Link Building for SEO is All About PR

One of the most important  factors for your site’s search engine ranking is the number of links pointing to your site from external websites. In essence, Google and other search engines feel that the more links a site has, the more established, relevant, and important it must be, therefore it should rank higher. Since having links has become very important, therefore attaining links, otherwise known as “link building,” has become a basic practice of SEO work. 

Getting Links

So, how should one go about getting links? Practitioners of “black hat” SEO, meaning those who do not fully adhere to all the “rules,” will use a variety of link building tactics and even automated software to get links. SEO “white hat” purists, however, will say that the best links occur naturally. In other words, you don’t just get links by buying them, or submitting to directories, or with similar tactics. Rather, if your website is  genuinely interesting, then others will want to link to it.  I agree with this approach.

This may not be easy, however. This approach may require little effort for a celebrity or Fortune 500 company, where PR and buzz come easily, but how will an accountant or dentist get other sites to link to them? How will they create genuine interest? Some creativity will certainly be needed, but if you think hard enough, you can come up with ways to be different and interesting.  For example, is your business or medical practice involved in any charity work or community events? Can you start a local or national contest that could gain some attention? Or maybe  there websites within the same industry which would benefit from a monthly article from you.

These are just some ideas, but there are many ways to get some good PR and buzz. You will find that these ideas aren’t just good for SEO, they are great for business too! If an accounting office, for example, decided to get their name out there by offering free tax returns to ten people each year who could apply and be selected based on certain criteria, this could easily generate some interest. Maybe a local accounting blog would post a link about it. If this became an annual event, it could eventually get local news press.

If you are an event planner, maybe partnering with an associated industry such as a DJ or photographer can yield some mutually beneficial press which could result in a good link, and more importantly, people seeing the link on the other site and naturally wanting to visit it.

Good link building is all about getting noticed, and isn’t that also what good marketing is all about? Any business, no matter how “boring” can think of creative ways to generate PR and therefore quality links. If you can’t think of any ideas, think harder!