Sometimes, it seems impossible to get traffic to your website, doesn’t it? Search engine optimization for small business can be a huge challenge.
If you’re like most business owners, you’ve probably spent tons of time trying to figure out how to get more people to visit your website.
It can get pretty frustrating, right?
Especially when you have worked so hard to build a great website. After all, what’s the point of having a wonderfully-designed website if nobody sees it?
There is good news: Successful SEO for small business isn’t impossible. If you use the right techniques, your SEO efforts will pay off.
One of the most important SEO techniques is backlink building. You need to get other people to link to your website. In order for search engines like Google to rank your site higher, they need to see that your content is valuable enough to link to.
Building backlinks isn’t easy. It requires hard work and patience. But if you keep at it, you can get more and more sites to link to your content.
In this post, I’m going to teach you…
- What SEO backlinks are.
- Why you need them.
- How to get them.
Pretty straightforward, right? When you use the tips I give you, it will become much easier to get more links to your website.
Why Are Backlinks Needed For Search Engine Optimization for Small Business?
So what exactly are SEO backlinks? Simply put, they’re links that lead to a web page on your website. That’s pretty much it.
But the impact they have is huge. Building backlinks is one of the most powerful ways to get search engines to rank your site higher. It’s one of the most important components of effective search engine optimization for small business. If you want to rank higher, you need to get others to link to your website.
Here’s how it works. When search engines are “deciding” which sites to rank higher, they look at a few factors:
- Quality of content.
- Website architecture.
- Authority of the website.
This last point is where backlinks come in. When search engines see that there are a lot of people linking to your website, they assume that your content is worth reading because it shows that people are being helped by what you’ve created. Effective search engine optimization for small business depends heavily on building backlinks.
But it’s not just about getting backlinks. It’s about getting quality backlinks. You don’t want links from just any website. You want to get links from high authority websites. The higher the domain authority, the better.
Here are some examples of websites that you would want links from:
- Huffington Post
- Forbes
- Inc
- Entrepreneur
- Small Business Trends
Now, I’m not saying that every link you get has to be from websites like these. But it’s helpful if you’re able to grab links from these high-profile blogs.
When building backlinks, it’s more important to avoid getting links from low-quality website. These types of links can actually hurt your SEO efforts.
Here are some of the ways SEO backlinks can help:
- Better organic search engine rankings.
- Increased referral traffic.
- Faster indexing of the pages on your website.
Backlinks aren’t quite as powerful as they used to be, but they’re still immensely important. If you want your website to rank higher, you need to build a healthy backlink profile.
One positive backlink-building habit you should adopt is monitoring your backlinks. There are plenty of tools that can help you find out what sites are linking to your content.
What The Heck Is Link-Building?
Link building is an SEO technique that involves attracting backlinks to your website. It’s a process of getting as many high-quality websites to link to your webpages.
An effective backlinking strategy is the key to getting more authority with search engines. Another benefit of getting backlinks is increased traffic. The more links you have pointing to your website, the more people will click on these links to visit.
There are several different link-building strategies you can use. You will need to figure out which method works best for your business.
In this next section, I will discuss some of the more common and effective tactics that can help your backlinking efforts.
Guest Posts
You may have heard it said that guest posting is not an effective way to get backlinks. This isn’t true. Posting on other blogs is still a great way to earn high-quality backlinks. In addition, it’s also a great way to get more exposure for your brand.
Guest blogging is an online marketing practice that involves writing blog posts for other blogs. There are tons of other blogs who have outside writers contribute content. If they allow you to write content for them, you will be able to directly reach their audience. That’s why it’s best to contribute to a blog that has a larger audience than yours.
A great benefit of guest blogging is that most blogs will allow you to have a byline that includes a do-follow link to your website. The key is to do it the right way.
When you find a blog that you would like to contribute to, follow these steps:
- Send a pitch to the blog owner. When you do this, give them a high-level idea of what you would like to write about. Some blogs might require you to send the full post. Others will just want a pitch. Each blog will list their requirements for blog post submissions.
- Don’t neglect the quality. If a blog is letting you contribute, you need to deliver. Make sure you write the highest quality possible.
