Should your brand care about utilizing link building strategies?
Absolutely.
Building links has become more challenging as search engines frequently update their algorithms and impose stricter penalties for unethical practices.
For instance, outdated link building strategies like reciprocal links (where people exchange links) are now considered black hat SEO. Engaging in such tactics can lead to Google penalties and hurt your site’s visibility.
But why invest in link building?
Websites with more high-quality backlinks tend to rank for more keywords, driving more traffic to their homepage.
This is further proven by a recent study that shows a clear correlation between the number of referring domains your site has and the organic traffic you receive from Google.
Image via Ahrefs
The good news is that there are still many ethical link building strategies for building backlinks on high-quality sites. It’s all about avoiding dead links or broken pages and focusing on earning powerful links from relevant sites.
So, which link building strategies should your brand use?
In the following sections, we’ll explore 15 of the most effective and ethical link building strategies. Create link-bait content for relevant sites and build your backlink profile the right way.
Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.
Table of Contents
Top Link Building Strategies for High-Quality Sites
Building high-quality backlinks is essential for improving your site’s domain authority and search results ranking. However, not all link building strategies are equally effective. Focus on these proven tactics designed to generate links from relevant authoritative sites, drive valuable referral traffic, and boost your visibility.
1. Guest Blogging
This is one of the oldest and most popular link building strategies.
Why is this?
This link building strategy works because it is a natural way of earning links instead of buying or asking people to give you links.
You simply need to write a good-quality guest post or get an expert to help you write one, then get it published on a high-authority website in your niche. Then add a link to your website as naturally as possible in the guest post.
However, it is not really as simple as it sounds. And just like all the other link building strategies, there’s a lot more that goes into the tactic for it to be successful.
Let’s take a look at the step-by-step process for writing guest posts:
- Search for relevant websites in your niche where you can publish your content
- Reach out to the blog owner with a topic and outline about the kind of post that you want to write for their site
- After you get approval, write a high-quality guest post that adheres to that website’s guest posting guidelines
- Add a link to your website in a place where it is relevant and fits well within the content
- Choose the anchor text wisely, so that it is relevant to the content or page that you are linking it to
- Get it published
- Congratulations, you’ve got yourself a backlink
This is one of the best link building strategies to get high-quality links from relevant websites in your niche. However, it is also a difficult way of getting a backlink because of the time and effort it takes.
So, never use guest blogging as your only tactic. Instead, combine it with other link building strategies to build a solid backlink profile.
2. Get Links for Mentions
Do you think brand mentions drive organic traffic?
74% of marketers believe they do.
Image via Aira
It’s one of the simplest link building strategies, and you can start using it right now.
Every time someone mentions your name or your company’s name anywhere, you can reach out to the publisher and ask them to add a link.
Whether they mention you in a news article or any other post, you can simply reach out to the site owners and request links on those mentions.
And guess what?
More often than not, people who mention your name in their content won’t mind adding a link to your site.
And in this way, you can convert your media mentions into backlinks. This will help you get high-quality links quickly and easily.
But how do you find out if people mention your brand or products?
Use link building tools or Google Alerts to set up an alert for phrases you want notifications of. Then, you can reach out to the blog owners and request them to link to your site.
Image via Google Alerts
3. Create Backlinks From Your Social Media Pages
This is another of the simplest link building strategies because many social media platforms allow you to add links to your posts.
And, even if they don’t, there are several other ways of getting links from social media.
But how?
If you are a product-based company, you can use shoppable posts and Stories to link back to your website.
If nothing else, you can add a link to your website in your bio and simply remain active and build your social media presence.
What’s more?
You can use social media to promote your existing content and provide a link to the content as well.
And guess what?
Doing this has many benefits.
It allows you to leverage one of the best link building strategies, promote your content, and drive social traffic to your website!
Amazing, right?
4. Start a Blog
This is one of the best link building strategies.
Writing good quality content in your niche is a great way to enhance your reputation in the industry. Starting your own blog also makes it easier for you to get links from other websites in your industry.
What’s more?
You can include links from relevant industry sources in your blog post and ask them to do the same for you.
And guess what?
