How to Use Link Building to Increase Traffic to your Site
In this article I'll be able to explain how to employ a widely-used SEO technique to improve the search engine ranking of your course website. It's called linking When executed correctly, it will aid in attracting a flood of new customers for your online courses.
The importance of linking building SEO
You've completed some research and you have an idea of the keywords that you'd like your course to be ranked for. Maybe you've written articles on the top keywords. However, you're still struggling with getting your site to be found by search engines. Why isn't it ranking?
The answer might be links
Links are among the primary ranking aspects which are taken into consideration by the search engines. Not solely the amount of hyperlinks that is important as well as the quality of those hyperlinks, and whether they are 'followed' (the website instructs Google to take the hyperlink in consideration for purposes of ranking).
Unfortunately, Google does not specify the value of a hyperlink from any website is and how many hyperlinks your site has. What can you do to profit from this ranking factor when Google tells you so little about it, or what it means for each site? There are numerous websites that can help you out. My personal favorite one is Moz which blends several different SEO tools into one package.
Regarding linking and building links, as well as the unknowns mentioned above, one of the most useful methods Moz can do is scan the internet for links pointed at your site (or the sites of your competition). Then, it uses the information along with some algorithms, and several other elements for assigning an Domain Authority value for each website (this is a Moz-specific metric that is not a officially recognized Google measurement).
By looking at your website's Domain Authority, you can start to build a picture of the value your website has in relation to the quantity and quality of your links. As we can never be certain of the way in which the Google algorithm works, we will never find out how closely the numbers that are assigned by Moz match the reality. But, Moz is still a helpful guide.
What are the reasons to give away part of your course at no cost
Links are incredibly important to the ranking of your website. However, how do you get others to add links to your site?
People will also link to you if they think that your site is worthwhile to visit. If you give away an informative piece of material for free, there is a greater chance of other visitors finding your website interesting, thus improving the likelihood of other websites linking to your site.
If you are a course supplier, then you're placed in an exceptional place. You already have plenty of useful content that students want to get their hands on. Therefore, I encourage you to offer a small portion of your work in exchange for a fee. You could create a mini-course. Or make a few of the lessons in your main course available for an initial trial such as. By providing freely accessible content to everyone, you are increasing the likelihood of people sharing your content.
Pick a keyword with no brand to target
Prior to publishing your free online content or asking for other sites to link to yours, you'll need select a key phrase you'd like to be ranked for. This should be a non-branded such as 'cookery', as these types of terms are those that will bring new customers to your site.
Once your have decided the most relevant non-branded keyword to your company, you are able to begin implementing the strategy for building links. To illustrate this blog, I'll continue to use the 'cookery course' keyword for an example.
- URL: jackscooking.com/cookery-course
- Title Tag Title Tag
The next step is to determine what content will be included in the body of your website. When you place your free course in the body of your webpage, you are providing an incentive to other websites to link to you. Also, make sure that your course video is near the top of your page (if it isn't at the most prominent) so that prospective visitors can view the video right away.
A second thing to bear in your mind is that Google assigns a higher value to websites with more content in them. They believe that having more content on a website is more useful to the user. Although we've put an image on top of the page Google cannot crawl the contents of the video and so we need to add more text to the site to prove to Google that the page is valuable.
In my experiences, it's helpful to have around 1000-2000 words on the page. An easy method to accomplish this is by adding an audio transcript at the end on the webpage. In the event that you require additional text, write a bit more on the advantages of following the cookery course, such as being healthier and having fun in the kitchen.
Link to websites that have the highest Domain Authority
In the first place, make a list of sites having a high Domain Authority that might be open to linking to you.
Conduct a Google search on 'cookery blog sites' and make an inventory of the websites with an Domain Authority above 30. Also, you can do a search on 'cookery course compar and other words related to cooking courses to create a list of sites you find there too.
Here is a screenshot of some of the sites that show up on Google's search results page for "cookery blogs", along with the Domain Authory (DA), because of Moz:
You can also use Moz to search for all websites that have links to any site. Another strategy you can use is to create an inventory of your cooking courses' competitors, and check which sites are linking to these sites. If a site links to one cookery course It is most likely to consider the possibility of linking to different cookery courses, particularly in the event that you can sweeten the deal with a free cooking class. It is possible to sign up to Moz to get a no-cost 30-day trial, and then download all website link profiles that you'll need in the time.
When you've compiled your list of sites which could be willing to link to your site, conduct some background research about the site and then try to locate the email address of the owner of the blog or site manager. Hunter is a great instrument for this.
In order to increase the chances of getting a response, I recommend sending a personalized email to each owner of a website or blog manager. Your goal is to give them a reason for linking to your site and in a manner that makes sense to them, and also adds worth to their visitors.
Here's an example the kind of email you could use to send an email:
Hey [name]
I've been following your blog and it's got some great information! I'm really enjoying your article [insert link here] ].
I recently created a free cooking lesson online that you might find valuable. Would you be interested in checking it out, and perhaps posting a critique of the course on your blog (if you believe your visitors might like it as well)? )?
Please let me know If this topic interests you. I'd love to send you the lesson.
Many thanks, and keep up the great work!
Jack Saville
It is important not to mention or ask about a link straight away however, you should try to increase the students' interest in your program. If they mention your program on their website They will most likely give you a link, probably without needing to ask. They may even provide a discounted rate or additional bonus for the readers of their site.
Include your keywords in the anchor text that hyperlinks your website
The last thing you need to bear at all times when building a link is the anchor text that you use in the links you receive. Once you reach the point of seeking an additional link (or asking them to alter a link they have already provided you with) it is important to ask that the link directs to the page that you're trying to rank for your chosen keywords, and also that the anchor text on the link is the keyword you're trying to rank for.
So in our cookery course example, we would ask for a link to jackscooking.com/cookery-course from the anchor text 'cookery course'.
When linking to the top ranking page, using anchor text that is targeted this site has endorsed this page specifically for the specific term 'cookery course'.
Quality link building helps boost your website traffic as well as sales
Links from other sites on your site, particularly those with a high Domain Authority, will help you rank better on Google for the selected keyword. It means that the people who are searching for that phrase are more likely discover your site and classes.
It takes time to execute the strategy correctly and begin getting ranked in search results for your keywords, however the end result is an ongoing flow of prospective students to your course. A pretty good price, to my mind!
Jack Saville is an SEO Specialist at Bynder, a digital supplier of asset management.