In our blog, we have already repeatedly mentioned external website promotion as an important component of Internet promotion in principle. Well, today we decided to comprehensively concentrate on this topic by preparing a comprehensive article for you. We’ll tell you what external SEO promotion is, what components it consists of, and how to carry it out competently without missing anything important. We invite you to move directly to the topic without further ado!
Off-page optimization: what is it?
External optimization (or external promotion) is a popular technique for promoting sites in search engines by building external links to the promoted site in order to improve its position in search results.
The bottom line is that the more authoritative resources link to your site, the more authoritative it becomes in the “eyes” of Google. Conversely, if other sites do not link to you, Google considers your resource less authoritative and relevant. That is, roughly speaking, more external links means a higher position of the site in search results. Of course, in practice everything is a little more complicated, but for a general understanding this explanation is quite sufficient.
What is the difference between internal and external optimization?
Internal optimization involves improving the parameters and content of the site. Main works:
- page code optimization;
- working with site navigation, its structure, content (texts, headings, images);
- internal page linking;
- technical aspects and so on.
External optimization is aimed at promoting a resource beyond its borders. It assumes:
- link profile analysis;
- working with external links;
- promotion of content on third-party platforms;
- SMM and promotion in social networks;
- registration in thematic ratings, catalogues, etc.
Both types of optimization are important and complement each other. Their combination gives maximum SEO effect for the site.
What are the stages of external optimization?
External optimization is the process of increasing the link mass of a site, that is, increasing the number of links to it placed on other resources. It consists of the following stages:
- Determining the frequency of appearance of links. It is important to choose the optimal rate of link growth so as not to arouse suspicion among search engines.
- Donor verification. It is necessary to analyze the quality and authority of web resources on which links will be placed in order to prevent the negative impact of the link mass on the position of the site.
- Obtaining natural backlinks. It is necessary to encourage the placement of links to a web resource on blogs, social networks, forums and other platforms where there is a potential audience.
- Anchor text optimization. You need to select relevant and diverse keywords and phrases that will be used as link text.
The final stage is monitoring and analytics. It is necessary to monitor the effectiveness of external optimization, using special tools and services to adjust the strategy and eliminate possible errors.
What are the links?
There are several types of external links that are used to promote a website.
- Eternals. They are paid for once, and they remain on the donor resource forever. Search engines positively evaluate this option, as it increases the level of trust in the platform. Perpetual links are considered the most effective way to promote a website.
- Natural. They are focused on people, which is why they are valued by search algorithms. In addition, they increase the chance of visitors converting.
- Rented. The owner of the resource pays for them every month. When used on a large scale, they improve website traffic well.
- Articles and banners. The first ones are often posted on blogs and social networks. Banners attract potential visitors with their bright design.
How to buy links to a website for promotion? The main thing is that they must be natural, semantic, from authoritative and thematic resources. This will allow you to get the desired result.
What influences external website optimization (external factors)
The most obvious factor is the number of links. But there is a nuance here too. Not only the quantity, but also the quality of links is important. Relatively speaking, 10 incoming links from authoritative resources will be much more effective than 100 from dubious and non-reputable sources. Therefore, chasing numbers alone is not the best strategy.
Additionally, there are other important factors to consider:
- Link growth rate. The volume of links needs to be increased gradually and regularly. This increase looks natural for ranking algorithms. Conversely, if you have 100 incoming links in a week, after that there is a month of “lull”, and then another +100 links, it looks unnatural, but Google takes this into account.
- Link traffic. If you have a lot of incoming links, but users don’t click on them, this kind of off-page SEO promotion won’t be particularly effective either. This means that the content into which links are integrated must be useful, relevant to the reader and motivate him to go to your site.
- Relevance to the topic. It is very important to select donor sites that match your topic. For example, an article with links about air conditioners will fit quite naturally into a tech blog, but it will be completely out of place on some culinary site. This is also important to take into account.
- Variety of anchor lists. Anchors are text into which links are embedded. They should contain different links, use different words and phrases – direct and indirect occurrences of keywords. Or they may not contain keywords at all – depending on what strategy you choose. Non-anchor links are also actively used.
And remember that the quality of published materials must be of a high level. The times of “watery” SEO texts without meaning are long gone.
