It may come as a surprise, but it doesn’t always pay to get links exclusively from the websites that are ranking highly for your keywords. It’s actually better to consider gaining links from sites that rank for broader topics, and to earn links from publications that rank beyond page one of the SERPs.
Here’s why:
When you’re trying to rank for a particular keyword, are the top five links that rank in the organic results necessarily the topic links you can get?
Well, they get a lot of search visits so if you featured somewhere in this page that’s definitely not a bad thing as there is a great deal of potential for direct traffic from there.
Also, Google is clearly saying that these top results are highly rated and authoritative for this particular query/keyword, otherwise they wouldn’t be ranking so well in the first place.
However, we’re made to think that if we want to rank well with a particular query then these are the only factors we should be looking at.
It’s important to bear in mind that this is not necessarily the case, and here’s why:
1. Ranking is not actually an explicit signal from Google that these are the best quality links.
2. Google and searchers expect these pages that rank well are going to solve the searcher’s query themselves - not that they’re going to link to something that’s going to solve the searcher’s query.
3. Earning links from these pages is INCREDIBLY difficult, particularly if they’re ranking for a commercial query, as these sites do not want to link to one of their competitors (and it would be hugely challenging to do so)!
So what are the alternatives?
There are plenty of link building tactics that you can pursue as a business, but some of the smartest (choices you can make include):
1. Sites and pages that link to multiple high-ranking pages/sites
Could such sites link to yours? Are they a good resource? It’s certainly worth considering.
2. Sites and pages that rank well for broad topics related to the keyword space and searcher intent
Instead of focusing exclusively on one particular keyword phrase, it makes more sense to look at the broader topics and keyword phrases related to the industry you’re in to see who’s ranking well for alternative terms. These sites no doubt possess a great deal of value, so it’s a good idea to try and gain links from these resources, instead of opting for the bigger players as mentioned above.
3. Finding influential publications and resources in the topic space that may not be doing good keyword targeting or SEO
Just because a website isn’t doing so well with its keyword targeting or SEO, doesn’t mean that it’s not influential. Do some research to find some influential publications and resources in the topic space.
It may be difficult to find them on Google (they might rank on page three, four or five for instance). You may even need to head away from Google to places such as Facebook or Instagram or Twitter (edespite not having done such a great job in Google)? If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’, these publications are certainly important and worthy of being linked from.
It’s essential that you look for alternative ways to expand your link building opportunities, rather than focusing solely on the top ranking pages in the SERPs.
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