by Prince Kapoor
Link building is a great contributor to the success of any business. If implemented properly, link building can help your business rise to new levels.
I am not saying that if you implement them well, it is a guarantee to success, but yes, it is surely a way towards it. In fact, backlinks are still the first search engine ranking factor.
However, if you think that link building alone will help grow your business, you need to think again. Link building needs to be a part of a bigger, elaborated strategy.
If your link building efforts are going in vain, you need to first understand what is causing the failure. I have listed down five common reasons that usually leads to link-building failure:
There is no documented strategy.
One of the main reasons your link building is not going as planned might be that you lack a strategy to support it. It is impossible for your business to succeed via link building alone. Link building must tie-up with your grand marketing plan to generate the desired results.
Most of us straight away dig into link building, lured by the attractive numbers it has to offer. But what we fail to understand is without the strategy or the groundwork, it will cripple like a house of cards. This is the major reason why this point is ranked first on my list. Just like every other marketing technique, link building also requires hardcore planning and intricate research.
With a random link building, you will definitely be able to quote a big figure of the number of links you have built. But how is it worth it, if they all land to a random blog or webpage that hasn’t been optimized for a very long time.
So, here’s a quick look at how you should begin with your link building
- Run a target audience analysis
- Conduct an in-depth keyword research
- Draft a content strategy
- Craft high-quality articles or content pieces
- Publish SEO-optimized content
Now, start building links.
A strategy also helps you and your entire team to focus on your goals. Your end goal is definitely not just having more traffic but to convert it into more leads. There’s a reason why 81% of marketers believe that a documented strategy drives the entire team to a common goal.
You are spending time on the wrong websites.
What according to you are the main components of the Link Building? For most of us, it is Relevancy, Authority, Traffic and Backlink Profile. However, the order keeps changing.
Now, ask yourself, which website will you choose amongst these two – a high authority site with a huge audience, or a medium/low authority site, but really relevant to your core business? Tough choice? Not always. Most marketers pick the later, and that’s exactly where things take a toll. Relevancy is definitely important but so is authority.
Thus, if you want to see yourself climbing up the ladder on SERP’s – it’s time you should prioritize authority, sometimes even more than the relevance. Link building in the form of guest blogging or some other technique is certainly a process but stronger sites in terms of traffic and authority will help you gauge faster results.
Ensure that the website you are picking has a strong backlink profile or all your efforts will vanish into thin air with the next algorithm update. It should not have many low-quality links from forums, PBNs, directories and so on.
Watch out for these three criteria in the right order and I am sure it will generate the desired results.
You are not providing quality content.
Your strategy is on point, the website you’ve chosen is great and you have people clicking on your links. But the conversions are nowhere near to the desired number, why? Because the linked asset does not provide value to the readers.
If your content isn’t good, your audience will feel like they’ve wasted their time. This sentiment will not help your business grow, instead, you will lose your hard-earned reputation.
You certainly can’t reach the top with a mediocre 1000-word article. Google algorithm is very complex and if you think it can’t read your content and only understands the technical language, you are fooled. Google analyzes a lot more than just links. Bounce rates, the amount of time people are spending with your content, reader’s comments and similar aspects also determine your Google search results ranking.
You are not using your SEO efficiently.
Like I mentioned earlier, in a link building campaign, good backlinks are just playing the supporting role, there are a hundred other aspects to consider. One of them is SEO. If you utilize it in a proper and efficient manner, it can increase your reach manifolds.
SEO tells Google what your website and page is actually about. Page optimizations, titles, meta descriptions, subtitles, everything that supports SEO influence the search algorithm of your site.
Secondly, if there are technical problems with your page, for instance, if it is taking too long to load, people will tend to exit the site. Google’s search algorithm takes this negatively, and thus impacts the results negatively. SEO has the power to eliminate such technical glitches. Apart from boosting your rankings, SEO-done-right will work wonders for your link building campaign.
You have got the wrong Search intent.
Before we get into details, it is important to understand the basic definition of search intent. By nature, it means to comprehend the user conducting the search and their thought process while doing it.
Now, if you are still unclear as to why you aren’t making it to the top, that is, in the first five results of searches even after going through the previous four points with utmost precision, it is mostly because you are having a wrong search intent.
You might find this similar to the previous point, where we discussed how rankings drop or stop increasing because people didn’t find your website satisfactory.
The idea behind this point is that before you develop content, or go ahead with any of the link building activities, you need to research meticulously upon what information your audience will actually search for when they type certain phrases in the search box.
For instance, if you deliver IT services with a very specialized niche, you need to first look for the problems that you are willing to solve and craft content that relates to your prospects’ sufferings.
All the best!
In this highly competitive corporate world, you need to be the best. Forget about being on the first page of search results; if you are not making it to the top five your business will not achieve the desired heights. Look carefully into what is causing your link building campaign to fail and try to rectify the errors.
Prince Kapoor is a seasoned marketing analyst and blogger. With his skills, he has been helping fellow marketers and brands worldwide.
