Making the link
Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) is an essential component in the success of your business’ website, and part of that process involves your linking strategy. Countless people search for aesthetic services in their local area via Google™, Bing™ and other search engines, so the benefits of improving your business’ search ranking is hard to ignore. Link building has always been an important SEO strategy, but if you last worked on link development for your website in the dim and distance past, you may find that the techniques you used before no longer reap the benefits they once did. In 2015, there are now many more techniques you need to consider, so that you can give Google, the world’s number one search engine, a clear and accurate picture of what your website is all about, and which users will find it of interest. THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY LINKS Web links (or hyperlinks) are at the heart of the World Wide Web. The idea is that they allow people to move quickly from one page or website to another, whilst maintaining their focus on a particular subject of interest. Search engines heavily base the rank of your website on whether they have other well-respected, relevant websites and blogs linking to related areas of your website. In the eyes of a search engine, this is a symbol of authority and good quality content, amongst other characteristics. Furthermore, visitors of these websites may come across your link, and be curious about what you can offer them. However, many website owners have attempted to “fool” Google into increasing their ranking within search results. For example, they may have added their business to automated “link farm” web directories, spammed forums with links to their site, submitted comments or guest posts to low quality blogs that have little authority in a relevant niche area. These practices can actually damage the reputation of your website. This is because Google, and other search engines, have recently evolved to penalise sites that do this, because it skews their results and provides the user with low quality search results. The good news is that, if you follow these latest linking tips and think creatively, you can begin to put the web to work for you and attract new customers through good search rankings. HOW LINKS WORK FOR SEO Link popularity is one way that search engines measure the quality of websites. Google wants to deliver the best and most relevant search results to its users. If it sees that many people are linking to your website, then it figures that it must be a useful, high quality resource, and is worth putting high up in the rankings. When someone links to your site, you get a “popularity” point – previously also referred to as “Google Juice”. If you link to another site, they also get a popularity point; but, not all sites are equal. One must consider parameters such as the quantity and detail of the content on the linking site, the relevance between your two sites and the level of traffic of the linking site, to make sure that the value of available popularity points is maximised. Links to high traffic, same message websites with loads of content information make the most juice! Generally, is far better to get just one link from a high traffic, industry “big fish” than to gain few or no real value popularity points from lots of smaller, low traffic, non-relevant sites which search engines see as almost insignificant. SIX WAYS TO BUILD LINKS Here are some strategies to increase the number of links to your website, and strengthen a page’s importance and connection to keywords. 1. Local Directories If you run your business on a local level, these types of links are an essential starting point as most users search for a service in their local area first. If a person searches for “cosmetic clinic Liverpool”, or another town or city, you need to ensure that your business appears in the results for your respective locality. This is referred to as Geotargeting of search results. Great sources for local links include Yell.com, Yelp.co.uk, thebestof.co.uk, thomsonlocal.com, touchlocal.co.uk, freeindex.co.uk and Google+ local business pages to name but a few. Sign up for a profile (often for free) on each of these reputable local directories and you’ll be able to get a direct local link to your services and website. Ask your customers to post reviews on these sites too to further bolster the impact of these links. 2. Industry Directories Generate one-way links with trade organisations that you are affiliated or accredited with – for example, the BACN, BCAM, BMLA, PIAPA or BAAPS websites. Similarly other industry directories such as The Consulting Room or Save Face. Since you already have a relationship, and these sites tend to carry a directory of their members, you are more likely to be able to request and receive a link from their website to yours. 3. Create a Blog As the popular marketing saying goes, “Content is King”. If your website has a blog under the same domain (e.g. www.myclinicname.com/blog), other industry professionals, existing or potential customers may find your articles interesting, and naturally want to share them via their social media or on their own websites. Make this easy for them with sharing options prominently coded into your blog pages or use plug-in services like AddThis.com. Be sure to write blogs in a concise, shareable and easy-to-read format. Shareable blogs can take the form of: “how-to” guides, answers to questions, bite-size tips, a controversial subject area or content that debunks a myth. If you reference another person’s content, be sure to inform them. They may offer a link back, or share your post. 4. Guest Blogging Find good quality bloggers with a strong audience, and offer to write an article for them. Contact those within the same, broad industry, and subtly relate your content back to information on your website, such as a treatment that you provide, and insert a link to that within the blog content. You can even contact bloggers that are not directly related to the aesthetics industry. Find an angle that would make a subject within aesthetics of interest to their audience, such as sports, celebrity, fashion or business and incorporate your message and link. Remember that search engines take account of the words that you have assigned the link to. For example, the words “click here”, aren’t relevant to the subject of any blog. Take full advantage of the back-linking opportunities here,and instead link a phrase such as, “how laser hair removal treatment works” to a page on your website about that topic. 5. Reach Out Getting in touch with your industry peers and friends is still one of the most effective and simple ways of generating backlinks. So, look through your contact list, and ask them politely to link to you. This also applies to the suppliers of products that you routinely provide in your clinic. 6. Build Relationships online Google picks up on any interactions you make that are related to your website. It’s a good idea to answer people’s questions on cosmetic treatments that may appear on relevant forums, blogs or Q&A type websites, such as realself.com. Put your website address in the signature of any answer that you give, and on any contributor profile that you are able to build, or directly refer to a blog or page on your site that helps answer the user’s question, if permitted when answering. SUMMARY The aim of setting up a good linking strategy is to get your website linked to by sites that receive a lot of traffic for services related to yours, and thus increase your search result rankings when people look for cosmetic services in your area. Try sites such as www.openlinkprofiler.org to get an idea of your current backlink performance. You can also examine competitor websites, which can be very useful for building a list of sites to approach for backlinks! Alternatively, talk to your web designer or SEO specialist about how to develop an effective link building campaign for your web site – remember if they start talking about link farms, then run for hills and go elsewhere! Ron Myers Ron Myers is a director of The Consulting Room™, the UK’s largest aesthetic industry information website. He also co-owns an aesthetic clinic called MediZen and is involved in distribution of miraDry and HydraFacial with business partner Martyn Roe.
