Why Are Links Important For SEO?

Links are often seen to be one of Google’s most important ranking factors, so they’re pretty important when it comes to helping your website rank. High authority backlinks can be a vote of confidence in the eyes of Google & an indication that your website is valuable & worth linking to. Studies have shown that Google gives more credit to websites that have a higher volume of relevant, trustworth backlinks - but it’s about quality, not quantity when it comes to website links. Securing a good selection of high quality links from trusted websites that showcase your expertise & are relevant to your brand can add great value to your SEO offering & your website’s performance. This in turn allows you to showcase E-A-T which is a key ingredient to a successful SEO campaign.

Is Digital PR Just About Backlinks?

No - absolutely not, but they do play a key role in both growing referral traffic to your website & visibility, in addition to adding that all important SEO value. Digital PR is about showcasing your brand, product or service online, in front of a targeted, engaged audience who wants to know more about what you have to offer - it’s growing your presence in a similar way to traditional PR but in an online space. From a backlinks perspective, Digital PR is one of the best ways to build high quality links to your website which do of course add huge SEO value & many people when considering how to optimise their SEO campaigns see improving the quality of their inbound link profile as a key way to do this. While this is completely right & should be seen as so, there’s no reason why Digital PR can’t drive great SEO value & visibility at the same time - after all relevance is key for SEO so putting your product/service in front of the right audience will add value in more ways than just links!

What Are Do-Follow & No-Follow Links?

You may have often heard the terms “do-follow” & “no-follow” links thrown around when it comes to Digital PR & it’s true, there is a difference between them. “do-Follow” links are links which pass authority through to your website whereas “no-Follow” links don’t - however it’s often stated that both no-follow links & just citations have implied link value so they are definitely still valuable to build & it’s great to have diversity across your link profile. Remember - effective link building and Digital PR does so much more for your website than just creating a link, such as raising brand awareness, generating traffic and giving your brand massive exposure on top tier publications. So, the value shouldn’t be solely placed on whether the link has a tag or not. (‘followed’ links pass link equity to your website, whereas links tagged with a code don’t pass link value in the eyes of Google. But they’re still valuable!)

How Can I Build More Links To My Website?

Link building and Digital PR is about creating interesting, insightful and engaging content, as well as building strong connections with journalists and relevant media. So, to get more links to your website, start building great content and contacts. Reach out to industry publications, small business websites or magazines that your consumer reads. Offer to write articles, share company updates, offer product reviews or share your market insight. Create genuine connections, offer genuine, relevant and useful information, and you’ll soon start reaping the SEO rewards. Alternately - work with a company that does this for a living! A good Digital PR agency will have all of these basics downpat, along with some great journalistic relationships - this is a key ingredient to success.

How Do I Know If A Backlink Is Good Or Bad?

Defining links as good or bad isn’t always the best way to approach it - you would be better to consider whether a link is relevant & adds value to your website, or if it doesn’t. It’s also worth considering whether that link is actually drawing good referral traffic through to your website - as referral sales are another great product of well-targeted Digital PR & are definitely something you should be aiming for if you have an ecommerce business! Good links are fairly self-explanatory - they are genuine links from trustworthy sources which are relevant to your website. They are acquired naturally through Digital PR & generally offer some level of value to the user, this can be through your expertise or research, which helps to showcase the expertise of your brand - another great trust signal for Google! By contrast, poor quality backlinks can potentially harm your website - Google penalises link profiles which are heavy in poor quality links - mainly as these tend to be the result of poor SEO practices or dodgy over-optimisation! Regular link auditing will help to ensure that you are keeping your link profile in check & free from any potential penalties.

