What Is Link Building?

Link building is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that involves getting other websites to link to your website. This way, visitors of those websites can be directed to yours. 

Search engines, like Google, view websites that are linked by others as authoritative. Your website may be considered to have valuable content if others are linking to it, especially when you are being linked by high-quality, relevant websites. Accordingly, search engines will rank it at the top. 

As one of the leading marketing approaches, link building helps businesses catch the attention of their target audience, increasing their brand awareness. 

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What Is the Importance of Link Building?

Link building is essential in helping websites rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s one of the most effective SEO strategies, as it improves the authority and trustworthiness of a website, making it a powerful tool. 

Search engine algorithms consider value when ranking websites. A website needs to have relevant and quality content in relation to a user’s search query to rank higher. If two websites meet this requirement, but one of them has been linked by other websites, it will be advantaged, as search engines will view it as more valuable.

Additionally, link building helps search engines crawl a site. Backlinks signal to search engines that a page on another website exists and, in turn, should be indexed. Search engines primarily use links to find new pages to display them to users.

Internal linking — linking a page on the same website — is another part of link building, which helps users navigate a website. If a blog post provides links to other relevant posts, it can be easier for a user to learn more, as all they have to do is click the links to be directed to another post. Without internal linking, a user may need to keep searching for different blog posts, which can negatively impact user experience.

A business can also create meaningful relationships through link building. Businesses use different strategies to get other websites to link them, including guest blogging, partnering with influencers, and broken link building. Being link partners can benefit businesses significantly, as they get to access each other’s audiences, and possibly work on other projects, such as sponsoring a community event. 

How To Build Backlinks (The Right Strategy)

Building backlinks can be challenging, as you need to get other websites to link to your website. You don’t have as much control as you do with internal linking. Accordingly, some businesses opt to use shortcuts that can lead to low-quality links, which are typically not favored by search engines. Over the years, Google has introduced different features to filter out websites with poor links, claiming they don’t deserve to rank higher on SERPs.

Thus, you need to ensure the strategies you are implementing will result in high-quality links. Below are nine strategies to consider:

Brand/Unlinked Mentions

A brand or unlinked mention is when your business is mentioned on another website, but the creator does not provide a link to your website. For example, when a food blogger visits a restaurant, and decides to list it in their content about “The best pizza restaurants to visit in neighborhood Y,” or mentions it in a comment, but they don’t provide a link. 

The readers of the food blogger’s content will know about the restaurant. Then, they will search for it. Although they didn’t get to the restaurant’s website by clicking a link on the blogger’s website, they learned about the brand from the blogger.

Search engines consider unlinked mentions as natural and trustworthy. Thus, your website may rank higher, even though you were not linked by another website.

Unlinked mentions can also help you build brand awareness. Additionally, they offer a link building opportunity — you can reach out to the site owner to see if they can add a link to the mention. 

You need to monitor unlinked mentions. This way, you can thank site owners, and discover link building opportunities. Discovering unlinked mentions can also help you manage your reputation. For example, if a site owner talks about you negatively, perhaps they had an experience they consider unsatisfactory when interacting with your business and decide to write a blog post about it, you can address it sooner.

Guest Post

Guest posting involves writing and publishing content on another website to get links back to your website. You can reach out to site owners to ask if you can provide content relevant to their products and services, and then include links to your website.

Several websites offer guest blogging opportunities. Searching for a phrase like “Write for us” on search engines will give you a list of pages with guest posting opportunities. Find a page that aligns with your niche and contact them.

Note that you may need to pitch your idea to be approved by the site owner, especially when you want to guest blog for a high-quality website. 

You need to come up with outstanding ideas. Not only can this help you get a guest posting opportunity, but it also ensures you write content that will catch the attention of readers. You want many people to find the post and click the links included. So, write about a topic people are searching for, and research the right keywords to use.

Guest blogging is a reliable link building strategy when starting, and even after establishing your brand as an authority in the industry. When you have links to your websites on numerous websites, search engines will see that as a vote of confidence.

Broken Link Building

Some site owners unknowingly have broken links on their platforms. This may happen because of a typo in the URL, a web page they linked to is deleted or went offline, or a website’s structure was changed without proper redirection. Identifying these pages, and informing them of the broken links, can be a great way to get backlinks. 

Broken link building involves identifying a broken link on a website, finding relevant content on your website that can replace the broken link, and then contacting the site owner. You can inform them of the broken link, and request them to replace it with yours.

