3 minute read
What are Inbound Links Anyways?
Inbound links are all incoming hyperlinks from outside websites and sources that direct users to content on your own website or web page. A great example of an inbound link is when a website or blog post says, “Check this website out,” and directs its visitors to go to your website.
Inbound links are becoming more and more important for content marketing in your seo strategy, as it is a great way of bringing in new visitors to your site, building your authority on a topic or industry, and it helps increase your rankings in search engines.
However, be careful about what types of inbound links that you use. While there are some high-quality inbound links that are shared with the intention of assisting visitors, there are also tons of spam links. You should NEVER purchase inbound links from unknown sources, because search engines are able to tell if a link is bought or is spam, and they may remove your website from their search engine altogether if caught. Enough said, don’t destroy all your hard SEO work on a link-building scheme.
How to Get Inbound Links that Will Increase Your Website Visibility
The first step in gaining quality inbound links is by creating your own content that people want to both read and share with others. Visual content, such as images and videos, should also be high-quality and easy to share.
When posting your content on your website, make sure that visitors are able to share it on their social media, and provide visitors with easy share buttons that will encourage them to share it on their pages or give credit for the information that you provide them.
When you want someone to share your links, it is common courtesy to start networking with them and then build a trusted relationship between both parties. Some successful strategies of doing this include:
- Talking about and celebrating someone else’s success
- Providing them credit for their expertise in a specific topic
- Writing about a follower who provided their opinion about a previous post or topic
This creates a long-term network and an abundance of high-quality links so search engines can scan and categorize your website or blog.
How Long Does an Inbound Link Strategy Take?
When you are creating good inbound links, this SEO strategy may take a bit of time because you are planning both in the short-term and long term. While sharing posts on social media provide fast visitors, strong inbound links can take a while since you want to gain trust within your networks before asking them to share for you.
Inbound link building is one of the top strategies in SEO today but requires patience. The best way to spike performance is to consistently share your content in the short-term while focusing on long-term networking. After all, you want your business to be around for a long time, right?
You can find out more about inbound links and gaining more traffic to your web pages by downloading this FREE eBook below! If you want to learn more about web content, check out this list of the ultimate content marketing resources.
