Link Building for Higher Rankings

Building links to your website takes a lot of work.

And spamming blog comment sections for backlinks doesn’t count.

A Lot has been said about getting links but not how to actually do it.

Implementing link building strategies aren’t as hard as people think.

All you need to do is:

Be a source of great content
Get it in front of the right audience
Then they will share it

So in this article we will learn different methods of building inbound links that you can add to your SEO strategy.

Let’s dive right in.

What is link building?

Link building is getting a quantity of quality links pointing to your website.

Doing this helps your website:

Get referral traffic
Boosts domain authority
Increase search engine rankings

What are backlinks?

Inbound links, also known as backlinks and incoming links, are part of off-page SEO.

The reason for earning backlinks, from other websites, is to direct their audience to your website.

Backlinks are:

What the one receiving the link calls it
Different to outbound links and internal links

Outbound links are sent from your website to another.

Internal links are from a web page on your website to another, also on your website.

The benefits of getting the right backlinks include:

More traffic to your website. A backlink to your website from another, directs readers who click on it, getting you referral traffic.
Better search engine ranking. Backlinks tell search engines your website is a topic authority so more backlinks from high-authority websites, increasing SERPs ranking.

You can tell a good inbound link because it:

Is from an authoritative website
Uses natural anchor text

Anchor text is the line or paragraph of text that contains the hyperlink.

Natural anchor text means random keywords are not hyperlinked.

But instead the context of the line or paragraph of text matches the intent of the web page it’s linked to.

Because Google understands the context of a link, so anchor text with optimised keywords are the same as generic anchor text like:

“learn more”
“click here”

Make good blog content

Make good blog content consistently so people naturally link to it.

Your content should be:

Industry related
Help your reader
Shareable

If you’re stuck, read these content marketing tips.

Link to other blogs

Linking your blog to others will increase the likelihood of those bloggers linking back to you.

Doing this help to:

Fill content gaps your blog doesn’t write about
Improves user experience for your readers

Write guest posts

Write a blog post and offer it to blogs that will give you an inbound link in the post.

Guest blogging helps:

Highlight your expertise
Get quality backlinks

Blogs allow people to submit articles on topics their readers want but start with those related to your niche.

Create a resource lists

Resource lists benefits include:

Being link bait
Helpful for your readers

Other bloggers will also want to link to it in their posts instead creating one themselves.

Expert roundups build relationships

Expert roundups can build relationships with influential thinkers in your niche.

Doing this helps get backlinks from authoritative sources.

Later, you can contact them for a guest post opportunity, for example.

Newsjack posts

Newsjacking is using a popular news story for your own marketing.

For example, being the first to comment on a news event:

Your content is fresh
Others link to your content

Remember having fresh content is part of Google’s algorithm and helps get on top of the SERPs.

Case studies about clients

Write about the successful clients in case studies and they will link to your website.

Remember, make them good.

And pick a companies that:

Has the best results
Is enthusiastic
Know your product or services

Volunteer to be on a case study

Companies look for customers to be part of a case study.

So volunteering to a major vendor will get you backlink when the case study is published.

Conduct surveys

Do research and share the data.

Collect and analyse the data then share it with high authority websites so they can promote and link to it.

Book reviews

Write a good review about an author’s content and they will link to it.

Free webinars

Informative webinars will be shared.

Then turn your PowerPoint slides into a SlideShare presentation then post on your blog.

It can also be embedded on your webinar’s landing page so potential signees can check out the presentation.

Other options include partnering with another company, brand or influencer for the webinar.

This can help with backlinks and new audiences.

Free tools

Create free tools that are helpful to your target customers.

Tools can get you links from:

Agencies
Partners
Others in your industry

Shareable templates

Templates that are useful will be linked to.

Create a template that will make people’s jobs easier.

Remember, bookmarkable content gets a lot of inbound links.

Create infographics

Create an infographic and people will link back to you.

For more backlinks, share your infographic with the sources you used.

Note: Make sure your infographics embed code is easily accessible.

Create other visual content

A few examples of visual content include:

Cartoons
Content visualisations
Charts and graphs

People don’t have the time and money to make these visuals and will link to yours instead.

Use free online design tools, like Canva, to create your own graphics.

