Manual link building is a procedure of actively increasing links pointing to your website. It has been put to the test many times and has emerged stronger and more relevant.
Every website that is at the top page for years now, has achieved it by working smart, by building natural manual links. This article will help you know why manual links deliver quality and long term results and the different strategies that will work in 2019 and beyond.
Why Manual Link Building is Important?
Before we move onto the different strategies that should be a part of your digital marketing campaign, lets first know why manual link building is essential.
By now, you might be questioning yourself what is manual link building and may have already looked upon a few videos. Creating manual links is harder in 2019 but not impossible. It is one of the essential parts of the digital marketing campaign that increases your website traffic and rankings.
Google keeps flipping the coin and the techniques that work today might be spam tomorrow, but same is not the case with manual links. They are still the driving force of search traffic and high rankings.
The end result of manual link building is not only increased traffic and high Google rankings but also increased sales. It focuses on relevancy, unlike some black hat SEO techniques which can help you get traffic but not conversions.
You might be surprised seeing the screenshot below about the results that appear for ‘build links’ and ‘buy links’.
For a successful digital marketing campaign, natural manual links is a must. Do not get carried away with any black hat SEO techniques for temporary results, rather focus on natural link building for long term results.
Importance of Content Marketing
Content marketing for most companies is an integral part of the digital marketing campaign and no longer be set aside as an entertainment factor. The aim is to add value to the reader through blog posts, storytelling, infographic, or articles.
Content marketing focuses on:
- Convincing your target audience of the value of service/product you are offering
- Finding new clients
- Retaining old clients
The best part about content marketing is that it can generate thrice as many leads as regular marketing campaign. Content marketing is preferred because 70% of people would instead learn something new from an article than a regular advertisement.
Where is content marketing required?
- Branding and PR
- Search engine optimization and link building
- Inbound Marketing
Key figures used in content marketing are:
- Visitors
- Length of stay
- Reach
- Conversions
- Leads and orders
Always remember, useful content is the centerpiece of any marketing campaign.
Manual Link Building Strategies
Any type of natural link building was blooming until Google started penalizing websites for unnatural link profiles. This was not the fall of manual links but low-quality links and the rise of high-quality links.
Below mentioned are the natural link building tactics that help you get quality links for your website.
1. Suitable Blog Comments
Blog comments are still powerful and a valuable way of getting links to your website as
long as they are from relevant and high authority websites. The comment you put on a blog should be relevant to the content.
You can not comment on any website that does not curate its comments and has lots pointing to another random website. It will not do any good to your website. Google does not like low-quality irrelevant links from sites with low domain authority, so ensure to stay away.
Your aim should be to provide value to the readers of the blog. Google likes blog comments that are done manually, relevant, with correct spellings and grammar.
According to Google’s Link Schemes, manual and quality links are a must. It includes forum comments with optimized links in the signature.
2. Valuable Press Release
A press release is an either make or break manual link building strategy. Ensure you create this write up only when there is something authentic and newsworthy to announce. Abusing this technique can make you fall into the pit.
When used smartly, this is one of the essential link building tactics. Just like the link building techniques, when used incorrectly, this strategy can cause you troubles. Do not consider a press release as a link building tactic but a medium to help readers discover something new.
When a press release adds value to the reader, traffic, clicks, visibility, and social shares will follow naturally.
3. Guest Blogging
This has been a hot topic for a while now, and some people also considered these links as spam. Guest blogging, when done correctly, is an essential strategy of manual link building. Matt Cutts, former head at Google webspam said that guest blogging abuse will be punished.
Here, we are talking about authoritative guest blogging, quality content creation as an essential part of content marketing and not just short sentences and paragraphs influencing the rankings.
While considering this strategy, you need to focus on quality content, keep the reader in mind, count comments, and social shares as content success and not just links. Keep guest blogging as a technique to increase your website awareness rather than just links. When done smartly, it can prove to be successful.
Your digital marketing strategies are on the right track when you focus on quality and relevant content.
Building Quality Links Require Manual Efforts
Link building and SEO are directly related to a successful digital marketing campaign. In 2019, securing meaningful links requires you to put manual efforts. No manual promotion means you are letting links slip through your fingers.
Links still hold an important place in Google’s search algorithm and also essential to rank. Links do not only offer marketing value but also:
- Creating new online connections
- Referral traffic
- More access to your site
- Branding value
Natural link building cannot be automated because it requires:
- Relevance
- Relationship building
- Critical thinking
- Human creativity
- Strategic promotion
- Human interaction
- Audience Research
Humans build real links and these are the types of links Google wants you to value.
Manual Links will always be alive in SEO
Links are a part of a larger marketing cycle. As long as you require your brand to be marketed, you will require manual links. Other marketing tactics will also be required, but without natural links, these will be wasted.
Even if Google and other search engines alter their algorithms, real links will still be significant to the web. Contrary to your belief, Google doesn’t make links valuable but the value links make them worthwhile. Links are the heart of the Internet without which it would be impossible to navigate the web, and this is not going to change in 2019 or beyond.
Manual link building will continue to be valuable and should always be considered in your digital marketing campaign.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is link building still alive in 2019?
Link building is relevant in 2019 and ranking your site without links is certainly challenging. Links are the search engine’s number one ranking factor.
Good backlinks from a high authority website will not only give you ranking in the SERP but also massive traffic to your website.
2. What does link building mean?
Link building involves strategies to get a link to your website or page from another website by promotion. The main purpose of link building is to get traffic to your website, increase rankings and conversions.
3. When should you use a no follow link?
The nofollow tag allows a website to add the link that restrains from being a vote by the editor. Using the nofollow tag is safe when you buy link because you do not want it to be counted as a vote by the search engine otherwise you may be penalized.
4. How do backlinks help?
Backlinks are an important part of SEO. These help the bots to crawl on your website and rank it correctly as per the content quality. Every backlink is a part of the ranking puzzle and this is why the owner wishes to get as many as possible for improving its rank.
Many people get fooled by black hat SEO techniques that provide them temporary results. Switch to manual link building and enjoy long term results. We hope to have helped you understand this concept well. If you have any doubts, leave it in the comments section below.
