Your Digital Marketing Expert

The guidance on how to get your content to rank high in search results has changed over the years. The focus is always on Google, which is the world’s leading search engine, and it often makes changes to its algorithms that require content marketers to adapt their strategies.

The algorithm updates that Google makes can often make or break sites. If it significantly changes ranking signals, some sites can end up losing a big chunk of their traffic overnight, and getting it back seems almost impossible.

However, there’s one SEO best practice that has stood the test of time and that’s link building. It has been used since the very early days of the online search engine. Quality inbound links are viewed as a positive ranking factor by Google and other search engines.

Unfortunately, a lot of people try to take shortcuts when it comes to link building by employing methods that are frowned upon. Blackhat link-building strategies are most certainly going to get your site penalized and so is buying copious amounts of backlinks from spammy websites. The 2022 link-building strategies don’t include any of that.

What is link building?

Link building is the name of the process through which a landing page on your website is given a hyperlink on another website. When someone clicks on that link on the other website, they’ll be taken to your landing page. The aim here is to improve search engine visibility.

These backlinks can be obtained through a variety of ways. For example, a website might organically link to your homepage or a post on your blog just because they found your content to be interesting. You can also develop and execute well thought out strategies to reach out to relevant websites in your niche to gain new backlinks.

Why is link building important for improving search rankings?

To understand this, it’s important to realize how Google changed online search as we know it. Back in the day the outdated search engines like Alta Vista were ranking websites based entirely on the webpage’s content. Google switched things up with its PageRank Algorithm that also ranked how many people were linking to a particular page.

Google views inbound links as a measure of the content’s quality. The assumption here is that if a lot of people are linking to the content, chances are that they find it to be relevant. So others who search for a similar query will likely be shown the results that have a greater number of backlinks.

Over the years, Google has refined this further so that it’s not about the quantity of the backlinks but the quality. Even if you have a million inbound links from spammy websites with low domain authority scores it won’t help improve your rankings. On the other hand, even a few links from high-quality websites that are relevant to your niche can help push your content further up the rankings.

2022 link building strategies to follow

1. Create helpful visual assets

Providing value through your content is a great way to gain inbound links. People who come across your content and find it useful will likely link back to it, particularly if it’s going to be useful for their audience.

Infographics, charts, diagrams and other visual assets tend to do very well online. They enable people to get the gist of what they’re looking for far more easily than a lengthy blog post. This strategy effectively doubles the exposure since not only will they link back to your website but likely also share the visual assets you have created on theirs.

2. Post guest blogs on relevant websites

This is one of the oldest yet among the most successful link-building strategies, but in 2022 it doesn’t quite work in the same way that it used to. Large scale link-building campaigns through copy/paste guest blog content is usually picked up by Google and your website can end up getting penalized for it.

What you need to do instead is reach out to websites that you can provide real value to through your content. If they agree to take on your guest post, create high-quality content that will remain unique to that site. This way, a link that’s naturally placed in that post has a much higher chance of achieving the objective.

3. Don’t forget about internal link building

A lot of people seem to forget that link building efforts shouldn’t just be focused on inbound links. Internal linking, that is when you link to your own content, is equally as important for SEO. The great thing about it is that internal linking is entirely within your control, so you can maximize its potential.

Internal links are a great way to help Google understand your content so that it can be ranked appropriately. They enable the algorithm to find new high-quality content and can also be used to direct traffic to the most important pages on your website.

4. Leverage Reddit for inbound links

There’s just about something for everyone on Reddit and chances are that whatever your niche is, it already has a subreddit and community on Reddit. This presents you with a great opportunity to expand the reach of your inbound link-building efforts.

It’s important to note that Reddit users won’t likely appreciate you spamming their subreddits with links aggressively. The idea should always be to add value to that subreddit through content and build a good reputation over time so when you do ultimately share links, they will be well received.

5. Write testimonials and reviews

If you’re considered to be a leading authority in your niche, you can take advantage of the opportunity and gain some valuable links for your website. You’re likely working with partners and organizations that provide services crucial for your brand.

Reach out to them and ask if they would like to have a testimonial or review of their product from you. Given your position as a leader, it’s likely that they’ll want to have that on their website to attract more customers. The testimonial or review you create for them can include a backlink to your site.

