People have been divided on the importance of link building as an SEO strategy in today’s day and age. Back in the day, link building was vital to an SEO campaign since Google prioritised it in checking the authority of a domain. Having a lot of quality external links linking back to your website could help you increase your domain authority.

It looks like things may be different now, in any case. With current regulations closely scrutinising the quality of external links, many search marketers are advising to avoid link building altogether.

Regardless of whether link building is still important or not, though, it would be advisable to look into other SEO fundamentals instead – ones that you can use to create a quality strategy that attracts links without the need for outbound efforts. Here are some SEO fundamentals that are more important than link building.

Build brand mentions

The same way that Google used to view links that link back to your website, they now look at how many times your brand is mention throughout the World Wide Web. Ideally, it would be best if you created a strategy in which quality websites talk about the products or services that you provide.

This may come in the form of blog posts, for example, where people review your products or services. It may also come in the form of social media posts where people share your website or refer you to their acquaintances. Organic buzz is always good for a business as it will get you a lot of shares and even sales.

This is also a good way to build your authority since brand mentions have no risks of penalties. They will pass authority depending on the source that mentions you and why you are being mentioned in the first place. So, if a site mentions you as an authority, your authority will increase.

Provide informative content

Having basic content available on your website isn’t enough. Every single page of your website needs to be accurate, descriptive, and informative. The minute somebody visits one of your website’s pages, they should get exactly what they expect to get out of it.

As such, you need to make sure that your website’s About page has all of the facts that people need to know about your company on it. Your Contact page, on the other hand, should have the complete details of your business, including your business name, your address, and your phone number. If you can, add a map on it along with your opening hours and email address. The more content you have and the more informative it is, the higher your search engine ranking will be.

Post content regularly

Aside from providing informative content, you should also make sure that you post content regularly. Ideally, you should create and publish new content at least once a week. The more content you create per week, the better.

You also need to make sure that your content is always original and helpful for your visitors. Without regular new content, you could easily lose visitors as they are sure to lose interest in visiting your website altogether.

Make sure your content is shareable

It isn’t enough to create content, either. You also have to make sure that the content that you provide is shareable. This pertains to the content that you host on your website, like your own infographics or written posts, and the content that you share from other websites, like YouTube videos.

Ideally, your website should consist of a good mixture of original, entertaining, surprising, informative, and practical content. If any of your content becomes viral online, you will get a lot of brand recognition, and this is sure to catch Google’s attention, as well.

Optimise your website for mobile users

Most people nowadays use their phones or tablets to search for information or to go online when they are on the go. Since most people won’t be stuck at home or work all day – and even then, they still tend to use other gadgets – it would be vital to make sure that your website is optimised for mobile use. You should know this by now. If you don’t have any mobile optimisation whatsoever, your website will suffer from low search visibility.

If your website is responsive, it should be consistently viewable and accessible on any device, as well. It would help if you also consider optimising your website for speed. If your website loads quickly, users are more likely to visit it more and enjoy the experience more. This will, in turn, get you higher rankings on Google as a result.

Optimise your website navigation

On that note, you should also work on optimising your website navigation. It should be easy for visitors to find what they need on your website, be it information or a certain product or service. If your website is easy to use and navigate, visitors will be more inclined to stay and keep coming back. There is no need to create a fancy website nowadays.

People prefer things that are quick and easy, so aim to have a more minimalist website instead. Make sure your search bar is easy to find, for one. Also, make sure the colours that you choose do not clash, so that everybody has an easy time navigating it.

Build your presence on social media

Having a Facebook account for your website is no longer enough to make a mark online. If you want things to work out for you on a social standpoint, you need to become involved in various social media accounts. To do this, create accounts on as many social media platforms as possible, and make it a point to post on them regularly.

Build contacts and connections on each platform, and then build a community through the content that you share. Provide exclusive offers and share updates every day, as well. This way, you can build a bigger social media presence as time goes by and increase your ranking on Google at the same time.

So there you have it! Before looking into other strategies like link building, make sure to perfect these SEO fundamentals first. They can help you get an edge in the online game in no time.

How AM Collective can help your business in digital marketing?

AM Collective is a branding and digital marketing agency born and based in Singapore. We are also a social media agency which also owns a group of digital properties.

Our clients include Huawei, NTUC Enterprise, Grab, Starhub, Junction 8, Capitol Singapore and CHIJMES, among others.

We make every marketing idea into reality for every business.

The article was written by Soon Koon.

How To Improve Your SEO Ranking Without Link Building?