How to Increase Link Velocity

As an online business, few things are more essential to your success than links. Every link to your website can help you grow in visibility, authority, and relevance – the building blocks of success.

A study by Ahrefs shows that the number of backlinks is directly proportional to the organic traffic a website receives. But how do you jump-start that process? One effective strategy is to focus on increasing your link velocity: the speed at which you actively build links to and from your website, content, and other resources.

Here, we’ll explore the concept of link velocity – what it is and how you can use it to drive growth quickly – so you can make the most of your link-building efforts and accelerate business success.

What Is Link Velocity?

Link velocity is the rate at which a website or page earns backlinks, whether organically or from backlink building efforts.

Link velocity measures how quickly you can build up the number of external websites linking back to yours and, therefore, how much link popularity your site can gain over time.

Why Does Link Velocity Matter?

Link velocity, or the rate at which new links are acquired, is an important measure of a website’s authority and trustworthiness. Search engines use link velocity to determine how valuable and authoritative a website is, as websites with more incoming links from other sites typically have higher authority.

High link velocity can also help increase your visibility in search engines, leading to higher rankings and more traffic. Link velocity also improves your online reputation, as websites that gain links quickly appear more reliable and trustworthy to potential visitors.

How to Build Links to Increase Link Velocity

Here’s how you can build quality links resulting in increased link velocity.

Update Your Content

Links are earned when you produce interesting, engaging, and shareable content that gives readers something to discuss.

When it comes time to update your content, check your existing material. What topics have already been covered? Is the content still relevant? If not, it’s time to give your material a fresh perspective.

If you are at a loss for ideas, consider what topics are trending in your industry. Social media is a great source of inspiration—keep an eye out for conversations and frequently discussed topics.

You can also curate content from other sources and create your unique spin on it. Take snippets from different articles, combine them with your insights, and use them as the jumping-off point for a new blog post.

Create Visual Assets

Visuals are faster and more effective in communicating than words as it is easier to understand and more appealing. For example, if you’re creating a blog about social media statistics, consider making an infographic to accompany it. Infographics help summarize complex information in an easy-to-understand format and can be shared across multiple platforms.

When other websites use your visuals to support their content, they are bound to add a link to your website to abide by copyright rules. This will help you build effective links and increase link velocity.

Broken Link Building

Broken links can be a great way to increase your link velocity. When you come across a broken link on a particular website, take the opportunity to contact the site owner and pitch them on why they should replace it with a link to your website.

This is effective because it puts you in control of what kind of content gets linked back to you, plus it’s a great way to build relationships and get valuable backlinks. Just make sure that the content you’re offering is relevant, helpful, and of high quality — this will ensure that your link will be seen as an asset rather than just another entry in an ever-growing list of outbound links.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is one of the best ways to increase link velocity. It involves writing and placing an article about your topic on another website in exchange for a backlink. This allows you to reach new audiences, generate more awareness for your brand, drive traffic to your site and even rank higher in search engine results pages.

Depending on the website or publication you’re targeting, you may need to work with an editor or provide additional information like images or videos. When done correctly, guest posting is a win-win for both you and the host site, providing valuable content and a link to your website.

Find Your Competitors’ Healthy Backlinks

Another way to improve link velocity is by finding your competitors’ links and then obtaining those links for yourself. This is a great way to beat the competition and improve your rankings.

Using tools such as Ahrefs or Majestic SEO, you can easily review your competitors’ backlink profiles to see what websites are linking to them.

Once you have identified a few potential link sources, build relationships with them. Reach out to them via email or social media, introduce yourself and your company, and explain why you believe their website could benefit from linking to your own.

Key Takeaways

Link velocity is important for SEO, so ensure you build healthy links from quality sources. While obtaining backlinks can be time-consuming, it’s well worth the effort in the long run. Try these different strategies and see which works best for your website:

• Update content with a fresh perspective to increase backlinking opportunities.
• Utilize visuals such as infographics to accompany blog posts and acquire backlinks to your website when someone uses your visuals.
• Contact website owners with broken links to suggest replacing them with a link back to your website.
• Take advantage of guest posting to reach new audiences and drive traffic. 
• Research your competitor’s backlink profile for link opportunities. 
• Reach out to potential link sources and explain why their website could benefit from linking to yours.