Link building isn’t dead, it just requires more diligence

It’s easy to give up on this process since it tends to be tedious and isn’t nearly as easy as it used to be before. However, there’s still incredible value to be unlocked from a well thought out link-building campaign.

Create one with diligence and eventually you’ll start to see results. As the links keep rolling in, you’ll see how your content rankings begin to improve in search results.

Build it and they will come, is how the popular saying goes, but it’s not entirely accurate when it comes to social media. The general advice for brands now is that they must absolutely have a social media presence. However, this goes far beyond just firing up your favorite social media platform and creating an account.

It’s not that simple. Just having accounts or posting randomly without a defined strategy isn’t going to get you the desired results. With so many different social media platforms available now, brands also need to be more diligent about what they’re posting, when they’re posting and how they can drive the maximum engagement out of it.

Building out your brand on social media, particularly organically, can be a soul crushing experience. That’s seriously not an exaggeration. Many brands that don’t want to throw money on the problem right out the gate struggle with establishing their social media presence. It can be quite draining when you spend a lot of time and effort on creating content only for your efforts to not result in any significant gains in views and followers.

It’s no secret that the key to success on social media is consistency. Even if your content isn’t taking off at first, it’s important to continue posting and gradually building up your audience. It’s equally as important to not neglect other platforms where you could reshare that content to further maximize the value of what you’ve created.

Picking the right platforms will set you up for success

Most of the leading social media platforms offer a lot of similar features these days. For example, the ephemeral “stories” feature may have gained popularity through Snapchat but now you can also find it on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others. The same holds true for short-form video.

Creating unique content for all of these different platforms won’t be possible unless you’ve got a full-blown media production department and copious amounts of marketing dollars. When deciding which social media platforms to create a presence on, look for the feature similarities between the different options.

This will give you the flexibility to utilize the content that you’ve already created and spread it across all of these different platforms. This approach has a greater chance of setting you up for success.

Extract more out of your content calendar

This circles back to consistency which is a big factor in all successful social media endeavors. Just look at all of the major players in your industry and you’ll find a common thread. They have their posting schedules locked down.

A content calendar is a great way to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. If you’re looking to maximize your content on social media, a calendar can help you divide how much of it you’re going to post on a given day and on which platforms. This can be useful in preventing content fatigue for your audience.

The added benefit of this approach is that you’re able to work on your social media postings in a much more professional manner. You can fine-tune your posts to suit each individual social media platform without having to jump through the sites. Timing them correctly will ensure maximum engagement from the audience.

Avoid inactive social media feeds

For most people who are looking at brands online, an inactive social media feed is a big red flag. It instantly makes them question the brand’s authenticity as it’s unfathomable that a business in this day and age would not be actively promoting itself across all of its social media channels.

This is a pitfall that you can avoid by maximizing your content on social media. For example, even if you’ve just recorded one video for a day, you could post it with minor edits across all of the social media platforms you’re on so that the clip is suited to each individual platform.

The audience there would thus see that the brand regularly updates its feed with content and they’ll likely to continue engaging with it. Dead social media feeds also tend to impact the reach of your content, since the platform’s algorithms will slowly stop pushing the old content to users.

Paid campaigns should always be an option

Social media platforms may position themselves as free services but they are increasingly finding ways to extract more ad revenue out of brands. To truly succeed on social media, paid marketing is inevitable.

As you work through maximizing your content on social media, look at opportunities that you can leverage to further expand the reach of your content. This may be through paid campaigns through the platform’s ad tools or via influencer marketing.

If you’ve created a great piece of content and would like to promote it further, you can always find an influencer in your niche that has a relevant audience. Work with them to put your content in front of more people who could potentially be new customers.

Your interactions are just as important as your content

A clear focus on the quality and quantity of content is required for an effective social media strategy, however, the buck doesn’t stop there. How you drive the engagements that the content brings is equally important. This should be the guiding principle when interacting with the people who engage with your content.

People prefer interactions that feel human on social media. Your brand shouldn’t come off as being a cold, faceless corporation that has no personality. When people engage with your brand’s content online, they’re looking for a response that feels more natural and human.

