In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses looking to thrive in the market.
And with the rise of SEO as a fundamental part of online marketing, it’s vital to stay on top of the latest trends and strategies to compete effectively.
In this episode of the podcast, SEO experts discuss the power of internal linking and how it can help build a robust ‘moat’ for your website’s backlinks.
Read on to learn more about this essential SEO technique.
Building a Moat
The concept of building a moat around your website’s backlinks is one of the most potent analogies when it comes to SEO.
The idea is to create a protective barrier around your backlinks by making it harder for competitors to replicate or surpass them. In this episode, experts discuss how internal linking, or the practice of linking pages within your website, can be a powerful way to support this strategy.
Internal linking helps search engine crawlers understand the architecture of your website and how various pages are related to each other.
Properly executed, internal linking can help boost your website’s authority, improve user experience, and, most importantly, create a solid foundation for your backlink moat.
Link Whisper
Link Whisper is a popular tool among SEO experts who want to optimize their internal linking strategy.
The tool provides a domain report that can help identify orphan pages, that is, pages on your website that have no external or internal links pointing to them.
By linking these pages to other relevant pages within your website, you can help search engines understand their relevance and importance, which can ultimately contribute to your website’s overall authority.
The tool also suggests relevant anchor text for your internal links, making it easier to keep your links contextually relevant.
Jesse Cunningham
A YouTube Creator Who Tests SEO Strategies, Jesse Cunningham is a YouTube creator who has gained a following by testing SEO strategies live on his channel.
One of his techniques is to create topical clusters, or groups of articles or videos that revolve around a particular keyword or theme.
By testing these clusters, Cunningham seeks to determine how Google and YouTube respond to topical coverage of complex topics.
He leads with positivity, works hard on topical research, and sees how the content evolves over time to win more views from Google and YouTube.
Evaluating Website Trustworthiness
Purchasing backlinks can be an attractive way to boost your website’s authority and rank higher in search engine results.
However, it’s crucial to evaluate the trustworthiness of the website from which you’re buying the backlinks.
One suggested method is to check if the website looks spammy, has content related to things you don’t want to be associated with, and has been penalized recently.
Ahrefs is a keyword research tool that can help you check backlinks and traffic relative to keywords, further helping you assess the trustworthiness of a website.
In addition, fresh blog posts on other websites can be used to identify competitors to purchase backlinks from, but this can be both resource-intensive and potentially costly.
Avoiding Penalties with Backlinks
Experts in the episode shared their personal experiences of avoiding penalties with backlinks. Cunningham had experimented with an expired domain with no topical relevance and a low domain rating.
He started posting interlinked articles and initially saw good impressions and click-through rates on competitive searches.
However, after about two months, impressions dropped to zero, and he suspected it was due to the purchase of backlinks with one high domain rating. The Chris speculates that this backlink was from a link farm that Google considered too aggressive and too toxic for their website.
The moral is always to do due diligence when it comes to purchasing backlinks.
Optimization Techniques
The Chris tested a plugin called WP External Links on one of their sites. The plugin turns off every link on the site unless an exception is made for a certain link or domain. The site has seen an increase in traffic over the last three months, which may be attributed to keeping the juice on their own site.
Another Chris is testing the use of harder silos on a brand-new site to manage their link authority better.
While there are no hard and fast rules, optimizing internal linking using tools such as WP External Links and harder silos can make a big difference in your website’s long-term viability.
Keyword Research
A Key Precondition for Effective SEO PlanningEffective keyword research is essential for successful SEO planning.
The first step is to identify clusters of related keywords that you want to target for your website.
To achieve this, you can use competitor analysis and Href keyword research. Once the keyword clusters have been identified, you can provide a video and prompts for team members to create content that targets these keywords.
This approach allows team members to create and post content without further input, making the process more systematic and efficient.
Growing Your Business: Tips From SEO Entrepreneurs
The final part of this episode was a panel discussion on growing your business, with insights from SEO entrepreneurs.
One key takeaway is that keyword research and SEO strategy doesn’t have to be expensive; hiring a team of global workers to help with keyword research is an option that is both affordable and effective.
You can also identify clusters of related keywords to target, provide video prompts for content creation, and scale your efforts without having to invest a huge amount of money upfront.
Finally, it’s crucial to have supporting articles of a successful topic to fortify defenses and maintain high rankings, as competitors may try to take over the traffic.
These tactics can help ensure that your website is SEO-optimized and has a solid foundation for growth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this episode was full of insights on the power of internal linking, keyword research, and optimization techniques.
Leveraging these concepts and tools can help you build a robust moat around your backlinks and achieve long-term success in your online marketing efforts.
From evaluating website trustworthiness to growing your business, there’s a lot to learn, but with the tips and insights from SEO experts, you’ll be well-equipped to make the most of your SEO strategy.
