If content is king, link building is the king’s messenger
Link building is the process of exchanging links with other websites to increase your own site’s link profile. Building a strong link profile can help drive traffic to your website; however not all links are created equally and building the wrong links or not enough can be more harmful than helpful.
Your website is an important part of your online footprint. Not only does your site offer information about you and your services, it’s a great resource for acquiring new leads.
New to link building or not getting the results you’d like? According to a recent survey by SEMrush, the four best methods for link building are guest posting, blogger outreach, local listings and directories.
Guest posting
Partnering with a website that offers similar content is a great way to increase traffic to your website. When you write a guest post for the partner site, the social media posts and promotion they do will drive an audience back to your content. You can also have them write a guest post on your blog, bringing their audience with them naturally.
When writing a guest post, you may be able to add a link to your website within the article; however, some websites have rules against promotional links. If you want to link back to your website, it’s best to have blog posts relevant to the subject you’re writing about.
Blogger outreach
If you’re not much of a writer, find industry influencers for your website. For real estate websites, popular local bloggers, housing market analysts or travel bloggers who feature various cities on their website can be great resources. Develop a contract with clear guidelines for expectations and offering incentives for creating content or promoting you on social media or on their websites. Since Google doesn’t like to see all links to your website coming from the same place, blogger outreach is a great way to help you diversify your link profile and grow your professional network.
Local listings and directories
As real estate professionals, local listings are essential. Your customers will be local and are likely checking local listings for real estate websites. General industry directories can also be helpful to build your link profile. It’s important to choose a directory that’s respected and moderated. If the directory is filled with spam, that will reflect back on your website and could put up red flags for Google’s algorithms.
The importance of local
Local link building helps the credibility of your website when it comes to Google’s algorithms. When you have a business dependent on a local area like real estate, it’s important to strengthen your local link building where you can. Using the REALTOR.ca Data Distribution Facility (DDF®), you’re in control of where your listings are shared and how they are presented including your website, franchisor sites, real estate advertising websites and partner sites
Local reviews should also be a priority, not only for customer engagement, but for your local search rankings. Lower reviews will rank below your competition, so not only will many of your customers not see your website, they might not trust your business so aim for an average of at least four stars and make sure you’re registered on all the top review sites—both general sites like Google and Yelp and industry sites like RankMyAgent and RealSatisfied—and make sure to promote your presence on each of these websites to encourage more reviews.
Content behind the links
Even a great link profile won’t lead to genuine connections if your content is weak. Therefore, make sure content behind each link is knowledgeable and engaging. According to SEMrush, the longer the piece of content, the more authoritative is appears to Google.
Don’t fall into the trap of keyword stuffing. While keywords can help boost your search engine optimization (SEO), too many instances of keywords may lead to penalties for your website. Try to work them in naturally and focus on helpful, informative content.
Some readers feel daunted by long blocks of text, so your content needs to be attractive. Break it up with quotes and eye-catching images, graphs and infographics.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Josh Elkin of SEMrush for sharing these insights. REALTORS®, what’s your experience with guest bloggers or link building? Let us know in the Comments section below.
