Building Backlinks: Two Methods (and One You Should Never Use).

Building backlinks to a business website has long been an effective way to attract more visitors and boost inbound search engine optimization (SEO). As algorithms change, how to do this becomes murky and company owners find themselves unsure about which link should go where and if it will hurt or help their quest for top search engine positions. Indago Digital developed an elemental cheat sheet that covers all the main types and methods for benefits link building.

Just as scientists manipulate elements in a lab to discover more or form more compounds, you can combine the linking elements to form a high-powered web of touchpoints for your business name online. The more quality links you have, the more chances consumers have to find your offers.

The Periodic Table of Link Building is broken into three parts:

Link Building

The non-organic elements of link building include purposeful placement of your company's name or offer in various places online. These include high-quality directories, popular blogs, social media pages, active on-topic sites, and even on-site interlinking strategies.

Link Earning

Other elements on this chart represent organic linking possibilities that are a cornerstone of most online marketing strategies. These are ways, either purposeful or natural, that other websites, social media posters, consumers, and business link to content or offers you create and share. Collaboration is one side of the picture: partnerships with schools, non-profit organizations, and business partners. The other side is attraction: that wonderful, natural advertising that happens when someone just has to share a link to your site with their friends and family.

Link Begging

The ugly side of link networks contains the potentially volatile and dangerous elements. The mostly out-of-date begging for linkbacks methods could make Google ban you or destroy your ranking. What they term "begging" also includes paying for links through event sponsorship and freelance blog commenting or forum posting. Spam is the most deadly type.

The unique idea of link strategies represented by a Periodic Table of Elements covers everything from the latest ideas for organic marketing to practices best left to the internet history books.