Since the release of an influential 1998 thesis from Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the topic of backlinks has been at the forefront of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry. And when the duo unleashed the game-changing tech giant, these Backlinks became priority No. 1 for Search Engine Marketers everywhere.
Here’s a passage from Wikipedia’s page on Google history…
While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the search terms appeared on the page, they theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships among websites. They called this algorithm PageRank; it determined a website’s relevance by the number of pages, and the importance of those pages that linked back to the original site.
In the last 24 years, Google has changed its algorithm many times, and adjusted to refine its generated Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to be real, organic experiences. However, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Backlinks are still here, and still a primary element of any strong SEO program. To get ahead online, worldwide DJs of all stripes – mobile, club, whatever – need to have a solid Backlink strategy.
First, a reminder on what actually constitutes a Backlink. In my own words…
A Backlink is any text on the web that is tagged with a link (under-the-hood) where clicking on said text will result in you navigating to the link in question. In short, a Backlink that’s in favor of your brand will “link back” to your site when a user clicks on it.
Simple enough? Sure, but here’s one thing to consider: Watch that the site in question (that you want to post on in order to gain a Backlink) is actually a dofollow or a nofollow. This is a huge consideration, as nofollow sites will have your Backlink ignored by Google’s Crawler Engine.
Now, let’s explore how to find Backlink opportunities in two different ways… Organic and Competitive.
Organic Backlink Strategy for DJs
To find opportunities for Backlinks, look no further than your industry. Here’s just a sample of places online that you should strive for:
- Worldwide Directories. Start with the basics, such as The Knot, WeddingWire, Eventective, etc., for mobile jocks, and org, etc., for club DJs. There are dozens of such directories out there, no matter where you come from.
- Local Directories. These speak far more to Google’s focus on local relevance. Look for directories that are solely region-based, as opposed to directories that simply have a section within their site labeled with the region name.
- Guest Blogging. I know this will be painful for those of you who don’t like to write, but a powerful method of obtaining a Backlink is to write an article for an outside site that is relevant to your industry, and have that site post your article on their site.
- Niche Landing Pages. Creating your very own Backlinks as part of a Niche Landing Page strategy is resourceful, and it speaks to the relevance aspect that Google loves these days. For those of you who have not heard me speak about Niche Landing Pages before, it’s the process of pushing up a series of one-page websites that speak to a niche. Essentially, you’re surrounding your main website with URLs that are named strategically to pull in Google users. For example, if your main website is https://xyzdj.com and you’re in the New York City market, a great URL for a Niche Landing Page would be something like https://chelseadj.com (Chelsea is a Manhattan neighborhood).
Competitive Backlink Strategy for DJs
Make no mistake, the above is valuable knowledge, and a great starting point. However, there are a lot of you DJs who just don’t have the time to execute this task. If you have a company in the same industry where Digitera resides, then just hand this task off to your digital marketing person/company. If you’re still a do-it-yourself person, though, here’s a method to cut down on your time: Just look at your competitors’ SEO, and follow what they’ve done. Here’s how that works:
- Find your top competitor in your local region. This could be that company that you seem to be fighting against for gigs all the time, or it could be the leading DJ company in the area. You’re not limited to just doing one company – make a list of your Top 5, if you want.
- You also can take a look at the leading complementary companies in your area. For DJs, these are companies doing business in Photobooths, Photography, Videography… even Wedding Planners, etc.
- Run each company URL through a Backlink Reporting Tool. There are lots of these tools out there. Here’s just one of them that has a good reputation: https://neilpatel.com/backlinks/
- Look at the report. These are the Backlinks that this competitor company of yours has in its favor as of the time you ran this report. Your task now is to chase ALL these Backlink Opportunities in favor of YOUR company as well.
- Final note: Don’t put more than 10 companies on your list. Following theory on Statistics and Social Graphing, after, say, eight to 10 similar local companies on your list, the Backlink sources will start overlapping, and you’ll be wasting time.
In summary, Backlinks are essential to SEO. For us here at Digitera, we chase Backlink Opportunities every day, and have seen amazing results after four to six months of a well-thought Backlink Program. They’re so important to Google SERPs that the first name they thought of before they chose the name Google was actually “Backrub.” True story.
P.S. – My recently announced seminars at the 2022 DJX show, set for Aug. 8-11 in Atlantic City, N.J., will contain discussions on Backlink strategy for Mitzvahs (Monday, Aug. 8), Venue Preferred Vendor Lists (Tuesday, Aug. 9) and Proms (Wednesday, Aug. 10). Hope to see you all there!
Jordan St. Jacques is the President/Lead Digital Marketer at Digitera.Interactive in Ottawa, Ont., Canada.
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