Link building keeps getting harder and harder.
It’s hard to gain any traction in a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign without the help of a link building strategy. Links are valuable assets that boost your domain authority, which in turn increases your rankings for relevant keywords and phrases. Put simply, more links from better sources will reliably boost your rankings.
But if you’ve been link building for the past few years (or longer), you’ve likely noticed that some of the old tactics you’ve always relied on no longer work, or that it’s harder to build links in a reliable and consistent fashion.
It’s not your imagination. By some measures, it’s harder to build links now than it ever has been in the past. There are three strong reasons why this is the case:
- Google keeps cracking down. For starters, Google is justifiably motivated to crack down on link building spam. In the early days of search engine optimization, search optimizers took advantage of Google by building spammy, irrelevant links all over the web. It didn’t take long for Google to fight back against this spam, and Google has consistently refined its evaluation criteria for links since then.
- Publishers are pickier. Another important factor to consider is that publishers are getting pickier. It’s extremely difficult to get guest articles featured in the world’s best publications and websites. Even some entry-level publishers are adding new selection criteria that make it hard for a newcomer to get featured. You can’t simply rely on basic guest authorship strategies the way you could in the past.
- Competition is rampant. Finally, consider the fact that competition is rampant. SEO is widely believed to be one of the most efficient and reliable marketing strategies in the digital world, and there are thousands of businesses like yours aggressively competing for the top ranks. Simple and approachable link building strategies aren’t competitive enough anymore.
Do you need help establishing or improving a link building strategy? Quez Media can help. Contact us for a free consultation today!
