Link building is often an overlooked process that can help your business survive the negative economic effects of coronavirus pandemic.
Link building is a practice of earning inbound links or backlinks from other websites directing to yours. This method is often referred to as off-page SEO and is still one of the most crucial elements of SEO. In other terms, link building is like "word-of-mouth" advertising in this digital referral system. If your website includes valuable content other websites find credible, they will be more likely to mention your company as a source of information.
In this article, we will go over:
The economic and marketing effect of the COVID-19 pandemic
The game plan to keep your business relevant online
The benefits of local links
Economic Effect Of The COVID-19
Since the start of the coronavirus crisis in the March of 2020, companies have faced full and partial shutdowns to curb the spread of the virus. While the economic impact of the pandemic continues to unravel, hospitality and travel industries have seen the highest decline in organic searches.
Nonetheless, the current crisis has opened a door for a new array of opportunities to discover in the economic and marketing arena.
Physical labor took a giant shift towards remote work. All sorts of businesses around the world faced a harsh reality of closing down office and commercial spaces, leaving people with a new "work from home" solution to keep the operations running. Would we be facing this situation if it wasn't for the pandemic? Probably not for a long while. But the COVID-19 crisis expedited this change and frankly, it may be here to stay.
Companies started to occupy the digital space more creatively. From cafes and restaurants to medical and legal practices, more businesses offer their products and services online.
These new and unpredictable circumstances left traditional brick-and-mortar businesses with no other choice but to pivot in order to overcome negative economic impact. The restaurant industry was particularly swift to respond, introducing take out options, curbside pickup, and home deliveries to suffice for stay at home restrictions.
Both locally owned and franchised restaurants went above and beyond to keep their business relevant during the crisis.
Business owners and managers have become aware of the necessity of digital marketing. That's a huge plus for digital marketing agencies that stressed to their clients the importance of continuing digital marketing agencies or at a minimum introducing a trimmed down version of each campaign.
We are not saying that businesses were not aware of this before, however, the sole purpose of moving their operations to digital space is the reason for the need to reevaluate their marketing approach as well. The harsh reality is that many companies dial back on their digital marketing expenses to keep their business afloat during the crisis. However, as restrictions start to loosen up and economic activities show signs of growth, business owners can once again begin to maximize their marketing efforts and resume their normal business operations.
Game Plan To Keep Your Business Relevant Online
Now that shelter-in-place restrictions have been lifted, we are all excited to get up, stretch our legs, and enjoy life outside of our home confinement. Your customers are just as eager and ready to go too! Is your business ready to be found?
When it comes to organic searches, our research shows that while brand searches are not yet in full swing, the informational intent queries about businesses are trending up. Consumers are interested in information about their favorite businesses plans to reopen. It's become crucial to make adjustments to your content strategy to promote your organization. And preparing to re-introduce your business as the economy starts to reopen is no different.
A brilliant way to improve your marketing strategy today is by implementing a bit of good, old-fashion backlinking. Refocusing your link building methods will help your business maintain its relevance online.
Here is when the "word-of-mouth" concept at the beginning of the article comes into play. A competent link building strategy can promote your efforts in re-engaging your customers by directing the visitors to your landing page announcing your reopening. It's also a great way to track where your users are coming from and what sites are a good source of referrals.
Attaining high-authority links from other websites sounds easier than it's achieved. It can become a difficult and complicated process for any business, regardless of what industry or niche it may operate in.
Search engine optimization experts have concluded that content marketing and link building are two of the most effective SEO strategies. Adding a robust backlink strategy to your PPC and social media campaigns is an excellent way to allocate your digital marketing funds. If your business had to put its advertising budget on hold due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's advisable to shift your spending on link building. While organic searches continue to decline in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, a well-thought backlink strategy will support your business in the long run as your ranking receives a lift for your placements. But only if you start this strategy now.
Question is, how does one acquire these crucial links that positively affect your website and brand recognition? Where does content fall in with these connections?
