Link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO, but it can also be one of the most complex. In this article, we'll cover the different strategies when it comes to link building and show you exactly how they work so that you can use and implement them.
Link building is the process of building links from another site to your site, resulting in improved authority and online presence. Links are a cornerstone of search engine optimization (SEO), and they can be leveraged to improve ranking by providing context for search engines to crawl and rank your content.
Link building takes many forms, but it all boils down to one thing: getting other sites or pages with reputable rankings on Google – and therefore more traffic – to link back to yours.
Link building is not Public Relations (PR) or Lead Generation. These are strategies on their own, which can be used in conjunction with link building; however, the goal of each is completely different from that of link building.
PR aims to improve brand awareness and, in some cases, sales. Lead generation aims to attract potential customers to your business and generate interest in your offering, encouraging them to take action.
The purpose of link building is not to target your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) or generate leads. Its purpose is to boost the authority and organic traffic of your website.
Typically, dofollow links are seen as "more valuable" than nofollow links. This is because dofollow links pass PageRank, which indicates how well a site is able to rank on Google. However, even though dofollow and nofollow links have different value-add, both types of links should be included in your strategy if you want a natural-looking backlink profile.
Link building takes time and patience to yield long-term value. Unlike paid advertising and its instant results, link building is not a quick fix, but it can be the most effective way to gain more traffic for your business. The best link building strategies are those that work across different industries, are scalable, and don't require much maintenance once they're set up.
Link building isn't something you do once and forget about until next year – it's an ongoing process that requires consistent effort over time if you want to see results from it (and who doesn't?). Below, we cover strategies that will have a powerful impact in 2023.
Technical SEO is vital in gaining Google’s nod of approval. Everything from your website architecture to your web core vitals needs to be spick and span. If your site is well-kept, technically speaking, you are more likely to be crawled, indexed, and ranked in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The higher you rank, the more visibility you achieve. The more visibility you achieve, the higher your chances of someone clicking on your website and/or linking to it.
Content marketing is a great way to build links and grow your organic traffic. Even though it has been around for years, content marketing is still one of the best ways to increase your site traffic and build trust with your customers.
Think about it…the main purpose of Google is to return helpful information that aligns with users’ searches. How do they do that? With content. Not just any content, though, content that is high-quality, well-researched, and provides real value for users. If your content ticks all of these boxes, and people are finding real value in it, other websites and content writers may link to your content as a resource within their pieces. This shows Google that other websites see you as an authority on a topic, placing you in a better position to rank.
Guest Posting is one of the more traditional link building strategies out there. You write an article with a link to your website or content, and they publish the article. Simple.
Unfortunately, guest posting comes with a negative stigma and people stay clear of it out of fear of penalization. Over time, as methods become increasingly popular, scammers and spammers arise. The “spammy” connotation of guest posting de-popularizes it as a strategy. Don’t get us wrong, there are definitely spammy guest posts and guest posters out there. They write a few articles and spam the site with links back to their own website and other websites (for a fee) without adding any value for the reader whatsoever.
However, guest posting should not be disregarded altogether - it still works! This link building strategy has its benefits:
Pro Tip: Don’t write for sites advertising guest posting. Rather, find sites that are relevant to your industry and pitch the content to them. Usually, high-quality, free content is an offer most sites don’t refuse.
Curated link building works like this:
It differs from guest posting in that you do not write any content; someone else has already written it.
Publishing links within existing content is powerful because the content has had time to generate traffic so we know there are people interested in what we're writing about. It indicates that we are experts in our field – adding value instead of trying to sell something directly through our own site and social media channels.
Pro Tip: use long-tail keywords and avoid branded and generic (‘click here’) anchors within the content.
A gold mine for backlink opportunities is your competitor’s backlink profile. Why reinvent the wheel?
Following this strategy helps you identify:
The overview of your competitor’s strategies and their shortfalls enables you to capitalize on and brainstorm new ideas for content and gain backlinks your competitors don’t have yet.
Simply put, you would:
For those with more advanced SEO skills, we suggest reading through a detailed guide on how to reverse engineer your competitors’ link building strategies.
Link reclamation is the process of identifying and reclaiming a link you once had but have now lost. It's different from claiming unlinked brand mentions because it helps you regain link value. With unlinked brand mentions, you never had a link in the first place therefore, there is no link to reclaim.
Ahrefs has an in-depth guide on the different ways you can reclaim your links. They outline these three methods:
Infographics are an engaging way to present your information. Creative and visual, people digest the content easily. In today's day and age, we live in a world where visuals are more important than ever before. According to research conducted by Demand Sage, websites that make use of infographics are reporting a 12% higher traffic growth than those that don’t.
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) connects journalists with experts on a variety of topics. This is a great tool for getting your name in front of potential customers and media outlets, as well as building relationships with other journalists. You can sign up to be on their mailing list and receive an email each day with opportunities to contribute content or answer questions about your industry or niche. If the journalist accepts your submission, they will include your contribution in their content and, sometimes, give you a link.
A directory listing is a website that lists businesses, products, and services. You can get free or paid directory listings to improve your backlink profile. These links are often nofollow – meaning they don't pass PageRank. Publishing nofolllow links help balance out your backlink profile so that it looks natural and not spammy. This is a popular strategy to implement when you have been building dofollow links for an extended period of time (1 year+).
Pro Tip: have a pre-templated information sheet with all of your information so that you can refer to it each time you add a listing.
It’s human nature that we find statistics powerful, validating, and relatable. They connect groups of people and back up what people say. This is why surveys are such a good vehicle for link building – if people come across your data and it supports what they’re writing about, they are likely to include a link to your report.
Surveys involve resources and time, but the payoff can be so worth it. Conducting your own survey allows you to ask specific questions – that you want answers to – and yields unique data. Sometimes, the results may not be what you were hoping for, but nevertheless, you can pivot to create a new content topic. Whatever happens, you must use your results to engage your audience.
One piece of advice - don’t link build without method. Google’s algorithms are a great guide to follow when executing link building strategies. Essentially, you are getting information on how to rank “straight from the horse’s mouth.” For example,The December 2022 Link Spam Update was designed to discredit any links that were published solely for artificial manipulation of search rankings (aka: link spam). Any credit passed by the spammy, inorganic, and unnatural links would be lost.
Outsourcing your link building to professional SEO strategists is more cost-effective than training in-house. You have a team of dedicated experts to deliver links with a faster turnaround time than if you had to train your team and implement link building internally. There is crucial (expensive) software that you’d have to incorporate and learn about too, which outsourced agencies would have waxed. Again, we ask, why reinvent the wheel?
Link building is a fundamental pillar of SEO that helps increase the authority and organic traffic of websites. Misconceived by many, it is not here to generate leads, increase sales or improve brand awareness. There is a myriad of link building strategies one can use. They can be traditional, modern, cheaper, more expensive, faster or slower. In the end, if done correctly and given enough time to yield results, link building will offer organizations a huge return on their investment. Not sure where to start? Look into outsourced link building and SEO services today.
