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In one of my previous posts, I discuss the factors that impact your search engine optimization. One factor that is becoming increasingly important are so-called ‘social signals’- these are things like shares, tweets, and likes in social media. In fact, of the 23 factors that impact search engine ranking, 13 of them are now somehow tied to social media.
When your website is seen by the search engines to be authoritative, an authority, you will gain higher search engine positioning and, all other things being equal, you will get preferential treatment in terms of your site showing up when people are searching for topics you blog about.
One way to build your site authority is by having reputable and targeted links coming to your website.
Social media is one way to build links back to your website. Link building is not just about gaining a link to your site, it’s also about putting your website and business in front of other people who might benefit from knowing about you. Links are one way of understanding how well you are doing.
Aside from putting your website URL into your social media profiles, here are other ways to gather links back to your website from your social media efforts:
Using blog posts to connect with industry leaders – instead of the usual blog post (like this one) where you focus on your audience and niche, you can also use your blog posts to build new contacts with leaders in your industry. If I were going to do this in this post, let’s say that I mention something about Guy Kawasaki and link to a post of his here. I can use this post to talk about something I learned from him or something I agree with- or disagree with- and by linking to his site within my post, it’s likely that he, or someone on his team, will be notified about this link, and might stop by to read and comment. Let’s say they really like my content, maybe they would even share it. Their sharing or mentioning it in social media would build links back to my website, and help me make connection with them that I didn’t have prior to writing the blog post. Blogging is a social equalizer.
Become a frequent interview guest. Each time you are interviewed on someone’s video blog, podcast, or internet radio show, you are often asked to include a link to your website somewhere within the content you submit. When these shows go live, your site link goes live too. I’ve been using this strategy for many years, and have many links coming back to my site from the individual interviews I’ve done over the years. These links not only build my site authority, but also often bring me direct visitors, too, who have listened to my interview and want to learn more.
Use visual imagery to build links. Use visual images, visual tutorials, infographics- and other visual imagery to share within social media and build links back to your site. These visual images are appealing and often widely shared. Your website accrues some social value and credit the more your images are shared.
Tweet your blog posts, add to your Facebook business page and Pin your posts too! Both Twitter and Pinterest are ‘open’ social networks, meaning that the content posted there can be seen by the general public. Content on your Facebook business page can also be seen in this way. Using all three results in links back to your site, on each post. This is a good strategy for building your site authority across individual pages.
The goal of linkbuilding is to build targeted links that put your site out in front of your desired audience. This, in turn, will build your online presence, your community, and will bring you more business opportunities, too!
