5 Ways To Use Social Profiles To Get Quality Links
Tags: Link Building Strategies, Social Profile, Link Building, Off Page Seo, Seo Services

Most people know that the number of quality links pointing to a site is one important factor in search engine rankings, and it’s easy to see why: Google and other major engines like social profiler use link quality as one of their most important signal for ranking. But how do you get quality links?

In this post I will cover five ways you can use social profiles to get more high-quality backlinks.

Social Profiles As A Link Building Strategy

When you think about social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, you probably don’t think of them as tools for link building. But that’s exactly what they can be. In fact, these networks can be some of the easiest ways to get quality backlinks for your site.

The easiest way is by simply adding a link to your own website or blog in the “About” section of your Google+ profile, or “description” section on LinkedIn. In this way, you’re not directly linking to your site. Instead, your link is sending people to the Google+ page or LinkedIn profile of someone who has an existing connection to you. This is typically better than sending people directly to your site, as they may not trust that the author of that page is actually affiliated with you.

But what sets social profiles apart from other types of links? It’s the same reason why people value them more than other types of links: They’re easy to get and provide high-quality content for your target audience. This is true even if you have a small number of connections on social networks. In fact, the smaller your network, the more valuable each link can potentially be.

In this post I’ll go into detail about five different ways you can use social media profiles to build links to your site, and what you need to do before you start adding social links to your own content.

1. Use Social Profiles As a Link Building Strategy For Influencers

LinkedIn is the best example of this, given how well it works as a tool for finding influencers in particular niches or professions. For example, consider the search string “ SEO + LinkedIn”. This will search for people in your industry that have the words SEO and LinkedIn in their profile.

The trick is to find people with a high number of connections (status is important here, as well). Get in touch with them and send them an invitation to connect. And you can make this easier by using software like Follower wonk that reduces the number of potential connections you need to go through by finding influencers in your niche automatically. Once there is a connection between you, use your social profile as an opportunity to provide value on their activity stream by commenting on something they did or posted. This is another reason why these networks are great for link building: They also provide a way to build a relationship with the influencer that you can use as an opportunity to build your own brand.

Once you’ve built up a relationship, you can ask for a link to your website as a favor. You can also share their content on your social profile, and have them return the favor by sharing something from you on theirs.

2. Use Social Profiles As An Opportunity To Provide More Value

One of the best ways to use social media profiles is by providing value on them and getting your audience involved in commenting and sharing your content. This is an important strategy because it builds credibility and credibility equals social network impact.

Once you’ve built up a relationship with someone, use their content as an opportunity to provide more value. For example, if they regularly share articles on social media about a subject related to your industry, you can share one of your own related posts the day after or even after that. If the content is popular and people are commenting, share some of their comments back on your own profile so people can learn more about you too.

3. Use Social Profiles As An Opportunity To Share Your Content

You should also consider sharing other content on your social profiles whenever possible. For example, if you share a popular article on Facebook, you may also want to share it on Google+ and Twitter too. However, don’t just post the same article, even if the networks are different. For example, if you share an infographic on Facebook that is relevant to a particular niche, you might want to add some text on Google+ and Twitter about how it is relevant for marketers for example (just make sure that your post about their infographic isn’t going to be considered spam).

If your blog post or article mentions an influencer in your industry (or mentions specific companies or brands), add them as an author so they can recognize that they were mentioned.

4. Use Links In Your Social Profiles For Extra Link Juice

You should also take advantage of the “author” field on social media networks. You can use this as an opportunity to link directly to your site or a specific page. However, don’t just link to your homepage or something that is related to your network activity. Also, if you want the links in these profiles to be more valuable, start using this strategy when you have several backlinks pointing at your site first.

5. Don’t Forget to Use Your Unique Selling Points

When you’re using social media profiles for link building, don’t forget to add your unique selling points. However, this can be a little tricky if you have just started blogging and don’t have a large audience. You may get better results with the social links if you position yourself as an expert in your niche rather than trying to sell something (even if it is something that might interest the person you are contacting).

6. Don’t Forget to Keep Track of Your Links

If you use social networks for link building, make sure that you keep track of every one of your backlinks carefully. A great tool that can help with this is Backlink Watch from Majestic SEO . This tool will scan your website and create a list of all the backlinks you have received over time, as well as give you information about the backlinks you have in social profiles.

7. Don’t Let the Social Networks Hurt Your SEO

If you plan on using social media profiles for link building, make sure that you don’t do anything that will hurt your SEO in the long run. For example, don’t get too reliant on social media profiles to rank or to build links.

Conclusion: Social Profiles as a Link Building Strategy

You might think that you’re wasting your time when you use social media profiles for link building, but they can actually be a great approach. Not only are they easy to set up, but using social profiles for link building is also very effective. In fact, many people have found success with this approach. If you want to know more about it, just make sure that you keep the right things in mind when looking at these profiles.