Backlinks Strategy Inputs: Just Link It!

Posted by Hersh Bhardwaj in Strategic web Marketing | 0 comments

So much hoola-hoop about backlinks! Most SEO companies have ‘link-building’ as their primary deliverable in their service agreement.That suggests that a lot of SEO people consider backlinking as the chunk of their service activity. Is it as easy as that- just link to as many sites you can and over a period of time you rise up the rankings? I am sure we all know the answer to that. Its a resounding NO!We have a mature enough audience here so I need not get into the ‘backlinking’ 101 here. Still, a reference point can be accessed. Lets see what the Wikipedia says:-

“Backlinks (or back-links [UK]) are incoming links to a website or web page. Inbound links were originally important (prior to the emergence of search engines) as a primary means of web navigation; today their significance lies in search engine optimization (SEO). The number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or page (though other measures, such as PageRank, are likely to be more important). Outside of SEO, the backlinks of a webpage may be of significant personal, cultural or semantic interest: they indicate who is paying attention to that page.”

For me as a marketer, backlinks are a way of ascertaining the authority of a site and in effect your business within your niche/industry. As it says above, ‘ who is paying attention to that page’ is a great indicator of how to define a backlink strategy. ‘Who’ is important. Defining ‘target audience’ is important.  So ideally where would you go looking for backlinks-

• Sites where your target audience can be found.
• Non-competing industry sites that respect your authority.

From marketing standpoint a well-defined backlinks strategy must incorporate the following thoughts-

• Define and locate target audience online.
• Find ways of reaching the target audience.
• Once you meet your target audience mid-way you bring them to your site( by backlinking)