If you are working online or perhaps even have your own website or web store, the term Linkbuilding has probably come up at some point. Link building is part of search engine optimization (SEO) and an important factor for your website to rank higher in Google. In this article we will explain what link building is and why it is so important for your website.

What is (internal) link building?

Link building is a method of getting your website to rank higher by and in Google. First, we will go a little deeper into internal link building. This is because it is very important that visitors can easily navigate your website and for that the link structure must be in order. For example, a visitor should be able to "click" easily from the homepage to other pages without really looking for them. In addition, through good internal link building, you can make a particular page more valuable. Is the home page the most important page of your website? Then place links to the homepage on several underlying pages. Google will pick up on this signal and assign more value to your home page.

In addition to internal link building, there is also external link building. To rise in ranking within Google, your website needs authority. You build this by link building. Simply put, this is obtaining links on relevant websites that refer to your website. People sometimes think; the more links to the website, the better it is for Google. This is not true. In fact, what matters is the quality of the links. The higher the quality of the link, the more valuable it is for Google.

You can compare it as a system in which votes are counted and valued, and Google sees every link to your website as a vote. And the more authority the vote has, the more valuable the link is. For example, a link from NU.nl is much more valuable than a link from the website of the local bakery. After all, NU.nl is an authority on the Internet. We understand that getting a link from NU.nl is difficult, but there are plenty of quality alternatives!

Building a link building profile

It is important to build a strong link building profile. But what is a strong link building profile and how do you go about it? A strong profile contains all sorts of different types of links to a website such as from business websites, from partner websites, from social media, from home pages and so on. We also want you to pay close attention to the anchor text.

The anchor text is the text you put a link behind. You often see the following text "click here" but "here" doesn't mean anything. If you are linking to a page that sells women's shoes, make sure the anchor text for the link is related to this topic. Then type something like "this summer's finest women's shoes may be on your feet too." Also choose different anchor text such as "shoes," "buy shoes" but also, for example, the company name.

Link building tips

If you are planning to actively take up link building, then you can of course use some tips. It may sound simple at first, but how do you get the links you need? Are you curious, read on quickly.

1: Ask partners to link to your website

Many companies work with so-called partners. Ask these partners if they would link to your website on their website. This is an easy way to get links to your website. You can agree as a mutual agreement to do this for your partners as well, that way you help each other.

2: Start blogging

Anno 2018, blogs should not be missing from your website. After all, other websites can then link to your website's blogs on then, and you can also share written blogs on various social media. After all, every link to your website is another one. This way, you also ensure a diverse link profile.

3: Register your business with (free) online business directories

Business directories are an ideal tool to use for link building. To get you started, here are some business directories where you can register your business for free:

• Yelp
• NetherlandsinBusiness
• Opening hours.co.uk
• Allcompaniesin
• Mercury Guide

4: Request links from relevant home pages

On the Internet you can find numerous start pages, many of which are free. Register your own website with these relevant start pages. High-quality start pages still get considerable value from Google. So this is another easy way to do link building.

5: Write guest blogs for external websites

Guest blog writing and sharing are also great ways to boost your link building. With a guest blog, you share your expertise on an external website in exchange for a link. This form of link building is quite time consuming, but very effective if you can pull it off. A nice example of a website that allows you to accomplish this is, for example, Hetgezinsleven.nl. This is a new player on the market that is open to posting content in exchange for a backlink.