What Is Link Building?

Internet entrepreneurs will be quick to tell you that when it comes to traffic search engines are king. If you’ve ever done a search (and statistically, you have) you’ve noticed the countless website listings. Did you ever think about how those websites got to the positions they’re currently in or how valuable they are?

Depending on the keyword, being in the #1 spot on a Google search can earn a Webmaster an immense amount of money. Though there are countless factors that go into getting that #1 spot, link building is largely regarded as one of the most important factors.

If you’re looking to dive head first into link building services, take caution. Though link building can be very beneficial towards improving your rankings, it is a delicate process and you must do your homework. Yes, that means everything from taking Link building 101 to reading The Epic Guide to Anchor Text.

Why a Link Matters

When the Internet first formed, it was very hard to find the information you were looking for. This is due to the fact that there was no central directory and definitely no search engines. Then along came very primitive search engines that allowed a user to search for a string of words and be greeted with every website that contains that string.

Though this was a leap ahead of what was before it, returning every single result in a random list isn’t very helpful. Then along came Google and redefined what a search engine was. The creators of Google figured that the more links towards a website, the more important it was and thus should be displayed at the top of a search result.

Things have changed quite a bit as Google has gotten more sophisticated with their rankings but it’s easy to see why a link matters: the more quality links a website has pointing towards it, the more important it appears in the eyes of Google.

Types of Link Building

There are countless forms of link building but we will only touch on two broad subjects: white hat link building, and black hat link building. Both have their respective pros and cons and both should be considered when forming a link building campaign.

White hat link building usually involves manual creation of a link be it a guest blog post, forum post, blog comment and so on. Black hat link building on the other hand is largely automated and can be considered building on the other hand is largely automated and can be considered spam my depending on what method is being used. White hat links are typically thought to hold more value but take a much longer time to build. Black hat links, on the other hand, can be created in bulk with the click of the button but may not work or even work against the value of your website.

There are a number of white hat link building companies out there. They focus on providing long-term value for clients through search strategies. LDM, an SEO company operating out of Rochester NY, focuses on these sustainable

Components of a Link

So what exactly goes into a link? First there is the source of a link – where the link is actually housed. There are countless sources you can implant a link into that will be benefitial to your website.

If, for example, you run a website that talks about animals, finding some forums that have a thriving community of animals will give you good avenues to place your link. Other than the link, there is the anchor text. This is what tells Google that a link to your website should be associated with a certain keyword. This is where things get tricky because having unnatural anchor text portfolios will look unnatural to Google and may get you penalized. After finding your sources, reading something like The Epic Guide to Anchor text will give you a good understanding of what your anchor text portfolio should look like.