The Link Builder’s Guide to Keyword Strategy
Keywords play a crucial role in link building. The correct keyword strategy encourages you to create high-quality, valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks from authoritative websites. Thorough keyword research combined with strategic content promotion and link building can unlock the full power of SEO, driving higher search engine rankings and enhancing your online visibility. 🚀
Good keywords are essential for link building campaigns because they help identify relevant topics that resonate with both search engines and users.
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Link Building Strategy
Link building is a core component of search engine optimization (SEO) that focuses on obtaining hyperlinks from external websites to your own. This process aims to boost the number of inbound links pointing to a site, which can enhance its search engine rankings and increase its overall online visibility. 🔗
There are different link types to be aware of when link building. Links are classified by their relationship to search engines and their placement on a site:
- Followed vs. Nofollowed Links: Followed (or “dofollow”) links pass link equity, boosting the linked site’s search rankings. Nofollowed links, marked with a
rel="nofollow"tag, don’t pass equity but can still drive traffic and build brand visibility. - Internal vs. External Links: Internal links connect pages within the same site, aiding navigation and SEO. External links point to other websites, signaling trust and enhancing credibility.
Mastering these link types helps build a stronger, more strategic SEO foundation.
Effective link building starts with strong keyword research. Targeting relevant keywords helps you create valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks. This ensures the links you earn are both high-quality and relevant to your audience.
Keywords signal content relevance to both users and search engines. When your content aligns with the right keywords, other sites are more likely to link to it, increasing your backlink profile and improving search rankings.
Anchor text helps search engines understand the linked page’s context. Using keyword-rich and descriptive anchor text (e.g., exact match or partial match) can boost link equity and enhance your SEO performance. Optimizing anchor text ensures links pass maximum value and relevance. ⚓
Effective Keyword Research
The link building process starts with keyword research and effective keyword research offers multiple benefits for your digital strategy. Targeting the right keywords helps create content that attracts quality backlinks and boosts SEO. It optimizes your website’s content for search engines, driving more organic traffic and improving overall SEO performance. Additionally, it provides insights into competitors and their strategies, enabling you to stay ahead in your industry. Ultimately, these advantages contribute to increased revenue and sustained business growth.
Focus on keywords that align with your industry and marketing goals. When selecting keywords for link building, prioritize ones that have:
- High search volume 🔎 - to increase visibility and attract more attention,
- Low competition ⬇️ - to improve your chances of ranking,
- Relevant search intent 🧐 - to ensure the content matches what users are actually looking for.
You are looking to discover popular search terms with good metrics. Good keyword research is an ongoing process that requires you to keep up with trends and stay on top of industry changes.
The types of keywords necessary to run campaigns within Pitchbox depends on the campaign type you are using. Short-tail keywords are searches with one or two words that typically produces a larger volume of more generic results. By contrast, long-tail keywords are more specific queries that generally return a smaller amount of results. Both types of keywords are useful depending on the content you have created. You can read further about the best keywords to use for each campaign type in Pitchbox here.
Once you have completed thorough keyword research, it is important to have high-quality content to back it up. Your content needs to provide value to those searching with your targeted keywords in a meaningful way.
Common Mistakes in Keyword Strategy
Effective keyword research can be a time-consuming process, but it is crucial in obtaining the most valuable backlinks. Keep these common link builder mistakes in mind to prevent wasting time on keywords that won't boost your sites ranking.
- Don't assume you know what your audience wants 👥 - taking time to truly understand the needs of your audience will improve your chances of landing a backlink. It is important to not only create high-quality content, but relevant content that your readers are seeking. Understanding the search terms they are using and who your audience is key.
- Targeting highly competitive keywords too soon 📊 - some niches are highly competitive and beginning to rank in these areas is difficult. For example, ranking for the keyword 'fitness' for a newly created blog about fitness will be difficult. In this instance, begin with long-tail keywords and create more specific content for your readers. Once you begin ranking well for the long-tail keywords, you can slowly move into the more general search terms. Ranking for those short-tail keywords should be part of a long term strategy.
- Not considering search intent 🕵 - you need to think about why people are searching for a specific keyword. The search intent is indication of the users goal: are they looking to purchase an item, locate a specific website, or find information? Breaking down the search intent helps you understand who comes to your site to read your content and what kind of content they are looking for specifically.
- Grammar mistakes 😬 - consider whether to target the singular or plural form of a keyword. For example, users may search for [protein shake] or [protein shakes], and while Google understands both, search intent and results can differ. Singular terms often imply informational intent, while plurals may suggest shopping or comparison. Choose the form that best matches your keyword’s user intent.
Need more assistance? Our team of industry professionals is here to support you. 👩💻 For personalized help regarding your keyword and link building strategy, please contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager.