Benefits of Link Building
This article will cover 14 benefits of link-building and how to achieve these benefits from your campaign.
Link building is one of the most popular yet misunderstood aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, implementing a link-building campaign requires the right approach, which is easier said than done.
Countless studies agree that inbound links are one of the most influential ranking factors, assuming that they are high-quality of course.
The time it takes for links to impact your site can vary, but the consensus is that it takes around 10 weeks to see an SEO impact.
However, the impact of links goes beyond just higher search engine rankings. 51% of digital marketers also mention that they experience additional benefits associated with their link-building strategies within 1-3 months of implementing such tactics.
These benefits can include referral traffic, increased brand awareness, and even direct sales. Through link-building campaigns, you develop your brand’s authority in the field and increase online visibility – all crucial components of successful conversions.
1. Increase Domain Authority
Boosting your website’s Domain Authority (DA) is one of the most important benefits of link building – even though DA itself is not what impacts your site’s ability to rank.
Domain Authority is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that measures a website’s relevance in a particular industry, niche, or subject matter to predict its likelihood of ranking on search engines.
DA scores range from 0 to 100, with 60 considered “high” and 30 considered low. Numerous backlinks from relevant, high-authority websites are the primary factor in increasing your DA.
- How?
You get link juice (ranking power) from other websites linking to your page. This increases your Domain Authority, which affects your likelihood of ranking high in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Ensure that you’re getting high-quality links, which are external links from relevant websites with a high authority.
There are many options you can use here. One of the safest is simply creating link-worthy content and reaching out to other website owners so that reputable websites link back to you. You can also practice broken link reclamation, where you hunt down and fix broken links pointing back to your page.
If you want to turbocharge your link-building efforts, consider guest posting. With this option, you develop quality content, like a blog post, and then reach out to reputable websites that will host the content on their own website. This provides numerous benefits to all parties: you get high-quality backlinks that increase your website’s organic traffic, and you offer great content that helps your partner website flesh out their pages. The key is to find authoritative sites willing to work with you and avoid spammy links from content mills like private blog networks.
However, DA itself is not what Google counts. Other tools offer a measurement similar to DA. Ahrefs has a Domain Rating, Semrush has an Authority Score, and many other tools do the same.
All of these tools attempt to measure the authority your website has built up by earning backlinks. Google measures this through Page Rank, which is the actual score impacting your site. Page Rank isn’t publicly available, so 3rd party metrics allow you to estimate.
Don’t focus solely on the DA or DR metric. Instead, emphasize getting quality, relevant links using tactics like resource page outreach or guest posting.
2. Link Building Enhances Brand Visibility
The primary purpose of link building is to rise in the SERPs. But before this is achieved, other complementary brands and websites must link to your website. As they give you backlinks, their audience becomes aware of your content and offerings, which boosts your customer reach and visibility.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Target complementary brands for your link-building campaign. Search for link-building opportunities by becoming familiar with authoritative web pages in your niche. Research their metrics, such as monthly website traffic, DA, search rankings, and their most frequently used keywords.
Then, you’ll contact the most high-quality, relevant sites and suggest that they host your content or add external links pointing back to your content on pre-existing pages. Even if they only agree to add nofollow links, you’ve still enhanced your page’s visibility.
It’s essential that you practice strategic link-building by focusing on the best matches for your specific niche. If the audience of the websites you’re getting links from doesn’t find you relevant, they’ll probably never click on your link. For example, if the page focuses on outdoor equipment and you’re a real estate agent, you will find it challenging to create a good match between your brands.
3. Link Building Establishes Brand Authority
The competition in the digital space is tough. Customers who do not see you as an authority in your industry won’t trust you. That said, the easiest way to become an authority is to be recommended by other brands with a solid following and voice.
When a website cites your content, website, or brand as a valuable source of information in the industry, it is a recommendation. Customers already respect these brands and rely on their suggestions for new products or services.