Be Cautious of PBNs When Backlink Building

PBNs are networks of blogs that are owned by the same person or company and used to improve a website’s search engine rankings. But what exactly are PBNs, and how can they improve your website’s ranking?

This post will explain everything you need to know about PBNs. We’ll cover what PBNs are, how they work, and why they can be an effective tool for improving your website’s search engine ranking. Let’s dive in to learn more about PBNs.

What Is a PBN?

PBN stands for Private Blog Network and is a network of websites used to build links back to your main website. While building traditional links can take time and effort, a PBN lets you get these results quickly without much hassle.

PBNs are great for SEO (search engine optimization) as they help boost your website’s rankings in the search engines. They are also beneficial for building brand awareness and increasing your website’s visibility. It is important to note that PBNs can be extremely risky if not done correctly, so it is best to do research beforehand before using one.

How Do PBNs Work?

PBNs create a network of websites to link back to your primary website. The links help search engines recognize the authority of your primary site and boost its ranking in searches.

A PBN is usually made up of several websites owned by one company or individual. These sites are interlinked so that when a search engine crawls one of them, it is directed to other sites in the network. This connection helps increase your website’s visibility in search results and gives it a boost over competitors’ websites.

Why People Use PBNs

Link Building Is Hard

Backlink building is complex, time-consuming and is resource-heavy, making it difficult for businesses to stay on top of their SEO game. To make matters worse, search engines are constantly changing the spam policies around link building, meaning that today’s strategies could be penalized tomorrow. People use Private Blog Networks (PBNs) as an alternative solution to link building.

PBNs can be used to create needle-moving links for your website, which helps with its rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs). With PBNs, businesses don’t have to worry about constantly changing algorithms or spending time manually building links. Private Blog Networks provide a reliable, efficient way to boost your website’s search engine rankings.

However, this comes with a much higher than normal risk profile. When a PBN is discovered by Google, every site it has linked to is often penalized together. Spacebar Collective strongly advises against using PBNs for link building because it’s not worth risking your primary domain. While there are situations where PBNs are suitable, we can’t in good conscience recommend using them to beginner or even intermediate SEOs.

PBNs Can Manipulate Anchor Text

Anchor text is an important component of SEO because it helps search engines understand the context of a website and can influence how your page ranks in the search engine results. PBNs improve your website’s ranking by manipulating anchor text.

By manipulating anchor text, you can control the context of a website and target specific keywords that will help you rank higher in search engine results.

Main Risks of Using a PBN

While a PBN is a powerful tool that helps you take control of your website ranking, it does not come without its risks.

Your Site May Get Penalized

When using a PBN, it is crucial to be aware of the risks. If you are not careful with your practices, you could face severe penalties from search engines. It’s essential to understand that this type of network can be easily detected by search engine algorithms, leading to harsh consequences if they see any suspicious activity. 

Even if your network is private and you think it won’t be discovered, there is still a risk of being penalized by Google. Using this system could also lead to a poor user experience because the links may not be relevant or useful for visitors.

This can ultimately hurt your website’s ranking in search engine results pages. It is important to be aware of the potential risks and ensure that you take all necessary precautions and constantly monitor your website alongside Google Search Engine Essentials.

Your Links May Get Ignored

Search engine algorithms may ignore the links from your Private Blog Network (PBN) altogether. This can be because of not having enough contextual relevance or lacking high-quality content on your sites.

Your PBN links may become irrelevant if the content isn’t updated regularly and monitored for accuracy. Ultimately, if your PBN links seem spammy or suspicious to search engine algorithms, they may be deemed low quality and ignored.

How to Identify a PBN

Once you’ve identified a PBN, several key indicators can help you confirm your suspicions. 

