A link building service is an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) marketing company that is able to run backlink campaigns. If the building services on offer are genuine and are not part of a search engine manipulation trick, then links will organically run from other websites towards your website. There are numerous ways in which links may be encouraged, and a link building agency has the influence, power, tools, and knowledge to generate and sustain a backlink building campaign.
Note:
In many cases, the word “Links” and “Backlinks” are used interchangeably in this article. A link is a connection that helps a person travel from one website to another. A backlink is the same thing, but typically means a link “Back” to your website. For example, “I added a backlink onto my Facebook wall to my wholesale website.”
The Tools the Link Building Company Has
In essence, a link building company is not going to give up its tools any more than a magician will reveal how her/his tricks are done. Nevertheless, even the most basic link building package will require the use of social media tools, keyword tools, and analytic tools.
Such tools are not used to manipulate Google for good or evil, nor are they used to spam links and keywords. They are the same as a carpenter’s tools. A carpenter can use a hand saw or a power saw, and the use of a power saw doesn’t mean the carpenter is cheating.
Social media tools are handy for building influence, which is another element when it comes to creating backlinks. Keyword tools are handy because if backlinks contain good anchor text that contains keywords, then they are more likely to be found by the target audience, which means targeted traffic will find its way to the linked website.
Analytic tools are used because a good link building company will examine its progress as time goes by and then refine its efforts based on what works and what does not. If you buy a cheaper link building package, then fewer tools may be used, and easier link building ideas may be employed.
If you are willing to spend more, then link building campaigns may become more in-depth and complex.
The Influence Held by SEO Link Building Services
Influence is handy when building links, and that is something that is not known by spammers. Most spammers concentrate on getting as many links as quickly as possible, but a powerful and sophisticated link building service will be able to use its influence to generate clean links now and in the future.
They may call upon their fans to help or maybe present their fans with information that makes them want to link to certain websites.
There is also the fact that exposure often causes organic links on its own. The use of influence in order to build backlinks is common, but it is still a method of link building for more advanced professionals.
The reason you need to be an advanced professional is that influence can go the other way. For example, you could highlight a website to the wrong demographic, which may result in backlinks to the website, but negative backlinks that attract the wrong type of people.
For example, maybe the link building company uses Local SEO and its influence to attract people to your soccer website. The trouble is that your soccer website supports one team, whereas the link building company has influence with fans of other teams. Such a circumstance may lead to the link builder’s influence generating links from its followers, but the links are all from websites that “Troll” or otherwise abuse the recipient website. In short, using influence to gain organic backlinks is quite common, but it is a difficult feat to pull off correctly.
Are social media influencers used to help create backlinks? Even though social media influencers are good for getting people to visit your websites, they are no use in getting people to link to your website unless they are sending targeted traffic to your website.
If they are sending targeted traffic, then the people who visit your website will probably like it, and if they like it, then they will want to link to it.
In short, social media influencers are sometimes used to help gather support for a website, but a link building company probably has the most useful type of influence. In many cases, a link building company may use its influence to draw in attention from other website owners and other influencers. They are able to better direct their influence so that only the most suitable traffic is sent to the target website.
The More Labor-Intensive Methods for Link Building
A link building service can use tools to help create websites, it can use its own websites and own social media profiles to generate links, and it can use its influence to generate links. However, there are numerous other methods that involve a lot of work.
These are organic white-hat methods for gaining backlinks, but they are probably best left to link building companies because they have teams of writers and content producers who are able to put in the effort and work required to generate suitable backlinks.
The most common labor-intensive way of getting backlinks is by guest posting. This is where you visit other websites and ask them if you may write for their website for free. They receive a free article or a free piece of content, and in return, they add a followed link back to your website.
It may not sound like hard work but finding people who will agree to guest posts is difficult, and actually writing something good enough for them to post is also very difficult.
A “Link Blast” is another labor-intensive method for gaining new links, and it involves using all the properties you own or control. For example, the link building service may own a bunch of websites, in which case they will write a set of articles and create content, and then link from that content to your website. They will also use their accounts in websites that they do not control, and post content and links from those websites too. These may include paid links, which are still popular these days.
Paid links were born early in the creation of the internet. We used to have phone books where companies paid to have their phone numbers and company information entered into the directory. As things went digital and everything went online, we started to see website directories full of companies, phone numbers, and advertisements.