The recommendation tells your target audience and search engines that you are an authority in the industry. The more links you have from good sources, the more your perceived expertise grows, as website visitors may visit multiple sites and see they have recommended you, too.
- How do you achieve this benefit of link building?
Review search results and create a list of well-known websites in your niche, then reach out to them, offering a partnership. Seek out the best options willing to work with you and avoid linking spammy sites, even if they agree to help you.
4. Boost Referral Traffic
Referral traffic is web visits you get from other websites without the visitors searching for you on Google. This traffic tells Google that your content is valuable, especially if such visits come from high DA websites.
Let’s see a real-world case study to explain.
Bryan Harris penned a post on a website called Okdork at a time when his blog Video Fruit received only 285 visits daily.
On the day his guest post went live, his website got 1086 visits. The next day it got 686. Now, 73% of these visits were fresh visitors.
This meant that the readers of Okdork loved his post and decided to go to his blog (by clicking his backlink) to read some more.
That is how link building boosts referral traffic.
- How do you achieve this link-building benefit?
Offer your audience more with your links. Let them know they’ll get additional value by visiting your blog or website.
There are several options here, including blogs and directories, which may prove useful depending on your niche. If you’re a service provider with a defined service area, you might find that acquiring backlinks from relevant directories in your area reiterates your market and creates authority. Blogs that focus on specific geographic areas can also be helpful. For example, if you’re an ice cream parlor in Hoboken, a New Jersey-specific blog or newspaper can be invaluable.
Companies with online-only offerings or who work in a larger geographic area may want to focus more on industry-specific directories and blogs. Digital marketing companies will want to demonstrate their expertise through guest posts in trade journals, marketing blogs, and citations in digital marketing directories.
If you’re writing a guest post, be sure that you include a strong call to action that encourages readers to click through.
5. Build Brand Credibility
Brand credibility means that your readers and target audience trust what you say and offer. Ranking high on SERPs makes you appear more credible because Google has vetted you.
When a web user searches for a product or service or information in your industry and sees your page as number 1 on Google, it sends a message to visitors. The user would feel that since Google finds your content valuable for the number spot, your brand should be credible enough.
Also, if a prospective customer goes through a thought leader’s content in your field and discovers your links on their website, they’ll view you as an authority as well. This gives them the confidence to engage with your website.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Go for quality backlinks (links from relevant and high-authority sites). You will get more link-building benefits from sites that readers already see as a good source of information, like a news outlet or educational website, than link placements on spammy websites with poorly researched articles.
6. Broadens Revenue Opportunities
Imagine the opportunities 36,733 email subscribers would open up for your revenue. Gregory Ciotti utilized link building to get 36,733 loyal subscribers to his email list.
He did this by going on a link-building spree via guest posts that included a call to action that engaged readers to interact with more of his content.
When websites link to your pages, you get more targeted traffic clicking through to that particular page. This inbound traffic enables you to present various conversion mechanisms to boost revenue.
When websites link to your pages, you’ll have more direct traffic clicking through. This inbound traffic enables you to present various conversion mechanisms to boost revenue.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Place conversion mechanisms on your website to capture incoming traffic. This includes links to newsletters, sign-up sheets, or forms to share contact information for a consultation.
7. Acquiring Links Helps in Building Relationships in Your Industry
One of the stages of link building is outreach. Outreach happens when you contact websites and request a backlink in exchange for the value you will add to their website or content.
In performing outreach, you will meet various complementary brands that can turn out to be valuable relationships for your business.
The relationships you build for your brand in the process of link-building go beyond your campaign. They can open up many possibilities, such as mentorship and creating complementary products.
One of the best examples is Jennifer Rochon, an Instagram fitness influencer. By reaching out to the well-respected brand Under Armor, she gained invaluable visibility for her Instagram page and even collaboration on a fitness regimen. Not only did this increase her page traffic, but it also opened up the possibility of future collaborations on fitness products with Underarmor and other sports brands.
8. Passive Income
Earning passive income means making money without having to be directly involved in generating it. Building backlinks enables this.
