Link-building involves convincing other website owners to link back to your business in their content.
If you’re able to build a lot of high-quality links on sites in your niche, this will let search engines know that your website is a knowledgeable and trustworthy source of information. As a result, it can be great for your SEO, because the likes of Google will boost your rankings.
There are different ways you can acquire backlinks. You could use the broken link-building method, secure links by allowing people to share your infographics, try guest-posting, conduct a competitor analysis, or even use social media with this goal in mind.
It is important to note that, even though social media can help you secure links back to your site, any links included in social media posts or bios will be no-follow. This means they do not directly impact your search engine rankings. So, you’ll want to focus on using your platforms to secure links on people’s websites instead.
Here, I’ll take more of an in-depth look at how you can use social media to build links that will help you achieve your SEO goals.
Add website links to your social media bios
When people are done looking through your social media pages, they’ll usually want to visit your website. But what happens when they scroll up to your bio and can’t find your website link? They’ll leave your page and move on to the next post on their feed.
This is why I highly recommend adding your website link to your social media bios. It is a great way to direct people back to your website and increase your traffic. If you’re looking to use social media to grow your business, this is one of the first steps to take.
Even though your social media bio links will be no-follow and won’t have a direct impact on your SEO, they’re still valuable. The more people that visit your website, the more people will see your content and be likely to share it. Plus, diversifying your backlink profile with some no-follows can help it to appear more natural, which can deter search engines from getting suspicious and penalizing your site.
You could add your homepage link to your bio, or prioritize the page on your site that is the most important right now. Are you running a promotion or launching a new collection? Shout about it.
Use social media to get more eyes on your link-worthy content
If you can get more eyes on your content, you will significantly improve the chances of more people sharing and linking to it on their sites.
But, for this strategy to work, you need to keep link-building in mind when creating your website content in the first place, so you’re publishing useful and shareable resources all of the time.
Once you have created your content, you can then focus on driving more traffic to it through social media. As I’ve mentioned, you can do this by adding a link to your bio, or you could create engaging social media posts that encourage your ideal audience to click through to a blog post or guide you’ve created and published on your site.
Here are some examples of content that tends to be particularly link-worthy:
Infographics
Infographics allow you to present facts and figures in an engaging and easy to digest way. They’re also very shareable, so consider incorporating them into your website content.
You can easily create catchy and engaging infographics and add them to your blog posts and guides to make them more appealing. Then you could get in touch with other website owners in your niche, let them know you’ve created helpful graphics, and make it clear that you’re happy for them to use your designs on their own website as long as they credit you with a link.
Make sure you share your infographics on social media, too, and let your followers know they can repurpose them — again, with a credit and link.
Original research
Original research includes reports, surveys, experiments, or studies that provide detailed information about a particular topic. When people want to write blog posts or articles about certain subjects, they usually need to support their theories with accurate facts and they’ll do this by linking to an original source that can back up their points.
This means that you can generate plenty of backlinks by publishing research pieces on your website, especially if they relate to new topics that have not been discussed by other blogs.
Once you’ve done your research, put a report together and share it on social media so as many people hear about it as possible. It won’t be long before you start to see the backlinks rolling in.
Free tools
Are there any free tools you could create that your target audience will find valuable and that peers in your niche will want to share?
There are a lot of businesses already using this tactic with success. For example, FreshBooks, an accounting software provider, offers free invoice templates that their target customers will find helpful. Canva, the graphic design platform, offers a free version of their tool to give people a taste of what they do, and U.S. Bank has a range of mortgage calculators that will give people a better understanding of how much they can afford to borrow.
Not only can this help to attract the attention of your ideal audience and make your site more engaging, but they’re great for sharing on social media and will earn you plenty of backlinks.
Interactive content
Publishing interactive content on your website will also make it more link-worthy. Examples of the types of interactive content you could create include quizzes, calculators, polls, and surveys that will help to engage your ideal customers.
Other sites will want to link to these types of content because they’re fun to use and can prove very useful to readers. Again, make sure you share your interactive content regularly on social media to get more eyes on it, and reach out to websites in your industry to let them know what you’ve created. This will significantly increase the chances of your interactive content leading to backlinks.
Videos
According to statistics from Biteable, 59% of people admit that they are more likely to stop and watch a video than they are to read written text. So, creating video content is a great way to make your website more engaging.
