Online web marketing has greatly evolved in the past years, but the opportunities still abound around it. Gone were the days that the internet was mainly used as an advertisement or means for online presence. Today, whatever it is that you associate with your site becomes of great impact to your company and brand as a whole. As web search engines were optimized to be “smarter” when returning search results, link building has become more complex, but the rewards are greater and longer lasting.
Today, your portfolio and reputation online is faster to reach your customers than what years of hard work you did outside of it. The logical reason behind it is the growing popularity of mobile technology and social media, which have features that utilizes information, and users can easily “share” it to his or her network.
Online web marketing is fully supported by technology, and can be easily manipulated as one wishes. But then, as the internet use grows, many are advocating an honest and fair competition in the internet. It is hard to control such wide network as in a world wide web, but the good thing is there are regulatory bodies that implement policies continuously in order to promote the best practices for the benefit of many.
Unfortunately, a majority of the business websites has stayed stuck in the middle. They are the ones who were already on the boat, but don’t know how to paddle it towards a better destination. These are the businesses that are either too busy in other aspects, or are just naïve about the best online marketing practices to use.
Getting through the smart move made by Google could be challenging and rewarding at the same time. It pushes businesses to be more responsible in sending out information to the growing number of internet users, that are truthful, accurate and relevant to their needs. Google just calls out to businesses to become world class leaders, as we are under the rapid flourishing of globalization. Today, businesses can build their own online marketing strategies from these three basic foundations:
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is probably the oldest form of online marketing practice. It started as a tool to wade through the internet, by typing in keywords that are relevant to the information that one is trying to access. It then returns results based on relevance and web page ranking. Usually, the first pages of results can return only a few number of results, and as information in the internet grows, that is exactly where business websites aimed at being. About 32.8% of internet users click on the results on the first page, and the 2nd to 4th page results receive a cumulative 63% of user clicks, which strengthened the big deal out of it.
In the past, SEO was applied by using strategies involving keywords which should be put into your website content in order to be more “relevant”. This includes aspects of keyword density, keyword placement and link building. Today search engines have become “smart search engines” because they found out that the way up to web page rankings can be actually manipulated. This lead to the tendency of many to put popular but irrelevant keywords to their web content just to attract clicks. For a user, this is such a waste of time and can be frustrating at the same time. A search engine’s reputation is at stake here, so actions must be taken in order to gain back the user’s trust.
Today, Google is advocating best SEO practices, and detailed below are what ideal and legitimate SEO should contain:
- Keywords that are relevant to the topic of discussion or to the nature of the business’ industry.
- A website should contain valuable content that is worthy to be shared.
- A website that has been optimized for both desktop and mobile device viewing.
- A website or post should contain both an image and a content.
- Backlinks from authority and relevant websites.
The Impact of Link Building
SEO has long been associated with the practices of link building. As the way through the traffic in the internet highway get discursive, link building has sustained its integrity as its practices evolved too. Modern SEO is now dealing with both organic traffic and better rankings in the world wide web which, when attained will lead to a business’ success in becoming an information authority in the industry it is functioning, and also improve its SEO value.
What works with people, should be able to work with search engines too. According to a study about the components of Google’s ranking algorithm, 23.87% of the pie is attributed to the overall trust and authority that your page is garnering is the biggest indicator of your SEO campaign success.
The impact of link building tools is a powerful way of establishing the necessary connections and trail for people to follow and still lead to your website in whichever way they try to gain access. SEO used to be keyword driven, until link building has been introduced. Link building has become the streets that exist between bigger highways, in order for businesses to find its way through being in the mainstream. The best link building achievements can be attained through fulfilling the following:
- It should be able to drive referrals through link building.
- It should be able to increase a web page’s traffic visits and clicks.
- It should be able to significantly improve your website visibility in the search domain
- It should be able to increase your business’ awareness with your target market.
- It should be able to utilize the social media by garnering many mentions and shares.