If you wanted to be entered into these websites, you also needed to pay, which also meant paying for a backlink (if you wanted one). These websites still exist today and are quite “White Hat” (okay in SEO terms), but some people worry when they hear the word “Paid Links” because of Google’s policies when it comes to penalizing spammers.
What About Non-White-Hat Methods?
One shouldn’t discuss the idea of link building without at least mentioning black-hat and gray-hat methods for getting backlinks. These are methods that manipulate search engines and other websites in order to build search engine rankings and/or build links.
A good link building service will use the methods listed above (in this article) to generate organic and safe backlinks to a website. And, the same company will use the methods listed below (also in this article) to optimize and hone a link building campaign so that the correct target audience is reached.
However, a bad link building service will do whatever it takes to get backlinks. They will quickly build a large following of backlinks, show the customer these, take the money and then leave the customer with a bunch of unfriendly and unhelpful backlinks that will probably get the website de-listed from Google and/or penalized so that it appears very low down its search engine results (such as 120,000 entries down).
Black-hat SEO methods are always changing, but a common method is to use a web spider to find websites that accept comments with followed links, and then use a spam-bot to auto-post links onto those websites. It is getting tougher these days to use black-hat methods, especially with text tracking, server tracking, spam-capture traps, and some websites not allowing comments and/or links from VPN services.
Nevertheless, it only takes a little creativity to get around websites with spam-catchers and server trackers and such, so it is no problem for a nefarious link building company to offer clean backlinks and then sell you a bunch of dirty ones.
How Are Appropriate Links Picked
A link from any website or social media network that attracts your target demographic is fine to link from. You are targeting people and not specific websites. For example, you may run an online store that sells children’s shoes. You may first like to link from websites that feature children and childcare, but have you considered soft news websites, women’s fashion websites, and men’s comedy websites? Such websites seem like foolish places to link from but examine your target audience.
Parents tend to have babies between the age of 20 and 30, which is the same age range that soft-news websites attract. Parents will be buying children’s shoes between the ages of 20 and 40, which means those are the age ranges you should attract. Such age ranges will typically visit women’s fashion-related websites and male-orientated comedy websites.
It may seem silly to link from such websites, but these are places where your target audience may go when they are not thinking about buying children’s shoes. This means you still get attention from your target audience but getting links from such websites is easier because your competition is not pushing you out of the way.
How Are Keywords Chosen for Links
Much of the work revolves around analytic programs and market research. A link building service will typically copy your competitors and will then start analyzing its analytics to see which keywords work the blog best for your website.
There is also a certain degree of intellect and experience that powers a good link building campaign, especially when it comes to picking the right keywords. A good link building service will consider the motives behind certain links and keywords.
Take the example of this video guide on how to beat the final boss in a game.
You may copy its competitors by giving the game’s name, its developer’s names, the name of the level, the name of the boss, and so forth. However, a good link builder will consider the motivation behind the use of each keyword and may come up with others. For example, many gamers type in the words, “Final Boss” simply because they like watching videos of people taking down the hardest final bosses, which means the keyword “Final Boss” may draw in a whole new crowd of willing gamers who will most likely turn into fans.
There are also people who are looking for games to buy, and so will search out examples of some of the game’s best material. A short-sighted link builder may then start to use words like “Best game,” “Buy,” “Game price”, “Awesome game reviews” and such, with the hopes of attracting potential game buyers, but an experienced link builder will know this is a mistake.
It is far better to include commonly searched gaming words such as “Let’s Play” and “Speed Run” and “Gameplay” because these will attract people who are looking to purchase games. These are the sorts of things that gamers have learned will produce the best examples of game footage. Poor quality or inexperienced link builder will not know about these keyword tricks and hacks and will, therefore, fall short of companies like the Innovative Solutions Group.
Final Thoughts – What Is A Link Building Service and How Does It Work?
As you have learned from this article, a link building service is a team of SEO marketers who are able to use the numerous tools at their disposal to link from other websites and social media to your website. They are also able to use their influence to have other people link to you. They also use paid services to link to you. Finally, they will hone their service so that suitable links are directed at your website that contain keywords that will draw people from your target demographic.
If you are genuinely looking for experienced and professional SEO marketers to run your link building campaign, then strongly consider the team at Innovative Solutions Group. We have all the necessary qualifications and tools, but more importantly, we have the sort of time-tested experience that elevates a campaign from a simple competitive jostle to an outright lead. We also make it a priority to offer affordable SEO services that won’t break the bank.