Website link profile analysis
There are quite a few services that can be used to conduct a detailed analysis of a site’s link profile in order to make external SEO promotion more effective:
- Ahrefs is one of the most popular link profile analysis tools. It provides extensive data on backlinks, keywords, traffic and other metrics.
- Moz is a service that offers link profile analysis tools, including reports on backlink quality, domain authority, and keywords.
- Majestic – specializes in link profile analysis, providing data on the number of backlinks, domain authority, etc.
- SEMrush – allows you to analyze your link profile, keywords and other SEO-related parameters. It also offers competitive research and market analysis.
- CognitiveSEO – provides tools for analyzing and monitoring the link profile, and also has functions for conducting a site audit and tracking positions in search engines.
These platforms allow you to obtain truly comprehensive information about the link profile of a web resource. But it is important to understand which parameters need to be taken into account first. More on this below!
How to choose quality sites for placing links
We recommend that you approach the selection of donor sites with special care. They must meet a number of criteria:
- Thematic correspondence. The closer the theme of the donor site is to the theme of your site, the better. The match doesn’t have to be 100%, but proximity is important. This will make the links look natural and help drive relevant traffic to your site.
- Authority and reputation. Donor sites must have a high level of trust from search engines, good traffic and indexing indicators. They should not be overloaded with advertising, spam and irrelevant links.
- Content quality. Such sites should contain unique, useful and relevant content that matches the topic and user needs.
- Diversity. When you select donor sites, try to look for sites of different types and formats – blogs, forums, catalogs, aggregators, social networks, and the like. Do not use donor sites from the same network or platform.
- Number of outgoing links. The more links there are on the donor site, the less weight your resource will receive. If you see too many outgoing links, the site probably cooperates with exchanges. And this is not very good for effective promotion.
- Lack of sanctions and filters. Such sanctions and filters may be imposed on suspicious sites, which will subsequently lead to a decrease in the rating of your resource. Moreover, in some cases, even your website may be subject to sanctions.
Therefore, we emphasize once again: approach the choice of donor sites as responsibly as possible!
Optimal dimensions of external link mass
External link mass is the number of links to your website placed on other resources. There is no clear answer to the question of how many links are needed for optimal website promotion. This depends on many factors:
- competitiveness of the niche and key queries;
- age and authority of the web resource;
- topics and quality of donor sites;
- types and formats of links;
- anchor and near-link texts;
- dynamics, link frequency, etc.
In general, we can say that the external link mass should be natural, relevant, diverse, high-quality, and built up gradually and without sudden jumps. To analyze and optimize external link mass, you can use various services and tools, such as Google Search Console, Serpstat and others. With their help, you can find out the quantity and quality of your external links, as well as identify and eliminate possible problems and errors, and make the exchange of links for website promotion more effective.
Effective methods of external website optimization
External promotion is a complex task. And if you want to get really good results, you need to learn how to combine different methods and correctly allocate budget and resources. Let’s look at the main components of external promotion!
Placing information about the site in catalogs and directories
One of the simplest and most accessible methods of external optimization is registration in thematic catalogs and directories. These are specialized sites that collect and classify websites and links into different categories and topics. So you can:
- get additional links to the site, thereby increasing its authority for search engines;
- attract targeted visitors who are looking for information, products or services in catalogs and directories;
- increase brand awareness and trust in it.
Many of these sites provide free placement, so you definitely shouldn’t miss this opportunity.
Participation in discussions on forums and social networks (crowd marketing)
This is another effective, but a little labor-intensive method. The essence of it is to participate in various discussions on the network by linking to your site. This way you can:
- get a lot of natural links to your site and attract more targeted traffic;
- increase brand awareness, demonstrate your expertise, answer pressing questions of the target audience and provide useful advice;
- increase loyalty and engagement of potential customers.
The complexity of this method is obvious – in order to find relevant sites and maintain activity on various forums and social networks, you need a team of specialists. Because doing crowd marketing on your own is not an easy task.
Publishing articles with links to the site on other resources
Guest posting on third-party sites is an effective method of link building. Moreover, if your texts are high-quality, relevant and relevant to the topic, you can count on free placement. The advantages of this method are obvious:
- Receiving high-quality and relevant links to your site.
- Increasing brand awareness and attracting interested customers.
- Increasing visitor engagement, stimulating feedback.
But here, as you understand, the quality of the content is crucial. Therefore, you need to approach its creation with full responsibility and involve experts and experienced authors.