• Look for Duplicate Content: PBNs often copy and paste content from other sources to populate their sites. You can check for duplicate content by copy-pasting a paragraph on a search engine.
• Check for Abundant External Links: PBNs typically link to various other websites and rely heavily on backlinks. This is often done as a way to inflate their SEO rankings. 
• Investigate the Hosting Provider: Many PBNs use dedicated servers or shared hosting providers with IP addresses previously associated with PBNs.
• Images and Videos: Many PBNs use the same videos and images on multiple sites as they are expensive. If the same images or videos appear across multiple sites, this could signify a shared network.
• Look for Low-Quality Content: PBN sites rarely feature original, high-quality content. Instead, they are often filled with thin, keyword-stuffed articles and pages that lack depth.
• Check for Similar Backlink profile: The backlinks pointing to a PBN often share similarities with other sites that link to the same network. It is essential to investigate this further before making any assumptions.

Key Takeaways

We hope this article helped you understand PBNs, their uses, benefits, and risks. Here is what we discussed:

• PBNs are a powerful tool for improving your website’s ranking in search engine results pages, but they come with risks.
• It is essential to be aware of the potential risks and take all necessary precautions when using a PBN.
• Search engine algorithms may ignore PBN links if they are found to be spammy or suspicious.
• Some key indicators that can help you identify a PBN are duplicate content, excessive external links, similar backlink profiles, and low-quality content.

Citation Building Explained

To grow your business, you need your name to be out there so that customers, clients, and potential partners can find you. One way to do this is through citation building. Citation building is creating consistent business listings on popular websites and directories. 

This helps improve your brand visibility, credibility, and authority. It also makes it easier for customers to find and remember your business.

Here, we discuss the best platforms for citation building to get more eyes on your business.

What Is Citation Building?

Citation building is a form of backlink building where you create profiles and listings in business directories.

Earlier, having web pages dedicated to cities, states, or regions were sufficient. But in today’s competitive market, it is not enough. Your local search engine game needs to be on point.

Let’s say you own a retail shop or restaurant. You want potential customers to find you, so you must ensure your business is listed on the right websites and directories. This is where citation building comes in. Citations are mentions of your business online.

Citation building involves creating listings for your business on well-known and credible business directories such as Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, and Yellowpages.

Types of Citation 

Here are two primary types of citation building.

Structured Citations

Structured citations are listings that follow a specific format, such as those found in directories, social media profiles, and local listings. Businesses should include as much detail as possible when creating these listings, including their website link, hours of operation, address, and contact information. 

Examples of structured citations include Facebook, Maps, Yellowpages, and Foursquare. 

Unstructured Citations

Unstructured citations are when businesses are mentioned on sites that aren’t necessarily directories. This could include a mention in a magazine, blog post, or review. In other words, an unstructured citation is when someone mentions your business in a non-formal way.

Benefits of Citation Building

78% of local searches on mobile result in an offline purchase and 30% of all Google mobile searches are related to location.

It is, therefore, essential for businesses to use citation building to strengthen their presence in local search engine results. 

Here are a few benefits of citation building.

Improves Reputation

63% of customers say they will trust a brand more if there are positive reviews of the company online. If your citation-building efforts include reviews and ratings, it adds to the credibility of your business and helps you build trust with potential customers.

Increases Brand Visibility

Every business owner aims to ensure their business is visible wherever and whenever customers search. A business listing on Yelp, Google My Business, and Facebook will help your business gain visibility.

Improves Search Engine Results

Google prioritizes businesses that seem most helpful and values customers’ experiences. When you claim your business profile on Google, your business, you don’t just make it easier for customers to reach you but also influence Google’s search engine results. Your business will also appear on Google Maps, which can be great for passive lead generation or increasing foot traffic to a brick and mortar location.

Generates Leads

Citation building can create leads for your business by directing users to take action. When potential customers search for businesses like yours, they can find your business and contact you easily. This will help you entice customers who have decided to purchase and are only looking for the right company.

Helps Compete Against Your Competitors

Businesses follow different strategies to win their competitors’ customers. Almost every business focuses on creating better content, running ads, and improving its backlink profiles. But, a well-executed citation-building strategy can be the key to winning customers from your competitors and staying one step ahead of them.

If your competitors haven’t listed their business online, or even if they have but with poor listings, you have a great opportunity to build quality citations.

