Essentially, it’s the opposite of creating fake and spam links, and it means you’re not working in a completely independent space in terms of building brand credibility. Think about it: would you rather trust a business with a site that has dozens of pages on how great it is, or the one that’s referred to positively by a handful of other authoritative names you recognise, from popular bloggers to well known industry experts? The key benefit here is not just creating links and driving traffic for SEO purposes, but building a brand and creating business in a fresh new way.

The process of relationship-building can take a number of forms; as it’s still a relatively new field. It is particularly applicable to social media, but can also take the form of guest blogging, article mentions, and referral links (think ‘resources’ and ‘suppliers’ and ‘people we like’ pages). It requires a certain amount of strategy- you won’t want to work with direct competitors, but you will want to work with the right people for the size, location and nature of your business. Relationship building can also take a lot more work than bought/paid links and other shady link building strategies- but the payoff is much better in the long run, especially considering the trends identified in the latest algorithm updates (towards natural and genuine links, and harshly penalising spammy links).

Essentially, relationship building requires openness, honesty and enthusiasm. It can often start in the real world; by attending conferences, networking events and trade shows etc. you can potentially meet a whole new group of people you may not have previously thought about working with. Discussing what you like about each other’s products and how you might share in your online presences can be creative and inspiring- so get to it!