When Google determines how to rank websites with its algorithm, links are the most important factor (including both the quality and quantity of the links, as well as words used in the link). Simply put, you want websites to point at your website through links.
Find Who Links to Your Website
It’s possible that there are some websites that already link to your organization’s website. Improve the value of those links and discover which sites link to yours and optimize.
To find out which websites link to yours, visit Moz Link Explorer and enter your website URL. This tool is highly accurate and will allow you to check the backlink profile and the Domain Authority of any website. Domain Authority is a search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website will rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal is to rank high, as it determines the relevance of your website for a specific subject or industry.
Once you have that list, approach the owners of those websites. First, thank them for linking your website, and second, ask if they would be willing to change the anchor text. An anchor is a text you click to move from one internet destination to another; it literally anchors two different locations on the internet together. Make sure to use appropriate verbiage when choosing a keyword or key phrase to link. You want to let readers know what to expect before they click. Just as with the linked word
“anchor,” you know this is a safe and reputable source you are being taken to that goes more in depth about anchor texts; it’s also being used to show where the source of the information about anchor texts came from. Linking anchor text also helps Google’s algorithm know what your content is about, which helps with ranking on SERPs.
Start a Blog
Business blogs should ideally be helpful articles for your target market to read. You should use them as a way to make your organization a thought leader in your industry. Since blog articles are more resource-based than regular web pages, people are more likely to link to them. If you write excellent content, the links will follow.
One thing to remember is to link within your blogs. Link your sources, link businesses you mention, link organization and governmental agencies if they are relevant and always link to other relevant blogs you have written. Plus, don’t forget to make sure to utilize the anchor text when linking.
Mention Other Organizations
From time to time, it’s good practice to feature other companies on your blog that are doing certain things well or inspire you in some way. If you mention companies, let them know about it! From there they may choose to link back to the article because it’s good press for them, which in turn creates another link back to you.
Guest Blog
Organizations and bloggers love to have guests write blog posts to share another point or view or bring in an expert on a subject. Approach influential blogs in your industry and ask to cover a specific topic for their blog. If they say yes, be sure to include links back to your website. This is an understood trade-off in the blogging world: exchange good content for a link back or two.
Subscribe to HARO
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is company that connects journalists and sources through daily emails. Reporters from all size publications and websites submit a query that says what type of sources they are looking for. Sources (like you) receive the emails and can choose to respond with a quote, link, story, etc. If you are chosen to be a source for a story, you'll be featured in that article and will most likely receive a link. This is good for free PR and excellent for SEO.
Add Social Sharing Buttons
Give people an easy way to share your event listing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media platforms. This is important for two reasons: first, when people share your content on their social channels, you will receive more visitors, and second, search engines will see those shares as links and will view your blog as a more trusted (and therefore higher-ranked) website.
The same goes for your organization’s employees. If you have something you really want to get out there, ask your employees to share it on their social channels if they feel comfortable doing so.
Set up Social Profiles
If you don’t already have a presence on the main social media platforms (Facebook/LinkedIn/Instagram/Twitter), create accounts as soon as possible. Businesses without social profiles lose credibility from the general public, so it’s a good idea to set those up, even if you don’t use them except for sharing important information and updates with your community.
As mentioned earlier, search engines put value on social links. Because of this, it’s a good idea to share articles and links through on your social platforms. This will help you increase traffic, build a following and up the number of social links to your website.
Write and Share Press Releases
Press releases are powerful because you can submit them to local and online publications. All the publications that choose to pick up your story will include links back to your website.
Submit your blog to Alltop
Alltop.com organizes the internet into many different categories. Each category on AllTop has automatic feeds to blogs and information sources that stay up to date with trends and changes within that topic. You can submit your blog feed to Alltop, and each new article will be listed on the Alltop category page that relates to your industry. Those live as links back to your website.
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