Link building is one of the most important parts of SEO. Having a strong and ongoing link building campaign is one of the best ways to ensure the success of your website. Inbound links can be thought of as the currency of the internet. The more you have, the stronger your web presence.

Not all links are created equal

I know, I just said that the more links the merrier right, well that is a somewhat of a catch. Not all inbound links are created equal. Some websites that link to you could actually hurt your rankings. For example, a link from a website that is blacklisted by the search engines could have a negative impact. Also, sites that contain viruses, malware or link farms should be avoided as well.

Inbound links also carry different benefits. Links from websites with a high Page Rank can have a big impact while those with no Page Rank would have very little impact. Inbound links from authority sites prove valuable as well.

Some sites make their outbound links “nofollow,” meaning no link juice is passed to your site. It is important to know how to tell the difference so that you are not wasting your time building links that provide little or no benefit. Not to be confusing, but there can be some benefits from no-follow links such as those that send a lot of traffic your way.

Higher search engine rankings

Inbound links have some of the highest influence in search engine algorithms, especially Google’s. The more quality inbound links you have, the better your chances of ranking well in the search engines for your keywords of choice.

It is also important to try to have well chosen anchor text in your links. This of course will not be possible for many, but keep this in mind for the links you have control over. I highly recommend that you use your targeted keyword for that specific page. I also recommend that you pick 2-3 different keywords to use for your anchor text for your specific page. You want your link building campaign to look natural and one sided anchor text doesn’t look very natural to the search engines. Diversity is the key to a successful link building strategy.

More natural traffic

Inbound links will send natural traffic to your website or blog in many different ways. Like I mentioned above, lots of quality inbound links can lead to higher search rankings. Higher search rankings can lead to increased traffic.

Each link in itself can send traffic to your website as well. Each link is an individual doorway to your page. Every inbound link is another opportunity to get more traffic, you get the point.

Ongoing

Link building should be an ongoing process. Many businesses don’t have the capacity to keep up with an ongoing link building campaign. The good news is that link building and SEO can be outsourced. Be sure to do your research and hire a professional and experienced company. Think New Creative Solutions offers a wealth of industry experience that can help you generate targeted traffic that converts and can prove it with industry leading web analytics.