Guest Blogging
Blogs are designed to deliver high-quality content optimized for Google. The pandemic made brands especially eager to create valuable content for their readers. Stay-at-home orders changed how we use the internet. People are spending more time online, surfing the net, and learning about different topics. It is in every company's best interest to provide fresh, engaging content on a regular basis, and to offer a guest blog post if you are able to link that connection for your products or services.
Helpful Tips:
Build connections with bloggers emailing you right now. Establishing relationships with influencers and bloggers advances your overall link building and demand generation strategy.
Make a master list of guest blogging websites to ensure you contact all possible channels. It's crucial to qualify the authority and relevance of the sites and assemble engaging storylines and attention-grabbing headlines to make sure your links count.
Since marketing is focused on an inbound approach, the consumers end up on your website of their own willingness. A comprehensive link building strategy means more website traffic and increased conversions.
Link Reclamation
There is no shame in requesting a link on brand mentions. How would that work? Let's say someone publishes an article mentioning your business, product, or service but it's not linked back to your website. This gives you several options for engagement. You can express your gratitude for the mention, ask link the content to one of your target pages or start building a relationship with this writer or a website for future articles, mentions, and backlinks.
Essentially you can pursue all three at once - attaining link placement in content that mentions your business while working together with a writer who is likely to mention your product again in the future.
Helpful Tips:
Create a template for your outreach initiatives. When developing a template, write as if you were only writing to one recipient, rather than focusing on the open rate of the reach.
It's best to keep it short and sweet, being mindful of other people's time, and to get your point across diligently.
Nurture the relationships. For example, if you find yourself in a position to give your source a shoutout on social media, please do so. Bloggers, influencers, and other content sources appreciate such gesture, as it benefits their branding as well.
Benefits of Local Links
Typically, these links building strategies are valuable and approachable for companies in most industries. However, local brick-and-mortar businesses should consider an SEO strategy focused on a local approach.
Local Links - What Are They?
Local links build relevance for a website based on its geo-location. This is especially beneficial for small-to-medium size businesses with one or more locations that operate within a specific distance range. If your business niche is home service, locally operated franchise, a family-owned company, or a commercial vendor to local enterprises, your SEO ranking, visibility, and lead generation will greatly benefit from local link building.
Local SEO strategy focuses on regulating name, address, and phone (NAP) data, creating a list of citations, generating hyper-local content, and building links.
The purpose of a local link is to link back to your website while giving your business an opportunity to connect with your target demographic in your local operating region. Keep in mind that some of the websites linking back to yours are not necessarily big websites, however, local-oriented businesses reap greater benefits from linking to an important local site than from a mention in Huffington Post. Why? Because local backlinks send relevance signals to locally-based Google inquiries.
It has been proven that the local-to-local link ratio is more beneficial than other metrics. While domain authority from local websites may be low, we always advise our clients to expand their placements while maintaining brand image and reputation at the core of their link building strategy.
A great way to boost your brand recognition and gain more website traffic is to engage with your local online community. Make sure to give your target audience every opportunity to find your business when searching for the key terms ending in "near me."
Helpful Tips:
If you haven't done so, ensure to claim and audit your Google My Business (GMB) listing. verify all your business information is correct and up to date. Optimize your listing to receive reviews and questions. The audience location and engagement with your GMB listing notify Google of your service areas.
Incorporate your regional Chamber of Commerce as a part of your local citation building strategy. Becoming a Chamber of Commerce member comes with the added benefit of business networking opportunities, member blog collaborations, event sponsorships, news teller inclusion, and a link in a directory that notifies Google that you a legitimate local business.
When possible, try to offer guest blogging on other local sites. Micro-influencers and hyper-localized bloggers are an excellent way to position your business within the community.
Wrap Up
As a business owner, you wore many hats and faced many difficult decisions for the majority of 2020. Restarting your digital marketing strategy may seem like a daunting process, but optimizing your approach is imperative to improve brand visibility and maximize lead generation opportunities.
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