- Include an effective call-to-action. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply inviting readers to comment is enough.
- When you get comments, respond to them. It’s a very effective way of building an audience.
Guest blogging is a great way to build your brand and earn more SEO backlinks. When you do this the right way, you will see results over time.
Write Only High-Quality Content
This should go without saying. Nobody is going to link to content that isn’t engaging and helpful. Content is arguably the most important factor when it comes to SEO for small business. If you’re not creating high-quality content, none of your other SEO strategies will work. It’s that important.
Search engines want to provide the most relevant search results for their users. It’s why they are in business. That’s why it’s in your best interests to be the most relevant search result possible.
The algorithms that search engines use are designed to find only the most helpful content for their users. When you provide content that provides actual value to your readers, search engines will pick up on it.
But it’s also important for building backlinks. You need to write content that people actually want to link to. Whenever you’re writing a blog post, or creating any other type of content, you need to ask yourself if what you’re writing is worth linking to.
One way to figure this out is to do some Googling. Run searches on keywords in your industry. See which sites are appearing on the first page of search engine results. Analyze the types of content these companies are creating. Your content needs to be on par with or better than what your competitors are creating.
Also, make sure you’re optimizing each piece of content for search engines. You want to target specific keywords and phrases. This makes it easier for others to find your content and link to it.
Try to create as much content as possible. The more you create, the more there will be for others to link to.
Promote Your Content
There’s no point in creating great content if nobody is going to see it. If you’re noticing that nobody is reading your content, you might want to make sure you’re using an effective content promotion strategy. Content promotion is a must for SEO for small business.
People can’t link to content that they never see, right? Building SEO backlinks means getting your content in front of as many people as you can.
This isn’t too difficult, but it does take time.
Here are some helpful tips:
- Develop a social media strategy.
- Use your email list.
- Make sure you’re using the right social media platforms.
- Connect with influencers who have large audiences.
Knowing how to promote your content will help you get more exposure to people who will link to your website. Don’t overlook this step.
Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
Speaking of social media, have you taken a look at any of your profiles lately? Your social media profiles are prime places to get some link juice. It’s one of the easiest ways to build your backlink profile.
Most social media platforms let you put a do-follow link to your website in your profile. All you have to do is put it in. Easy peasy!
Here are some of the platforms you should be using:
- Google Plus
- Digg
- Foursquare
If you happen to have profiles on any of these sites (and you should) make sure you’re including a link to your website.
If you have profiles on these sites, make sure you’re including link to your website.
The Moving Man Strategy
Ah yes, the Moving Man Strategy. This technique is a great way to get more links to your website. But there is a caveat here…it’s going to take some time and effort to make it work.
However, if you use this technique the right way, you can get tons of great SEO backlinks from reputable websites.
Here are the steps:
- Find companies that are rebranding or going out of business. This includes companies that are moving to a new website, or changing their name.
- Analyze their old URL to find out which sites are linking to it. You can use a backlink tool for this.
- After you identify the websites that are linking to the old website, reach out to the owners of these sites and let them know that one (or more) of their links are now outdated. Offer a piece of content that they can use to replace the old link. If you need to create a piece of content, do this first.
If you do this enough times, you can get a good amount of quality backlinks. Like I said before, you will have to put in a lot of work to pull this off, but when you’re done, you will end up with a lot of backlinks. This technique is a great way to enhance SEO for small business.
Closing Thoughts
Yeah, I get it. This all sounds pretty difficult. I agree. Getting quality backlinks takes time. But nothing good comes easy, does it?
The tips in this article will make it far easier for you to get the backlinks to improve your search engine optimization efforts. If you use these tips, you will be glad that you put in the work to get quality SEO backlinks.
Like I said previously, search engine optimized content is the #1 way to get quality backlinks, and get search engines to rank your site higher. It’s the best way to improve your SEO strategy.
Artisan Owl Media knows what search engine optimization for small business means. If you need help getting more traffic, contact us today for your free SEO consultation. We can help you earn more customers!
Getting SEO backlinks isn’t easy. It can take quite a bit of work to get people to link to your website. But if you’re diligent, you can build a ton of great backlinks that will help you improve your search engine rankings and earn more traffic.
Leave A Response