Learn how to create a link-building strategy that leads to lasting results – and what you should definitely avoid.
Link building has always been a basis for search engine optimization (SEO).
However, in the 23 years of Google’s existence, link-building strategies have evolved into sophisticated practices.
At first, the number of links was the name of the game.?
The more links your site has, the higher it ranks in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Today, Google focuses on quality links over quantity to ensure that websites that offer valuable content are ranked higher.
This shift in focus has made link building a long but vital process.
Sites need quality links to rank, but site publishers no longer link to a “just because” page.
Link builders need to put in the time, though, and energy to build sustainable link-building strategies to help rank their sites in the SERPs.
How to create your own link-building strategy?
Link building strategies require a little work in advance, but once you’ve laid the groundwork, you’ve prepared for considerable success
To create your link-building strategy, consider the following steps.
Analyze your site.
Before you can determine which sites to follow or how many links to get, you need to know what your site does well and what doesn’t.
Determine if you should focus on backlinks or keyword research (or both). Once you know what your site is missing, you can build assets to help with your strategy.
- Determine your target audience.
- By understanding your audience, you can create a list of other sites they might visit.
- Start by analyzing demographics, behaviors, and interests.
- What does your audience care about?
- How are they looking for answers?
- What do they care about your product or service?
- Audit your existing content.
Please note that most site owners do not link to product pages, as the practice appears to be spam and advertising.
Instead, look for pages at the top of the funnel that is educational. Then look at your competitor’s content.
Link Building Strategies Vs. tactics
Before moving on to strategies, it is imperative that we look at the difference between tactics and strategies.
So often people confuse the two, believing that they are the same thing. Although they are closely related, they have their differences.
A strategy is defined as an action plan. It usually involves a long-term goal and how you will achieve it.
Strategy, in this case, is not the ultimate goal, but a way to achieve the ultimate goal.
A tactic is defined as the step towards achieving a strategy.
Tactics have much shorter deadlines than strategies and have a precise purpose.
Continuing with the example of social media strategy, one tactic would be to post three times a week on certain social media platforms.
Another example of a tactic would be to create more social videos to increase engagement.
Now that the difference between strategy and tactics has been explained, let’s delve into link-building strategies.
Top Link Building Strategies
As with all strategies, it is essential to build one with the ultimate goal in mind. Creating connections takes time, effort, and patience.
As your campaign continues, you need to re-evaluate your strategies to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Below are five-link building strategies that you can implement right now
- Post-link-worthy content
You need to create content that people want to link to. Link content has a wide appeal and is most likely at the top of the marketing funnel
Examples of link-worthy content include:
- Instructional articles.
- Facts and trends.
- Research that benefits your industry
- Educational content.
- Entertainment.
- Inspirational content.
- Eternally green content.
- Outreach backlink
Outreach is the act of asking a site for a backlink.
When you create link-worthy content, it’s essential that you share that content with sites that you think would benefit from it.
Getting a backlink from high authority sites is a way to tell Google that your site is an authority on a topic.
These backlinks act as “votes of confidence” from one site to another.
In addition, backlinks from different sites can help you reach your target audience by bringing in new leads to your site.
There are so many different tactics that awareness can do, including:
- Press releases to get links from relevant sites.
- Promote new content.
- Search for links in existing content.
- Fix disconnected entries.
Customize your entire activity. You do not want to send generic messages.
Keep it short and to the point. Site publishers don’t have much time to go through a long email.
Explain why the links to your site or article are beneficial to them.
Provide anchor text for them. The easier you make them, the better.
- Do things worthy of news
This strategy may seem vague, but there are many benefits to gaining links from a news site.
For example, many publications have a large audience, some of which are targeted to your site.
In addition, many publications are authoritative in their space, and a backlink from them can go a long way with Google.
Consider the following tactics:
- Host an event.
- Donate for a cause.
- Launch a nonprofit organization.
- Create a new product or solution.
- Announce a new partnership.
- Offer a scholarship.
- Technical SEO
One way to get links is to perform a technical audit of your backlinks.
Sometimes the links are broken.
The pages go down.
And site publishers don’t know that links to your site no longer work.
By performing a backlink analysis on your site, you can keep up to date with how your backlinks work.
Some tactics in this strategy include:
Finding broken links: You can send an email to the site publisher with the correct link, indicating the value they are adding to their site.
404s fix: You can provide a brand new link to a similar page.
Remove redirects: Make sure all redirects are linked to the final destination. Remove redirect chains whenever possible.
HTTP Vs. HTTPS: If you recently migrated to HTTPS, make sure all links are updated from HTTP.
- Leading thinking
A thought leader is someone in an industry who is considered an expert. They are constantly publishing new content and bringing new ideas to their industry.
As a result, many people may trust them and use their content as evidence. So, as you can see, being a thought leader in your industry can have many benefits.
Thought-provoking leadership content can also help you in your Google rankings. The more people who view your content as a resource, the more Google will view you as an authority.
To be a successful thinking leader, consider the following tactics:
- Guest blogging on relevant sites.
- Posting answers on the question and answers sites.
- Creating content on social networks.
- Creating online courses or certifications.
- Updating readers with industry news.
- Hosting a webinar or podcast.
Avoid link building strategies
If we’re talking about link-building strategies that work, it’s fair to go over the link-building strategy that you should avoid in a nutshell.
Trying to get all the links possible is neither sustainable nor organic.
The tactics used by this strategy are considered spam by Google, and if you use them, your site may be penalized.
These black hat tactics include:
- Purchase links.
- Bribing others for links.
- Spam links in comment fields.
- Wiring diagrams.
- Misleading redirects.
However, with a well-thought-out strategy from the list above and implementing tactics to support it, your site may be able to gain many backlinks in the coming months.