“Bought links” are a bit of a dirty word in the SEO industry - and for good reason - in 2022 your link acquisition strategy should not be built around buying links. In the past, marketers used to pay websites to post their client’s content & link back to their client’s website, often on mass scale & with content that was poorly written & didn’t have any relevance or connection with the website it was posted on. Google saw this as manipulation tactics & penalised websites who did this. However, paid for links do essentially still exist & they aren’t all bad - you just need to label them correctly. If you take out an advertorial in a newspaper, for example, you’ll likely get a paid-for link, but this isn’t bad, you just need to make sure you attribute any sponsored links with the “no-follow” & “sponsored” tag to let Google know that you’ve paid for that link through an advert.

WINNER:
Best Use Of Search - Finance
Best SEO Agency (Silver)
Best Use Of PR In Search (Silver)

WINNER:
Best Small Integrated Agency
Best Use Of PR In Search

WINNER:
Digital PR Agency Of The Year
Digital PR Campaign Of The Year (Ecommerce)

WINNER:
Best Digital PR Campaign

Link Building Agency
Manchester

Award-Winning Link Building Agency With A Proven Track Record To Deliver Top Tier Links

Proven Track Record

When it comes to links you need an agency that has a proven track record to deliver time and time again – and if that’s what you need then you’ve come to the right place.

Scroll down to read through our testimonials and case studies to see examples of companies just like yours who we have helped to secure top tier links and drive revenue and traffic.

Great Media Contacts

Having a great story is one thing, but knowing who to send it to is another and being one of the first agencies to market with digital PR we have an extensive network of media contacts on hand to outreach our content to and land those juicy links.

Well-established journalist relationships with top tier publications are key to success in link acquisition and our little black book of contacts is on hand to help.

100% Earned Links

We appreciate that everyone does link building differently, but we are proud to say that we don’t pay for a single link and haven’t since our inception – our links are 100% earned through our digital PR approach to link acquisition and we’re proud of it.

So if you’re looking for an agency which puts earned links at the core, then our strategies are designed to create effective link acquisition without any of those old school techniques.

What Is A Link Building Agency?

Content Reviewed & Fact Checked By Amanda Walls, Director

Content Updated: 17/10/2023

A link building agency is a company that specializes in generating links from reputable, authoritative websites back to your company website, social media presence, or other digital assets. Backlinks are one of the most important factors in search engine optimization (SEO), as they signal to search engines that your website is a valuable resource worthy of ranking highly for relevant keywords.

Link building agencies can help you improve your website’s SEO and visibility in a number of ways, including:

Developing and implementing a link building strategy that is tailored to your specific needs and goals.

Creating high-quality content that is likely to be linked to by other websites.

Reaching out to relevant websites and building relationships with webmasters and editors.

Monitoring your link building progress and making adjustments to your strategy as needed.

Hiring a link building agency can be a good investment for businesses of all sizes, but it is especially important for businesses that are trying to compete in competitive industries. A link building agency can help you get the links you need to improve your website’s ranking and visibility, which can lead to more traffic, leads, and sales.

Here are some of the benefits of working with a link building agency:

Expertise: Link building agencies have a team of experts who are knowledgeable about the latest SEO trends and best practices. They can help you develop a link building strategy that is tailored to your specific needs and goals.

Resources: Link building agencies have the resources and connections to reach out to a large number of relevant websites. They can also help you create high-quality content that is likely to be linked to by other websites.

Efficiency: Link building agencies can help you save time and effort by outsourcing your link building needs. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your business, such as marketing and sales.

If you are considering hiring a link building agency, it is important to do your research and choose an agency that has a good reputation and experience in your industry. You should also make sure that the agency uses white hat link building techniques, as black hat techniques can penalize your website with search engines.

Clients We've Worked With

From medium-sized businesses through to large multinationals (and internationals!) we've
worked with a range of clients (just like you!) to deliver some great results.

Why Cedarwood As Your Link Building Agency?

When it comes to link building you need an agency with a proven track record and that’s where Cedarwood comes in. Scroll down or head over to our Case Studies page to read through lots of our case studies and find out where we’ve delivered links time and time again for our clients.