This strategy usually works because the site owner appreciates the heads-up, as they understand how broken links can negatively impact search engine rankings and user 

experience. Additionally, they don’t need to find an alternative since you are already providing it.

You don’t need to go through every website page to find broken links. Use SEO tools, such as  Ahrefs or Semrush, to scan websites and identify those with broken links. From the list you find, choose pages that link to pages whose content can be replaced with yours. Basically, if you don’t have relevant content to replace the broken link, it can be best to continue with the search. Your suggestion should be a suitable alternative to the broken link to increase the chances of the site owner accepting it.

Outreaching

Outreaching for link building is to actively reach out to site owners to ask them to add a hyperlink to your website on their platform. It can be a link building strategy in itself or can be part of another strategy, such as broken link building, guest posting, skyscraper technique, or resource page link building.

The outreaching strategy can help you connect with reliable link partners. However, you need a few tricks up your sleeve. Firstly, take time to research the website you want to contact. Examine their content, the audience they target, the pages they link to, and so on.

You should also know the right people to contact. While you can use the email address included on a website’s contact page, it can be beneficial to directly contact the decision-makers of the company. 

Tools, like Hunter.io and Voila Norbert, can help you find the email address associated with a domain. You can find the email address of a senior at a company you want to work with by providing their name and company URL using these tools. You can also contact a company’s decision-makers on social media. For instance, sending them a message on Linkedin.

Once you have the needed email address or social media accounts, you should create a compelling email or message. Personalize it to the recipient by mentioning their name. 

Furthermore, mention a few articles that you enjoyed on the website or what you appreciate about their site — perhaps it’s easy to navigate — and so forth. Then, pitch your idea, which should align with the site’s audience, and write a call to action. You can also include links to some of your blog posts to showcase your expertise on the subject you are pitching.

If you don’t receive a response in about four to seven days, it’s important to follow up. Your follow-up should be polite and brief.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a platform that allows journalists to connect with business owners who are experts in different industries. A journalist will send a query about a particular subject, and then businesses will send well-crafted responses. The journalist will then assess the responses to choose the most appropriate source.

A significant percentage of journalists on HARO publish their stories in reputable publications. A business having a link to their website on such publications can improve their brand awareness substantially. Additionally, being linked to a respected publication can help a business establish credibility.

With numerous queries being posted daily on HARO, businesses have many link building opportunities. If a journalist does not pick you as a source, you can always find another query to respond to. 

Using HARO for link building is cost-effective. For starters, opening a HARO account, and accessing journalist queries is free. The platform has paid plans with additional benefits, but you can benefit from the basic features offered in the free plan.

It’s vital to respond to queries promptly, as many experts are always ready to offer in-depth responses. Your response should be among the first a journalist sees to increase your chances of being considered.

You can build a strong relationship with a journalist on the platform. They may reach out to you for ongoing opportunities if you are a reliable source, helping you to earn high-quality backlinks.

Skyscraper Technique

The skyscraper technique is a link building strategy that entails identifying high-ranking content with many backlinks, finding their weaknesses, and creating a better version of the same content. You could contact the owners of the websites that have links to the existing content to see if they can add a link to your site as well. 

So, how do you create a better version of content?

You can do this by providing in-depth information, more tips, or having a better design. For example, if the existing content discussed “Five tips for cleaning your bathroom,” you can write about “10 tips for maintaining a clean bathroom.” If the existing content has not broken down points with subheadings and bullet points, you can do that to make your content digestible for readers. If some of the details in the existing content are outdated, ensure your content has current information, and so forth.

Additionally, your content should be valuable and have the right keywords. It should also align with the users’ common search queries. 

Write compelling emails when reaching out to the owners of the sites that have linked the existing content, informing them why your content will provide more value to their audience.

Resource Page Link Building

Resource pages are pages on websites that provide a curated list of links to external sources that contain relevant content to a specific topic. Users looking for quality content usually use these pages to find relevant websites. Thus, being listed on a resource page is a profitable link building strategy. 

Reach out to the website owner to request to be included in their list. Your email should tell them why your page offers high-quality content on a particular subject.

SEO tools, like Ahrefs and Semrush, can help you find websites in your niche with resource pages. You can also research the resource pages that link your competitors. Searching “Top resources for (niche)” or “Best tools for (niche)” can also help discover resource pages that list websites in your area of expertise. 

