Linking is one of the most confusing, misrepresented and important aspects of a true SEO campaign. There are so many tales and stories of what is the right link strategy, what is the wrong, whether it is white, grey or black hat and in fact what even is paid links and what isn’t. The truth is quite simple really, all links are back links, whether that be internal links that link your pages together or whether it be external linking where a link is placed on a third party site and links back to your website.
What we have learned over the years is that linking is a must, there are no in-betweens, you have to utilise some form of link building to create a higher authority in Google’s eyes. What we must avoid is link building without a strategy, adding links here and there in the hope you get traction is a very gung-ho way to approach what in essence is a very integral part of your online presence. You should also avoid patterns, 100 of this link or 10 of that link and then repeat that each month, the same way we should do all the linking on the 10th of each month or 50% in the first week and 50% in week 3. The search engines have resources beyond comprehension and will already know and utilised every trick you think you will get away with. Linking isn’t about manipulating the search engines, it’s about building credibility, similar to a voting system. The more votes you have from credible sources the more chance you have to be elected to the first page.
It is this strategy that Fifty2one has been using for many years whilst involved with other agencies and one we will ALWAYS use moving forward. A simple but sensible way of link building, tracking and tracing all links sourced and a continuous health check on those sites we link on have allowed us to ensure the continued success of our client’s websites.