Struggling to get links or find that your link building is inconsistent? As an agency that was early to market for digital PR we have well-established processes and journalist relationships which ensure that we deliver for our clients time and time again.

Digital PR is all about having the right content and the right angle at the right time to the right journalist and every element of this needs to be mixed together to deliver a recipe for success – this takes time and commitment and it’s something that we’ve built up over the years.

We also have a lot of experience working within verticals which are traditionally difficult to build links in, that is YMYL verticals such as vaping, medicine, legal, finance and gaming, where journalists might be more reluctant to directly cover your content/brand. As such, we have a good deal of experience in delivering results in these industries, where digital PR can make an even more substantial impact given the challenging environment.

Our Link Building Campaigns
Have Been Featured In:

Link Building Case Studies

Don't just take our word for it - read through our wide range of case studies to find out how
we've delivered great results for companies across the UK & overseas.

Our Testimonials & Reviews

Read reviews of working with Cedarwood, directly from our clients.

Our Link Building Approach

Data-Led Campaigns

Data-led campaigns are at the heart of what we do, after all a great data piece or a juicy new angle on existing information is exactly what journalists are looking for.

Whether it’s creating a survey or working with a wide range of online free data sources, we know where to go to get the data and how to present it in a way that journalists will love. Data-led campaigns are a really effective away to build links and we’ve been doing it for years!

Newsjacking

Trending topics are a great way to get your brand in front of a crowd and what better way to do that than by newsjacking a current trend?

Through our range of news listening tools and our weekly newsrooms, we are always on top of trending topics and ready to jump on newsjacking trends that are relevant to your brand. So if you’re looking for an agency that’s able to quickly and effectively jump on media placements then we are here to help.

Competitor Analysis

We don’t always need to rewrite the wheel, in fact in many situations simply identifying where competitors have had success and looking to emulate that is a great supplementary tactic for our link building campaigns.

Understanding and analysing our competitors, helps us to ensure that we don’t have any key gaps in our link profiles and it can also be a great way to generate new ideas for campaigns or to inspire ideas, that’s why we undertake thorough analysis to understand where the opportunities lie.

Thought Leadership

Looking to build and expand on those all important E-E-A-T signals to help add SEO benefit? Then thought leadership is an effective approach to both build your brand and your key signals across the board.

Working closely with representatives from your business we will create and craft effective thought leadership pieces to gain placements on key industry, national and regional publications which help to showcase those important expertise and authority signals that will help to boost your overall SEO performance.

Product Placements

Looking to gain exposure for both your brands and products? Then product placements can be a really effective way to not only build those all important links, but also to gain some great referral sales at the same time.

We’ve a great deal of experience working with top 10 lists and gift lists across major publications, magazines and newspapers – getting product placements which will drive real traffic and referral sales value to your website, in addition to some great links from top tier publications.

Media Monitoring

Keeping an eye on the media plays a key role in successful link acquisition and our range of media monitoring tools allow us to keep an eye on any requests that journalists might have for information.

Whether it’s working with industry tools such as Response Source, or utilising social media tools such as Twitter or TikTok, we’re constantly monitoring trends and breaking news to keep an eye on what journalists are covering, to see where we can add value to the conversation.

What Are The Benefits Of Link Building?

There are a number of benefits of link building and these include:

Improved search engine ranking (SERP). Backlinks are one of the most important factors in search engine optimization (SEO), as they signal to search engines that your website is a valuable resource worthy of ranking highly for relevant keywords.
Increased website traffic. Links from other websites can drive traffic to your own website. This is especially true if the links are from high-quality, authoritative websites.
Brand awareness. Links from other websites can help to increase brand awareness for your business. This is because when people see links to your website on other websites, they are more likely to remember your brand and visit your website.
Improved credibility. Links from other websites can help to improve the credibility of your business. This is because when people see that other websites are linking to your website, they are more likely to trust your website as a reliable source of information.
Increased sales. Links from other websites can lead to increased sales for your business. This is because when people visit your website from other websites, they are more likely to make a purchase.

What Our Industry Peers Say

Find out more from our Digital PR experts.

Latest News From Our Digital PR Team

How Digital PR Works To Improve SEO Results

In the ever-competitive online landscape, prioritising digital PR

Chloe Shaw 9th April 2024

Reactive Digital PR: What Is It And How To Do It

Reactive digital PR, or newsjacking, can be a

Beth Bedecker 19th March 2024

70 Free Data Sources For Your Digital PR Campaigns (All In One Place!)

Over the last few months I’ve spent a

Amanda Walls 12th March 2024

Digital PR Ideation: How To Come Up With Ideas

Stuck in a digital PR rut? Struggling to

Chloe Shaw 20th February 2024

Link Building FAQs

Content Reviewed & Fact Checked By Amanda Walls, Director

Content Updated: 17/10/2023

What Is Link Building?

Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. Hyperlinks, also known as links, are the clickable text or images that allow users to navigate between websites. Search engines use links to crawl the web and discover new pages, in addition to utilising them to understand how authority is passed between websites and how websites are connected to each other

Backlinks, which are links from other websites to your own, are one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s search algorithm and are often used as a contributing factor towards SEO performance. In particular, the quality and relevancy of the links play an important role in identifying

Link building is an important part of any search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. By building backlinks from high-quality websites, you can improve your website’s visibility in search results and attract more visitors this is both through organic or natural link acquisition as well as helping ot build overall authority and giving the website more trust in the eyes of Google.

Why Is Link Building Important?

Link building is important for a number of reasons, including:

Improved search engine ranking. Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for search engines like Google. When other websites link to your website, it signals to search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher your website is likely to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Increased website traffic. Backlinks can help to drive traffic to your website from other websites. This is especially true if the links are from high-quality, authoritative websites. When people see links to your website on other websites, they are more likely to click on them and visit your website.

Brand awareness. Backlinks can help to increase brand awareness for your business. This is because when people see links to your website on other websites, they are more likely to remember your brand and visit your website.

Improved credibility. Backlinks from other websites can help to improve the credibility of your business. This is because when people see that other websites are linking to your website, they are more likely to trust your website as a reliable source of information.

Increased sales. Backlinks from other websites can lead to increased sales for your business. This is because when people visit your website from other websites, they are more likely to make a purchase.

Overall, link building is an important part of any SEO strategy. By building high-quality backlinks from other websites, you can improve your search engine ranking, increase website traffic, build brand awareness, improve credibility, and increase sales.

What Are The Different Types Of Link Building?

When it comes to link building there are a number of different techniques that agencies use. You can of course use any of these, but at Cedarwood there are some that we prefer and some that we avoid. In general we will focus our link building on:

Content creation

Digital PR outreach

Broken link building

Product placements

Newsjacking

Media monitoring

You can also utilise the following approach for link building, but we tend to avoid these as we don’t believe they are the right approach to take to yield the results that we are looking for:

Guest blogging

Directory submissions

Forum participation

How Long Does It Take To See Results From Link Building?

It can take several months to see results from link building. This is because it takes time for search engines to crawl and index your backlinks. However, if you are consistently building high-quality backlinks, you should start to see an improvement in your website’s ranking and visibility over time.

The amount of time it takes to see results from link building will depend on a number of factors, including:

The quality of the backlinks you are building. High-quality backlinks from authoritative websites are more likely to have a positive impact on your ranking than low-quality backlinks from spammy websites.

The competitiveness of your niche. If you are in a competitive niche, it may take longer to see results from link building.

The overall strength of your website. If your website has high-quality content and a good reputation, it is more likely to rank well in SERPs, even if you do not have a lot of backlinks.

If you are not seeing results from link building after several months, it is important to review your link building strategy and make sure that you are focusing on white hat link building techniques. You should also make sure that you are building backlinks from high-quality websites.

