Link building is often the most difficult aspect of an SEO strategy for a software house, not least because of the heavy workload involved. The process requires a great deal of coordination between different channels, which can put a significant strain on resources.
Because of this, it is quite easy to overlook certain aspects and make mistakes - often costly ones. Let's take a look at the most common ones and how to avoid them.
What makes link building for Software House different?
Link building is the process of gaining backlinks from other sites to your own. It is one of the key SEO tactics; the links you gain act as proof of trust and indicate your site's authority to search engines.
Link building is different for every industry - and even websites! For software companies, however, link building presents a whole new set of unique challenges and opportunities.
These stem from two main sources: the complexity of the software industry and the diverse audience it attracts.
1 The complexity of the software industry often translates into the intricacy of the topics discussed.
2 This means that backlinks should ideally come from credible sources that are already authorities in the industry.
3 Diverse audiences means that content must be detailed enough to satisfy advanced users, yet accessible enough for those less advanced.
So link building for software houses is different than in regular industries. It's more complex, and that means that if you do it right, you can easily stand out from the crowd.
But at the same time, it makes it easier to make mistakes. Here's what to keep in mind.
Mistake #1: Lack of strategy
The first and most common mistake made when building links for any company is the lack of an organized link building strategy.
Without a plan, it is difficult to determine which links to focus on and how much time and energy to devote to each.
Needless to say, this is not what you need. Such a haphazard approach is simply ineffective. You're just wasting resources if you don't have a proper online visibility strategy.
Of course, it may be that such unorganized efforts can move you up in the search results. However, you should not leave your link building efforts to chance.
How to avoid it?
Insteadof blindly searching for links, create a well-formulated strategy. This is what you should keep in mind:
Keyword research and market
- Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Semrush or Ahrefs for keyword research.
- Conduct audience analysis using surveys, social media tracking or Google Analytics.
- Analyze competitors' sites for their keyword strategies.
Website Optimization
- Conduct a technical SEO audit using tools such as Ahrefs, Moz or Screaming Frog.
- Update site content with primary and so-called long-tail keywords, optimize metatags, headers and URLs.
- Improve site navigation, reduce loading times and ensure mobile-friendliness.
Content creation and link building
- Create a content calendar for blogs or case studies.
- Extend your content with multimedia, such as videos or infographics.
- Engage in guest posting and collaborate with industry blogs to build links.
Performance monitoring and continuous improvement
- Set up and monitor results using Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
- Conduct monthly SEO performance audits and adjust your strategy as needed.
- Stay up to date with SEO trends and Google algorithm changes.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Link-building strategy for a software house is a vast topic; the above points are just a basic framework for strategy.
Mistake #2: Low-quality links
A significant portion of a software company's link-building efforts should be devoted to expanding its backlink portfolio.
When you ask any SEO specialist about link building, he or she will probably tell you that the basis is guest blogging and building relationships with sites that can place your link.
These two tactics are not bad by themselves. It is a mistake to focus only on these two.
As a software house, you have many more link building opportunities than other industries. Event coverage, media releases, software directories, forums, content distribution platforms and, of course, a treasure trove of technical blogs and websites.
Proper link building should consider all these channels, with a balance between quality and quantity of backlinks.
Don't forget about internal linking!
Use your own resources: link them with each other!
Do you have landing pages for different programming languages or tools? Link them to your blog posts! Do you have insightful articles or blog posts that you are proud of? Maybe they will be a good background for your case studies!
Review the content you have on your site and see if any of it is missing links. Yes, technical documentation pages count too! Even the most "boring" pages can make a difference when it comes to internal linking.
Mistake #3: Neglecting technical SEO.
This is where things get complicated. Realistically, you can build links without touching the technical SEO. But if you really want to get the most out of your efforts, it's best not to neglect it.
After all, what's the point of getting backlinks if your site is not ranking due to some trivial technical problem?
Let's look at the more common problems and how to fix or avoid them.
Cursory metadata setting
- Metadata, such as page titles, headings and alternate text for images, are crucial in helping search engines understand a site's content. Even more so for sites that use custom page layouts or dynamic content.
- Remember to always add the necessary metadata!
- Large websites can suffer from missing resources or non-functioning links due to internal changes. This affects the site's reputation and rankings. Search engine robots cannot find resources they should be able to access.
Missing resources, non-working links and other indexing problems
- Large websites can suffer from missing resources or non-functioning links due to internal changes. This affects the site's reputation and rankings. Search engine robots cannot find resources they should be able to access. Problems such as nofollow attributes in internal links, misconfigured robots.txt files and corrupt site maps are just some of the issues that can hinder a site's indexing.
- Conducting a thorough audit of your site can help you check for non-working links and other such problems. You can also implement automated solutions, but this will require a bit more work in the beginning.
Confusing URL hierarchy
- Poor URL structure can hurt rankings and user understanding.
- URLs should clearly indicate their position and category in the site structure.
Keyword stuffing
- Over-optimizing content with too many keywords is something that can have negative consequences. It is a sign of manipulating search results, which is expressly forbidden by Google and other search engines.
- What's more, it can lead to keyword cannibalization, whereby more than one site will try to compete for the same keywords, ultimately leaving you without significant traffic to any of them.
- Try to use keywords so that they sound natural. If you're not sure how many you need, you can use tools like Surfer SEO or NeuronWriter to see approximate values.
Low Core Web Vitals score and number of indexed pages.
