Don’t Get Technical: What Link Building is REALLY All About

Anyone who works in SEO knows the experience.

You’ve just met someone, and by common courtesy, they ask what you do for a living. You say you work in the SEO industry.

And that’s when you get the inevitable:

It’s the same response nearly every single time.

If I were Google myself, I would just autocomplete this ritual.

The SEO community can be pretty insular on social media platforms like Twitter, but there’s no mistaking the fact that the overwhelming majority of people don’t know what the acronym SEO stands for, let alone describe.

It’s not exactly something they really teach in school. When you get even more specific about the niche of SEO that you occupy, the confounded jaws drop even lower.

I should know: as the owner of a link building firm, I find myself in the position of explaining link building all the time when pressed.

Explaining link building is interesting.

You don’t want to make it sound like rocket science (it’s not), but you also don’t want to make it sound like anyone can do it after a few hours (you can’t).

The process of link building itself isn’t terribly complicated.  It’s when you start talking about links and how they relate to Google’s algorithm when the eyes start rolling.

And that’s what I want to talk about today.

So many people who might be interested in link building get intimidated by it all.

Because we all sit behind computers and mull over every single word the oracles at Google bestow upon us, the average onlooker thinks that link building requires technical expertise.

It doesn’t.

To be a successful link builder, you don’t need to know how to write code. You don’t need to operate extraordinarily complicated link building tools.

You don’t even need to know what the “a” in “a href” stands for 😉

Link building requires creativity and effective communication more than technical ability.

What Link Building Is Not

Most people look at a line of code and think:

If you don’t know the fundamentals of programming, code looks like an anarchic mish-mash of letters and symbols.

Thankfully, to be a successful link builder, you can spare yourself the headache of learning code.

As a link builder, your job does not require you to know the html that makes the link work.

Your job is to persuade people to link to you.

What Link Building Requires

Don’t let the technical environment that surrounds SEO fool you. 

So if link building isn’t technical

Link building can simply be boiled down to the process of properly communicating and articulating the value of your content or website to webmasters and curators.

Link building is more of a creative and analytical endeavor.

In order to be a successful link builder, the following traits are key:

• Creativity
• Diligence
• Patience
• Market comprehension
• Effective communication/persuasion skills

Doesn’t sound that intimidating anymore, does it?

That isn’t to say that link building isn’t hard work; it most certainly is.  Especially, if you’re trying to scale.

But it’s hard work for your right brain, rather than your left brain.

Creativity and strategizing are integral to effective link building. Even the best link builders find themselves in situations where the well is dry; no one is responding to your emails.

Why?

Is it your outreach?

Are you approaching the right sites?

Are you using the most sensible landing pages in your link building strategy?

Is something off with the content your pitching?

Even if you’re campaign is going gangbusters, these are questions you need to ask and confront on a regular basis.

When you’re a link builder, you need to be constantly mindful and innovative. But mostly, link building involves effective communication.

When you’re a programmer, there’s no communication involved.

If you know what you’re doing, the computer will do exactly what you tell it to do, no questions asked.

This is not the case with link building.

The way I see it, it’s the programmer or technical SEO’s job to create a sound site; it’s the link builder’s job to be able to explain the value of that same site to others.

During a link building campaign, you will compile a list of relevant target sites (aka link prospecting) that would potentially link to your content.

Once you’ve done that, you need to contact these sites, either via email or a phone call and illustrate the value of your content in the hopes of getting them to link to it.

And because we live in the day where metrics rule and efficiency is everything, that’s when you would send out the handy, one-size-fits-all template to all of those webmasters, right?

This is where communication skills are vital for link building.

No two websites are alike.

Webmasters will have different wants, needs, and interests.

As such, each site will require a different approach when you’re in the outreach process.

Do you send them a short, to-the-point email?

Do you spend a few weeks hanging out in their comment section, offering helpful advice and asking useful questions?

Or do you follow them on Twitter and get their attention there?

Do you lend a helping hand?

These are just a few methods of outreach, and they can be mixed-and-matched to some extent.

But as a link builder, it’s up to you to figure out how to get the webmaster’s attention and to properly express the value of your content.

Don’t think of it as building links; think of it as building relationships and brand awareness.

I once heard my friend, the late Eric Ward, characterize link building as “awareness development,” meaning that it’s all about growing your brand awareness through the fabric of the internet.

Often, you will be attempting to persuade people to link to a specific landing page or what is known as a linkable asset.

In those cases, you will need to understand the specific appeal and target audience of that resource.

Without understanding these elements, you will be fundamentally unprepared to persuade other curators to link to you.

It’s vital that you understand what makes your content valuable to others.

There’s Room for Everyone

To be clear, link building is just one of many components under the SEO umbrella.

When you get further down the SEO rabbit hole, there are a few fields in which technical acumen and proficiency are valuable and necessary.

Often times, you will require on-site changes, improvements, and updates to the website’s code.

An in that case, it would be absolutely necessary to have a technical SEO address these issues and implement the necessary fixes.

And this is one of the great things about SEO: there’s something for everyone.

If you appreciate the technical side of things

There’s a role for you in the SEO space!

But if you fancy yourself as more of an artistic type – link building is still very much for you, given all of the creativity that is required in both content creation and outreach.

So, don’t be scared off by all the talk revolving around the technical jargon and the lines upon lines of indecipherable text.

Thankfully, you don’t need technical prowess to be a great link builder.

You just need to understand the appeal of a piece of content, and how to think like an average internet user.