It’s also important to remember that if you are using link building to supplement your SEO efforts then links alone won’t be enough to move the needle – it will need to be a combined approach, so ensure that you are also adhering to best practice on-site SEO

Common Link Building Mistakes To Avoid

Here are some common link building mistakes to avoid:

Buying links

Buying links is a black hat link building technique that can penalize your website with search engines. Search engines can detect when you are buying links, and they can penalize your website by lowering your ranking in search results pages (SERPs).

Building links from low-quality websites

Linking to your website from low-quality websites can also damage your website’s reputation. Search engines look at the quality of the websites that are linking to your website when ranking your website in SERPs. If you are linking to your website from low-quality websites, it can hurt your website’s ranking.

Keyword stuffing in anchor text

Keyword stuffing in anchor text is when you use too many keywords in the text of your links. This can make your links look spammy and can hurt your website’s ranking.

Not using relevant anchor text

Your anchor text should be relevant to the page you are linking to. Using irrelevant anchor text can also hurt your website’s ranking.

Building links too quickly

Building links too quickly can trigger spam signals to search engines, resulting in penalties. It is advisable to build links at a natural pace over time, ensuring that they are relevant, high-quality, and offer value to the reader.

Not diversifying your anchor text

Using the same anchor text over and over again can look spammy and can hurt your website’s ranking. It is important to use a variety of different anchor text when building links.

Not monitoring your backlinks

It is important to monitor your backlinks on a regular basis to make sure that you are not getting links from low-quality websites or websites that have been penalized by search engines. If you find that you are getting links from low-quality websites, you should disavow those links.

Not building relationships with other website owners

Building relationships with other website owners can help you to get links to your website. When you have relationships with other website owners, they are more likely to link to your website if they have content that is relevant to your website.

Not creating high-quality content

The best way to get links to your website is to create high-quality content that is informative and engaging. When you create high-quality content, other website owners are more likely to link to your website.

Not promoting your content

Once you have created high-quality content, you need to promote it so that other website owners can find it and link to it. You can promote your content on social media, other websites, and in email newsletters.

By avoiding these common link building mistakes, you can build high-quality backlinks that will help to improve your website’s ranking, visibility, and traffic.

What Happens If My Brand Is Mentioned But Not Linked?

Brand mentions and links are both important for SEO, but they have different values.

Brand mentions are any online references to your brand, company, or product, even if they do not include a link to your website. Brand mentions can help to increase brand awareness, improve brand reputation, and drive traffic to your website.

Links are hypertext references from one website to another. Links are considered to be one of the most important ranking factors for search engines. When a website links to your website, it signals to search engines that your website is a valuable resource.

The value of brand mentions vs links

Links are more valuable for SEO than brand mentions. This is because links are a direct signal to search engines that your website is a valuable resource. Brand mentions, on the other hand, are an indirect signal to search engines.

However, brand mentions are still important for SEO. This is because brand mentions can help to increase brand awareness, improve brand reputation, and drive traffic to your website.

Additionally, brand mentions can lead to links. For example, if someone mentions your brand in a blog post, they may be more likely to link to your website if they have more information about your brand.

Why Do I Need An Agency - Can't I Do This Myself?

This question comes up a lot and you definitely can have a go at doing it yourself – but at the end of the day companies often work with agencies for their success rates and established relationships with journalists. An effective link building agency will have been doing this for a while and will usually have a proven track record of delivering results as well as the right type of media databases, access to media monitoring tools and a solid list of journalist contacts.

At the end of the day, you need to work out what is right for your business, but if you are looking for agency support then feel free to get in touch!

WINNER: Best Use Of Search - Finance Best SEO Agency (Silver) Best Use Of PR In Search (Silver)

WINNER: Best Small Integrated Agency Best Use Of PR In Search

WINNER: Digital PR Agency Of The Year Digital PR Campaign Of The Year (Ecommerce)

WINNER: Best Digital PR Campaign

Link Building Agency Manchester