- It should be able to drive leads and sales.
Link Building Risks
Recently, Google released new algorithm updates, the Panda and Penguin. It aimed to battle the unscrupulous activities and penalize websites that provides low quality information on the internet. These resulted in mass eradication of websites that are blocking others which has more relevant and helpful content. The Panda is aimed at bringing the websites with a consistent high quality content up on the Google’s search page rankings. On the other hand, the Penguin is geared on abolishing black hat SEO entirely.
These recent updates have driven those aggressive marketers down with their own foolish activities. The attempt to manipulate the true purpose of search engines did not push through further. Fortunately for those who persevered and chose to be white hat online marketers, built on the right foundation of integrity and high quality content, and stood strong and left to shine.
Safe Link Building Strategies
The open or public nature of the internet gives business two choices: either to manipulate it for their own benefit only, or be a responsible user and earn the way through the top.
Fortunately, search engines like Google are not tolerating black hat link building and SEO practices anymore. Instead, it advocates safe and legitimate practices which can survive your investment in online web marketing. Here are some of those appropriate ways to carry out effective link building strategies for your business:
- Guest Blogging
In the past, guest blogging went to the brink of being abolished completely, as many sites have overused this method for their own SEO benefit but without responsibility over its content. But guest blogging has two sides of influence, and online marketers can instead opt to use the positive one.
Guest blogging can have the best relationship with backlinks, or the vital aspect of link building. Backlinks can be driven by high quality and engaging content, instead of manipulating it in order to drive the traffic wanted. Backlinks shouldn’t be the purpose of guest blogging, but it is the by-product of getting sensible and skilled guest bloggers.
- Infographics
Modern SEO still continues to benefit from infographics. The good news here is that there is a shift of perspective in creating infographics – from being merely as tools for successful link building, until it became a source of useful information for the benefit of both the business and its clients. While there is a decline in the backlinks produced from infographics, it still remains to be a useful information conveying tool.
- Social Media
More than the shares, mentions and free advertising that a business can get from using social media, it can also be an avenue to get across useful information from your expertise, and in turn will help you get the authority you need in the online world.
Modern SEO actually uses the same old principles of link building, web traffic and organic clicks, but there is a shift in the perspective of the purpose. For social media, shares and mentions are earned because you have a worthy content to begin with. But this is just half of the story. If you truly believe you have something worth sharing, you have to promote it, using social media.
Getting active in social media isn’t just about posting, sharing and liking. You should also carry your content promotion to different social media channels and share it accordingly. The more channels are utilized, the higher the chances that it will reach your target audience.
- Strong Web Relationships
The easiest way to get link building to work is to ask for links.
Your web peers can help, especially if you come from the same industry. This fosters a network of relevance and authority, but not on a single website to benefit. You create content, mention them on it, and you likewise let them know. They can reciprocate the favor, and you can benefit mutually.
- Grow Your Own Brand
Backlinks, web traffic, page visibility and online presence will eventually follow the success of your brand. There are small businesses that benefit from this kind of indirect approach to online marketing, wherein people discovers their services and keen to promote you willingly without you forcing them. The payoff here is that you grow your brand based on what you really do, and not out of the goal of online presence.
The Importance of Getting a Link Building Firm
For some businesses, web presence means so much, especially if they are operating within the e-commerce industry. It is tempting to utilize black hat online marketing in order to arrive faster to your goals. White hat strategies can be time and money consuming, and might take away so much from your business. An alternative is to get yourself a link building service from a link building firm to secure your online marketing strategies, so you can focus on other important business aspects that you need to attend to.
The top link building firms are authorities in implementing effective SEO strategies, based on the best and honest practices of online marketing. Websites such as CrowdReviews.com lists down the popular and best link building firms, which are ranked according to its existing client feedbacks. To help you with your search, see these link building firm reviews to give you insights before getting the one appropriate for your business needs.
Trevor Price
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