In 2018, almost nine in 10 Irish households were Internet service subscribers. What’s more, almost three-quarters of these Internet users went online on a daily basis. And of those who were online every day, 68% accessed the Internet several times a day.
So, it’s no wonder Irish businesses are putting more money towards digital marketing. Back in 2017, they already spent a whopping €451 million on online advertising. This year, experts estimate that spending will rise to €519.5 million.
All those figures prove that your business needs a more powerful online presence. This means you need to use only the best backlink building ideas to fortify your online identity. Because if you don’t, you’re unlikely to appear in the top pages of search engine results.
Don’t worry if you have no idea where to start. Keep reading as we’re here to show you the proper way to build links to your website!
If you haven’t yet, create a specific blog section on your website. It’s a key player in effective online marketing and is still one of the best link building strategies.
But for your blog posts to work as a link builder, they need to possess the following:
As you can see, this requires extensive market and keyword research. Especially with 2019 marketing trends showing that consumers want more from your content. Your blog posts’ main purpose should be to solve your readers’ problems.
Create content that meets all these factors, and you’ll become an industry authority. From there, other websites will start linking back to your site.
This is one of the more advanced link building tips since it requires mastery of content writing. But it’ll pay off if you can blog about industry-specific news before the competition.
First, because that means other websites would use you as their source and link back to you. Second, being on top of the news gives you even more credibility. This credibility can then help put you on the radar of readers and other authoritative sites.
Imagine this for a second: You’ve waited for a few seconds for a web page to load. When it does, it gave you nothing but a 404 page.
What do you do?
If you’re like most people, you’ll leave that page. You may never even want to come back later to check if it’s already working. Unless, of course, you land on a crafty and cool error page like this one.
The only great thing about these dead links is you can change them to working links pointing back to your site. So, instead of a link going to a broken page, it’ll direct the site visitor to one of your web pages. It’s a win-win situation for the website owner, that site’s future visitors, and your own site.
Prepare yourself, as this can take quite some time since you have a lot of dead link-researching to do. Below is a step-by-step overview of this SEO link strategy.
Create a list of authoritative sites related to your niche or business first. For this, you can use SimilarWeb, which is a web analytics tool. It can help you find top ranking sites based on industry and location.
Next, check if these sites have resource pages, such as a blog section on their website. If they do, you can start checking their blog posts for broken links. You can use Google’s very own “Check My Links” plugin to help you scour these pages for dead links.
Choose posts with non-working links that you have similar content for. Let’s say the dead link’s anchor text is “best Irish shortbread recipes”. Then the link you’ll replace that with should be a page that talks exactly about that and not Irish lace cookies.
Contact the website owner to tell them about the issue and offer your solution. They know the damage 404 pages can do to their bounce rate, so they’d want to correct those errors ASAP. Since you did the research for them already, they likely will use your links as a replacement.
Guest posts can still help you build links, provided you choose a high-ranking source site. The source site, or “referring domain”, is where your guest posts will appear on. So, it should be relevant to your business’ niche and is an established, authoritative site.
A guest post should meet the same factors (interesting topics, keywords, etc.) as your own blog posts. But remember, it’ll appear on a different site, so take note of that site’s writing tone and reader market. If they cater to young professionals, write for them and not for college students.
Also, avoid writing a guest post that sounds too much like an ad for your business. It’s best to stick to how-to-guides, list-type articles, and similar type of content. And make sure the anchor text is relevant to the URL you’ll use to link back to your site.
A local newspaper or one of your affiliates may have mentioned your business online. That’s great, but it could be even better if that mention contained a backlink to your site.
So, better start looking up mentions of your business online. There are free, online link re-crawling tools designed for this task. Once you get the results, ask the source sites (nicely) to convert these into backlinks.
If you find outdated but still usable posts from authoritative sites, get in touch with them. Ask if you can “update” the content so that it can still be of use for today’s readers.
Be sure the content you’ll update has a connection to your business’ products or services! That way, you can ask the source site if you can slip in a backlink to your site.
Everyone, especially event organizers of charity runs, fundraisers, and local competitions, loves sponsors. So, why not offer to be a sponsor for their events? You can use this as a way to earn backlinks while also generating leads online and offline.
First, because almost all organizers nowadays advertise their events online. If you sponsor their event, they’re sure to link back to your website.
Second, when people find out you’re sponsoring an event, they’re likely to want to know more about you. That can then lead to increased traffic to your website.
Third, you can use your products as promotional giveaways during the event. Like sponsors, everyone loves freebies too.
Add yourself to Ireland’s digital map by securing your Google My Business listing. Not only does this earn you a backlink; it also tells people you’re an actual, physical business.
While Bing’s current market share in Ireland is only 1.86%, it still lets you earn a backlink. Sign up with Bing places for Business so its users can find you. Like Google My Business, signing up with Bing is free too.
If you cater to the local market, add your business’ name to Irish website directories. Golden Pages, Redbook, theBizlocator.ie, and YourLocal.ie are great places to start.
There are also general web directories, like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Foursquare. If you already have a listing with these websites, make sure they’re updated and complete.
You can also get a backlink by listing with industry-specific (or niche) directories. For example, construction businesses can claim a listing with ConstructionIreland.ie.
If you own a restaurant, make sure you have a listing with OpenTable Ireland. You should also inquire with the Board Bia on how you can get listed in their market directory.
This is one of the best multi-purpose link building ideas, as it lets you earn backlinks and put up a job offer for free.
So, how does it work?
If you’re about to offer new jobs, consider signing up with online recruiter platforms. Good examples are LinkedIn and Glassdoor Ireland, which allow you to post a job opening for free. You can post your business’ information here, including your website details.
Keep in mind that every month, folks from all over the world read over 20 billion pages on WordPress alone. But for people to read what you write, you first need to show up on search engines.
And to show up on Google, you need quality links pointing back to your site. For starters, because they make up one of the top three Google ranking factors. In short, you need to start using these backlink building ideas if you want to show up high on Google SERPs.
Need more tips to make your website work harder for your business? Then be sure to read our guide on marketing metrics to boost conversion and engagement rates!
