In today’s marketing landscape, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has become a key part of B2B marketing, often yielding the highest returns on marketing investment. A central aspect of SEO is link building, yet in Finland many SEO providers overlook this area. While SEO includes various components, such as technical optimization, content marketing, and user experience, links remain at the core of Google’s algorithm. Links have been a foundation of SEO since Google launched its first algorithm, PageRank, in 1998, a breakthrough that transformed search engines. With PageRank, Google quickly overtook competitors like AltaVista, leading the market with search results that were more relevant and valuable.
Though SEO has evolved significantly, the importance of links has only grown. Why is link building crucial in an SEO strategy? Let’s explore.
The Role of Links in SEO:
Links act as “endorsements” that help search engines assess a website’s credibility and authority. Search engines, like Google, use links to gauge the trustworthiness and value of a website. Each external link (or backlink) to a website signals to search engines that others find the site’s content valuable enough to share. This is especially crucial in the business world, where demonstrating expertise and trustworthiness can be a vital competitive advantage.
Not all links are equal, however. Search engines consider both the quantity and quality of links. High-authority links from trusted sites are far more valuable than links from low-quality or untrustworthy sites. For instance, a link from a leading industry publication or recognized website signals to search engines that your content is trustworthy and expert. This can significantly improve your website’s search rankings.
Search engines also evaluate a link’s context and relevance. A link’s presence alone isn’t enough; it should also relate to your website’s theme and industry. If a sports equipment website gains a link from a major sports publication, this is more valuable than one from an unrelated gardening website. Relevance is essential for search engines trying to match links with user searches and site content.
Moreover, links don’t just boost search rankings; they can also drive significant direct traffic to your website. When a reputable site links to your content, its visitors may follow the link, bringing more traffic and potential conversions to your site. In this way, quality links not only improve search visibility but also increase brand awareness and attract new customers.
Search engines also assess how naturally links are formed. Natural links arise when content is so valuable that other sites link to it without request. Search engines highly value these links as they signal genuine usefulness and relevance. While natural links can grow organically, actively waiting for them isn’t practical in most cases.
It’s important to understand that link building is a long-term process. While other SEO tactics, like keyword optimization and technical SEO, can yield faster results, link building takes time. Earning high-quality links requires ongoing effort in producing valuable content, networking, and marketing. However, high-quality links can elevate your site’s ranking in search results over time, delivering sustainable benefits. Sometimes, a single high-quality link can significantly boost visibility. Often, however, consistent, long-term link building is needed to surpass competitors in authority. Increasing domain authority boosts the visibility of your entire site, unlike content optimization, which primarily affects individual pages.
Internal Links Also Matter:
Links aren’t only important externally. Internal links, or links connecting pages within a website, are also essential to SEO. Internal linking helps search engines understand your site’s structure and prioritize key pages. A well-planned internal linking structure can improve user experience by guiding visitors logically through the site, while also helping search engines index pages more effectively. For instance, blog posts can link to related topics, allowing visitors to discover more valuable information on your site.
However, internal links don’t increase site authority. Instead, they pass authority between pages on the site.
Link building in Finland: Focus on Quality, Not Quantity, in Link Building:
Many assume that more links are better, but quality outweighs quantity. A quality link comes from a trustworthy, high-authority, relevant site. It’s better to gain one high-quality link that also provides SEO benefits than 100 low-quality links that offer little benefit. At worst, low-quality links can be detrimental. High-quality links should be consistently acquired to keep the site’s authority growing.
The Finnish company eLuotsi Finland Oy recently launched the SEOlinkit.fi service, which secures high-quality linkbuilding in Finland. While eLuotsi offers comprehensive SEO services that include link building, this new service package also enables outsourcing link building alone. Clients can obtain other SEO components elsewhere, but if their partner doesn’t provide link building, they can source it through SEOlinkit.fi. Link building occurs entirely outside the client company, so there’s no risk of SEOlinkit conflicting with other SEO efforts managed by a different firm.
The SEOlinkit.fi service has quality standards for the links it secures. Link-building strategies vary by client, but common approaches include press releases, guest blogging, and native advertising.
Long-term Growth Through Cumulative Link Building
Link building isn’t a short-term game. Many companies have used so-called “black hat” tactics, like link farms or paid links, but these can lead to serious penalties from search engines. Google values natural links based on genuine value and expertise, rather than tactics that manipulate algorithms.
Sustainable, long-term SEO results come from natural, quality links that steadily increase a site’s authority. This produces cumulative growth in visibility and traffic over time.
How to Measure Link Building’s SEO Impact
The impact of link building can be measured in various ways, with domain authority being one of the most important metrics. Several SEO tools use algorithms based on extensive link databases to measure link profile value compared to competitors. Widely used metrics include Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR), Semrush’s Authority Score (AS), and Moz’s Domain Authority (DA). These SEO tools can track any domain’s authority growth, so it’s worth tracking your domain authority, especially compared to your top competitors.
Most importantly, monitor metrics related to organic search visibility, such as Share of Voice, the number of keywords ranking on the first page, and organic search traffic. Like link building, these metrics should be tracked over a long period.
The Future of Link Building
Link building is continuously evolving, and future algorithms will increasingly focus on link quality assessment. Google aims to improve search results based on genuine value and relevance for users. This makes manipulative link-building techniques riskier. Focusing on link quality is therefore critical. Technological advancements, like AI and machine learning, will also affect how link quality and context are evaluated.
Google constantly emphasizes that links should form naturally rather than be constructed. This is because Google aims to ensure search results are based on genuine content quality, not manipulation. Google aims to deter SEO tactics that artificially build links, like paid links or link farms, which can distort the algorithm and search results.
Obtaining links organically is often very slow and uncertain and doesn’t scale effectively. Therefore, companies should actively invest in consistent link acquisition to maintain domain authority growth. Quality links can be acquired with strategic methods tailored to each company, such as guest writing, native advertising, content partnerships, press releases, and relationship building. Active link building accelerates SEO results and improves rankings, provided it is done responsibly and without manipulative tactics.