Earning Links With Link Assets

A link asset is any form of content on your website that is valuable enough to be linked by other websites. These include infographics, case studies, blog posts, interactive tools, and data reports. Your link assets need to be informative, visually appealing, credible, simple, and interactive to achieve their intended goal. 

Link assets can naturally be linked by others, but you can also promote them. For instance, you can promote your blog post on social media to reach more people while showcasing it as a valuable asset to link.

Relevant Competitor Links

You need to pay attention to the backlinks your competitors get. You can find a high-quality website that can add a hyperlink to your website on their platform. This is a straightforward strategy for finding websites in your niche. 

SEO tools can help you find competitor backlinks. Analyze the websites you find to choose that align with your objectives. Since they are linking your competitors, these websites are always on the lookout for new content within the respective niche. If you reach out with a compelling pitch, you can earn links from a high-quality website.

How Not To Build Backlinks (The Wrong Strategy)

As mentioned before, there are wrong strategies for building backlinks. While different websites may add hyperlinks to your websites using these tactics, your rankings on search engines may not be affected or even drop. Poor-quality links are not what you want for your business. Here are four tactics to avoid when building backlinks:

Buying Links

The practice of paying website owners to place hyperlinks on their sites is not uncommon. Some business owners opt for this strategy as it’s quick. However, it violates Google’s Webmaster guidelines. If Google discovers you are paying for links, they may penalize you by lowering your search engine ranking, making it almost impossible to be visible.

Google frequently analyzes patterns on websites’ backlink profiles. If they detect abnormal behaviors, such as a sudden influx of links from irrelevant websites, or the presence of a website’s links in suspicious link-selling marketplaces, they may investigate the matter. If their investigation proves more abnormal patterns, a site’s SEO efforts may be fruitless since Google will drop their ranking on SERPs.

Note that some harmless behaviors may trigger an investigation. For example, guest posting for websites unrelated to your niche, or writing blog posts for numerous websites that publish content within the same period. Thus, you need to be intentional when employing the right strategies.

Irrelevant Profile Links

Getting links from websites that are completely unrelated to your niche can do more than trigger an investigation. It can affect the number of people who click the link. If a user is looking for information about electrical repair services, the chances of them clicking a link to a restaurant can be low. A user looking for a fitness product may also not click a link to a recipe on the website.

It can be tempting to work with a website with high traffic despite them not being in your niche, believing out of their thousands of readers, one or two may be coincidentally looking for the services you offer. However, this does not always yield the needed results. Even if a user is looking for a legal service, they may not trust a law firm that’s linked in a restaurant’s website. They will start a separate search query when they want more information on the particular legal matter to find websites focused on legal services.

Backlinks from irrelevant websites are considered unnatural and of low quality. They can harm your search engine rankings.

Using Only Primary Keyword as an Anchor Text

Your anchor texts should be a variety of keywords, including the primary keyword, its variations, and related phrases. Using your primary keyword only as an anchor text is unnatural. Search engines may become suspicious when all the backlinks to your websites use the same keyword. They may believe you are manipulating rankings, which can result in your website being ranked lower.

Leaving Links on Comments

Leaving links in the comment section of online forums in your niche may seem like a good idea, but it’s not. Although the users on those platforms may be your target audience, your links may not benefit you as expected. For starters, links on the comment section of most forums are seen as spam, especially if you leave links without even offering meaningful content. Thus, search engines may not consider them when ranking sites. 

If you want to contribute to a topic on a forum, you can do so. However, offer informative responses to help readers. You can then reach out to the site owner to guest blog for them. Since you offered their audience value, they may consider your pitch. 

How To Get High-Quality Backlinks

Now that you are informed of the right strategies to employ when link building and those to avoid, how can you get high-quality backlinks?

Check Authority of the Page

SEO tools can help you identify websites with high domain authority. You should reach out to these websites to provide valuable content as opposed to those that are not credible enough in your industry.

Relevancy of the Website

Reach out to websites within your industry. This ensures you get natural links from relevant websites instead of unnatural ones, which can affect your search engine rankings. Always check a website’s relevance to your content before requesting a backlink.

Traffic of the Website

Website analytics tools, like Semrush and Ahrefs, can provide you with an estimation of a website traffic volume. It’s more profitable to get a backlink from a website with high traffic. Spending time writing a quality guest blog that will be seen by a few people who may not even click the link can be disappointing.

Check Spam Score

What is the likelihood of your backlinks being considered spammy? 

