Link building

Building effective links is one of the most important off-page optimization measures around. Link building is essentially about generating high-quality backlinks. In this context, the link building is about much more than just tactics – it is also to be regarded as being a strategy in itself. To be effective, a link building strategy always has to draw on a number of different link building methods, such as e.g.:

• Organic link building
• Social Organic Link Building (SOL)
• Content marketing
• Link baiting (e.g. using eBooks, infographics to create viral effects)
• Online PR

What makes link building so important for a website?

Backlinks are important components in achieving better website rankings. Well-placed and integrated backlinks also ensure that users can find the website more easily. Good links not only push up the ranking of the linked page, but also of the entire website and hence contribute to your website’s long-term success. This in turn means that your website’s name recognition will increase and in doing so, ultimately further strengthen your specific brand.

Please note: we never buy or rent backlinks when building organic links

1. Determining your goals and link building budget

Before starting to develop a strategy, we will get together with you to discuss your medium and long-term goals. When it comes to defining goals, it is important to bear in mind that the more topically relevant and the higher the quality of the backlinks are, the faster we will be able to achieve your goals. However, your goals obviously have to be in line with your specific budget, while the number of links isn’t actually that important to them.

2. Checking existing backlinks to your website

This involves analyzing the backlink profile of your site in order to be able to develop an effective strategy and also gives us an insight into potential weak points. Based on this information, we are then able to develop and recommend appropriate link building measures.

3. Analyzing your market and competitors

This process involves using detailed analyses to determine which websites or which competitors are ranked with what keywords / search phrases in what position amongst Google’s top 10. This is important because it allows us to work out strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunity and risk profiles:

• Strengths Your competitors’ strengths can comprise a lot of different elements such as brand, trust from Google, strong backlinks, etc. and hence make it more difficult for ‘new’ competitors to e.g. get into the Top 5.
• Weaknesses: Lack of a clear USP, lack of search engine position ranking for certain keywords, technical problems, etc.When examining competitors’ weaknesses, it is important to contrast them with your own strengths
• Opportunities in the market include, e.g. niches in the industry that are not yet covered.
• Risks that we do not have any control over include, e.g. Google updates, changes in SERPs or new competitors.

4. Checking your website’s link target pages (landing pages)

This step comprises checking your entire website or the targeted categories, sub-categories or landing pages (target pages) to check whether they are suitable for achieving a good ranking. It also entails checking any on-page elements that could be improved to make the page a more relevant search result for Google.

5. Developing link building campaigns

We use the analysis results to develop a powerful link building-strategy and campaigns for building organic links. On this basis, we always specify the link targets subsequent to consultation with you. We then determine the keywords and target groups for searches performed by potential Linkerati. The websites must always be relevant both to the topic of your website and THE VISITORS TO THE SITE for the site to appear in Google’s top 100 search results for the corresponding search terms. When developing link building campaigns, we only draw on SEO metrics, which can sometimes be misleading for prioritization or weighting purposes.

We also carefully research the personal contact data of potential link building-partners to make sure that we can DIRECTLY and PERSONALLY get in touch with them (as opposed to using the “Hi webmaster, could I have a link please?!” email approach).

6. Getting in touch with potential link sources and webmasters

When it comes to contacting potential link building partners, we not only ensure we make personal contact, but also ensure we do so in a way that inspires confidence, is considerate and only involves potential partners that are relevant to the target group. This includes both national as well as international addressees. Depending on the campaign, we either contact potential partners for generating backlinks by email or letter (print mails). This approach is extremely novel in our industry and, together with our considerate communication style, makes for yet another great USP!

7. Individually processing mails and replies

The response rates of potential link sources and webmasters can vary greatly depending on the topic, content, product, brand awareness, topical relevance and amount of planning that has gone into a campaign. To achieve a high response rate, it is usually necessary to send follow-up emails and talk to people on the phone. Doing so generally enables us to significantly increase the success of our campaigns.

Link placements:
On first contacting potential link partners individually, we always make clear that we would like them to place a link on their website and politely, respectfully and emphatically guide them towards doing so. Depending on the priority level or cluster that partners were previously assigned to, they are always kept inside the communication loop until they have made a clear decision about whether or not to place a link.

Link integration:
As soon as we have come to a corresponding agreement about a link placement with a partner, the way the link will be integrated takes centre stage. Although we give backlink providers plenty of leeway when it comes to the link’s anchor text and integration, we always make sure that they are not integrated as e.g. footer links, site wide links or any other kind of links that violate Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Please note: we do not work with other SEOs or SEO websites (websites that are designed only for search engines, but deliver little or no value to users).

8. Providing you with a backlink report

We will provide you with a report on the backlinks we set up for you and the changes to your website’s rankings every month, and in doing so, keep you fully in the picture about what is going on.

9. Permanently monitoring backlinks we already set up

Once we have fully documented the backlinks we have already set up in our link management tool, we will permanently monitor them. If they produce any error messages such as e.g. lost backlinks, broken links etc., the webmaster of the referring site will be contacted accordingly.

A brief overview of our services:

• We develop a detailed, meaningful link building strategy
• We run personalized backlink acquisition campaigns
• We attract natural backlinks for you
• We make sure that your backlinks stay in place

If you would like us to create a backlink strategy for you or you simply require organic links for your website, please get in touch with us! Our service packages can be taken out on a monthly basis and allow you to get started any day, without any risks or having to take out a long contract.

And here is a video of Matt Cutts, the man who gave his name to the claim “SEO, Cutts & Rock´n´Roll”.

“Will backlinks lose their importance in ranking?”

with a clear message at the end: “…but I would expect, that for the next few years we will continue to use links in order to assess the basic reputation of pages and sites.“