The majority of today’s consumers rely on the internet to find solutions to their problems. In fact, 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. To set your business apart from the competition and increase visibility, it’s important to earn high search engine rankings. After all, 75% of online searchers don’t scroll past the first page of Google results. Link building for manufacturing sites can help you earn those higher rankings, which can raise brand awareness and drive more traffic to your website.
Quality links are an invaluable tool and crucial to the growth and success of your manufacturing business. Keep reading to learn useful tactics for link building for manufacturing sites.
Key Takeaways
- Link building is the process of seeking online referrals from third-party websites that direct their audience to your web pages.
- From blog articles and whitepapers to social media posts and online directories, you can build links in many ways.
- Backlinks play a crucial role in increasing visibility, earning higher SERPs, and strengthening credibility.
- Manufacturing businesses can increase link building through social media posts, guest blogging, and leaving and generating online feedback.
What is Link Building?
Link building is the process of intentionally seeking third-party referrals (backlinks) on other websites that direct audiences to your web pages. As a reader is consuming content on another website, they come across a link to your site. Compelled by content and the context of your link, they’ll click on it and find themselves on your website. There, you can help guide them through the sales funnel with quality content, relevant solutions, and call-to-action buttons (all website must-haves for manufacturing companies).
You can achieve link-building in many ways, including:
- Blog articles
- eBooks
- Infographics
- Case studies
- How-to guides
- Whitepapers
- Social media posts
- Business profiles
- Online listings and directories
Benefits of Link Building
Backlinks are most impactful when they’re associated with original, quality content; high in quantity; and relevant to user needs. Link building is important because it benefits your business in several ways.
Link building helps to:
- Increase visibility: You can capitalize on the audiences of relevant third-party websites.
- Earn higher SERPs: The more useful your site is to readers and the more engagement you generate, the more valuable search engines will find you. This is rewarded with higher ranking placement.
- Strengthen credibility: Other websites (and their readers) see you as a trusted and reliable resource.
The following video goes into further explanation about the process of link building and why it’s important for your business:
Source: Ahrefs on YouTube
3 Tactics for Link Building for Manufacturing Sites
There are several ways to create backlinks for manufacturing websites. Here are three tactics that are sure to broaden reach, increase brand awareness, and help drive website traffic for manufacturing companies.
1. Post on Social Media
Social media is an often-underutilized marketing tool. More than a way to share photos and stay connected with friends and family, social media platforms are an essential part of digital marketing for manufacturing and industrial companies. After all, nearly 4.5 billion people are currently active on social media.
Not only is social media content highly shareable, but it’s also highly targetable. You can create customized messages for niche audiences, which increases engagement and helps you build deeper relationships that can result in higher conversions.
With social media, you can include links in your profile that direct people to your website. But you can also create content that is so compelling, people want to link to it to ensure their own contacts have the opportunity to see it as well. Partner with industry experts or social media influencers whose loyal following trusts their endorsements. This will increase the likelihood of people linking back to your content.
Build a loyal following of your own by posting consistent content that resonates with your specific audience. All of this leads to higher engagement, loyal readers, and more people using and referring you as a valuable resource through links.
2. Become or Partner with Guest Bloggers
Blog articles create material for search engines to crawl and index for ranking placement. They enable you to provide useful information to your audience and are also an incredibly effective way to build links.
Businesses that post blog content get 97% more links to their website. As a manufacturing company, your blog posts are an opportunity to generate expert-level content that addresses needs, concerns, and questions within the industry.
The world of manufacturing can be a complex and confusing place. From machinery and equipment to processes and regulations, there are many factors to understand when shopping in this field. Buyers want to feel confident in the companies they purchase from and in the products they’re acquiring. Blog articles can help by informing, educating, and connecting with people to build trust and increase loyalty.
One way to maximize blog impact is to partner with other thought leaders in your field. Create content for other companies that links back to your website. Invite industry experts to post on your blog and capitalize on both audiences. This helps to generate backlinks that gain credibility, expand your reach, and attract more prospects to your business.
3. Leave and Generate Feedback
Today’s consumers rely on testimonials and feedback from real-life experiences. In fact, nearly half of all shoppers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. When a company receives a positive review, they’re likely to shout it from the rooftops. They’ll often link to the individual or company who left the feedback to strengthen the review’s credibility. For this reason, your manufacturing company should consider leaving feedback for the individuals or companies that buy from you.
Whether you’ve had a good experience working with those people or you’ve heard good things about their business and what they’re doing with your products, positive feedback is free advertising. It allows you to associate your name with another company people value, strengthening your reputation in the process.
Conversely, you also want to be the kind of company that generates positive feedback. Even more powerful than your reviews are those of satisfied customers. In addition to linking to your website, they’ll likely share your information with their own contacts via email and social media. All of this creates more links, which spreads awareness about your business and drives more traffic to your website.
Make Link Building Work for You
Here at Shanahan Strategy, we use our expertise to help industrial businesses create impactful digital marketing strategies that attract prospects and retain current customers.
Contact Shanahan Strategy today to learn how we can help your business create effective link building that delivers results.
