It’s a question we get asked time and time again from clients - why are links important for PR, how can they help my website, how can we improve the number of links and why is it good to have a mix of links?
As an agency specialising in digital PR, links are an integral part of what we do. Every story we pitch, every comment we offer and every product we get featured will generate a link or brand mention, all important in SEO or search engine optimisation.
Google algorithms are complicated and ever changing, but essentially it retrieves data from its search index and delivers the best possible results for a query.
So if you sell online or are advertising your services online, you want to rank as highly as you can - page one on Google is the holy grail!
There are lots of things as a business you can do to work towards a higher ranking. That’s where PR and link building comes in.
We’ve been link building for years and like all PR, it boils down to telling a good story, pitching it well and achieving links.
I’ve made it sound very easy, but there is slightly more to it than that. Our challenge is to hit that sweet spot - a story the journalist loves, their readers will be interested in and a reason for them to give the piece a link.
There are two main types of link for us, a follow and no follow.
Follow link - this one will have an impact on your search engine ranking. The more credibility the linking site has, the better for boosting your backlink profile. High authority sites include the BBC, national news titles including The Guardian, Mail Online and The Sun.
No follow link - this link doesn’t influence search engine rankings and Google won’t crawl. However, this doesn’t mean they’re not worth having. The page can still be found by the algorithm.
Google does like links to look natural or organic, which makes having a good mix of follow, no follow and brand mentions important. If Google thinks you’ve paid for links, then you could be penalised.
We have previously shared insight into just how many links your business site needs, you can find out more here.
Our creative approach at Motive PR really comes into play when it comes to improving the chances of winning a link. There are a number of techniques we consider:
1. Research - having research on the client's site which provides the journalist and reader more information on a story is a great reason to link.
2. Create graphics / infographics to support a story and / or video content.
3. Offer a free tool.
4. Provide a comment to a trending / relevant topic.
5. Trusted - if you are a trusted spokesperson, trusted source for a news article or feature, the site is more likely to link to you.
You can see real examples of our approach to links by downloading our greatest hits.
To find out more about digital PR and link building, please contact us here.
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