Is Link Building Dead?

I am used to always hearing the question, “Is SEO Dead?”, but more recently I have been getting the question, “Is link building dead?” When I first heard this question, my initial response is, “absolutely not, links are still important even after all of the Google updates.”

Then I thought about it a little more. I thought a bit more about the phrase “link building”. I have always been an advocate of creating great content will lead to people linking to your great content because they want to share it. In a sense, this is not link building. Link building to me is setting up an automated process of submitting a website to directories, link farms, reciprocal links, or just a network of garbage blogs.

That process is dead.

Therefore, my answer is, yes link building is dead.

However, the importance of quality links still remains. The process of getting these links may take more of a manual effort and relationship building, and be a longer process, but it is a well-needed effort. I can’t count the amount of times that I have said Content is King, but guess what, it is!

Here are a few ways to gain links to your site through great content:

1. Create blog content on your own blog that people will want to link to. Include a deep link to another post within your site, in case those content scrapers are out there, you will at least get a link for your efforts.

2. Guest posting is still alive. This works two ways. You may not have to request to write a guest post on somebody’s else blog, but reach out to people in your community and ask them to write a guest post for you. Typically, when somebody writes a guest post, they will link to it from their own blog. Easy, simple links.

3. Be quoted. If you are an active member in a community or an influencer in your niche, reach out to others in the community and strike up a conversation. They may write a blog post and quote you on your perspective. These quotes typically end up with a link.

4. Attend local events. How does attending a real life event help you get a link? Sort of like # 3, if you network with people at these local events, it may spark a blog post from somebody else about a conversation they had with you.

There are four ways for you to acquire quality links back to your site.

Continue creating great content and you will find even more opportunities for links.
photo credit: Thos003 via photopin cc