That’s one of the main reasons why brands are increasingly taking a more informal approach to their conversations on social media, a tone that you wouldn’t expect to see in their professional communications. From making jokes on Twitter to sharing behind the scenes stories on Instagram, your content maximization efforts will only be as good as the quality of interactions that people get from them.

Remember, content is still king on social media

There’s no substitute for great content. Whether it’s a well-produced video, an exceptional image or even a hilarious tweet that goes viral. Nothing beats great content on social media networks.

If you are able to nail that down and spread that content across all of the platforms that you have a presence on, it won’t be long before you see brand lift across all platforms.

The popularity of short form video content has skyrocketed online with social networks like TikTok being the major drivers of this trend. Other social networks have taken notice and launched their own short form video platforms.

Most people wouldn’t associate short form videos with YouTube. It’s the place where they go to watch lengthy vlogs, tutorials, clips from their favorite news shows and more. Yet, the Alphabet-owned video streaming service had to come up with something to counter the rising competition from the likes of TikTok and Instagram Reels.

It’s not like YouTube doesn’t have short form video pedigree. The very first video that was uploaded on YouTube was just 18-seconds long. As vertical video continues to dominate the online landscape, YouTube had to come up with an offering that would capture the interest of both creators and viewers.

In September 2020, it announced YouTube Shorts. This is a new short form video experience that’s built right into the video streaming service for 15-second videos. The feature was first tested in India where it became an instant hit. The following year, YouTube Shorts would then be released across the globe, bringing in over 6.5 billion daily views.

YouTube Shorts is seeing incredible engagement from the community and thus it provides brands with a great opportunity to further expand their reach.

What is YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts is a new short form video format that enables creators to express themselves in 15 seconds or less. Creation is at the heart of YouTube Shorts and as such, it’s easy and fun to create these short form videos on the platform.

Tools like multi-segment camera that allow creators to string multiple video clips together as well as the option to record with music from a large library of songs provides new creative avenues. It has also been made easier for viewers to discover new content. YouTube Shorts gets its own row on the home page and viewers can easily swipe vertically to move from one video to the next so that it’s even easier for users to keep on watching these short form videos.

Why should you be posting YouTube Shorts?

Most brands already focus on creating a YouTube presence. It’s the leading video streaming platform and as such, it demands the attention of brands looking to expand their presence online. Think of YouTube Shorts simply as an extension of your YouTube presence. The ease with which YouTube Shorts can be created is a big plus point. You don’t really need any equipment other than a smartphone to create this digestible content that viewers can easily consume on the go.

YouTube Shorts enables you to tap into the massive base that uses YouTube through their mobile devices. That’s really when this new experience should be a part of your marketing strategy. As more and more people start using YouTube Shorts, it’s important that your brand maintains a presence there as well.

Why incorporating YouTube Shorts in your marketing strategy is a good idea

1. The demographics may work in your favor

TikTok may be the leading short form video app but its relatively younger demographic may not be suitable for all brands, particularly those in the B2B space. YouTube is home to a more diverse demographic as there’s essentially something available for everyone on the video streaming platform.

For example, brands can share industry insights or thought leadership content through YouTube Shorts even though that same content may not find much traction on the likes of TikTok and Instagram Reels.

2. The content sticks around for longer

YouTube Shorts is fundamentally different from other experiences such as Instagram Stories and Reels. The latter focuses on ephemeral content that disappears after 24 hours. This means your audience may never see all of the content that you produce.

This isn’t the case with YouTube Shorts. The short form videos remain on the page so whenever someone comes across your content, they’ll be able to see all of the short videos that you’ve created, regardless of how long ago they were posted.

3. Gain the first-mover advantage

This is still a relatively new platform and there isn’t as much competition for eyeballs here as there might be on other platforms. Brands that incorporate YouTube Shorts in their marketing strategies now will be in a better position to gain the first-mover advantage.

They will be able to establish themselves as an authority on this platform. YouTube users who view the short form videos will be more familiar with the brand and are thus more likely to gravitate towards their content in the future.

4. Lead the conversation on short form topics

There may be industry trends or events in your niche that can be adequately addressed with short form content. With YouTube Shorts, brands have the opportunity to drive the conversation on such topics.

This content could be anything from short videos that provide quick tips or data points to recap of industry news. It would help build authority among the viewers, particularly those that may have only just discovered your brand.

