Before reading this post, we recommend that you get Generate UK - Digital Marketing Blog delivered directly to your email inbox

An informed linking strategy for your web site will improve your rankings in the search engines and set you apart from your competitors. Most of the major search engines encourage web site owners to increase the number of back links a site has in order to encourage greater and more targeted traffic. 

In the democratic world of search engines, the more back links you have for a chosen keyword, the higher you will rank in the results. Of course, this implies that the process is very simple, which is certainly not the case. There is a myriad of additional variables to consider, not least the authority of the web site and the link relevance. 

We’re working on the principle that the vast majority of web site owners who are looking to improve the performance of their website care little for the technicalities of search engine algorithms; their interest is in the results. So regarding links; the general rule is that back links are good, as long as you concentrate on creating links to your site in the right places. 

The thought process you should go through when thinking about your back links is very important. For example, the keyword or phrase you would like your site linked with should be well researched. If your business wants to rank well for “Rental properties in Thatcham”, you should use that phrase as your link. 

If you’re an Estate Agent in Thatcham and “Rental properties in Thatcham” is indeed your chosen keyword, your first task would be to understand more about your competitors for this phrase. For example, how many back links do they have, who is utilising the local business results, what keywords are they using in their page titles. 

Once you understand all of this, you can start to build a campaign that takes into account their strategy for ranking for that phrase. You can identify how many links they have, which search engines their links are indexed in; if you know what you are looking for you can identify their whole search engine optimisation strategy. Of course, many companies have a list of targeted phrases, so you can begin to see how complex this task could be. 

This is a very simplistic way of looking and this has been done on purpose. I know we have some experienced SEO people who read this blog and I’ll be in the dog house for trying to simplify this process, however we have a larger number of marketing people, sales people and folk who do not want or need to lift the lid on complex algorithms, and instead just want a broad understanding of how search engines work. 

These are the people that we meet every day as part of our role as a digital marketing agency. They are looking for more information about link building, online PR and SEO because their business is putting them under pressure to ensure their web site is performing. This is where many companies are struggling; there could be 1,001 reasons why the site is not performing, with SEO being a small part of that. 

We believe that search engine optimisation is just a part of the online marketing strategy. It’s an ongoing process, where the rules and the competitive landscape changes almost daily. I don’t know a single senior marketing professional who has the time to monitor all of this. They need enough information to be able to satisfy their business that they are increasing the effectiveness of their online channel.

This is where a close relationship with a digital marketing agency pays dividends. By sharing the goals and objectives of your web site, your agency can come up with a detailed marketing plan that is designed to deliver against your business objectives. The great thing about online marketing is that it is measurable. What a great way to work; goal based objectives, regular analytics and no need to try and become a web guru in order to satisfy the demands of your business. 

What do you think? Please feel free to comment below, are we being fair to marketing professionals? Do you think they do have enough time to become experts in this area as well as experts in their businesses? If you would like to discuss this blog post or what Generate UK could do for you, please do not hesitate to call us on 01635 550431.