Link building is the process of acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites to your own. The backlinks act as digital endorsements. The backlinks 'tell' search engines that your website is valuable, relevant, and trustworthy.
Why are backlinks important? Backlinks:
- Improve search engine rankings
- Increase organic traffic
- Are opportunities to expose your brand to a new audience
- Establish your website as an authority in your industry
- Make your content easier to discover, improving user experience
- Search engines view backlinks as votes of confidence. More high-quality backlinks often correlate with higher search engine rankings.
- Backlinks from websites related to your niche reinforce your website's relevance to specific search terms.
There are many types of backlinks and it's safe to say that all different types of backlinks work. Quality backlinks will have that much of an impact, but that is not to say other backlinks do not help.
If you are just getting started, simply having more backlinks will help. Most startups benefit from signing up for directories, guest posts, and social media postings.
Types of Backlinks
Understanding the different types of backlinks is key to developing a well-rounded link-building strategy. Each type carries varying weight and influence on your website's search engine rankings. Let's understand the major types of backlinks.
- Do-follow backlinks: These pass link equity, directly influencing your search rankings.
- No-follow backlinks: These don't pass link equity but can still improve your website's visibility and credibility.
- Sponsored backlinks: Paid links that can be risky and against Google's guidelines.
- UGC backlinks: Generated through user-generated content like commentsor forum posts.
Preliminary Steps For Link-building Strategy.
Before engaging in any link-building strategy, consider these essential steps:
1. Link Building Assessment
The first part of any link-building campaign is to develop a strategy that suits your business. Here are the three steps to use:
a) Identify Your Link Building Strengths
The first step in a link-building campaign is choosing the ones that play to your strengths. These strategies will become an important part of your whole campaign.
b) Find Your Most Linked-To Content
When your website is live, you may want to check if it already has links. Finding out which pages have the most links is helpful for two reasons:
- It highlights the form of content you should create to generate more links
- It highlights content you could use for future linkable asset campaigns
c) Perform Competitor Backlink Analysis
Discovering how your competitors generate links is a great way to see what strategies work for websites like yours.
2. Target Keyword in Anchor Text
A quality backlink should have your target keyword in the anchor text, which is the text that contains the link. Make it so that the anchor text is a full phrase that describes the target's content not just a broad overview.
Make your anchor text in a way that it fits the context of different sources. It's better to have diverse anchor texts than to use the same phrase for all.
Here's a list of 12 white hat, high-quality link-building strategies anyone can start with.
A lot of the strategies mentioned here are straightforward. The best strategy is one that suits the current stage of your company.
Strategy1: Create Guest Posts
> “Find a website you want to have a backlink from and reach out to them. Just ask how much and negotiate from there.”
Guest posting is a win-win. You get exposure to a new audience and a backlink.
Find different websites that you could write for. Most of the webmasters are willing to explore business opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs. If you can offer them something they have nothing to lose from, most people will take the opportunity.
While guest posting is a highly effective link-building strategy, it often comes with a cost. Many websites charge fees for guest post opportunities, with rates typically ranging from $20 to $400 or more. However, for many blog owners, guest posting can also be a lucrative business opportunity, allowing them to monetize their content and reach a wider audience.
The guest posting process is pretty straightforward:
- Find a site to guest post on.
- Get your content ready!
- Send your pitch
- Follow up
- Repeat
Strategy 2: Hustle Backlinks on Directories
Yes, you can get backlinks by simply signing up on directories. While directories might not have the same impact as they once did, relevant listings still contribute to your link profile.
Focus on high-quality, industry-specific directories. While it can be time-consuming, you can use a form-filling extension tool to save some time. Some websites will ask you to pay to get a listing.
Key considerations when using directories:
- Relevance: Prioritize directories that are relevant to your niche or industry.
- Quality: Choose directories with a good reputation and high-quality listings.
- NAP consistency: Ensure your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) information is consistent across all directories.
