Whether you’re brand new to link building or have been doing it for a while, we’re sure you’ll find something useful in this guide. The landscape of SEO and link building is always changing, and today, the importance of building high-quality links has never been higher. The need to understand and implement high-quality campaigns is essential if you’re going to compete and thrive online, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. This guide is designed to get you going quickly and in the right direction. There is a lot to take in, but we’ve broken everything up into easy-to-digest chapters and have included lots of examples along the way. We hope you enjoy The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building!
Definition of Link Building
Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. A hyperlink (usually just called a link) is a way for users to navigate between pages on the internet. Search engines use links to crawl the web; they will crawl the links between the individual pages on your website, and they will crawl the links between entire websites. There are many techniques for building links, and while they vary in difficulty, SEOs tend to agree that link building is one of the hardest parts of their jobs. Many SEOs spend the majority of their time trying to do it well. For that reason, if you can master the art of building high-quality links, it can truly put you ahead of both other SEOs and your competition.
Why is Link Building Important for SEO?
The Anatomy of a Hyperlink
In order to understand the importance of link building, it’s important to first understand the basics of how a link is created, how the search engines see links, and what they can interpret from them.
1. Start of link tag: Called an anchor tag (hence the “a”), this opens the link tag and tells search engines that a link to something else is about to follow.2. Link referral location: The “href” stands for “hyperlink referral,” and the text inside the quotation marks indicates the URL to which the link is pointing. This doesn’t always have to be a web page; it could be the address of an image or a file to download. Occasionally, you’ll see something other than a URL, beginning with a # sign. These are local links, which take you to a different section of the page you’re already on.3. Visible/anchor text of link: This is the little bit of text that users see on the page, and on which they need to click if they want to open the link. The text is usually formatted in some way to make it stand out from the text that surrounds it, often with blue color and/or underlining, signaling to users that it is a clickable link.4. Closure of link tag: This signals the end of the link tag to the search engines.
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; interface design; authoring, including standardised code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization.
Often many individuals will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all. The term web design is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing markup. Web Design Training in Kumbakonam Web design partially overlaps web engineering in the broader scope of web development.
Elements of Effective Website Design
1. Less is more
When it comes to effective website design, the simpler the better!
Users came to your
site with a purpose in mind. That purpose is almost never to admire
beautiful graphic design skills. Fancy layouts can be visually
appealing, but you never want your graphics to distract users from
finding what they came to your website for in the first place.
Some of the most
effective website design layouts are the simplest. Strategic use of
white space can really bring out the wow factor of your website! White
space, also known as negative space, are the areas on your website that
are intentionally left empty. No, it does not necessarily have to be
white.
2. A Picture is worth a thousand words
Notice here how the
arrow in the logo points directly towards the pricing option in the menu
bar. Furthermore, the positioning of the man on the right side is
pointed towards the lead box. These are two great examples of how visual
cues on websites can guide users to primary conversion points.
When possible,
replace text on your website with infographics. They are a great
resource to effectively convey information while still grabbing users’
attention. The average user skims a website rather than reading it in
full detail. This is why infographics may be able to convey information
more effectively than standard paragraphs.
3. Conventions are Cool!
People are used to
certain generic website layouts. Being unique is usually a good thing,
but it might be a better idea to take advantage of what users are
already comfortable and familiar with! There’s no need to reinvent the
wheel when it comes to effective website design.
People are trained
to look for certain buzzwords like “check out,” “add to cart,” “contact
us,” and “submit”. It may be enticing to think outside of the box and
use different wording, but that can actually deter some people from
converting since they were in search of a more typical word. The last
thing you want to do is confuse your website visitors. Avoiding fancy
jargon and sticking to what people are used to leaves less room for
guesswork and makes your website easier for visitors to navigate.
This website makes
great use of common conventions for an extremely easy to follow web
page. The logo is in the upper left-hand corner, where users are
accustomed to seeing it, there is a menu bar along the top, a shopping
cart icon can be clicked to view the cart, and there are clearly labeled
buttons to find FAQs and to shop their products.
4. Consistency is Key
It was Lincoln
Chafee who famously said, “Trust is built with consistency.” One of the
easiest ways to build trust with your website visitors is to maintain
consistent design elements across your website.
Some examples of
effective website design by way of consistency are maintaining the same
navigation or menu bar across the top of each page of your site, keeping
the same color scheme and fonts across each page, and maintaining a
consistent image style. If you have vector art on your homepage and
lifestyle stock photos on the rest, it can come off as disjointed or
confusing to visitors.
Effective website
design requires one consistent motif across the entire site. Pages can
have slightly different layouts to keep your website visually
interesting, but they need to match. You definitely don’t want users
clicking onto a new page only to wonder if they’ve clicked onto a new
website entirely!
Similarly, if your
ads are eye-catching and feature a sleek, minimalistic design then
people click onto a colorful, busy-looking website, they may be turned
off enough to click off of your site without making a purchase. Keeping
consistent themes in all your branding, including your website, is a
great way to maximize conversions.
