In light of the most recent algorithm updates and changes over at Google, a lot of marketing managers have been under the impression that links no longer matter. On the other hand there are a lot of SEO’s who still believe that links play an important part of the search engine ranking puzzle. If you were to take a look at Google’s How Search Works one of the first things that they mention is that “Google navigates the web by crawling” or visiting web pages by following links page to page. In the most basic explanation, the web pages that have a lot of links get a lot of crawling from Google and indicate to their “spiders” that if a particular page is linked to a lot it must be of some popularity on the web.
There are of course a multitude of other rankings factors that are sorted along with links, but arguing that links no longer have significance in SEO is highly debatable given how search engines scour the web. This long-winded introduction brings us to our question: what kind of links are the best?
Types of Links
In order to clearly identify what types of links are the best kind you must first identify the types of links. Essentially, there are two types of links:
- Inorganic
- Organic
Inorganic links are what most of the algorithm craze has been all about and it is important to know that these links can result in devaluation or a negative impact on a website’s performance. Examples of inorganic links:
- Links that you have created yourself
- Links that you have asked a webmaster for
- Links that have been paid for
Basically any link that wasn’t simply created because of some sort of external reference could be classified as inorganic. So where does that leave you?
Shoot for Organic Links
Organic links are what matter most to Google and are what every brand should strive for. Creating web pages, content, infographics, white papers, blogs, pictures, podcasts or videos that are compelling enough to get people to link to on their own is a huge part of organic link building. While it is true that creating this type of “linkable” content can be challenging, doing so will result in a more reputable link structure that the search engines favor instead of look at with speculation.
If your brand has been focusing on inorganic linkbuilding techniques or has been avoiding linkbuilding altogether, consider some ways that you can drive links to your website organically. If you are capable of producing great content, you are also capable of more sophisticated outreach campaigns that can attract links without trying to game Google.
To get help creating more effective linkbuilding-friendly content or more elaborate outreach campaigns, contact Success Agency today.
Thanks for reading,
-Avin Kline