- Keyword optimization: Include relevant keywords in your directory listing.
- Link diversity: Use a mix of do-follow and no-follow directories to diversify your link profile.
Popular directory categories:
- Business directories: Yelp, Google My Business, Yellow Pages
- Industry-specific directories: For example, healthcare directories, legal directories,
- Niche directories: Aligned with specific interests or hobbies
While directories can be a quick win, they should be part of a broader link-building strategy. Focus on building high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative websites for long-term SEO success.
Strategy 3: Sky Scraper Strategy
Make content that other websites will want to share. This could include in-depth articles, research, or interactive tools. Add eye-catching visuals like infographics and videos to make your content more engaging and easy to scan.
By producing in-depth, comprehensive, and authoritative content, you attract natural backlinks from other websites.
Here's how it works:
- Identify a topic: Choose a popular topic within your niche that already has several articles ranking on the first page of search results.
- Analyze competitors: Study the top-ranking articles to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
- Create exceptional content: Develop content that is significantly better than the competition. Include more data, visuals, expert insights, and practical applications.
- Promote your content: After publishing your content, promote it through social media, email marketing, and outreach.
- Outreach: Contact bloggers, influencers, and other websites and market or introduce your content.
Remember, quality ever-green content has a long-term shelf life.
Strategy 4. Sign up for HARO Sites
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a platform that connects journalists with experts in various fields. By providing informative responses to media queries, you position yourself as an authority. This will build your brand awareness, and eventually earn backlinks.
How HARO works:
- Sign up: Create a HARO account and look out for source requests that are relevant to your industry. Make sure you specify your areas of expertise.
- Receive queries: You may receive emails containing media requests from journalists.
- Respond quickly: Time is of the essence. Respond promptly to relevant queries with valuable insights.
- Craft authoritative responses: When you find one, respond with a pitch. Be thorough in your pitch. Choose a subject line that summarizes your pitch.
Include answers to the journalist’s questions.
Never use Google to prepare your answers! - Include a link: Include a link to your website or relevant content within your response.
Here is a list of some HARO sites you can consider.
| Haro Site | Free Plan? |
|---|---|
| Connectively | Yes |
| Prowly | Yes |
| SourceBottle | Yes |
| Featured | Yes |
| Meltwater | No |
| Qwoted | Yes |
| CisionOne | No |
Strategy 5. Local Link Building
Local link building focuses on acquiring backlinks from websites within your geographic area. This is important for businesses targeting a specific location and aiming to dominate local search results.
Key strategies for local link building:
- Online directories: Claim and optimize your business listings on popular local directories. These include Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, and industry-specific directories.
- Community websites: Build relationships with local community websites, newspapers, and blogs to secure backlinks.
- Local partnerships: Collaborate with complementary businesses in your area for mutual link-building opportunities.
- Customer reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Facebook.
- Local events: Sponsor or participate in local events to gain exposure and potential backlinks.
By implementing these strategies, you can enhance your local search visibility and attract more customers from your target area.
Strategy 6. Relationship-Based Link Building
Genuine relationships with other website owners and influencers lead to natural, high-quality backlinks. Attend industry events, participate in online forums, and engage with your audience.
Key strategies for relationship-based link building:
- Identify key influencers: Research and identify influential individuals and websites in your niche.
- Engage with their content: Interact with their content through comments, social shares, and email engagement.
- Offer value: Provide assistance, share insights, or collaborate on projects to demonstrate your value.
- Guest posting: Contribute high-quality guest posts to their websites.
- Joint ventures: Collaborate on joint projects, webinars, or ebooks.
- Social media engagement: Build relationships through social media platforms.
- Attend industry events: Network with other professionals at industry conferences and events.
- Email outreach: Send personalized emails to build relationships and offer value.
- Providing testimonials: Writing reviews for products or services you use can earn you links back to your site.
