There’s a lot to see and do in the capital of Ontario. Not only is Toronto the most populous city in Canada, but it features renowned attractions like the St. Lawrence Market and Casa Loma.
If you aren’t afraid of heights, you can scale the CN Tower and get a dazzling view of the city. But how do you make your website tower over your competitors?
To improve your website’s SEO, you’ll need to implement an effective link building strategy. When it comes to acquiring backlinks, some practices are more effective than others. We’re going to explain the importance of link building and how it can help your Toronto business:
How Does Link Building Benefit Your Local SEO?
Doing SEO without building links is like visiting Toronto without stopping by the Ripley’s Aquarium—you just can’t skip it! Link building serves a few main benefits:
- It increases your website traffic. When multiple websites link back to yours, it increases the odds that more readers will find it. Backlinks direct high volumes of traffic to your site. Sometimes, it’s all about getting the right eyes on your site; this strategy may even increase the number of conversions you get.
- It boosts your search engine rankings. It’s amazing what a high-quality link can do to benefit your SEO. While it may not impact your rankings immediately, you can expect to see increases in the weeks that follow.
- It improves your website authority. How does Google know which sites offer valuable, useful content, and which ones are full of fluff? One indicator it uses to rank sites is domain authority (DA). This is partially influenced by how many other websites post links to your own. In other words, the more quality backlinks you acquire, the higher your DA will be—and you’ll see higher rankings as a result.
Link Building Strategies
Every day, hundreds of pages of content are uploaded to the internet. What can you do to make your blogs stand out in a sea of thousands? In a city as competitive as Toronto, you definitely have your work cut out for you.
To build links, you’ll need to be creative and crafty. We’ve put together a few actionable tips that you can use to start building links in the GTA:
Guest Posting
Start by searching for websites in your industry with high domain authority. Then, reach out to them and offer to write content for their blog. Wherever it’s natural, you can include links back to your products, services, or blog posts.
But not just any website will do. You’re looking for sites that relate to your business—ones with high authority and traffic. Search engines can tell the difference between irrelevant links and ones that offer substantial value.
Even if those websites don’t state that they’re seeking guest posts, you can win them over with a compelling pitch. In your email, link to some of the best articles on your website, and convince them why you offer value to their blog.
Broken Link Building
Have you ever read a blog that included broken links? The author of that content probably has no clue that they no longer work. This poses an opportunity for link builders.
Links don’t stick around forever; when content is moved or the domain of a website changes, it could break all the links that direct to that page.
Feeling especially confident about your content? You can find websites that link to blogs similar to yours, and reach out to them. Pitch your content and persuade them that they should replace those links with yours. This is known as the skyscraper technique. Leverage how your content is more recent, relevant, and well-researched than the existing link.
Writing Resource Pages
What if you could write content that other websites chose to link to naturally? This would save you the time involved in conducting outreach and benefit your website.
These pieces are sometimes referred to as cornerstone or pillar content; they’re a pivotal part of your website.
But here’s the thing about writing these pages: they need to be top-tier. They need to be better than any other blogs on the topic, or else people will link to other websites instead. It takes a significant amount of time, research, and talent to pull off these pages.
You might also choose to create infographics. For these pieces, you’ll need to conduct original research, and compile the information into aesthetically pleasing charts and graphs. These images are easy to share and reference, so they can be an effective way to build links to your website.
Building Citations are also important for factor for your GBP profile. Learn how to build citations for your Toronto based business.
So, how do you write content that’s worthy of being linked to? You don’t have a lot of free time in a city as busy as Toronto. You might need a hand from a team of content writers and outreach specialists.
At First Rank, we offer Toronto SEO services that include a comprehensive link building strategy. We’ll look after content creation and outreach, and you can watch your rankings start to soar. Contact us today to learn more.
Jacob Kettner is the owner and CEO of First Rank Inc., a digital marketing agency based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He currently sits on Manitoba Chamber of Commerce Small Business Advisor Council which assists people grow their small businesses in Manitoba.
