This is a guest post by Divya Rawat from Inetzeal.com.
The second quarter of 2012 is already well on its way. With Google topping all SEO news charts, one can safely predict that there are going to be dynamic changes in the industry.
Experts are predicting a major shift of focus from just Link Building to brand link building strategies. Viral Content and Social Media are also on the search engines’ radar.
Change is a harbinger of a new world order; this is true for all SEO campaigns. The perception that SEO is all about link building will not stand in good stead, just as it did not previously. All webmasters will have to pull up their socks as the latest updates by the leading search engine Google in its algorithms are going to affect the rankings, drastically.
Instead of chewing off its nails, it would be better for the SEO industry to focus on the tried and tested with a twist! Seven ways to achieve the benchmark could be:
1. Brand Building
This year, experts across the forums are emphasizing on building a brand, using innovate link building strategies. The focus has shifted from anchor text to brand links as the audiences are being more discerning about what they link to. This is possible due to the proliferation of the social media in the day-to-day lives of the browsers. By focusing positively on the website as a brand and encouraging discussions in a variety of forums about the blogs/articles/news on it, you can see some great results.
2. Promote Expertly Written Content
The greatest asset in a webmaster’s domain is the content the website has to offer. Content, in the form of article, blog posts or news, written by experts in the industry (that the website caters to) serves as a quality link for visitors.
Content can be on site or on any other relevant site. It can present different view points, in-depth analysis, or just news to score a high-five with genuine readers. It is imperative that the website hires or outsources the articles or blog posts to experts or great writers from the required field. This will make sure that the information is cross verified and authentic.
Hence, websites promoting informative and useful content attract greater traffic thereby increasing chances of improving the traffic conversion rate.
3. Viral Content Used For Link Baiting
As a part of the content strategy, webmasters can design viral content that is done with the sole purpose of attracting a large number of links within a short span of time.
The best way to do is by threading a discussion on current topic/happenings, news, reviews etc. Like taking a recent example; Google Penguin Update. The relevance of the content is again tied to the authoritativeness of the site. The trustworthiness (for the audience) plays a significant role in the success of viral content.
The rule of thumb, though here is the freshness of the content.
4. The Next Logical Strategy Is That Of Being Visible And Talked About In The Social Media
In a day and age where, popularity has taken significance, being talked positively about across all mediums, boosts the image of the company.
Any website owner would love to be promoted by word of mouth instead of depending upon oiling the PR machinery. This is possible only when the services are impeccable.
The website delivers on its part; be it providing services or selling products. When it does, people are bound to spread the word and the quickest medium is the social networking site, where, if statistics are any indicator, the entire world hangs out!
5. Off-Site Content To Support Onsite Content
Yet another point that has a link to point number 2. The search bots have become cleverer. They also rank a page on the offsite links it attracts. Again the rule here is to encourage guest blogs to link your site’s content.
However ensure that the information that they offer is genuine and the reader has something to take back after reading the blog posts!
6. Niche Directory Links
Linking strategies that involves listing in niche directories is considered a traditional method. The importance of directories cannot be disregarded though, as many people search directories for information about websites rather than keywords. Submit relevant links to those directories that have impeccable reputation; at least as much it’s possible in this virtual world.
7. Infographics
Information works best when it has visual support. If you browse the net, infographics are being rendered in almost all the informative pieces.
Basically, people are open to a visualized concept. An informative article/blog supported by infographics lends a different dimension to the link building exercise. In fact if you browse the big ten blog posts in any niche category you are sure to come across well executed infographics. The infographics serve a dual purpose of not only making it easier to figure in the SERP’s by applying keywords in the image tags, but also make it easier for the reader to process the information at a single glance.
An SEO company need not get stuck at the number seven. They could also opt for link building strategies that involve offering discount coupons, giveaways and freebies via their own or social networking sites.
The trick this year to optimize link building is by thinking out of the box – a necessity of the times!
Top 10 Search Terms:
• link building strategies after penguin
As Jane said infographics works out me well, more number of visitors linkback to my infographics post, and all the link building strategies which you mentioned above are accepted by google, also we should make a note that not overly optimized
Link building is such a painful process.. it certainly takes the fun out of blogging but the only way to succeed in this industry is to be seen and heard and link building is the only way to go about it. Thanks for sharing your views.
Divyarawat no doubt Infographic is the new trend of getting backlinks and traffic for your blog. I know that its not easy to create professionally written Infographics but the time you spent will surly worth it.
these are excellent ways of building links, infographics are becoming very big thanks to Pinterest, excellent for viral marketing and getting links back to your site.
I have always found blog commenting and forum linking to be two excellent methods. Do you think these two methods will die out? Is that why you did not include them in your list?
I don’t know about link directories. I for one have stopped using them for some time now and I do not intend to start again.
But I want to add another tip. Start working on reducing the bounce rate and increasing the time on site and number of returning visitors. There are behavior signal that Google uses, so it will not only make your site better for humans, but for search engines too.
For me, commenting is the best way in link building strategies. It gonna keep traffic doubles your previous performance. Just be nice and bold to your comments.
Very well written and well timed article. Google has changed the rules of the game and it is going to hurt a lot of websites that have been ditching the algorithm and ranking high by building mass links from link farms.
I totally agree on this. Proper content is basically what SEO link building is all about. Infographics is truly the trend now and let’s face it, it is a very good marketing strategy given that humans are generally visual beings.
“Thinking out of the box”? Whoah! With google’s new updates, I dont think “the box” even exists anymore.
And a prime opportunity for rival websites to simply send loads of spam links at your site. Not a great move. I hope that google tweaks this latest update, its not good.