When considering link building for your insurancendustry-related website, it pays to be knowledgeable of link building best practices before you dig in. Below is a quick rundown of the good and bad of link building. The list is not meant as an exhaustive overview of link building strategies. Instead, it is a starter guide to get insurance marcomm professionals thinking in the right direction regarding ethical link building practices.
Link Building Strategies To Pursue (A Beginner's Guide)
1. Submit Your Site to Online Directories
Getting listed (for free or a nominal fee) on relevant directories is a basic link building strategy. There are many online resources that provide lists of directories that are worth pursuing. Here is one online resource to give you and idea of the directory opportunities that are out there.
2. Get Your Customers To Link to You
Before online marketing, companies extended customer relationships and encouraged brand advocacy by getting people to wear t-shirts, carry tote bags, place bumper stickers on their cars, etc. The digital version of those activities is getting customers to link to your site. If customers love your company, they may be willing to place an icon for your company on their site. That icon links back to your site.
3. Blog Like It matters (Because It Does!)
You’ve heard this before. Blogs – when well written and consistent – are link magnets. Good content that you encourage people to share will earn listings and links from other blogs. Blogging is hard work, but the link-building and trust-building rewards make it worth it.
Link Building Strategies To Avoid
1. Avoid Buying Links
Avoid sites that exist solely to sell you a link. The more powerful the link, the more it will cost. Purchasing links might give you a big boost in Google rankings, but Google does not support this tactic and will ban sites they discover selling links.
2. Avoid Spamming for Links
Link spamming. If you participate in online conversations, make it truthful and relevant. Link spamming is the opposite. It is a practice by which a person provides bogus, irrelevant on nonsensical info in a blog comments section or online forum with a link back to their own website. Email spamming for links. Don’t run bulk email campaigns that simply ask for links. This is spam and it is a practice that will damage your online reputation.
3. Avoid Link Farms and Link Exchanges
Link farms are sites with a ton of outbound links. Link exchanges are sites that offer to link to you if you link to them. Both may sound like good ideas, but Google does not like link farms or link exchanges. Getting involved with either type of site likely cost you with a downturn in your Google page rank.