Plus, informative or entertaining videos are great for sharing on social media and can help you to earn plenty of backlinks. Not every company can afford to create their own video content, so others in your niche should be more than willing to share your videos with their own readerships and credit you with a link in the process.
Just make sure that your videos are informative, rather than promotional. A competitor won’t want to share a video all about your latest product, but they might link to a video tutorial on how to do something that’s relevant to your industry.
By having all of these types of content on your website, sharing it on social media, and letting everyone know that you’re happy for it to be repurposed as long as you’re credited with a link, you can do wonders for your backlink profile and SEO.
Concentrate on improving your brand awareness
If you’re able to raise more awareness of your brand, you’ll start to earn more links organically. And social media is one of the best tools for helping your brand to stand out from the competition.
There are a number of techniques you can use to improve your brand awareness with social media. Firstly, you’ll want to ensure your brand is recognizable, so you need to have one consistent brand voice that runs through all of your posts. Make sure you always use the same type of language, the same colours and fonts in your designs, and even the same emojis so people know what to expect from you.
It’s also vital that you stay consistent, even if you don’t get the results you’re looking for straight away. Make sure you’re posting the same kinds of content on a regular basis — and preferably every day — so you can ensure you’re frequently showing up in the news feeds of your ideal customers, competitors, and website owners who might be interested in linking back to your content.
Finally, you need to make sure your social media posts are actually engaging. The more interesting and useful your posts are, the more they’ll lead to likes, shares, and — you guessed it — backlinks.
Use social media to build relationships with influencers in your niche
Over the last few years, influencers have become hugely important forces in the social media space. If someone with a large following promotes a particular product or service, this will typically lead to a lot of sales, so they’ve become very important in the marketing world.
Not only that, but a lot of influencers started out as bloggers, which means many of them have their own websites where they can provide backlinks to their favorite brands. If there are influencers in your niche who you’d love to work with, and ultimately get a link from, you’ll want to build a relationship with them. Again, social media is great for connecting with influencers in this way.
You’ll want your chosen influencers to feel a connection to your business, so try liking, commenting on, and sharing their posts where appropriate. For example, if you own a fashion brand and you see an influencer wearing one of your pieces of their own accord, support them by sharing their photo with your followers.
If influencers know their posts will get a lot of attention when they talk about your brand, they’ll be tempted to do it more often, which will increase the chances of your brand showing up in one of their blog posts, with a much-coveted link.
Make a small list of influencers in your niche who have websites and that you would love to secure a link from. Then start engaging with their posts to forge a relationship.
Use expert round-ups as ego bait
Making use of expert round-ups can help you to earn plenty of quality backlinks. Expert round-ups allow you to feature quotes or interviews from experts in your field or niche.
This type of content tends to attract a lot of shares and links, as the people mentioned will want to highlight your content, and others might also want to share it as a helpful resource.
Sharing your expert round-ups on social media is a great way to get more eyes on them and let the people you’ve featured know that their comment has gone live on your site.
To make sure that these expert round-ups result in quality links, make sure to do a few things:
- Tag or mention the various experts that you have included in your post when you share it on social media. This gives you a much higher chance of being reposted, which could lead to links for your business.
- Provide more value than just the quotes. Go the extra mile to give your readers actionable steps that add more value.
- You could also decide to message the experts privately before sharing the expert round-ups. Mention that you included them in your content and appreciate them for providing such value. You could also let them know you’re happy for them to share a snippet on their own sites with a link to the whole piece on your site.
Summary
Link-building is essential for SEO. It is one of the major factors that determine how websites are ranked on search engines. So, the more high-quality links you secure, the better your rankings will get.
And, if you use social media in the right way, you could help increase the chances of your business earning great backlinks. You can do this by creating engaging content, building authentic relationships, and maintaining brand consistency across your social media platforms. You should also make sure to use the best social media tools that make it easier to manage the publishing of posts and track the growth of your social media accounts.
Author bio:
Aaron Haynes is CEO and co-founder of Loganix. The company is an SEO fulfillment partner for digital marketing agencies and professionals, which provides the services businesses need to improve their online visibility and grow. If you liked this article, check out the Loganix blog, where you’ll find more SEO guides full of expert advice.
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