Exchange links with partners and thematic sites
This is another effective and profitable option for external promotion, in which you and another site place links to each other. The main advantage of this method is that it is free. But sometimes it can be difficult to find resources ready for mutual placement. However, you can count on several important benefits:
- obtaining mutually beneficial links to the site in order to increase authority for search algorithms;
- Increased site credibility if you exchange links with respectable and relevant sites that have a good reputation and a large audience;
- attracting potentially interested users for whom your offer may be relevant.
Sometimes the discussion of such partner publications can take a little longer, plus the owners of both resources must prepare materials, which also takes time. But this method is still absolutely working and really profitable.
Purchasing links on specialized exchanges
Link exchanges are special platforms that provide the opportunity to buy and sell links. Although we are a little skeptical about this method, it still works. And to dismiss it completely is not entirely correct. With the right approach, buying links on the exchange can provide several advantages:
- Active and systematic increase in the external link mass of the site without much effort on your part.
- Obtaining various links to the site according to different parameters, such as topic, region, trust, etc.
- Control of the purchasing process and placement of links.
The main rule: do not buy links thoughtlessly and do not act blindly. It is very important to control where and under what conditions you are located.
Attracting targeted traffic for branded queries
Brand queries are search queries that contain the name of your website or company. Attracting targeted traffic for branded queries allows you to:
- get high-converting traffic, since users who search for your website or company by name are already interested in your offer and are inclined to purchase or take action;
- increase brand awareness and trust in the site, because search engines take into account the popularity of the brand when ranking sites and highlight branded queries in search results;
- increase the loyalty and engagement of visitors, because you can offer them additional benefits or bonuses for visiting the site based on a branded request.
At the same time, you should take into account that for young and little-known brands such promotion may not give the expected high results. In addition, it requires the creation and development of a strong and recognizable brand that will interest and attract users. And this requires a lot of time, effort and money.
External optimization errors
One of the most common mistakes in off-page optimization is inadequate volume and pace of link building. For example, you buy or place too many links in a short period of time, without considering the competitiveness of the niche, the age and authority of your site, and the naturalness and diversity of the links. Such an approach can lead to search engines suspecting you of dishonest promotion and punishing you with lower positions or exclusion from the index.
Another common off-page optimization mistake is poor quality and relevance of links. You should not place them on sites that are not related to your topic, that do not enjoy the trust and authority of search engines and users, that contain harmful or prohibited content. The impact of external links on a site’s rankings will be negative—search engines may consider them spam or an attempt to manipulate rankings.
Another common off-page optimization mistake is unnatural anchor text (used as a link to your site). It affects the relevance of a web resource for search queries, as well as its perception by users. However, often SEO specialists and website owners abuse anchor text by using too many exact or partial occurrences of keywords, without taking into account semantic and synonymous queries. As a result, search engines may regard this as over-optimization and lower your rankings.
Checklist for external website optimization
We offer you a small checklist that will help make external website promotion more effective:
- Create high-quality and unique content. Your posts with links should be relevant and useful. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about a large thematic longread or a short message on the forum. Relevance, usefulness and relevance to the topic are required!
- Build a high-quality link profile. Develop a strategy for getting backlinks from relevant and authoritative resources, study competitor profiles, use different methods of attracting links – guest and affiliate posts, links from social media, etc.
- Create social signals. Create and maintain accounts on social networks, maintain activity, encourage users to interact with your publications and share them.
- Optimize your local search. Sign up for local search services like Google My Business. Make sure your company information is up to date, collect customer feedback and respond to it. This also affects external promotion.
- Increase your site’s loading speed. Optimize graphic content, enable caching on the server, and minimize the number and size of CSS and JavaScript files if possible.
- Create a high-quality link structure. Use clear and informative anchor texts for internal and external links. The reader must understand where this or that link will lead him.
- Conduct analysis and monitoring. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to track your site traffic and user behavior, and regularly check SEO metrics such as search rankings and backlinks.
Finally, we would like to say that external website promotion is a more complex and multi-level process than it might seem at first glance. You, of course, can simply actively purchase links on the exchange without going into details, but now this approach is not nearly as effective as it was ten years ago. Therefore, you risk wasting money without getting the desired result.
We hope the information was relevant and useful for you. And we remind you: if you are interested in comprehensive external promotion, you can always contact Wezom and trust professionals in this matter. Our specialists are at your service!
Source: wezom.com