What is link building?
Link building is an SEO technique that consists of increasing the number of incoming links to a website to improve its visibility in search engines.
This is because, thanks to quality links from authoritative websites, the site that benefits from these backlinks somehow inherits some of that authority (domain authority).
In fact, a website or blog that receives a lot of backlinks has always been more likely to achieve top results on Google than another site with no backlinks.
The same search engine Google years ago defined backlinks as one of the 3 main SEO factors to consider when ranking a site.
Often, however, in the course of history man has not known how to take advantage of opportunities and the same has also happened in the digital sphere. This is why in recent years it has been said that link building is dead, but let's try to understand how much truth there is behind this statement.
Where does link building come from?
Link building was born simultaneously with the arrival of Google. Before Google, other search engines like Yahoo only considered and evaluated site content to determine its usefulness to users and rank it.
Google instead introduced another important factor after content, links. The evaluation method of this “new” search engine was extremely precise and effective in almost all cases, and that is why a digital battle was unleashed in which weapons were the links.
The more backlinks a site had, the more authoritative it was. The main goal became to have more backlinks than the opponents (competitors).
Shortly after, a practice of buying and selling links spread, so much so that Google was forced to take measures (new algorithms and updates) to restore order. Obviously, over the years this practice not only became useless but also counterproductive.
The following Google Trends graph shows the comparison between two important aspects of a website: link building and content marketing. As you can easily see, the content, strategy, and marketing curve based on it has increased significantly, while the link building curve has decreased or remained virtually unchanged.
Link building is not dead, it has simply changed the way SEO is done.
Citations or links: what has more value
As we have already seen, the presence of countless backlinks (perhaps even of poor quality) referring to your website is almost useless. However, quotes or mentions still have enormous importance. Citations will soon replace links on the importance of ranking factors on Google.
Inferred links that 20 years ago were completely useless in terms of positioning but today, thanks to the search engine's advanced and sophisticated machine learning systems, have acquired more and more value.
What is meant by a quote or mention?
By "citation" we mean a reference to a brand, site or blog without inserting a backlink. Only the name of the brand is shown without adding the direct link that refers to its website.
This type of quote may be contained on other sites, articles, forums or even on social networks. Obviously, unless you are referring to a well-known brand, immediately recognizable to anyone, the quote must be placed in a specific context and in relation to a specific sector, topic or linked to keywords related to the topic.
Let's take an example:
- His company manufactures and sells sunglasses.
- A blog that is in charge of proposing tourist destinations for the summer advises its readers to buy glasses with safe protection against UV rays for their vacation in Cairo, because in August in Egypt the sun's rays are more aggressive than usual.
- Knowing the quality of their sunglasses, the blog quotes their company as saying that they sell great sunglasses and that they also offer attractive discounts during this period.
- In this case, a link is not needed. Not only because Google, understanding the context, is able to recognize the quality of your site and reward it, but also because those interested in buying sunglasses will surely come to visit your site by typing the name of your company in the search bar .
This is because we assume that behind a backlink there is almost certainly some type of artificial activity (an agreement between two brands). With dating, this activity can still be carried out but to a lesser extent, certainly being more truthful and sincere.
It must be said, however, that if it is true that citations will steal the place of links as a positioning factor, as has happened with links, artificial activities will grow dramatically to obtain more and more citations that refer to your website. .
The Effectiveness of Link Building in Today's SERPs
Nowadays, after a complete SEO activity, it is difficult to understand why there has been a possible growth in positioning between content, links, tags, new algorithms, etc.
However, it is undeniable that websites with authoritative backlinks rank and perform better.
So it is not advisable to do without link building even though today it is no longer the SEO known for many years, the tricks or shortcuts no longer work. Now more than ever it is important to focus attention, invest time and money, in content, in building a unique and recognizable brand. Because even at the SEO level these aspects make a difference, especially if citations and mentions acquire more and more value.