5. Differentiate yourself from the competition

If you have competitors that aren’t capitalizing on this trend, it gives you even more incentive to dive head first into YouTube Shorts. The competition is essentially giving up the space to you and it’s an incredible opportunity to get a leg up on it.

A brand’s online presence is the first thing that most people evaluate before they decide to try one of its products. By having a presence on a platform where the competition is effectively non-existent, you have a much higher chance of winning more customers.

YouTube Shorts aren’t going anywhere

It may seem like an experiment but there’s no indication that this platform will go away. YouTube is serious about its Shorts experience which is why it has been gradually rolled out to more than 100 markets across the globe since the initial test.

The sooner brands start incorporating YouTube Shorts in their marketing strategies, the higher the chances of them growing their audience on the platform as it grows further in the years to come.

For people running all parts of their business, serving as the sole marketing person, or part of a small marketing team, you know the multiple hats needed to make it work. When this is the case, social media may seem like a non-essential element of your marketing plan. It becomes easy to push aside when things get busy. But do not write it off that quickly.

More and more people spend their free time on their phones and social media apps. You have to be on those platforms if you want to engage them.

Social Media Platforms You Need to Use

While you are likely familiar with Facebook, there are many other platforms your company should consider when running a social media campaign. Here are the five that most companies need to use:

• YouTube
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook

YouTube

YouTube is a video platform with more than 1.9 billion active users monthly. This is a giant social platform with billions of hours of videos watched every day. It is second for searches and traffic only to Google. For these reasons alone, you should be using it. Video is also an excellent means of engaging with your audience.

You need to make sure to optimize your videos to rank, so they reach for people looking for content. Because YouTube is owned by Google, you can run your campaign through Google Ads and reach your target audience. Consider posting “how-to” videos as it is among the top-four most searched content categories on YouTube.

Also, those who use YouTube are as much as three times as likely to watch videos on how to use a product over reading how to use it. You can even reuse existing content from your site to boost the rankings. Keep the videos at around two minutes to maximize views.

You should post as often as your team is capable of producing quality content. Once you have utilized this platform regularly for some time, look at your referral traffic from YouTube. This will let you know if you’re on the right track.

To increase your engagement, make sure to optimize videos for SEO, use good titles, utilize keywords, and tag accordingly. Don’t forget to use CTAs or links to get that traffic back to your site.

Instagram

Instagram is a visual platform that can help move your business along. You can make permanent posts or short-lived ones. Therefore, you have creativity in your Instagram presence while still focusing on your business goals.

What to post really depends on the medium you select. You should keep your posts to short videos or images that embody your company and expertise. Speckle these with some promotions.

Stories go live for 24 hours. You can drive engagement with polls or by asking questions. You can choose to create a mood through music or promote an announcement. Instagram is a great way to tag people and locations as well. Stories offer a chance for behind-the-scenes look into your company.

Share consistent, quality content, and you will get a following. Remember, it is all about the visuals.

Twitter

Where Instagram is a visual platform, Twitter is more like a conversation. This is a fast-paced platform that sees more than 500 million tweets daily and 320 million active monthly users. It relies heavily on news and international users.

You only have 280 characters, so keep it short. You have the opportunity to post about contests, funny ideas or thoughts, promotions, sales, industry data, and findings.

Because of the number of tweets, posting multiple times a day is the best way to get seen.

LinkedIn

One of the older social media platforms, LinkedIn still has over 250 million active monthly users. It is best for B2B or business-to-business marketing. With that in mind, keep your content more industry-related and offer business ideas instead of content for individual clients. This platform is ideal for video content as well. Look to post about twice a week.

Facebook

With so many companies moving into the Facebook platform, there is less to say that you don’t already know. You could pay for ad placement with this OG of the social media platforms. It is a conversational platform, but the content still needs to be useful.

Remember to mix it up with videos, images, and text. Also, Facebook business pages offer tons of ways to maximize and determine ROI on posts. You will get instant ideas of what is working and what isn’t.

Conclusion

By using the above social media platforms, you will notice a boost to your digital marketing results. Start by focusing your efforts on whichever platform your customers are most likely to be on. Then, expand to make sure you cover all of the platforms.