Clearly one of the most important SEO services they provide is link building. But for the business owner, it can seem confusing or even unnecessary for a business website. So what is link building and why do I need it?

Bottom line? To make the web pages of your website appear higher in the search results.

Before we dive deeper into link building, it will first help to set the stage.

The Internet is made up of billions of web pages, loosely interconnected through something called a URL, the address of a website. Due to the vastness of the internet, there are many challenges search engines face in determining which websites appear higher than others, a pecking order if you will. Google uses hundreds of criteria to determine the relevance of web pages. This allows them to rank and display web pages on SERPs (search engine results page).

But only Google really knows the criteria used and how much emphasis is placed on each one, also known as the algorithm. The reason? If Google’s algorithm were public knowledge, the level of “Black Hat SEO” would reach epidemic levels in an effort to “game” the results and the results would be meaningless. Therefore, Google has a vested interest in not only keeping this information secret and hermetically sealed, but also turning it into a constantly changing algorithm, in order to stay one step ahead of the “players”. And it’s the SEO’s job to keep up with those changes and adjust accordingly.

But, there are two acquaintances in the algorithm: Content and Links.

Ok, what are the links?

Simply put, a link is one website that links to another, pointing one web page to another web page. There is a need for both internal and external linkage. But for the sake of simplicity, today I will refer only to external links.

So why are links important to your site?

Links are a measure used to determine the “popularity” of a web page. Let’s face it, if you have a link from the Wall Street Journal to a page on your website, Google will see your web page in a much different light, with more authority. Subsequently, you’ll most likely see a boost in rankings, especially if you’re targeting a specific keyword (which we’ll cover more in the next newsletter). Links are a measure used, and widely used, by Google to determine relevance.

So, in general, the more links you have pointing to your web pages, the more popular Google will see your website and the higher rankings it will get.

Why do you need Link Building?

Link building is the practice of obtaining links from external websites to improve search engine rankings. Simply put, there is a limited number of links that will occur naturally or organically on your website. Link building provides that extra “energy boost” that simply writing content won’t provide.