5. Let it Flow
Effective website
design is about more than just looking good; the information on your
website must flow in a logical and easily followed pattern. People read
web pages in what is called an “E Format”. This follows the flow of most
western language reading patterns. People scan sites starting at the
upper left corner, then move across the page to the right, then down on
the left side, and back across the page to the right one or two more
times. With this format in mind, you should put the most important
information on the top left corner of your site and the least important
on the bottom right since that is the most frequently ignored area.
Furthermore,
grid-based layouts tend to be the easiest to follow. They keep the
information on your site organized in a logical pattern that doesn’t
look cluttered. Even with a grid-based layout, people are turned off by
large blocks of text. Instead, utilize headers, subheaders, and bullet
points when possible. Keep the natural flow of the eye in mind and make
sure it is easy for users to navigate your website.
6. Don’t Forget About User Experience (UX)!
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works,” -Steve Jobs
The success or failure of your website hinges most heavily on usability and functionality. A beautiful website means nothing if it doesn’t have an effective user experience. When designing your website, you should always keep the user in mind and cater to their needs. Think of your website like a house. No matter how beautiful it is on the outside, you don’t want to live somewhere with shoddy construction or a confusing layout.
Attention spans are
short. If users can find the information they are looking for more
easily on a competitor’s site, they’ll drop yours faster than a ton of
bricks.
When it comes to the
visual hierarchy of your website, your website should be organized so
that visitors naturally gravitate towards the most important elements
first. This can be done through the use of placements, sizes, and
colors. For example, if you have a lead form on your website, you want
every box on the form to appear above the fold and the “submit” button
should be large, bright, and easy to find at the end of the form.
The best way to
ensure your UX is where it needs to be is to have people test out your
site. Sometimes, as a site developer, you can become blind to minor
issues users may encounter when visiting your site. Enlist the help of
some friends to make sure your website is easy to navigate. You should
also routinely check your site to make sure all links work and
everything shows up properly.
7. Keep Load Time in Mind
The days of dial-up are dead for a reason! According to eMarketer, experts used to say users would abandon a website if it took longer than eight seconds to load. That statistic has now been cut by more than half. If your website takes longer than three seconds to load, you could be losing valuable customers.
So how do you speed
up a slow site? One way to improve load time is to optimize image sizes
on your site. Large files take longer to load, so reducing the size and
scale of some images can shorten a webpage’s load time. Making landing
page redirects cacheable is another tactic that may improve your
website’s load time. Already tried all these tips? It may be time to
upgrade your servers.
Keep in mind that it
shouldn’t take more than a few seconds for your website to load, no
matter what type of device it is being accessed from. Test your site to
ensure it loads quickly, not just on a desktop, but on phones and
tablets, too.
8. Accessibility For All
On the subject of
mobile website viewing, did you know that more than half of all websites
accessed are now opened on mobile devices?
In this day and age, your website HAS to be mobile friendly! You can create mobile versions of your website, or you can simply utilize a responsive website layout that adjusts to different screen sizes automatically.
Effective website
design includes making sure your site is easily visible on all different
operating systems, browsers, and devices. Flexible, responsive designs
are necessary to maximize your conversions.
9. Optimization Station
As with most things in today’s digital age, the key to success in web design is constant optimization. You should consistently be testing your website to make sure it is as user-friendly as possible and effectively designed to maximize conversions.
Many third-party
sites also offer heat maps you can install to see which parts of your
website visitors interact with the most. This will give you a good idea
if people are focusing too much on unimportant details of the site and
getting distracted from main conversion points.
Also, keep in mind
that optimization is not a one and done activity. The world of web
design changes constantly. You must consistently be updating your
website with new information to keep it up-to-date. Have you ever
clicked onto a website only to be jarred by a layout that is clearly
from a decade ago? Continuously updating and optimizing your website can
prevent it from succumbing to the same fate.
10. Goooooaaaaalllls!
The underlying purpose of your website should be evident at all times. Be clear, upfront, and honest about what your website is all about. Don’t try to hide it or make users dig for it. For example, if you want more leads, you can have a lead form pop up right when someone first clicks onto your site.
If you’re trying to
get more direct sales, make sure conversion points like “add to cart”
buttons are particularly eye-catching and easy to find. All buttons on
your site should be sized proportionately to their use.
So there you have
it! Now you should be equipped with all the information you need to
create user-friendly, conversion-driven, effective website design.
Occupations
There are two primary jobs involved in creating a website: the web designer and web developer, who often work closely together on a website. The web designers are responsible for the visual aspect, which includes the layout, coloring and typography of a web page. Web designers will also have a working knowledge of markup languages such as HTML and CSS, although the extent of their knowledge will differ from one web designer to another. Particularly in smaller organizations, one person will need the necessary skills for designing and programming the full web page, while larger organizations may have a web designer responsible for the visual aspect alone.
Further jobs which may become involved in the creation of a website include:
Graphic designers to create visuals for the site such as logos, layouts and buttons
Internet marketing specialists to help maintain web presence through strategic solutions on targeting viewers to the site, by using marketing and promotional techniques on the internet
SEO writers to research and recommend the correct words to be incorporated into a particular website and make the website more accessible and found on numerous search engines
Internet copywriter to create the written content of the page to appeal to the targeted viewers of the site
User experience (UX) designer incorporates aspects of user-focused design considerations which include information architecture, user-centered design, user testing, interaction design, and occasionally visual design.