Strategy 7. Technical Link Building
Technical link building is often overlooked, yet it plays a key role in optimizing your website for search engines and attracting high-quality backlinks. By addressing technical SEO issues you:
- Improve your website's overall health
- Enhance user experience
- Indirectly encourage link acquisition.
Focus on creating a website that is easy to crawl, index, and understand for search engines. This involves optimizing website architecture, internal linking structure, XML sitemaps, and robots.txt files.
A clean and well-structured website will improve your search rankings and make it easier for other websites to discover and link to your valuable content.
Implementing schema markup can also help search engines understand your content better, potentially leading to rich snippets and increased click-through rates. While schema markup doesn't directly result in backlinks, it boosts link acquisition by enhancing a website's visibility and credibility.
Strategy 8. E-commerce Link Building
E-commerce link building requires a unique approach, as the focus shifts from acquiring links to the main domain to targeting specific product or category pages. This focus targets traffic conversions.
E-commerce link-building strategies:
- Create high-quality content: Develop informative and engaging content that addresses your target audience's needs and interests. Consider topics like product comparisons, buying guides, tutorials, and industry trends.
- Leverage user-generated content: Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences through reviews and testimonials. Create case studies or success stories to showcase product benefits.
- Influencer marketing: Collaborate with industry influencers for product reviews, sponsored content, or guest posts.
- Utilize visual content: Create visually appealing and shareable content like infographics, videos, or interactive tools.
- Optimize product pages: Ensure product descriptions are informative and keyword-optimized. Include high-quality images and detailed product information.
- Offer discounts and promotions: Partner with bloggers or influencers to offer exclusive discounts or promotions in exchange for backlinks.
Strategy 9. Link Earning Strategies
Link earning is the goal of any link-building campaign. It involves creating content so exceptional that other websites naturally link to it. This requires a deep understanding of your target audience, their needs, and the search intent behind relevant keywords.
To earn links, focus on creating content that is informative, comprehensive, and actionable.
Conduct thorough research to ensure your content is accurate, up-to-date, and provides real value to your audience. Also, by addressing a specific problem or answering a burning question, you increase the likelihood of people sharing and linking to your content.
Visual content, such as infographics, videos, and interactive tools, can also help earn links. People are more likely to share visually appealing content on social media and embed it on their websites.
You can also consider repurposing your content into different formats. For example, you can transform a blog post into a podcast episode, an infographic, or a video. This allows you to reach a wider audience and increase the chances of earning backlinks.
Strategy 10. Write Press Releases
Press releases are powerful tools for generating media coverage and backlinks. By crafting compelling and newsworthy press releases, you attract the attention of journalists.
To create effective press releases, start by identifying newsworthy events or announcements. This could include product launches, company milestones, research findings, or industry awards.
Once you have a newsworthy topic, develop a compelling headline that accurately reflects the content and grabs attention.
The body of your press release should provide clear and concise information about the news. Include key details, quotes from relevant individuals, and strong calls to action. Optimize your press release for search engines by having relevant keywords naturally throughout the text.
When distributing your press release, use reputable distribution services to maximize your reach.
Make sure to prepare the press release so readers understand what your product does and it speaks to the problem they have.
Strategy 11. Link Reclamation Strategies
Link reclamation involves identifying and recovering lost or broken inbound links to your website. It's a good strategy for maintaining your link profile's strength and preventing a decline in search engine rankings.
Key steps in link reclamation:
- Identify broken links: Use tools like Google Search Console, Broken Link Checker, or Screaming Frog SEO Spider to find pages on your website that return 404 errors.
- Analyze lost link value: Assess the impact of broken links on your overall link profile. Prioritize pages with high-quality backlinks.
- Create replacement content: Develop new content to replace the broken pages. Ensure the new content is relevant and provides value to users.
- Reach out to website owners: Contact website owners who linked to the broken pages and inform them about the new content. Provide them with the new URL.
- Offer alternative options: If creating new content is not feasible, suggest alternative pages on your website that might be relevant to the lost link.
