Link building is about getting links to your website published on other relevant and respected websites. Links can be published deliberately, meaning that you have a partnership with someone or pay for the placement.
Links on other websites are essential for SEO (search engine optimization) in two ways:
- if search engines see that other websites are linking to you, they mark you as a credible source and you end up higher in the results
- new visitors can be redirected to your website which will create traffic
However, you can also be panelized for low-quality link building. For example, search engines rank you down when you post links on irrelevant websites with irrelevant anchors, websites overuse web directories, or links are posted frequently on the same websites.
Therefore, website owners should avoid overusing link building and focus mostly on the content that is worth linking. Links can appear on other websites without the efforts of the owner when journalists or bloggers link back to you as a reliable source of information. This should be the ultimate goal for websites.
If you are still going for link building, go for relevant, high-quality pages and avoid spammy anchors. It is better to reach out to more websites and ask them for one link, rather than having one website linking back to you dozens of times.