Use spam score tools to check the quality of incoming links to your site, and compare them to known spammy links in the tools’ database.

Do-Follow vs. No-Follow Backlinks

A do-follow backlink is a link that gives authority to the linked website. This type of backlink has no conditions on it. When search engines crawl a page and find do-follow backlinks, they continue to follow and index the linked page. Consequently, do-follow backlinks directly impact a website’s ranking on search engines.

A no-follow backlink is a link marked with the “rel=nofollow” attribute in the HTML code. This attribute notifies search engines to not pass any authority to the linked page. Therefore, these links do not directly impact a website’s ranking. A website may mark some links as no-follow backlinks to indicate they do not endorse the linked page. Online forums also use this feature to prevent spammy links in the comment section from gaining power.

Local Link Building

Local link building is a strategy that involves getting links from other local businesses or sources. If your target audience is in a particular geographic area, you need link partners within the same area. This way, your brand can be recognized by potential customers. Below are seven local link building strategies:

Citations

Your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) being mentioned or listed on local directories and websites notifies search engines that your business is active and exists in a particular location. Your NAP can be mentioned on local news websites, Google My Business (GMB), Yelp, YellowPages, and other local online listings.

Local Sponsorship Opportunities

Use social media and community websites to find local events. Then, reach out to the organizers to inform them you would like to sponsor the event, which will involve writing a blog post to promote the event in which you will include your link. It can be beneficial to sponsor events related to your niche.

Get Involved in Local Events

You can also take part in local events without sponsoring them. Participating in local events can allow you to network with potential link partners. You may find a business within your niche with high traffic that can benefit from your expertise. 

Offer Scholarships

Offering scholarships to local students is a great way to give back to your community. As an added advantage, you may get backlinks from it by writing content about the scholarship program to be posted on local directories, local news sites, or school websites with a link to your website.

Support Local Charities

Supporting local charities not only helps you build trust with the community, but you can also build local links from it. You can help a local charity by guest blogging for them to help them have quality content for their visitors, and in exchange, they can include links to your website. Moreover, you can find broken links on charity websites, notify them about it, and offer yours with relevant content as an alternative. 

It can also be wise to partner with a local charity to host an event. You can provide information about the event using a blog post published on the charity’s website and linked to yours.

Create Local Content

Creating informative local content can be your link asset. Other websites may link it because it offers value to their readers. For example, a travel company will naturally want to link a blog post discussing local landmarks, best restaurants, or events on their page.

Connect With Local Influencers

Local influencers have a following in the community that trusts them. Being linked on the website of a local influencer can help your credibility in the community. Thus, consider guest blogging for a local influencer, or reaching out to them to request them to add your hyperlink on their platform. Ensure you connect with influencers within your niche to get high-quality backlinks.

Top Link Building Tools

Businesses can use numerous tools to make link building more manageable, including:

Semrush

Semrush has several link building tools that can help a business get backlinks from high-quality websites. The platform has backlink analytics, backlink gap tool, email verifier, backlink audit, and domain search.

Ahrefs

The leading link building tools on Ahrefs are content explorer, best by links filter, broken link checker, competitor backlink analysis, domain rating, and anchor text analysis. You can use these tools in almost all aspects of link building.

Moz

Moz is a reliable tool for link building. The sub-tools allow users to identify backlinking opportunities. Examples include domain authority checker, page authority checker, link explorer, keyword explorer, competitive research, brand authority checker, outreach tools, and spam score.

Buzzstream

Buzzstream allows businesses to link build within a short period using their dependable tool. The platform’s tools allow users to find contact information, keep track of their existing and new backlinks, manage relationships with potential link partners, and send effective outreach.

Hunter

Hunter.io has several features for link building. These include domain search, email finder, email verifier, and campaign management tools. 

Buzzsumo

The features on Buzzsumo that can help you when link building are content discovery, content research, find influencers, and monitoring. With these tools, you find popular topics, identify the right influencers, and monitor brand mentions and competitor content. 

Majestic

Majestic has link building tools respected by businesses. Examples include backlink index, trust flow, citation flow, topics, site explorer, and clique hunter.

Get Started Today With Levy Online

Link building is undeniably a critical SEO strategy. It’s a technique that has substantial power in influencing a website’s ranking on search engines. Thus, business owners should aim at getting high-quality websites to link their website.
Levy Online is passionate about helping businesses get high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites. If you are looking for professional link building services, request a quote now.