In 2012 the landscape of SEO changed more than at any other time since its inception. All those poor link building tactics (links schemes, unrelated links, duplicate content etc) couldn’t handle the Google Panda and Penguin updates and were penalised and the sites performance on Google significantly dipped.
If you’re a link builder and followed the correct methods of obtaining links then you were not affected by Google’s algorithm updates. If you sought to obtain quality over the quantity of links then Google’s updates would not have phased you, in fact you welcomed their updates!
What to expect in 2013
By keeping my ear to the ground I have come up with what I feel will be important to a successful link building campaign.
Content
It’s always worth creating quality content for generating links but even more so now. When creating a blog post, infograhpic, video or press release make sure that the content adds value. Adding value could be educating or solving a problem. If something adds value to you, you’re going to want to keep hold of it and link to it!
Outreach
I’m going to put a few different techniques under the umbrella of ‘Outreach’. Now what I mean by outreach is reaching out to bloggers, leading authorities and experts in your niche.
Offline is also a very natural way to connect with like minded people that can be mutually beneficial to both parties. It’s through attending conferences and meetups where relationships are formed. This brings me to guest posting. You could form a good relationship with a very influential blogger who may be willing for you to guest post on their blog! A link acquired through guest posting is only of real value if it’s from a high authority site. The benefits of guest posting is not limited to just links but also brand awareness and extra traffic to your site which is always nice.
Summary
I would say that the future of link building is link earning. Creating quality content will naturally attract links as it adds value. Google want to give their users a better experience so if SEO’s develop campaigns with that in mind then you’re on the right track. No more cutting corners by publishing poor content, buying links or getting links from (cough) low value directory sites. Links of value now have to be earned.
What do you think the future of link building is?
There appears to be plenty of industry heads saying and infering that this is what is happening within Google and I have to agree there is strong evidence to suggest these changes because of Panda etc, however, some fundamentals of original descent are still believed to be the way of link building such as keyword rich anchor text and the like.
I do however like the idea of link earning by helping those you wish to acquire links from. Nothing comes for free so working for it in this manner is great. Plus as an SEO it broadens your field of knowledge even if you’re not entirely excited by the content you’re writing.
Glad to see you’re on the pulse John. I saw your comment on SEJ. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Randal. I wouldn’t go too heavy on the keyword rich anchor text I would diversify.
Blog…
I do consider all of the ideas you’ve introduced for your post. They are very convincing and will certainly work. Nonetheless, the posts are very quick for beginners. May you please extend them a little from next time? Thank you for the post….
That is a very good tip especially to those new to the blogosphere.
Short but very precise information… Thanks for sharing this
one. A must read post!