Links are the lifeblood of the Web, and web pages that are well linked are more popular and more easily found in online searches.
If you’re new to link building, find out about the kind of links you want and how to get them in this guide. The infographic is with the permission of BigRockCoupon.in.
Table of Contents
- What is Link Building?
- Importance of Link Building
- Different Types of Backlinks: Beneficial Links For SEO
- Link Building Techniques (Natural Links)
- Link Building Techniques (Unnatural Links)
- Local SEO Link Building
- Link Building Tools and Tips
- Bonus: Useful Link Building Chrome Extensions
Link Building Guide (Infographic) by the team at bigrockcoupon.in
What is Link Building?
Link building refers to efforts made to get links from other websites to yours. It’s known as a white hat SEO technique.
Sites with relevant links tend to perform better in search.
To gain links you must publish high quality content that others want to link to, then reach out to your target audience.
Importance of Link Building
Some statistics via UserP.io:
- Content and backlinks are the top two most important factors for ranking on Google for target keywords. (Google).
- Long form content (3,000+ words) generates more links than short form content.
- 58.1% of SEOs believe that backlinks have a big impact on search engine rankings (uSERP State of Link Building).
- 91% of all pages on the internet get zero organic traffic, mostly because they have zero backlinks (Impact).
Different Types of Backlinks
Links to editorial content
This is a valuable type of link when your content is linked to naturally. It requires creating evergreen content.
Guest blogging links
Guest blog links are ones where someone offers to write a guest post for you and links to a page on their site as part of the post.
Links in Guest Post Bio
A link in the bio section of a guest post as opposed to in the content.
Links in Social Media Accounts
Social media links help to build reach and brand trust.
Links in Business Profiles
These are links to your brand in relevant directories or review websites.
Links in Press Releases
Do not think that the days of the press release are gone in the online world. You can create and submit your press release online for distribution.
Link Building Techniques (Natural Links)
Skyscraper Technique
Popularised by Brian Dean of Backlinko, the Skyscraper Technique involves 3 steps:
- Find some link-worthy content.
- Create a better version of that content.
- Publish and promote it to the right people.
Broken Link Building
This involves finding broken links in your niche and creating content as an alternative resource in place of the broken link. Most webmasters are only too happy to accept an alternative suggestion.
Content-based Link Building
Content-based link building is creating a piece of content e.g. ebook, infographic or guide which can be linked to.
Resource Link Building
Link building by gettting listed on a resource page for a particular topic.
Guestographics
There are two parts to this technique:
- Create an infographic.
- Reach out to a website owner with the promise of writing a mini guest post for free to accompany the infographic.
Link Reclamation
Regaining links which were lost over time. Here are some tips on link reclamation.
EDU Link Outreach
These are links to .edu higher education sites, which are valuable. You can obtain them through broken link building or creating a scholarship page on your website.
Link Building Techniques (Unnatural Links)
Paid Links (Sponsored Guest Posts)
Sponsored posts are a step up from guest posts, where you pay a fee to a website owner to publish content on his/her blog. Be selective in reaching out as too many paid links are spammy.
Links from Low-quality Directories or Forums
Too many links from low quality directories or online forums can penalize your website. If you discover a lot, you can ask Google to disavow them.
Links from Irrelevant Sites
Don’t be tempted to link to everywhere and anywhere to promote your site. If you’re a writer, a link from a casino site is not relevant.
Links from Negative SEO Attacks
Sad as it might seem, some competitors may try to harm your SEO through creating duplicate content or comment spam links. Be vigilant.
PBNs (Private Blog Networks)
Steer clear of Private Blog Networks, as they violate Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines. It’s not worth the risk to your SEO.
Hidden Backlinks
Hidden backlinks are hidden through changing their background colour (e.g. white on white) or manipulating the text. This technique is not recommended as it is a black hat SEO technique.
Footer and Sidebar Backlinks
Footer and sidebar backlinks are not without value but there are other types of links that are worth spending time pursuing.
Link Exchange
Link exchange is a straight swap of links between two webmasters. However, Google does not regard link exchanges favourably.
Blog Comments
Blog comment links have become so devalued that most blogs now apply the nofollow tag to them, which tells search engines to ignore them.
Low-Authority Backlinks
It’s better to have your site linked to from a few high authority sites than many low quality ones.
Local SEO Link Building
Find Local Business Directories
This is a straightforward and easy way to build some links to your website. You can search for ‘your city business listings’ and ‘your city directories.’
Sponsor a Local Scholarship
Creating a scholarship for a local college or university can help you get listed on their websites.
Find Industry-Specific Directories
Another source of link building is industry specific directories. Most of these have excellent domain ratings that are well worth the links.
Opportunities on Local Websites
You can look for link-building opportunities on local blogs, websites or online newspapers. Search with ‘location + keyword’. Offer to write a guest post or send in a press release.
Create a Job Listing Board
This is quite a labour intensive method of link building but if you stick at it, you will attract links naturally.
Monitor Competitors’ Backlinks for Relevant Opportunities
It’s worth seeing what your competitors are ranking for. You may be able to pitch content to the same sources and there’s a good chance you’ll get published as well.
Link Building Tools and Tips
Ahrefs
Ahrefs has some nifty tools such as:
- Site Explorer (lets you see which pages your competitors rank for)
- Alerts (keeps an eye out for mentions of your brand)
- Site Audit (checks your site for any negative SEO effects)
- Content Explorer (searches for guest blogging opportunities)
SemRush
SemRush has a link building tool that lets you keep track of your prospects and outreach efforts.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo helps you connect with influencers in your niche by helping you find popular content.
Pitchbox
Pitchbox helps you find bloggers, publishers, and influencers for outreach and has email follow-up tools to make sure your pitches are a success.
Mailshake
Mailshake lets you build and automate your outreach email campaigns from a single platform. It integrates with popular email providers and CRM software such as Outlook and Salesforce.
NinjaOutreach
NinjaOutreach also helps you find and connect with influencers and schedule your email campaigns.
Hunter.io
Hunter.io connects you with professional email addresses and integrates with Gmail.
Lemlist
Lemlist helps you personalize cold emails and automate follow-ups with your prospects.
Bonus: Useful Link Building Chrome Extensions
MozBar
MozBar is the all in one SEO toolbar that enables you to:
- Check the Page Authority and Domain Authority of any site
- Create custom searches and export search engine results pages (SERPs) to a CSV file
- Check link metrics
- Find and highlight keywords on a page
SEOquake
SEOquake can run a complete audit of a web page including mobile compatibility. The toolbar can show you parameters for a SERP.
Mangools SEO Extension
Mangools SEO Extension shows you Alexa rank, referring IPs and Facebook shares amongst other things for web pages. You can unlock more information with a free trial.
Nofollow
Nofollow outlines nofollow, UGC and sponsored links on a web page.
Scraper
Scraper exports web page data into spreedsheets.
Linkclump
Linkclump lets you open, copy or bookmark multiple links at the same time.
Check My Links
Check My Links lets you keep tabs on the validity of your links as it highlights broken links on a web page.
Summing up
There are a lot of different techniques for link building, but the most important thing to remember about it is that quality trumps quantity. It’s better to invest time getting a few high quality links than lots of low quality ones.
Hopefully this guide will start you off the right way. Good luck!
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