Whether you’re new to link building or this process is familiar, you will be sure to find useful statistics in this guide. Why? Search engine optimization (SEO) is always changing, so the importance of building quality links has never been higher. To compete against similar brands and thrive online, you need to be flexible with your campaign and move with the trends. The link building specialists at Zero Gravity Marketing (ZGM) have pulled 10 stats to prove to your team, boss, or even yourself, why you need link-building in your SEO strategy.
Link Building Stats
Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other sites to your own. This action aims to increase the number and quality of inbound links to a page to rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs). To help you better understand how important link building is, here are 10 significant statistics:
- Nearly 75% of SEO is off-page. This refers to actions taken outside of your own website that impact your rankings.
- Links are one of only two criteria considered in Google’s ranking algorithm.
- Experts say the third most important factor for SEO is link building.
- Research has found that 36% of businesses hire outside professionals or freelancers to perform link building efforts.
- About 42% of SEO strategists spend equal time on building internal and external links.
- The number of clients who spend $1,000 or less on link building alone is 35%.
- Nearly 69% of marketers believe that buying links positively impacts search rankings.
- About 41% of industry executives believe the cost of link building will increase in the future.
- In five years, 92% of marketers believe that links will still be ranking criteria in Google algorithms.
- In a study, 13% of search experts say link building is the most valuable SEO tactic.
How to Create a Link Building Strategy
Now that you have the statistics to convince you that a link building strategy is critical for your business’s organic SEO strategy, it’s time to create one. If you don’t know where to begin or need a refresh, you will first want to develop a solid plan to kickstart your success. Here’s how:
Ask Yourself What Your Business Needs
Do you want to grow your audience? Improve your rankings? Increase the size of your sales funnel? Establishing how you want to utilize a link-building strategy to reach your goals will align the rest of your efforts. Start by understanding who your audience is, where your brand is appearing on SERPs, and asking yourself what your business needs and how this strategy will get you there.
Take a Look at the Competition
If a similar company to yours is succeeding, then checking out their strategy is key. Natural SEO strategists can go into analytics platforms such as SEMrush, and pull their highest ranking keywords. From there, you can have insight into keywords similar to yours that you can replicate. Experts can even take it a step further and look at their backlinks to see what websites link to their content.
If most of their links are from related blogs, then guest blogging is working from them. If your competitors are on corporate sites, networking and outreach are likely their strategies.
Research Your Ideal Destination Pages
What kind of websites do you want to build links on? For example, if your business is affiliated with the medical industry, medical websites that share blogs would be a great place to look. Do some research on which sites are similar to your business and what would be a great destination for your links.
Create a Link Building Strategy with ZGM
If our statistics have shown you that your business needs a link building strategy, but you still aren’t sure where to start, Zero Gravity Marketing can help. Our SEO specialists use proven methods to drive traffic and increase conversions within one of the most important elements of digital marketing. Contact us today to learn more!
