Building a netlinking strategy is essential to increase your website's authority with search engines. However, it requires compliance with the requirements of algorithms that have been perfected over time. Since the arrival of Penguin, an update to Google's PageRank algorithm, some ten years ago, it's no longer the quantity of external links or backlinks that counts, but rather their quality and that of the content of your pages.
What can netlinking do for your site?
Netlinking is a natural search engine optimization (SEO) method that consists of increasing the number of external links pointing to your site to boost your visibility. Successful netlinking results in :
- improve the quantity and quality oftraffic to your site
- boost your ranking in the SERP and thus your position in the very top results
- increase your sales
For search engines, a site that is recommended by other sites benefits from their reputation. For Google, this means that the content is reliable and provides serious information.
Conditions for quality netlinking
If you want to get noticed by Google, you should give priority to backlinks from:
- sites on the same theme as yours (an external link from a site that has nothing in common with yours is ineffective and may even be detrimental to you)
- trustworthy sites with a good reputation and a high level of traffic
- from several different sites, as it's counterproductive to multiply backlinks on a single site.
What you need to do to build your netlinking strategy
Obtain external links by proposing relevant content
It's all about attracting the attention of Internet users with interesting articles that actually provide verifiable new information. So, if you find yourself at the top of the SERP on a regular basis thanks to several articles, you can more easily request a backlink from the administrator of a site that is recognized in your sector of activity. It's a technique that can work very well if you're patient.
Offer guest posts to influential bloggers
It's a win-win situation. This collaboration consists of writing an article on a site that is not a competitor, but whose areas of interest are close to yours. This allows the blogger to expand his content free of charge, and in exchange, he agrees to insert a link to your site, at the heart of the article you've written.
To put this technique into practice, you need to build up a relationship with the blogger, as this will make it easier to contact him or her and offer to write a guest article. To do this, start by identifying the most influential bloggers in your sector, then take the time to comment on and share their articles. However, avoid posting links to your site in your comments, as this is considered spam by search engines.
Ask your suppliers to appear on your reseller list
If you're a product reseller, it's vital that your site is listed on your supplier's site. Make sure you're listed on their site, as this is an excellent external link that can bring you a lot of traffic.
Register in specialized online directories
It's important to be listed only in directories that list sites in your sector of activity and that have a good reputation.
Appear in the media
This method can enable you to obtain backlinks if you are an authority in your field of activity. A site like Authority source puts experienced people in touch with journalists looking for reliable databases to write their articles. All you have to do is create an account specifying your area of expertise and answer the questions of the journalist who contacts you. In exchange for your information, the journalist undertakes to mention you in his or her article.
What to avoid with a good netlinking strategy
Buy external links
While this technique can boost a site's traffic very quickly, it is not without risk. Search engines are able to identify links that have been bought, i.e. those that are not natural and that provide no certainty as to the quality and popularity of the site. However, it is still often used, and there are platforms that specialize in buying backlinks.
Use the PBN (Private blog network)
The idea is to artificially create a network of sites containing interlinked blogs, incorporating links to the main site in order to optimize its visibility.
Today, this technique is considered black hat SEO, i.e. a system of automations used to exploit algorithmic flaws to obtain better results for one's site. However, as the flaws are regularly corrected, those who use this technique are usually unmasked and suffer severe sanctions, ranging from downgrading to the outright deletion of their site.