Anyone who has a basic knowledge about SEO is aware how important link building is. It's one of the main signals Google receives that a particular website is credible, well-maintained and shares valuable content. I mean, of course! If a huge brand or an established online news agent decides to link back to your site, it's a clear sign you are the real deal. But that isn't so easy to achieve. Also, something we shouldn't be missing in 2019 - social media activity as social proof for valuable content. Which one has more weight or do they weigh exactly the same in the eyes of Google, we are about to find out.
Link Building in 2019
Link building isn't what it was before. No, I don't mean it's less effective, but it's much more regulated by the search engine than before. A lot of old techniques like buying links and spamming comments with them will no longer work. In fact, it's worse. Such tactics will get you penalised. You can check our previous post for other SEO techniques that don't work in 2019.
A variety of link types is essential for good SEO. You should have internal links, which tell Google that a particular page is important. Internal links are those that connect one of your website pages to another.
External links boost up the credibility of your content. It's always best to be able to back your statements.
Backlinks are, perhaps, the most important types of links. They come from an external source and link back to your website. It is vital for these links to have from good and reputable websites. The reverse scenario will cause you more trouble in your optimisation. One of the best ways to get great backlinks is working with influencers and signing up for business directories in your niche. Comments on social media channels like LinkedIn or Quora may also help. One of the best ways to source valuable do-follow backlinks for your blog and index new posts immediately was Google+. Sadly, that's no longer an option since the platform closed down in the beginning of April 2019.
Social Media Sharing in 2019
Don't despair, link building may have become harder, but there's a new tactic to pay more attention to and get brilliant SEO results. That's social media sharing. Sites like Buzzsumo use exactly these metrics to rank webpages for quality of content. As we know Google is keen on showing websites that provide credible and valuable information. One of the best ways to prove your website falls in this exact categories is social sharing. The more people share your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc, the more your social proof score increases. It won't take much long for Google to notice the interest and traffic coming to your pages and rank your website higher.
How to get more social shares?
First and foremost, produce quality and valuable content. Make sure you know what your audience wants to read about or watch and fill your blog/vlog with that.
I can see you rolling your eyes and saying "I've read that a million times already". Perhaps you are creating that great content and yet, you are short on shares. There's no shame in asking a few friends for help. Better still, join business groups on Facebook or LinkedIn where blog sharing threads are allowed and ask the other participants to share your blog on their profiles.
Do use Pinterest as much as you can! I understand it may be a little difficult platform for some, but it is truly effective. Once you have mastered the art of pinning, you will enjoy incredible traffic to your website and tons of repins directly from your pages.
In 2019, most social media and digital platforms are focused on the people. They want everyone to have a pleasant experience while online and it doesn't always favour the businesses at a glance. However, if you look at this strategy closely, it is indeed very good customer service, which is the main drive for customer retention. You are not successful when you make sales, you are successful when those sales are repeated several times.
You are probably wondering what's that last paragraph got to do with SEO, link building and social shares. Well, a lot. Because digital platforms, Google included, are so focused on the user experience, it is only logical that social shares will have a massive impact on how high you rank in the searches. If 1000 people have shared a blog post on a particular topic, Google is most likely to show it first when someone else searches for that topic. Concentrate on promoting your content and get people to share it, but don't ditch the link building completely. Make sure you comply with the rules and community standards of search engines. Only that way you will avoid penalties and progress with your optimisation.