SlideShare presentations

Repurpose your content like your infographics into a SlideShare presentation.

For more links then post these:

On your blog
Your website’s resource centre
Your SlideShare account

Be funny

Post a funny inside industry joke or funny linkable content.

Other examples include:

A meme
A short video
A funny tweet

Make sure you understand your audience, how they will respond and dont be offensive.

Press releases about company news

Your PR strategy can get you inbound links, create opportunities by sharing the latest company news with your target audiences.

To do this:

Write a press release
Post it on your website
Push it to big newswires for more coverage

Joint press release with another company

This PR strategy can reach thousands on other related sites, even across different industries.

This helps your company:

Reach larger audiences
Get more backlinks

Outreach with big news or content

Press attention and industry publications can help:

Build your brand
Prove your expertise
Improve credibility
Get backlinks from authoritative sources

Start by posting about the story on your website to link back to.

Then, reach out to journalists and publications.

And make sure to do the following:

Give context in your outreach
Abide by their rules
Write a clickable subject line on your email
Be helpful

Press request alerts

Press request alerts are requests from journalist for information

These journalists look for quotes from people for their article.

HARO
Source Bottle
Twitter hashtag #JournoRequest
Twitter hashtag #PRrequest

Opinion articles

Share your opinions in an article to:

Reach a lot of people
Get recognition
Get authoritative backlinks

Follow these simple rules:

Make one point
Use your personal voice
Offer specific recommendations

When the article is written, offer it to online industry and magazine publications for links.

Partner with companies in other industries

Link to content others with similar interests.

Websites like Alexa and SimilarWeb will tell you the traffic a partner can bring to your website.

These sites can help understand:

Traffic
Bounce rates
Keywords
Sources people used to find the website
Where people go after visiting

Co-marketing

Partner with another company to promote a content then share the results.

Doing so gets more links and attention:

Reach out to a brand
Start with a few tweets
Then build your way up

Ask for reviews

Get products reviews from:

Users
Industry experts
Analysts

Doing so gets you inbound links, feedback and builds relationships with reviewers.

Befriend webmasters

Building relationships with webmasters increases the chances of inbound links in the future.

Networking is an important skill to have.

The bigger your network, the more opportunities you have.

Check for mentions of your brand

Also known as Link Reclamation.

Find brand mentions with tools like Mention or BuzzSumo.

Set up alerts but exclude any mentions from your own website in the tools settings.

Broken links

Update old or broken links.

Find broken links of other websites using tools like:

Then, reach out to webmasters with a correct link as replacement.

Competitor backlinks

Find your competition’s backlinks and get similar links.

Do competitor research weekly or monthly to find these opportunities.

To get a list of your competitors backlinks use link analysis tools like:

Then, find the posts getting backlinks from off-page SEO.

For example, if your competitor writes guest posts for a publication, that publication will want a guest post from you.

Tweet This

“Tweet This” or “Click to Tweet!” links tweetable parts of your content for people to share.

Doing so gets your content more attention on:

Search engines
News feeds
Twitter streams

To create tweetable links without using custom code, use the ClickToTweet service.

Social sharing widgets

Social sharing buttons get your content noticed.

Use them on content like:

Case studies
Whitepapers
Ebooks
Blog posts

If your website appears on social media sites often, share and link to it.

Sponsor or speak at events

Events give speakers and sponsors website publicity.

Either on their sponsors page or introducing the speaker on a blog post.

Make inbound links part of the terms of the speaking contract.

Remember to make your presentation shareable so people want to find, share and link to it.

Help webmasters fix errors on their website

Find broken links on websites and let them know then give them your content as a replacement.

This can build relationships with a webmaster so remember to be friendly and helpful.

Free trials and product samples

When people test your product before the majority, they want to share this experience.

This means writing a review with a link back to your website.

To give away free trials:

Create call-to-action buttons on your website or blog
Send product announcement emails to interested customers

Conclusion

Now you don’t have to consider spamming comment sections and paying for links.

The methods mentioned above will help you build high-quality backlinks the right way.

Just be patient and as the number of links point to your website increase, your website will:

Rank higher in the SERPs
Get more organic traffic
Attract more potential leads and customers

Now it’s over to you.

Tell me which link building strategies are your favourite?

Let me know in the comment section below.