- Unlinked brand mentions: Identify instances where your brand is mentioned without a link and reach out to the website owners to request a link.
- Fix internal broken links: Repair any broken internal links on your website to improve user experience and search engine crawling.
- Redirect broken pages: If possible, set up redirects from broken pages to relevant existing content.
Strategy 12. Podcast Interviews
Podcast interviews offer an opportunity to reach a new audience, build brand awareness, and earn backlinks. Appearing on relevant podcasts positions you as an industry expert in your field.
Key steps for securing podcast interviews:
- Identify target podcasts: Research podcasts in your niche with a substantial listener base.
- Build relationships with hosts: Engage with podcast hosts on social media and offer valuable insights.
- Pitch your expertise: Develop a compelling pitch highlighting your unique knowledge and perspectives.
- Prepare for the interview: Research the podcast, prepare talking points, and practice your answers.
- Optimize your bio: Include relevant keywords and a link to your website in your podcast guest bio.
- Follow up: Thank the host for the opportunity and share the episode on your social media channels.
Tips for a successful podcast interview:
- Preparedness: Research the podcast and its audience to tailor your answers accordingly.
- Be authentic: Speak naturally and share your passion for the topic.
- Tell stories: Use storytelling to engage listeners and make your points memorable.
- Promote your content: Naturally, mention your website or relevant content during the interview.
- Follow up: Thank the host and share the episode on your social media channels.
Measuring and Analyzing Link Performance
Tracking and analyzing your link performance helps you understand the impact of your link-building efforts and identify areas for improvement. This will help you make data-driven decisions to optimize your link-building strategy.
Key metrics to track:
- Number of backlinks: Monitor the overall quantity of backlinks pointing to your website.
- Referring domains: Track the number of unique websites linking to your content.
- Do-follow vs. no-follow backlinks: Analyze the proportion of do-follow and no-follow backlinks.
- Anchor text distribution: Evaluate the distribution of anchor text used in backlinks.
- Link quality: Assess the authority and relevance of linking websites.
- Link toxicity: Identify any potentially harmful backlinks that could negatively impact your rankings.
- Backlink growth: Monitor the rate at which you acquire new backlinks.
Tools for link analysis:
- Google Search Console: Provides insights into backlinks, search impressions, and click-through rates.
- Ahrefs: Offers comprehensive backlink analysis, competitor research, and keyword tracking.
- Moz: Provides backlink data, domain authority scores, and SEO tools.
- SEMrush: Offers backlink analysis, keyword research, and competitor tracking.
Link Diversity, Sustainability, and Ethicality
A diverse link profile is key for long-term SEO success. Relying solely on one type of backlink can raise red flags with search engines and make your website vulnerable to algorithm updates.
Building a diverse link profile involves:
- Variety of link types: Acquire backlinks from different sources, such as editorial links, guest posts, directories, and forums.
- Anchor text diversity: Use a mix of anchor text variations, including branded keywords, exact match keywords, and partial match keywords. Avoid keyword stuffing.
- Domain authority distribution: Obtain backlinks from websites with varying levels of authority.
- Link location: Distribute backlinks across different parts of linking websites, such as home pages, internal pages, and blog posts.
- Follow vs. no-follow: Balance the ratio of do-follow and no-follow backlinks.
Building a sustainable link profile requires a long-term perspective. Focus on creating high-quality content that naturally attracts backlinks over time. Avoid black-hat tactics, such as buying links or participating in link schemes, as they can harm your website's reputation and lead to penalties.
Prioritize building relationships with other websites and influencers. Genuine partnerships can lead to long-lasting and valuable backlinks.
Regularly monitor your link profile for any signs of unnatural link patterns or toxic backlinks. If you identify any issues, promptly address them and protect your website's reputation.
By maintaining a diverse and sustainable link profile, you can improve your website's authority, enhance search engine rankings, and reduce the risk of penalties.
