an article or tutorial with a strong call-to-action, or even a blog post or article that links to one of those pieces of content.
Regardless of what type of content it is, you need inbound links to market that content. Those links are a means of communicating with your target market, and an open door inviting them to view your content.
It's too easy to get caught up in the mechanics of web content development and seo, and forget the true purpose - and the human element...
When we research keywords, we see search volume and profit potential. But behind those phrases are real people with real needs, typing those phrases into their favorite search engine. Someone's mom, brother, or daughter. Maybe even yours.
Connecting with that image will help you frame your content, and your links in the best possible way. A way that answers their question, or offers them the solution they're searching for. It will help you communicate with them more effectively.
Creating content isn't a business. SEO isn't marketing. These are simply tools to achieve your real objective: to reach and interact with your market on the internet.
Get your ideal visitor in mind. Are they a certain age? A specific gender? What do they need or want? What ways do they use to research and find that?
How can you best serve them?
Keeping these things in the forefront of your mind as you work on your business will bring you the success that you're looking for.
It's not about using all the right plugins, all the right link building strategies, or writing with an exact word count in mind. It's not about on-page and off-page factors, or search algorithms. It's about the people that surf and search.
Twitter is a good micro-example. You can set up auto-tweets to push your content out to Twitter, you can pull your tweets into web pages, you can automatically follow and unfollow people by the masses. There are all kinds of plugins and programs and tips and guides...
But unless you are out there actually having a two-way conversation with your target market (and their mother, and their friends), all that pushing and pulling is going to get you nowhere. Social properties aren't just for inbound links, they're an opportunity to interact with your ideal visitors and your potential buyers.
The same can be said for link building strategies. It doesn't matter if you know the algorithms down to an exact science. If your links don't 'speak' to the reader in the right way, or if your content doesn't open and close the conversation they are having in their mind, your conversion rate is going to tank.
Meet them where they are (find out where they are and place your links strategically). Engage them by addressing the thoughts and questions they already have (with well-written content that matches the intent of their search).
Lead them to a solution (with a strong call-to-action). Then keep that conversation going, even after the sale, by following up and continuing to address any ongoing needs they may have (via your customer list or autoresponder).
Your inbound links and your content aren't just for search engines. Your customer isn't just a sale. Put the human element into your marketing, and your link building strategies, to really make it work - both for you, and for them.
Best,
About Lynn Terry
Lynn,
is this post meant as either an introduction or an epilogue to the interesting posts regarding linkbuilding you published over the last days? What I have seen here on this blog were well written and researched posts that gave me lots of information I couldn't find in other places or would have to pay for. Thanks and keep up the good work and writing style.
Looking forward to your next serial ...
Yes, this post is a continuation of the Link Building series. It's very important to look behind the curtain and realize that there's more to the process than the mechanics.
Most tutorials tell you to do this, download that, use this plugin, and bam - you'll have a "stats crushing profit machine". There's so much more to it... and very few people reveal that - the human element of a successful online business.
Lynn, I think this is something that I realize more everyday. When I just think about what I do when I am looking for something and what I do when I get to a website then it's not hard to see how to do things. I do believe it will fall into place naturally. Thanks for the great post.
Gail J Richardson
When I first started back in 2007 I launched a blog about community life and new urbanism and participated in discussions all over the Internet that examined that topic. My traffic grew steadily over those months, and I ended up getting a lot of interest in the blog especially from advertisers and those interested in the podcast. I don't post as regularly on that site anymore, but still get new subscribers and good search engine ranking on my key words.
I'm sure that's because of the great incoming links I developed back when I knew nothing about SEO but was just enjoying the dialogue and the opportunity to reach other like minded individuals interested in my topic.
I Couldn't agree more with your statement that social properties are "an opportunity to interact with your ideal visitors and your potential buyers." That's part of what makes our business satisfying. I'm just hoping to be more strategic with my work and I'm getting that way through what I'm learning here...Thanks 🙂
This is very important. As you mentioned, you can do all the right things, link building, seo, etc..however if you cant capture the visitors attention, what is the point of doing SEO?
