Since the dawn of the internet, people have been using search engines to not only find what they need, but to also promote their brands. Many years ago, gaming the system to rank your website highly in search results wasn’t difficult – but times change. These days, a complex series of machinations are required if you want to be prominently seen in various search engine results pages.

Link building is one of these methods and has been around for just as long as the concept of search engine optimization itself. Everybody who dives into the world of SEO knows that link building is necessary, but some don’t know why it’s so crucial.

With that in mind, we’ll discuss some of the benefits brands can expect to receive from building links.

Greater Visibility in Search

The most notable – and pursued – benefit of link building certainly relates to the increase in visibility that can be achieved in search. Just as much as pinging search engines with fresh content can help you improve search rankings, so can an accumulation of links pointing to you from other websites.

Search engines generally perceive websites that have more links from trustworthy sources as being better and more relevant, and elevate them accordingly. While it certainly matters from where these links are originating, high-quality links earned from respected websites ultimately do have an impact on SEO outcomes.

Additional Traffic from Other Websites

It should go without saying that the reason anybody at all cares about SEO and link building is because they’re hoping to drive traffic to their websites as a result of it. Link building can definitely improve SEO rankings, but it can also drive additional traffic to your website in the interim.

Earned links that feature on various pages, blog posts and even on social media all help to increase the number of people visiting your website. Even in the case of social media links – which aren’t directly tied to SEO for Google results – the end result is that people will be visiting your website. Given that it’s recommended to have traffic sources that are diverse and not reliant on any one platform, building links across social media and various websites can also be viewed as an insurance policy against sudden algorithm changes or hits to your SEO reputation.

General Sense of Authority

Perhaps the biggest intangible benefit of link building is the fact that it highlights your brand as an authority within its niche. If a particular website decides to link back to you, it shows that they have trust in you – and that is also conveyed to their audience. Likewise, search engines also assess the connections between websites via their links and come to similar, albeit much more technical, conclusions.

Needless to say, a perceived sense of authority can be quite useful for brands – particularly those who sell products or otherwise ask for money. It can help make your sales pitches and calls to action much more effective among audiences that see you as an authoritative entity within the niche.

Link building can generate many benefits – and it’s not all just about pinging search engines for SEO clout. From audience perceptions to new sources of traffic, building links throughout your niche and beyond can produce a variety of useful benefits for brands both large and small.