When you have backlinks to your products or services pages from other websites, you receive traffic; if that traffic converts, you’ll receive passive revenue. In addition to the traffic you receive from other digital marketing efforts, visitors from backlinks can boost your revenue.
- How do you achieve this benefit of link building?
You want to focus on evergreen content here, as it allows you to receive constant referrals without updating the information repeatedly. One great example is product reviews, which are critical for business growth. Visitors may look at reviews from several years ago when making a big-ticket purchase, and having a long history of outstanding service will show that you’re a reliable company.
You can combine this with affiliate marketing, where a trustworthy third party promotes your service to their own audience. When you acquire links from an affiliate, the link will remain available as long as the affiliate keeps producing content, and those reviewing older content from the marketer will be tempted to click through.
Lastly, providing content guides for download lets you focus on a one-and-done approach. As long as you word your content to remain relevant for years, you can keep this download link live and continually draw in more customers seeking free content. If you distribute this to partners, you receive more backlinks without having to create more content.
9. Boost Organic Rankings
Irrespective of the many updates that Google introduces to its search algorithm, backlinks remain a vital factor in determining your website’s position on the SERPs.
Backlinks give Google a signal indicating the quality of your content and the relevance of content to your target audience. If your backlink profile is great, Google should rank your page higher in the results pages—assuming that your content and technical SEO elements are also on point.
Quality link building demonstrates that you are trusted by numerous reputable websites, which makes Google trust you, too. Having more backlinks from your specific niche clarifies your target audience so that Google shows you to those most interested in your service.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Be aware of the kind of backlink you’re getting from websites: do-follow or no-follow. No-follow links do not provide link equity to your website even though they send people over. Do-follow links contribute to your page ranking and will help boost your visibility on Google and other search engines.
A backlink with low link equity will have less impact on your website’s search engine rankings, while do-follow links will boost your ranking.
When building links solely to improve rankings, consider the site’s organic traffic, Domain Rating, and relevance to your own. Focus on getting a few do-follow links from trusted, highly-ranked sites rather than dozens of do-follows from untrustworthy sources.
Competitor Backlink Analysis
Researching your competitor’s backlink profile is an excellent addition to your link-building techniques, as it lets you see what your competitors find valuable. You could find new opportunities for link placement, such as a reputable website you hadn’t seen before.
For a more detailed breakdown of how to analyze competitor backlinks and capitalize on their strategies, check out our full guide on competitor backlink analysis: “A Concise Guide to Competitor Backlink Analysis”
10. Link Building Helps to Get Your Web Page Indexed Quickly
Getting quality backlinks can help your webpage get indexed quickly. When authority websites link to your page, Google views your page as genuine.
Aside from the “vote of confidence,” authority sites generally get crawled more frequently, meaning Google is more likely to find and follow your link. The more frequently a site is indexed, the better it ranks, as it is seen as more trustworthy.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Get quality links from authority websites in your niche. The higher the reputation and authority of the other websites, the better. Having quality content on your site will increase the likelihood of getting indexed while also maximizing the benefits of link building.
Some technical tweaks can also improve your indexing. For example, have a consistent and clear internal linking structure and submit your sitemaps to Google whenever you make significant changes to your website. You can also use Google Search Console to speed up the process and check for any issues with your page structure.
Backlink Monitoring for Long-Term Success
High-performing backlinks boost your rankings, but having too many low-performing backlinks may reduce your trustworthiness. As such, it’s crucial to continually monitor your backlink effectiveness so that you can tweak your link-building practices as necessary.
To explore the best tools for tracking your backlinks, be sure to visit our guide on the top backlink monitoring tools: “15 Backlink Monitoring Tools To Try in 2024”
11. Link building Offers Natural Promotion
Unlike other digital marketing strategies like paid social or search, link-building provides natural promotion.
