If 2012 was the year of Google Algorithm updates — Moz counted 37 big
ones compared to the 15 in 2013 and 21 in 2011 — 2013 was the year that
link building suffered from a serious identity crisis.
It was sidelined, stretched, swindled and spit back out again more
times than your average SEO pitches a guest blog post; but somehow it
survived, and it will slide into 2014 broken, beaten and a little
bloody. Let’s look back on everything that went down in link building in
2013.
Link Building Died
Some say it died; some cry blasphemy at that statement — but whatever
side of the fence you’re standing on, you can’t argue that the link
building of 2013 was anything like the link building of 2011 and even
2012. Google got smarter, users savvier and the algorithm harder to
game.
The traditional “10 blue links” SERP is rarely spotted anymore;
instead, it is cluttered with Google Shopping, image results, map
listings or news results… or sometimes a mix of all of them. That
invariably made link building harder because you didn’t know what you
were building for.
It Was Resurrected By “Content Marketing”
2013 was the year that people started replacing “link building” with
“content marketing.” For a little bit there, it seemed to be working;
and, from looking at Google Trends, that could still keep happening in
2014.
I love content marketing. I love link building. I love it even more
when they work together, but that doesn’t mean I can use the terms
interchangeably.
Content marketing is creating content that’s specific to each subset
of your users and giving it to them at the time they’re ready to absorb
it. Link building is doing something to get more links to a page. You
can do that with content, but you can do it with a dozen other tactics, too.
It Was Briefly Renamed Link Earning
Where link building implies taking an aggressive, active action in
order to get one link, link earning is purely organic. You create
something that deserves to be linked to, not something you have to
convince someone to link to.
“You want my link? You better damn well work for it,” bloggers started to say.
To me, changing
link building to
link earning makes
a lot of sense because it’s a better description of what we do. We’re
not “building” anything, as that implies there will be something at the
end of it to show for our work (when we all know that’s not always the
case). Even one-to-one actions like resource listings or broken link
building still require you to have something worthy of being linked to.
Public Relations & Media Outreach Were Weaved In
Every aspect of link building requires some sort of outreach,
regardless if it’s to bloggers, journalists, webmasters or experts. The
best link builders are the ones who know how to create an instant
connection with someone in just a four-sentence email.
When bloggers stopped putting up with the guest blogging onslaughter,
link building moved to attracting traditional news outlets for mentions
(and links). That required you to get savvier in how you pitch them.
Yes, journalists crave content, but they’re also sticklers for it being
news-worthy and attention grabbing.
And It Claimed More Tactics As Link Schemes
I think we all breathed a little sigh of “well duh” when Google
finally added guest posting, press releases and advertorials with
over-optimized anchor text to their link schemes. Still, it shook a lot
people simply because of the vagueness of Google’s language. Even if you
were doing the right thing, Google could just decide that you “intended
to manipulate PageRank.”
Guest blogging will continue to exist in 2014, but it won’t be a
viable, scalable or efficient tactic. Spending two hours writing and
five hours sourcing with the hope that someone, anyone will post your
article is time wasted that your competitors are taking advantage of.
In spite of all these changes, link building isn’t going anywhere. It
can’t — Google relies on links for rankings. They’re the word-of-mouth
endorsement for search engines. It’s not like they can take verbal
endorsements and just know what to rank. Sorry, Google. You’re good, but you’re not
that good.
What do you think was the biggest change link building faced in 2013?
Where will it take is in 2014? Tell me in the comments below.