- While this is a thing that mainly concerns the Google search engine, Core Web Vitals results and the number of indexed pages are a good indicator of the overall health of your site.
- The first refers to the overall usability of the site, including accessibility and speed. While it may not be the most important indicator, it's worth keeping it in the green zone. You see red - an SEO audit will help you find the problem.
- Page indexing is another part of technical SEO to keep in mind. While you don't want to index all pages (such as the admin login page), it's a good idea to make sure your landing pages are actually indexed.
Mistake #4: Low quality content
We've already mentioned the importance of quality content, but it deserves its own section given its importance in link building.
Publishing low-quality content that does not provide relevant information or value to visitors is another common mistake.
With today's quality guidelines from Google and other search engines, it's not enough to have multiple pages and fill them with keywords. If you want to get high search engine rankings, it will take extra effort.
Through Helpful Content Update, Google wants you to provide your potential customers with timely, accurate and useful content.
You need to create content that indicate specialized, authoritative and credible knowledge.
This means that the site must satisfy the need for expertise, not just present services and projects.
Creating high-level tutorials, useful instructional articles or well-crafted case studies can significantly affect your authority and credibility.
To get the best results, enrich your content with infographics, downloadable resources, interactive elements, and even engaging videos to explain complex topics.
They can attract attention, make content easier to share and improve the overall user experience on the site.
Remember that rich and dynamic content is link-worthy content.
More tips for getting the most out of your content:
Quality and originality of content: Make sure you write unique and detailed articles that answer readers' questions. If you can, cite sources or add quotes from industry experts. This will make the content seem more credible and valuable.
User engagement: Engage your readers by using photos or videos, telling stories and providing practical advice. Such elements can make difficult topics easier to understand. Stories create a personal connection, and useful advice adds an extra layer to your credibility.
Readability and clarity: Use headings and subheadings to organize content and make it easier to read. Write short and clear sentences and paragraphs and use accessible language. This will make it easier for more people to read and understand the content. Also, try to keep your content clearly structured - this will help with screen readers and other accessibility solutions.
Personalization and relevance: Write content that a specific group of readers can relate to. Show that you know and understand their needs and that you want to help them. This applies not only to products or landing pages! Your blog posts and guides can also benefit from this.
Structured elements: Use content templates for different types of content, such as blog posts, lists and tutorials. Frequently asked questions, helpful links, menus, accordions - all of these elements can make content more detailed and informative without overwhelming the reader with a wall of text.
User experience: Make sure your content is free of typos, formatting errors or code errors. If you use any of the additional elements listed above, make sure they are easy to see and use. Avoid overuse of animation and other distractions. While adding movement to text is good, flashing your entire site is counterproductive.
Mistake #5: Lack of persistence.
W one of our recent case studies we wrote about how long it took us to see the first results of our SEO campaign.
This is not unusual. Google needs four days to four weeksto notice new content at all. The same is true for links. It's not over yet. The links you've built need to be factored into your site's ranking. This also takes some time.
That's why link building requires persistence. It's not meant to be a quick way to increase traffic, but one that helps develop your brand's visibility over time. What's more, ideally, you shouldn't stop at a few months of link building.
After the growth phase, in which you focus on building lots of links quickly, you should move to the maintenance phase, in which you continue to strive to build at least some of the previous number of links - both organically and through your actions.
Error #6: Failure to track results
Without tracking the results of your link building efforts, you don't know if you're making any progress. As trivial as it may sound, this is the basis for running a successful SEO campaign.
Google Analytics is a great free tool that you can use to monitor the effectiveness of your software house's link building strategy.
Another such tool is Ahrefs, a paid solution that provides detailed reports on SEO performance, including link building. Ahrefs also offers a number of free tools.
A more technical answer to the question of why you should track your links is that it allows you to deal with links that don't work and other problems that may arise after you create them.
Milosz Krasinski, Managing Director Chilli Fruit:
Our data shows that about 20% of links are removed within 24 months. In most cases, this is due to some change in the blog or article, and the site owners do not have bad intentions. But it is your responsibility to inform them of the problem and ask them to add the link again.
In most cases, your link will be restored. Sometimes they may ask you to send a replacement link, but it's always your job to keep track of your links. Some people tend to underestimate the lack of link monitoring and downplay the problem of a broken link. But if you look at it more broadly and see that one-fifth of your efforts go to waste, you'll want to rethink your approach. If you don't have time to track links manually, invest in a paid tool that will allow you to monitor them effortlessly, because the return on investment (ROI) will be worth it.
What's more, it can help you predict which links are toxic and allow you to take immediate action. The last thing you want for your software house is to be penalized by Google for participating in a link scheme or PBN.
Don't forget about audits
Regular SEO audits are the best way to track the SEO performance and integrity of your software house website!
With the Ahrefs suite, Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can run a series of tests that will help you find any SEO issues and evaluate the results of your software house link building campaign.
This checklist from Ahrefs is a great starting point. Not every item on this list is directly related to links, but they are nonetheless worth noting - such minor errors can reduce the power of even the best links.
Summary
Effective link building is an important but challenging aspect of SEO strategy for any software house. Achieving the desired results requires careful planning, execution and tracking. And even then, you have to wait a while for success in the rankings.
We have listed only a few common link building mistakes for software houses. There are many more, and they very often require a lot of knowledge and, most importantly, time that you want to spend on other things related to your business.
We are here to help you with that. Contact us and let us handle the link bulding for your software house!
