2016 is another year and as Google continues to change the way its search algorithms award rankings, your strategies will have to adapt.
Link building isn’t dead; it’s just changing. While the search engine behemoth is on one hand trying to limit the amount of black-hat techniques you can use to rank your site, on the other hand, it’s rewarding those who build their content using white-hat methods. While this is bad news for those who would rather spend money than time to build their sites, for honest workers willing to continue to work hard, there’s nothing to worry about. Here are six link building strategies that work in 2016.
Ask for Links the Old-Fashioned Way
Your link building strategy playbook should including reaching out to authorities in your niche; that way, the search engines will see that an authority is legitimately recommending its readers to visit your site. Do some searches and see what users view as the leader of the type of content you provide. If these users see that those authorities trust your content, Google will as well. Besides authorities, also ask friends and family members on social media to share a link to your site. The more people who see your site, the better your chances that it will rank higher.
Write Guest Posts
Unfortunately, not everyone is going to just link to your site without getting anything in return. Thankfully, another easy and legitimate way to get other websites linking to yours is to offer up your skills as a writer in the form of guest posts. When you think about it, it’s a win-win: the site you’ll be writing for will receive content, and you’ll get a nice link back to your site. Plus, you’ll have the added benefit of marketing your site to potential new users.
Examine Your Backlinks
If you maintain a blog that’s a few years old, there’s a chance that some of the links you’ve received in the past may no longer be effective – or worse, they may harm you. Google’s algorithms now take into account the websites that are linking to you, and actually rank you down if it sees that the backlinks you have are untrustworthy. Look into getting rid of these backlinks so that you can show the search engines that your site is not associated with these troublemakers.
Host Quality Content
Following the logic that you’ll want authorities linking to your site, you’ll want to be sure that your site that they’re providing their readers with a link to is actually worth linking to. Think about it like this: if your site is subpar, what high-ranking authority will want to risk its reputation by linking to you? By keeping your content top-notch, you’ll see two benefits: more sites will be willing to link to yours, and the users who come to your site will be more likely to stay and come back.
Keep Up to Date on Algorithm Updates
Google changes its algorithms only once a year or so at fairly infrequent intervals, but when it does, it can be fairly serious news for site owners. New algorithms mean new strategies for keeping pages ranked, so be sure to stay informed of the latest updates. It’s advised that you read Google’s release notes for these algorithms, but also see what other site owners are saying about the algorithms. After all, they can be quite complex and often offer up a lot of discussion.
Of course, there will always be shady, black-hat methods for increasing your page ranks. But honestly, what’s probably the most sure-fire way of building your links is to do so the way Google intends you to – by having high-quality, legitimate, and authoritative content link to your site in a natural way. It’s getting tougher and more complex to game link building, as Google’s algorithms are becoming smarter and more privy to links that have been built in attempts to take advantage of their system. Black-hat methods that worked last year might not work next year, but if you follow these six link building strategies, your site should continue ranking for time to come.
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