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At first glance, links are such seemingly uncomplicated things in the search engine marketing (search engine marketing) space. It’s just about hyperlinking to the URL to anchor the text, right? Evil.
Links are fraught with complexity – and like many other search engine marketing experts, I completely understand the challenges of the link building process. After all, as a key rating factor on Google, you need to ensure proper process though the field is so dynamic in nature.
So should you focus on the quantity quite than the quality of links? What emerging link building trends and best practices should you implement in 2024? These are some of the questions I consider below.
Read on if you want to step up your search engine marketing game and stay competitive.
Quality over quantity: the evolution of link building
I have been a staunch supporter of the quality versus quantity debate in link building. One thing I can say is that for us search engine marketing experts, changing the variety of links to quality ones can be absolutely crucial in ensuring higher rankings and traffic. Why?
Because with Google’s algorithm updates, it is easy to get left behind by sticking to old practices that the search engine now punishes. What do I mean by that? Well, old practices like link harvesting and using private blog networks to generate a whole lot of low-quality links to your website don’t work anymore.
Google is extremely smart and considers such practices to be spammy, user-unfriendly and a way to manipulate the system. Enter high-quality backlink building; the technique of building relationships with high authority sites to naturally acquire backlinks.
Therefore, as my first link building trend of 2024, I advocate building high-quality links quite than focusing solely on the variety of links acquired.
(*4*) artificial intelligence and automation into link building
Now for trend number two: incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and automation into link building. Those who know me know that I’m a big believer in using AI tools for sophisticated link building strategies.
But how can AI help you achieve greater search engine marketing success? Well, it may well do a lot for you. Examples include streamlining link prospecting, outreach, and monitoring processes to improve performance. Using each free and paid AI tools, here’s how I take advantage of them to improve my link building efforts:
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Generate content and content ideas: There are many tools, including ChatGPT, that may perform goal keyword and audience evaluation and analyze online sources to generate original content ideas that may attract backlinks. It is also possible to use artificial intelligence – with care and personalization, after all – to generate some parts of the content.
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Conducting detailed keyword research: The neatest thing about this approach is that you can profit from it search engine marketing AI tools to discover competitive long-tail keywords and phrases. Ultimately, it will enable you to higher goal more area of interest audiences using less competitive terms.
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Creating guest post offers: We all know how essential it is to create extremely personalized and compelling offers when looking for guest posting opportunities on credible web sites. This is also where AI tools come in handy. Whether you use AI templates or not, you’re much more likely to secure guest posting opportunities than without them.
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Identifying the right thought leaders: Yes, establishing key relationships with industry influencers and thought leaders is a great approach to building connections. But while it may well literally take a few hours to work out who’s who in a zoo, artificial intelligence tools can do it in seconds. It’s about entering the right data to get the best results from it.
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Engaging relevant online communities: Online communities are a great source of backlinks, and you’ll want to know where your audience is hanging out online. By using artificial intelligence tools, this task becomes much easier than ever as it may well provide great ideas for engaging relevant online communities where you can earn more backlinks by strategically sharing your content.
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Creating links to resource pages: Linking to resource pages is a key link-building strategy that involves reaching out to relevant sites that have resource pages to share content. Fortunately, AI tools take a lot of time and effort and enable you to build strong relationships with resource sites, helping you discover them much faster.
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Advanced tracking and reporting: The sooner you have helpful data at your fingertips, the sooner you can make changes to your search engine marketing strategy. Use AI tools to help you track link building metrics including site traffic, search engine rankings, backlink quality, and more.
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Anchor text optimization: Some AI tools can immediately detect opportunities to discover which links can be perfect for your anchor text. It’s time to reap the benefits of this to ensure your anchor text is relevant and trustworthy, which can improve your link quality.
Building audio links
Trend number three on my list is the rise of audio links. We have all seen the huge popularity of audio content equivalent to podcasts and YouTube videos. The truth is that ignoring these content platforms can be detrimental to your link building efforts.
However, building links on these platforms is a smart way to attract new audience segments while increasing your backlink engagement.
Social media integration for effective link building
Social media ranks last and fourth on my list. It’s undeniable: social media cannot and shouldn’t be ignored. It has significant potential for link building and traffic generation. First, social media allows firms and search engine marketing professionals to create and share shareable content.
Secondly, it’s a great platform to connect with influencers who is likely to be interested in sharing your content. And finally, you can use social media to higher connect with your audience as you work to increase your online visibility.
Adaptation to Google algorithm updates
As a parting note, I would really like to mention something sobering. We, SEOs, stand against a hard wall. Google is very secretive when it comes to the aspects it considers when determining rating. Even though we think we’re just playing a guessing game, that is not necessarily true.
By adopting industry best practices, employing white hat link building strategies, and continually adapting and flexible to algorithm changes, our link building efforts can turn into simpler.
The 12 months is 2024, and although we are competing with the world’s leading search engine giant, we are not alone. By examining trends like those mentioned above and following industry best practices, we will remain more agile and progressive in our link building to achieve lasting search engine marketing success.