One measurement that I watch very closely is the bounce rate. This is a great indication for knowing if your visitors are staying or leaving. We had a site once where the bounce rate was much higher than expected. We did put up a exit poll for a bit to figure out what the problem was. From the poll, we realized that it was the content that was not matching what the visitors were looking for.
Exit polls and Bounce Rate monitoring can very effective.
Cheers
Depending on the site objective, with an affiliate site for example, you may want a high bounce rate. But I agree - stats are gold for figuring out your visitors' experience.
One thing I like to do is sit down at the end of the month and analyze the keyword phrases used to enter my site. I go back to Google and type those phrases in, consider the intent of the search and what they are really looking for, look at how my listing appears in the SERPs and see if I can improve the title or description, click through and consider if the content and call-to-action are a good match for their search query, etc.
Just taking some time to get in their shoes for a minute, and view your content from that perspective, can help you see where you're "missing the mark" or what elements you might split-test to improve the experience.
Great suggestions. Going back and analyzing the keyword phrases is a great idea. Thank you for the valuable follow up tips.
>>at the end of the month and analyze the keyword phrases used to enter my site.<<
If you find a phrase again and again, you can even create a seperate page on that. Did that a few times and one of these new pages became a real money machine.
Thanks for all of the great information Lynn. I have learned so much I didn't know from these posts--a great help!!
What many don't realize is that creating a positive user experience also helps boost SEO. Create a good experience, and you gain more repeat visitors and higher click-through rates, which improves SEO. Humanizes your marketing is an excellent strategy; for example, write content that fits "in" with a website, not just "on" a website. You're trying to sell to consumers, not search engines, so speak to your target audience. Great ideas here! Thank you.
Great content will attract unsolicited (natural) inbound links as well, which should be a big part of your marketing strategy.
Pillar articles, free tutorials, helpful or funny videos, etc. People will pass it around, discuss it, blog about it and link to it - on their own.
Thank you for sharing so much information about link building and content marketing. I'm sure that this post will help the internet marketers a lot. Thanks!
Lynn,
You are so right about the bottom line. So many people approach me about press releases to build up SEO, and often, I just shake my head.
Press releases can be a good tool for both link building and SEO, however the point of a press release is to build a connection with journalists and your target market in a non-salesy way.
Without making the connection, you haven't got a chance for your releases to really work for you.
Shannon Cherry
wow, it's like you're talking specifically to me haha, i'm curious to know, after you create a blog post how many inbound links do you try to get to each blog post / how much time do you spend getting links before you call it a day?
also, there seems to be a problem with your retweet button, when i press it, it opens my twitter account with "From @lynnterry: Link Building Strategies" but there is no url FYI 😉
I think the problem is with Twitter's new feature - I'm looking into it as it's been working fine up until tonight.
Oddly, it's only broken on this post. I tested other posts, and tested posts that had question marks in the title, but every other post is working fine... Strange.
See: Analyzing Backlinks - How Many Do You Need?
We forget we are talking to people sometimes. Something I simply can't afford to do in my business. People are my business. Helping people is my business. That's the business we should all be in. Because when you help them get what they want, you will in turn be provide what you need. Don't market, don't sell - help real people with real needs and you'll see the difference in your bottom line. Trust me.
I agree with you Steven. We build links not just to have more links. We build them to increase our visibility online to get more visitors so that we can convert them to clients. If we happen to fail in such one-on-one contact, we don't manage to grow our businesses.
Hi, I have been heavy into SEO lately particularly link building and every little bit on info that can help me get top rankings and traffi chelps.
Hey Lynn, this is so true! Most people forget about the human element...the user. It's easy to want to make money, but it more difficult for most to SERVE first. Thanks for always posting the Truth.
God Bless,
Ontarian
"Link building strategies aren’t just for SEO." Agreed. Many people will only build links from DoFollow sites. But your main purpose is to drive traffic to your site. In that case a link is a link it doesn't matter what kind.