Reduces Your Marketing Efforts

Today, having a website and creating content isn’t enough to get customers—you must ensure your business is visible everywhere. Citation building helps you ensure your business is seen in all the right places, which reduces the need to spend extra money on marketing efforts.

Does Citation Building Work in 2023?

Some SEO professionals think that citation building doesn’t work anymore. But that’s far from the truth. Relevant and high-quality citations can still be a great way to improve your local SEO.

When it comes to citations, the difficulty lies in determining their SEO value vs the time involved with creating listings. Some sites won’t have much of an impact, while major software review sites like Capterra or G2 could be needle-moving citations for your startup.

Quality citations can help you rank better on search engines.

That said, there are still some good practices to follow when building citations. These include:

• Research the sites where you should be listed and submit your business information accordingly.
• Ensure that the citation sites you submit to are relevant to your industry and respected by Google.
• Keep a consistent NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number) across all your citations.
• Link to your website if the citation site allows it.

5 Best Citation Building Platforms for 2023

The following are the best citation platforms to use in 2023.

SEMrush

Source: SEMrush

With SEMrush, you can easily increase your business’s visibility and improve its online presence. Its Listing Management tool lets you audit to determine how visible your business is on local directories and Google Maps.

The tool lets you put your business on Google Maps and optimize your profile on Google My Business and local directories to gain maximum exposure.

SEMrush also assists in discovering opportunities and updating your business’s listings across multiple online sources.

Whitespark 

Source: Whitespark

Finding citation opportunities is difficult. You don’t want your business to be listed on sites that are low quality, but you also don’t want to spend a lot of time researching and manually submitting listings. That’s where Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder comes in.

The tool helps identify citation opportunities based on the top-ranked competitors in your area, monitor citations across the internet, and discover new citation sites.

It also tracks your growth and shares weekly citation opportunities to keep your listings updated.

Moz Local

Source: Moz Local

Moz Local lets you see how accurately your business is listed across top directories and finds new listing opportunities. It leverages a data-driven approach to optimize your online presence and make the most out of it. 

Enter your country along with the business name and address into the tool, and the tool will scan the web to display citations from sources that it finds. It grades each listing and gives you a scorecard with all the details. 

Yext

Source: Yext

Yext is another excellent tool for citation building and local SEO optimization.

The following are a few features Yext offers:

• The Listing Analysis feature scans the web to pull out 3rd party listings data to analyze the performance and accuracy of listings. This helps identify trends and opportunities to improve visibility and performance in local search results.
• Yext’s Duplicate Detection feature helps identify duplicate listings from over 100 publishers and flags them for review.
• Yext’s Knowledge Graph is designed to sync data across the entire Publisher Network. It ensures all data is adequately structured and optimized for each publisher’s requirements.
• The tool offers Edit Suggestions from Google and Facebook. You can review the edits and decide which ones to save to your optimized Knowledge Graph.

Synup

Source: Synup

Synup allows you to optimize and manage your business profiles on Yelp, Facebook, Bing, Google, and 60+ premium publishers.

The listing & reputation management software uses AI technology to manage locations across regions. This simplifies the process of making changes to all your locations from one single interface, saving you time.

Also, you can set up custom notifications to be informed of any changes to ensure accuracy.

Synup’s citation-building platform also tracks your listing’s growth, giving you deep insights into your online reputation.

Key Takeaways 

Citation building helps ensure your business appears in local search results. When your business is listed on Google and business directories like Yellowpages and Yelp, it increases the chances of getting discovered by potential customers. 

The following are the citation-building platforms covered in this article: 

• SEMrush’s listing management feature allows you to audit and optimize your business listings on local directories and Google Maps.
• Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder helps you identify citation opportunities and monitor citations across the web.
• Moz Local scores your listing and helps find new opportunities to get your business discovered by potential customers.
• Yext offers features like Listing Analysis, Duplicate Detection, Knowledge Graph, and Edit Suggestions to help build and implement a successful citation-building strategy. 
• Synup allows you to optimize and manage your listings on 60+ premium publishers, track growth with custom notifications, and get deep insights into your online reputation.

If you want a professional to handle citation building for you, it’s best to get in touch with an SEO agency. This ensures your citations have consistent information, stay up-to-date and are built in a timely fashion.