The Importance of Link Building and Authority

Even if you’ve applied all the learnings in previous sections, your website still might not rank well. Because another hugely important factor in terms of SEO is Authority.

High authority is accomplished, boosted and maintained by earning links from authoritative websites (in other words, websites that are seen by Google as being important, or having authority as it were).

Google has confirmed that links and the quality of those links are two of the most important ranking factors for SEO. The reason being? That trustworthy sites tend to link to other trustworthy sites, and spammy sites tend to link to other spammy sites. So your job here? Is to prove yourself to be a trustworthy site.

As well as the detailed recommendations in the video part of this programme, we recommend you download “The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building” on https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building

1. Have a Link Building Strategy!
   Not all backlinks are equal. So you should proactively plan to earn quality "do follow" back links from high authority pages in your niche. Earn these naturally by creating and promoting content worth linking to.
   
   
2. Analyze Your Competitor’s Backlinks to see what’s working for them
   This is the easiest way to get started with link building. Using the MOZ SEO Toolbar, take a look at each of the Top 10 search results for your target keyword and examine the link for each page.
   https://moz.com/products/pro/seo-toolbar

Focus on your competitors “Inbound Links” from “Only External” sources to see who has linked to them.

You can also use Ahrefs, Majestic SEO to uncover competitors marketing strategies that you can learn from.
https://majestic.com/

You can search for where you have been mentioned in existing online content that has not been back-linked. Simply, contact the owner or author of the piece and ask them to link back to you if possible.

https://mention.com/en/

• Learn from other successful Content - Use Buzzsumo to find proven content ideas & formats.
  
  https://buzzsumo.com/

• Put Together Best of Lists. e.g. 10 Best Infographics for Internet Marketers or Top 10/ 20/ 99 lists

• Crowdsource Content – and create a blog from the different content contributed by experts. Not only will each expert backlink to you, but they will share your article on their platforms as well.
  https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2019/04/importance-building-email-list/

• Carry out a Survey and publish the results. e.g. SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs & Pricing Model
  https://moz.com/blog/seo-pricing-costs-of-services

• Create Infographics using Canva or Fiverr - e.g. Noob Guide to Online Marketing