How To Utilize Link Building to Increase Traffic to your Site
In this blog I'll show you how you can use a popular SEO strategy to increase the search engine ranking of your site. It's known as link building If done properly, it can help to create a wave of prospective customers who will visit your online courses.
The importance of linking building SEO
You've completed some research and you've got an idea of the key words you'd like your course to rank for. Maybe you've written some blog posts targeting your top keywords, but you're not able to get your website to appear on search results. What's wrong with it?
It could be the links
Links are among the most important ranking elements taken into account by Google and other search engines. It is not solely the amount of hyperlinks that is important however, it is also the quality of those links, and whether they are "followed" (the website tells Google to consider the link into consideration when ranking).
However, Google does not specify how valuable a link from any website is, or how many links your website has. So how can you effectively profit from this ranking factor if Google tells you so little about it or what it means for each website? There are a number of online tools to help. My personal favorite is Moz , a tool that blends several different SEO tools into one package.
Regarding link-building, and also the other unknowns discussed above One of the best aspects Moz does is to scan the web for any links pointed at your site (or the sites of your competition). It then uses this information together with machines learning and several other elements in order to assign the Domain Authority value from 100 points to each site (this is a Moz-specific metric, and not an officially recognized Google one).
If you examine your site's Domain Authority, you can begin to create a visual of how valuable your site has in relation to the quantity and quality of links you have. Because we aren't sure of how the Google algorithm is working, it's impossible to find out how closely the numbers given by Moz match the reality. However, Moz is still a valuable guide.
The reason you should give away part of your program to the public for free
Links are incredibly important to the ranking of your site. How do you convince others to add links to your website?
Others will hyperlink to you if they think that your site is worthwhile to visit. If you offer an informative piece of material for free, you increase the likelihood that other people will find your site fascinating, thus increasing the chance of other websites linking to your website.
If you're a course provider then you are situated in a special situation. There is plenty of useful content that students would like to read on. So, I would encourage you to make available a portion of your content at no cost. Make a mini-course or create a handful of courses in your course available as part of an initial trial like. If you make your content accessible to everyone, you are increasing the likelihood of people connecting to your site.
Choose a non-branded keyword to focus on
Before you start publishing free content online or asking other websites to link to your site, you'll have select a keyword you want to be ranked for. The keyword should not be brand-named such as 'cookery' because these types of keywords are the ones that will bring new customers to your website.
When you've decided on the most valuable non-branded keyword for your business, then you can start implementing the strategy for building links. To illustrate this article, I'll continue to use the 'cookery course' as an illustration.
- URL: jackscooking.com/cookery-course
- Title Tag Title Tag
The next step is to choose what information will go into the body of the page. By putting your free lesson on your page that you provide incentives for other sites to hyperlink to your site. Also, make sure that your lesson video appears near the top of the page (if not the top) to make sure that potential visitors can view the content straight away.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Google places a higher priority to websites with more content on them, as they believe that content on a page will be more beneficial to a searcher. Although we've put an image at the top of our page, Google can't crawl the content of that video, and consequently, we have to add more text to the webpage to show Google that the page is worth a look.
In my experience, it is useful to have around 1000-2000 pages of text page. An easy method to accomplish this is by adding the transcript from the video at the end section of your page. In the event that you require additional words, you can write more about the benefits that come from following the program, like getting healthier food and having enjoyable time at the table.
Get links from websites with a the highest Domain Authority
In the first place, start by identifying websites having a high Domain Authority that might be willing to link to you.
Conduct an Google search for 'cookery blogs' and make a list of all the blogs with an Domain Authority above 30. It is also possible to search for 'cookery course comparison as well as other search phrases related to cookery classes, and then make a list of the websites you come across.
Below is a picture of the first few websites that appear on Google's search results page for "cookery blogs" and the Domain Authory (DA), thanks to Moz:
You can also use Moz to find all the sites which link to a site. One other strategy to employ is to make the list of your cookery competition and then see which sites are linking to these sites. If a site is linked to a specific cookery school the chances are it's going to be open to the idea linking to other cooking courses too, especially when you offer a sweet offer with a complimentary cooking lesson. You could even join Moz for a free 30-day trial. You can download all of the links to the sites you want to in that time.
When you've compiled an inventory of websites that could be willing to link to you, perform some background research about the site and then try to locate an email address from the website's owner or blog manager. Hunter is a fantastic instrument for this.
In order to increase the chances to get a response I recommend sending a personalized email to every website's owner or blog manager. It is important to give them a reason to link to your website, in a way which is sensible for them and adds value to their readers.
Here's an example an email you can make:
Hi [name],
I've been following your blog and it's got some great content! I'm really enjoying your article [insert link here] ].
I have recently developed a no-cost cooking lesson online which you may find useful. Do you have a desire of checking it out, and perhaps posting a critique of the lesson for your website (if you think that your followers would like it too )?
Let me know if this interests you. I'd be happy to send you the lesson.
Thank you so much and please keep up the excellent work!
Jack Saville
It's not necessary to mention or ask about the link right away, but to nurture their interest in your course. If they feature your program on their website, they will almost definitely provide you with a link most likely without having to ask. They may even provide a discounted rate or an additional incentive for their readers.
Use your keyword in the anchor text that links to your website
One final thing to bare to keep in mind while building links will be the anchor words on the links that you get. When you do get to the point where you're soliciting the link (or wanting them to change a link they have already offered you) it's crucial to make sure for the URL to be the specific page you're trying to rank for the chosen keywords, and also ensure that the anchor text in the link matches the keywords you are targeting.
So in our cookery course example, we would ask for a link to jackscooking.com/cookery-course from the anchor text 'cookery course'.
By linking to the ranking page using targeted anchor text The site endorses this particular page in connection with the term "cooking course" in particular'.
Link building that is of high quality can increase your site's traffic and sales
Links from other sites on your site, particularly those that have a good Domain Authority, will help you to rank higher in search engines for your chosen terms. This means that people looking for the term are more likely to locate your website as well as online classes.
It can take time to implement the strategy correctly and begin being ranked on search engines for your keywords, however the result will be a constant flow of potential clients to your classes. It's a pretty decent deal in my opinion!
Jack Saville is an SEO Specialist with Bynder an online asset management vendor.