Web users dislike traditional ads because they’re intrusive, interrupt positive experiences, aren’t informative, etc. People also don’t like the feeling that you’re just after their money. They want you to help them in the decision-making process. Link placements do not appear as adverts or paid recommendations to the reader, so they don’t feel as intrusive.
Link-building promotes your website by merging with the surrounding content. Thus, your link placements won’t disrupt the web user’s positive experience but rather enhance it. This improves your reputation, as you provide value to users.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Ensure your link-building strategy includes natural link placements. Strive for high-quality, informative, and helpful content tailored to offer value to the reader rather than just highlighting your link.
12. Reduces Bounce Rates
Link-building isn’t just about incoming links; it also includes internal links. These links send users from one page on your domain to another. They are valuable for 3 main reasons: allowing users and search engines to navigate your site easily, establishing the information hierarchy for your website, and spreading link equity around your website.
For this point, we are focusing on user navigation. Internal links help users seamlessly move through your site without struggling to find what they want. This results in lower bounce rates. If users can easily find what they’re searching for, they won’t leave your site for another.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Use relevant and descriptive phrases for your anchor text to explain the page the link is targeting adequately. Build links that give a preview of the content so that readers know what to expect, and avoid deceptive linking. You can also create topic clusters so that readers looking for specific content will have various options, keeping them engaged.
13. Constant Promotion
When you have quality links on many quality websites, you will receive the positive effects of the campaign long after acquiring the initial links.
As long as your link is in place, you will continue getting more traffic that converts. In the meantime, you can acquire more links, slowly but steadily improving your online visibility through a network of live links.
If the DA of a website with your link on it increases, the PageRank value you get from it will also rise. The result is that the target URL on your site ranks higher.
Some other digital marketing strategies, like a paid search campaign, require continuous investment in promotion. Every time you get a click, you’ll have to pay. However, with link building, the positive effects keep rolling in.
For the greatest benefit, don’t just build links – build relationships. Your link partner will keep promoting your content on their page and may even provide more linking opportunities.
14. Boosts Content Value
When a website adds your link to its content, the value of the article improves. This is because the link is included to add more in-depth information to the subject matter or, as we did at the start of this article, to validate the information provided. However, you can also improve your reputation by linking to researched, authoritative content in your niche, showing that you are an expert and rely on good sources. Both internal and external linking play a role in how users perceive your brand.
- How does this help you?
If they’re outbound links, they solidify your claims and make your content more trustworthy. If they’re inbound links, they make your linked content appear as an authoritative resource that readers can research for deeper information on the subject matter.
Readers’ perspectives about the linked resource will spill over to other content on your website, meaning they’ll view your site as a resource point.
- How do you achieve this benefit?
Ensure that you link valuable content crafted for your target audience. Look for reputable articles that match your page topic. Great resources include peer-reviewed journals, government pages, trustworthy news outlets, and educational manuals. Check for broken links regularly and update your links if a page is removed from another site.
Outsource Link-Building!
Is link-building still effective? Absolutely!
But, link-building is a time-consuming and stressful process. Imagine having to reach out to 100s of link opportunities every month. And having to write the content that each of those opportunities will link to. That’s a lot of work.
If you run a business, marketing probably already eats into your time and energy, and you don’t want to add more to your workflow. A link-building agency can allow you to focus on your core offerings while their experts take care of link-building campaigns, including the time-consuming effort of outreach and content creation.
Your link-building strategies have to be carried out effectively to enjoy the benefits of link-building. This may be tough if you don’t know the ins and outs of the process. Link-building companies like Stellar SEO will focus on white hat link-building, ensuring you don’t violate Google’s guidelines while linking websites.
A link-building service takes the guesswork out of your strategies and enables you to focus on providing great service to your own customers. If you want to enjoy the benefits of link-building but don’t have the time, resources, or desire to do it yourself, consider partnering with a link-building company like Stellar SEO.
We have a team of link-building experts who can develop a custom link outreach strategy and take care of your on-page SEO, which will help you achieve your goals efficiently and effectively.
