The first thing to get out of the way is that you are not supposed to “build links” for SEO. Google has been getting very strict about companies that try and build links for SEO purposes only, so you have to make sure that if you are building links they are completely relevant and natural. With this comes the idea of generating traffic through the links that you’ve built.
Not only will your link building efforts be more successful for SEO if done correctly, but there are things you can do to help make sure that link building is also about bringing traffic to your website. In other words, there are certain things you can keep in mind when creating a link building strategy that will help you achieve both of these benefits.
How to Start Generating Traffic From Your Link Building Efforts
There are several steps you can take the getting the most from the links you’re building:
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Focus on where you’re building links.
It stands to reason that very authoritative websites will bring your links more visibility and hopefully more traffic, and while this is true in most cases, you still have to be careful where you’re publishing. Sometimes getting those “big” links is not actually going to help your traffic because your business is slightly unrelated or not offering anything that would benefit readers. The goal is to make sure you’re placing your links on extremely relevant platforms.
In other words, if you’re publishing an article you have to make that article cater to that website’s audience, but if you focus on publishing articles on websites that offer the same things as you then you may have better luck generating traffic.
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Nofollow links are still beneficial.
Nofollow links annoys many marketers because they do not offer any SEO value, but they can still be a great way to generate traffic. Many of the very authoritative websites in the industry only allow nofollow links, so if you’re OK with this then you can earn a lot more visibility on those links that will hopefully lead to increased traffic. Remember that readers can click a nofollow link just like they can a dofollow links (and only very tech-savvy readers will even know the difference in the first place). Get rid of any negative feelings you have about nofollow tags and you’ll find that you get more quality traffic. Learn more about nofollow links here.
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Quality is more important than quantity.
In the past getting as many links as possible was a good way to show Google that you were a well-established company. Now that we’re in 2015, it’s all about the quality of links. If the links appear natural and relevant on appropriate and authoritative websites, generating traffic which be much easier than if you just try and build links anywhere on the web.
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Build links in different places and in different ways.
In addition to focusing on quality, you also want to make sure you focus on how your links are being build. Are they in an author bio? As part of a quote? Are you linking back to category pages as well as your homepage? What about local profiles and press releases? Have a good variety when it comes to the actual links you’re building to help generate traffic. Learn more about link building in general here.
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Watch your analytics.
Google Analytics Content reports will tell you which articles are the most popular amongst your audience. Take this information seriously so that you know where you should be building links and what type of content you should be writing. I also recommend keeping a list of the links you do build so that you can track its success.
Do you have any ideas on how to use link building to generate traffic? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comment section below.