It’s impossible to pinpoint any single factor as being responsible for the success of a website. Designers like to point to aesthetics, copywriters like to boast about copy, and as developers, we like to tout our technical skills and prowess as the real driving forces behind a website’s success. But in all reality, success is the combination of all of these factors (and more). It’s a cocktail of proprietary ingredients that ultimately produces results. And some of the most important ingredients are the link profile and linking structure. What is Link Building? As a web developer, you aren’t responsible for every element of a website. However, it’s helpful to at least have a cursory understanding of all the different factors that blend together to make a website successful. This includes link building. According to Ahrefs, “Link building is the process of acquiring new inbound links (backlinks) to a website from external sites. The goal of most link building campaigns will be to increase future search traffic from Google, although links from popular sites (such as newspapers) can also be an excellent source of referral traffic.” Backlinks can be acquired in a variety of ways and the value of any one link is almost entirely dependent on the authority of the referring website and/or their relevance to your website. The Key Benefits of Link Building There are two basic categories of link building:

• Earned/Natural link building. This is where links are generated naturally. This usually happens when another blogger or copywriter runs across some content and finds it useful enough to include as a resource.

• Manual Link Building. This category of link building refers to the process of going out and proactively procuring links through networking and other methods.

Both categories of link building provide value - particularly when used together to create a well-balanced profile. Some of the specific benefits include:

• Improved search rankings and enhanced SEO profile.

• Referral traffic from the source posting the link.

• Improved authority and brand recognition (specifically when the backlink is accompanied by a brand mention or quote).

• Ability to get indexed in the search results much faster.

These are just a few examples. A website’s success with link building is highly dependent on both quality and quantity of links. There’s also something to be said for playing by the rules (only using white hat techniques) and patiently waiting for results. (Sometimes it can take months for noticeable results.) Link Building Best Practices Link building has both technical and artistic elements to it. Here are a few strategies and best practices that address the “hard” and “soft” sides of things:

• Develop Value-Adding Content

You can’t be successful with link building if you don’t have quality content for other websites to link back to. So before getting too focused on links, websites need to emphasize the importance of generating linkable assets that others will find valuable.

• Try Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the best strategies for generating backlinks. In fact, generating backlinks is probably one of the number one reasons for guest blogging. (Just be sure the website with the referring link is relevant and authoritative. You don’t want to publish guest blog posts on spammy sites.)

• Grab the Low Hanging Fruit

Highly authoritative websites will provide more link juice than websites that nobody has heard of. Having said that, you can grab some quick links by going after the low hanging fruit (like search directories). You might as well take them if you can get them!

• Try Reciprocal Linking

Excessive link exchanges where you randomly post a bunch of links on your website in return for having your links posted on another website is a definite no. But as long as you aren’t doing it excessively - and there’s enough relevance between your site and the other site - there’s nothing wrong with occasionally trading links. Just make sure you’re accompanying the links with high quality content on both ends. Adding it All Up As a web developer, you may not be directly responsible for link building. You will, however, benefit from a more robust understanding of how all these elements work together to amplify a website’s reach and presence in a world where SEO and online visibility are kings. The more you know, the more value you can add!