If you know one thing about SEO, besides what it is, then you know backlinks are imperative to the entire process. Link building is the process of “building” links on your site that go to others and vice versa. 

The more high quality links referring to your site, the better. This shows that the company website has prominence in the industry and is trusted by others. There isn’t one single formula to create and execute a backlink strategy. 

With the rise of organic search and SEO strategies, more and more companies are searching to keep their ranking on the first page of search engines. However, to keep the website ranking on the first page for a number of keywords, the strategy has to work itself. 

What does an SEO expert company mean when they speak about “white hat” or “black hat” SEO strategies? 

This is kind of like in Star Wars with the light and dark side of the force. Those who started on the light side found themselves eventually turning to the dark side because it was easier and provided more power. Black hat SEO is the same way. Is it easier? Yes, but is it more powerful? No. 

As Niel Patel states, “A black hat SEO strategy is simply a good strategy gone wrong.” 

White hat backlinking strategies are a bit harder because they take some serious dedication and time. White hat backlinks beat black hat backlinks because they last. White hat SEO provides qualified website traffic that companies are searching for when they hire an SEO Omaha NE expert. 

With black hat, instead of relevant content, it turns into duplicate content. Instead of relevant links, it turns into cloaking or redirecting to another site or page. 

How do you make sure that the SEO strategy that has been set into place is properly working, but also not harming the website over time as well?

Internal linking 

An easy, but effective way to start growing backlinks on the website is with internal linking. This is something many companies overlook, but it is a simple part of the strategy at hand. This helps to build site architecture and spreading of quality links around the website. 

Google has “spiders” that crawl your website and leave webs behind for the next spider to crawl. A more “crawable” structure and site itself, the better, and internal links can help to direct Google where the webs should and shouldn’t connect. 

This example above is a great way to use internal links within the site’s structure. 

Another great way to build internal links is with blogging content. When content is being written, and links for sources are needed, would your own links work? Does the local keyword you are using need a backlink? Link it back to the service page. 

Become the industry expert 

This is one of the main goals behind SEO strategies as well. Sure, an influx in website traffic is the goal, but there is the need of establishing the company in the industry. Once the company has been established, it is easier to get backlinks because they start to come more naturally. 

One of the strategies is to become a source for others in the industry or publishers. Every time another company uses your content. This is called referral backlinking and increases brand awareness. 

As long as the companies and other publishers are credible in the industry, it will help with backlinking and qualified website traffic. 

Another thing to remember, it isn’t enough to simply have other websites and companies linking back to your content, it needs to be those relevant in your industry. If the company is tile flooring, and a number of companies in different, and not relevant industries are using that link, Google isn’t going to love that. 

Make sure links point back to the proper page 

It is important to keep track of all the white hat backlinks as much as possible and make sure the links are referring back to the correct pages. This includes redirects from an older site or page to the new site or page. 

Finding opportunities 

This scenario is similar to the “like for a like” methodology on social media platforms. Not only do you want to be the industry leader, but sometimes you do need help. A great place to start is reaching out to news outlets and PR companies. 

This is one easy way to build quality links and get a bit of exposure at the same time. Start with the top of the list and work your way down to niches. 

Update content 

Content is king, and in the industry, it always will be. Our SEO Omaha NE experts predict that content will always be one of the main driving factors of SEO strategies in search engines. The thing is, in the industry, trends come and go, but most of the time those trends continue to build off of themselves. 

Another trend that our experts notice, older blogging content ranks better overtime than newer content. Now, this isn’t always the case, but we do notice old content creeping up on new content. If an article, research report, ebook or anything else hasn’t been updated in a while, and there are some really great referral backlinks to said article, this is a winner. Once the content is updated and live, a company can reach out to those other referral links and let them know! 

There you have it, those are some of the top white hat link building strategies that experts in the industry work on! For more information on link building, SEO or other strategies regarding SEO, contact us today for more information.