The more popular your blog is, the easier it will be for you to get people to link to your blog.
And best of all?
It’s one of the link building strategies where you don’t always need to ask for links.
If you include some original research or industry statistics in your blog posts, people will automatically start linking to your content.
5. Leverage Influencers
This is one of the more underrated link building strategies.
Influencer marketing is quite popular as a marketing technique but is not mentioned as a link building tactic that often.
But how can influencers help you build links?
You can earn links through influencer marketing by generating content like product reviews, social media posts, YouTube videos, and blog posts.
For example, Leesa, the luxury mattress manufacturer, often gets several influencers and niche top bloggers to review their mattresses and promote them through word-of-mouth marketing.
Image via Mattress Clarity
It’s a great way to build customer trust since they get information about the product, pricing, quality, etc., from a person they trust.
And no matter what type of collaboration you have with an influencer, you can ask them to add a link to your website.
And, the best part?
It’s also one of the link building strategies that can double your links since the influencers and bloggers are sure to share the post on other sites. And if their followers or readers love the content, they may also share with their networks.
For example, suppose you ask them to write a blog post and include your link. They can then promote that blog post on various social media platforms and tag you. That way, you will get traffic from multiple sources using only one influencer and one piece of content.
Another way to get backlinks from influencers is by publishing content on their blogs.
What’s more?
If you have good relationships with the influencers in your industry, they just might mention you and add a link to your content themselves. It’s, therefore, always beneficial to be on good terms with industry influencers, even if you don’t have a formal collaboration.
6. Post Content on Syndication Websites
You might think that all websites require original content, but that’s not always the case. A lot of websites are happy to republish your content as long as you provide a link to the original post.
This is a win-win strategy for everyone.
These websites don’t need to write fresh content regularly and get free content. And, you get to access a broader audience and earn links to your web pages.
This is one of the outreach-based link building strategies and is quite simple yet brilliant.
All you need to do is find such websites and submit your content. Medium and Bloglovin’ are two such content syndication websites.
Also, for some websites, you might need to repurpose your content a bit, to adhere to their website’s guidelines.
But, even then, this is one of the link building strategies that does not require a lot of effort. And, you can start using this tactic right now and submit your published content to various websites.
7. Participate in Conversations in Community Forums
This is one of the more misunderstood link building strategies because people often think that it’s unethical.
But, if you do it right, it’s one of the legit link building strategies that can get you a lot of relevant traffic to your website.
But what’s the right way to handle it?
The key is to join forums and engage in conversations in your niche, with the intent of helping people instead of posting spammy links.
Join conversations and answer questions in your niche and build an audience for yourself. You can even employ some social listening tools that will help you identify the places your brand is being mentioned and create content that you want to read to add more links.
For example, you can provide helpful answers to people via blog comments or on Quora when they need help in your area of expertise.
Image via Quora
Then, from these answers, provide relevant links to your posts that help the readers further improve their knowledge on the topic.
But take care not to post multiple links because that will be considered spamming, and you might get kicked out of the community.
8. Create Infographics and Post on Multiple Websites
This is one of the link building strategies that allow you to create multiple backlinks using repurposed content.
And unlike blog posts, for which most websites require fresh content, you can post infographics on multiple websites.
You can change the infographic descriptions and send the same infographic to multiple websites.
What’s more?
Infographics are easier to read and share and often get more visibility than standard blog posts. You can also share them on social media and make it easy for your audience to share them further.
Thus, with the help of some graphic designing tools, you can create a single infographic that can get you many more links and shares than a blog post. It can be a big boost to your link building efforts.
9. Participate in Expert Roundups and Interviews
This is one of the link building strategies where you maximize your growing popularity and authority.
How is this?
If you’re an industry expert, you might already get many invites to give a quote for a blog post or expert roundup.
You might even have people from your niche asking you questions on trending industry topics, and you can use this as an opportunity to attract links to your website.
But what makes expert roundups one of the best link building strategies?
Whenever you participate in any such roundup or answer a question, you can add a link to a relevant resource pertaining to that topic. However, always make sure that the link is relevant and fits naturally with the content.
