Jeremiah Smith is the president, CEO, and co-owner of Simple Tiger, a company that helps businesses conquer SEO and win revenue.

He started the company in 2007, after teaching himself the ins and outs of SEO.

On this podcast, Jeremiah discusses creative ways to build links and make the most of SEO.

What Does the Current Landscape of Link Building Look Like?

Within the world of SEO, Jeremiah considers link building to be the final frontier, as it’s one of the most challenging and influential elements in Google rankings. While Google is certainly the primary focus, Jeremiah explains that SEO is also involved with a number of other sites.

In the past, people could manipulate the title tags on their website to rank higher on Google, but as the algorithms advanced, links became more and more important.

However, just in 2018, links have been surpassed in SEO importance for the first time in 20 years. Now, Google managed how people interact with websites and uses that information more than links.

What Goes into the Preparation for Link Building?

When it comes to building links, Jeremiah recommends starting with keyword research, during which time, you should compile a list. Then, do some AdWords campaigns and see which words are getting the most engagements.

Once you’ve discovered your highest engagers, those are the ones you should use in an SEO project.

To aid you even further, you can run a search query report on Google, which shows you the words that users typed in that resulted in them seeing your ad.

When compiling data for your links, Jeremiah uses both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative involves hard numbers, while qualitative involves data that’s more subjective and descriptive.

You’ll also want to make sure that your website, which you’ll be linking to, is structurally sound and functional. You don’t want to be inviting people over for dinner at a crumbling house.

What Kind of Content Should You Be Linking To?

You might be ready to start linking, but we can’t start quite yet.

First, you need quality content to link to. For instance, you could do some research into what people are searching for in your particular field. If you’re in the invoicing software business, you might find that people are searching for a free online billing feature.

Therefore, you would write a blog about how your product offers free online billing.

Once you have your idea for content, do some Google searches and find out who your competition is. Explore their pages and observe how they’re constructed in terms of word count, images, and other such things.

Now that you have all that information, you can combine it with your original idea and create your content.

Why Are Links Important to SEO?

According to Jeremiah, links are important to Google’s algorithm because they diversify their dependency on metrics that influence their intellectual property. After all, Google makes 98% of their income from ads.

It’s also important to remember that platforms like Google and Facebook are entirely concerned with user experience because they’re not selling a product.

With this in mind, these platforms make it incredibly difficult to game the system, which means the quality of your content matters more than any tips or tricks.

How Do You Get Your Links Out There?

To get your links out in the public, Jeremiah recommends contacting influencers with blogs or publications. They review your product or service, which gives them content and gives you publicity. Sometimes, you might need to be willing to pay people to review your product, but this is the exception. 

It’s also important that these influencers and publications are of a high-quality. If someone reputable is talking about your product or service, then their reputation is likely to spread to you. This is what’s called social proof.

In recent years, publications have gotten pickier when it comes to covering things, which means your content has to be extremely satiating. While this exclusivity might seem counterintuitive, it makes it all the more special when your content is chosen to be covered.

Outside of the major publications, there’s also a lot of independent bloggers now. Jeremiah compares them to the mom-and-pop shop that quietly puts out an amazing product. Because these people usually have a niche audience, make sure it lines up with yours.

As Jeremiah makes clear, you’re not only marketing to the consumer, but also the person you’re trying to get a link from.

It’s About the Quality of Links, Not the Quantity

Because the main incentive of companies like Google and Facebook is user experience, they’re making it harder and harder to poke holes in the system. Instead, they reward the quality of content you’re providing.

Therefore, it’s becoming less important to put out large numbers of links. You should be looking at providing the highest-quality links and putting them in front of the right eyes.

Because Google is all about adapting to the wants and needs of the average user, the marketers who are going to win the future are the ones who do the very same thing. By the time Google finds the starting line, you should already be there, stretching and ready to go.     

To take this idea even further, relying on raw data can only get you so far. Jeremiah finds that authenticity and creativity are the keys to the most powerful marketing campaign, digital or otherwise.

Where Can You Hear More of Jeremiah’s Ideas?

You can find more about Jeremiah Smith at his company’s website, SimpleTiger.com, where he provides plenty of content on digital marketing.

He also invites emails at Jeremiah@simpletigercom.

Elsewhere on the internet, you can find Jeremiah on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Jeremiah Smith

Jeremiah is the President, CEO and part-owner of SimpleTiger LLC. Don't let the title fool you though. He's actually just a big, loud goofball.

Jeremiah started SimpleTiger in 2007 right after discovering and teaching himself SEO. What became a long process of working full-time for other agencies and consulting for SimpleTiger on nights and weekends eventually turned into a small consultancy. His brother Sean started working with him and quickly learned the ropes of SEO and digital marketing in general, as well as his own specialties within the space.