Search Engine Land recently published a column by Julie Joyce about how we often overcomplicate link building, and when I read it, something surprising happened. In fact, he didn't agree with her.
Well, I kind of disagree with her.
I agree that the process of securing a link, finding a site, contacting that site, and getting a link is pretty simple. But he stated that if you want to achieve significant results with link building, matters are more complicated.
I see clients oversimplify link building in terms of results all the time. They have a myopic view of link building and feel that it is a simple mathematical equation where increased input means increased output and success is determined by the number of links secured.
However, links are a means to an end; The expected results are more visibility, increased traffic and better conversions. When the goal of link building is to boost search engine optimization (SEO) results rather than simply acquiring a set number of links, link acquisition becomes much more complex.
Factors that can impede link building success can be:
- Elements on the page and technical.
- Internal links.
- Client complications.
These issues can impact link building performance, causing a link campaign to falter when viewed through the lens of SEO results.
On-page and technical SEO
While links are very important for search visibility, backlinks only represent part of the SEO picture.
The best links in the world will achieve nothing if they point to a site that is a disaster from a technical standpoint. There are a number of technical issues that could hinder your ability to boost organic search performance:
- Speed problems.
- Duplicate content
- Page errors.
- Inappropriate redirects
- Broken links and images.
- Suboptimal uniform resource locator (URL) structure.
These factors affect crawling and indexing, which decreases your external optimization – backlinks.
On-page optimization for the page you are linking to can make or break the SEO value of your links. Link quality and quantity are often the differentiators between ranking pages, but a well-optimized page has the advantage from the start.
It's important to optimize a page for important keywords with a specific title and header tags, but don't forget to optimize your page for searcher intent.
For example, if your page is targeting a question-based query, you should optimize your content for the featured snippets that Google typically returns for these searches. Short, quick and clear answers usually perform better here.
Other considerations should include format, length, and layout. The best place to look for guidance on intent optimization is the relevant SERPs you are targeting. If your page doesn't come close to the quality (in terms of layout, response intent, preferred formatting, etc.) of the ranking pages, your link acquisition efforts could be futile.
Your page should rank on its own merits. Links reinforce the value of your page to search engines. But if you are securing links to a poorly optimized page, achieving desired results becomes difficult.
Internal links
Internal link structure is an often forgotten part of link building and link optimization for search.
Although internal links do not have as much influence on search rankings as external links, they still play an important role and add another layer of complexity to a linking campaign.
If you ignore internal links and focus solely on protecting external links, you'll leave fairness on the table and make it harder to get the results you want.
Your website's internal link architecture will determine how link equity is distributed across your site. If you're not strategic with internal links, then the value of your external links may not benefit the important pages on your site.
Product pages are important to your business and have great value to your site, but that value doesn't necessarily translate to other sites and entice them to link. This is why you need internal links to link direct capital from linkable assets to product pages.
As Julie alluded to in her post, the process of securing links is simple, but the execution is difficult because you have to trust someone else to put up your link.
With internal links, you are the person creating the link, at least in theory. If you're a third-party vendor or simply don't have control of your company's website, optimizing internal links can be frustrating.
Complications
Whether you're an agency or an in-house SEO, dealing with bureaucracy can complicate even the best-designed link campaigns.
There are many possible complications that can limit the success of a link campaign, some common problems:
- Restrictions on landing pages. Link acquisition should be specific and strategic, but opportunities are lost when the best pages are not promoted.
- Micromanagement with scope. Interference with range can negatively impact efficiency and effectiveness.
- Slow approval process. The time lag during multiple approval processes can kill the momentum of a campaign.
- Limits on prospects. Limited prospect pools lead to limited links and results.
- Communication problems. Effective link building requires open and consistent communication.
- Lack of acceptance from senior management. Even successful campaigns can be unsuccessful if the C-suite doesn't understand the value.
Bureaucracy can affect link building from start to finish, and even after links are secured. This bureaucracy complicates the acquisition of the link, often making it more difficult than it needs to be.
Conclusion
Okay, so I don't really disagree with Julie! As SEOs and link builders, we often make link acquisition very complicated. When trying to explain this difference in strategy and tactics, we sometimes overthink link building and make it more confusing than necessary.
The process of finding a website, contacting it, and securing a link is simple, but driving SEO results beyond the number of links secured becomes increasingly complicated.