Similarly, when you agree to participate in an interview, you can always ask people to add a link to your website in your bio.
You are taking the time to answer their questions, so the chances are that they will not have a problem helping you out.
And, even if you are not an established industry expert, you can work on building more visibility and eventually, people will reach out to you for your opinions.
10. Reclaiming Lost Links and Broken Link Building
Did you know that you continuously lose links that you had built earlier?
Yes, you do.
And if you use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, you likely already know the number of links you’ve lost over a certain period.
However, if you don’t, do a backlink analysis, and you will see that you continuously get broken backlinks as well.
Image via Semrush
You lose these links due to several reasons, including the fact that the page owner removed the link or because the page itself was removed.
In case the linking page removed the link, it could be because the site owner updated the content or added more recent links.
In such cases, you can reach out to them and ask them to add your link again.
And if you have also updated your content, you can provide them with the most recent link or see if there is somewhere else in the post where they could add your link.
More often than not, if they added the link earlier, they might reconsider and add it again. And if they don’t, don’t push the site owners too hard.
Furthermore, even if you get some of your links back, it is still a win for you. And, when considering link building strategies, it’s easier to reclaim lost links than it is to earn new links.
On the other hand, find broken links on your site that link to non-existent resources or pages and replace them with relevant authority links.
It’s one of the simplest link building strategies you could start with as a beginner. But most importantly, fixing these broken links can improve crawlability on your internal links and give visitors a better experience.
11. Spy on Your Competitors
This is one of the most effective link building strategies.
But how do you go about it?
Do a thorough competitor analysis to discover sites linking to their content.
This will help you identify websites for guest posting, and you can reach out to those websites to get backlinks for your website.
Alternatively, use competitor analysis templates or tools like Semrush to analyze your competitors’ backlinks and get insights on how they create links.
Then use the data and insights to formulate and improve your own link building strategies.
In this case, you can choose to approach these referring domains if you have a better or updated article of the post they linked to.
Alternatively, use this information to find websites or similar pages that could link to your content.
But those are not the only benefits you get from analyzing links pointing to your competitors.
Data you get can help you find out what type of content they write to get more backlinks. You can also identify the topics, check whether they are uploading video content or blogs that get the maximum number of backlinks.
You can then use these insights to improve your content strategy, boost your link building strategies, and drive more traffic to your website.
After all, if someone is doing something right, why not learn from them instead of struggling and then learning?
12. Digital PR Link Building Strategy
Digital public relations (PR) is now one of the popular link building strategies that bring numerous benefits to a business. Using it not only helps you improve your rankings but can also build brand trust, boost your website traffic, and increase sales.
But as one of the best link building strategies, how do you use it to achieve all these benefits?
First understand that digital PR involves building links from online publications and websites, gaining publicity, and getting honest reviews.
Additionally, it will also involve responding to requests and comments from journalists.
What’s more?
With digital PR, you get your business featured on publications your audience reads, podcasts they listen to, or social accounts they follow.
It's, therefore, important to identify publications or sites that include your target audience among their followers and readers.
Your idea should also be unique, fresh, and excite the journalist enough to publish your story.
Here are some examples of digital PR tactics you can include in your link building strategies:
- Publishing press releases
- Networking with editors and journalists for backlinks
- Publishing on top publications in your niche
- Reaching out to bloggers to gain backlinks on relevant and popular blogs in your niche
- Getting mentions on popular or influential social accounts
- Running affiliate programs with influential affiliates who can refer quality leads
- Publishing tools, interactive web pages, resource pages, or studies that gain buzz
13. Skyscraper Technique
Coined by Brian Dean, the Skyscraper Technique involves improving popular content and replicating backlinks.
In essence, you identify a popular topic that’s also relevant to your niche and which has numerous backlinks. Then, you create a much better piece, and ask those linking to the original content to link to yours instead.
However, while this is one of the popular link building strategies, it doesn't work for everyone. Some marketers have received desired results while others haven't, and it all comes down to your approach.
So, what approach makes this technique work?
Start by identifying popular content with lots of inbound links and room for improvement. Then create something better.
You could increase the length, include up-to-date statistics and tactics, add relevant visuals, and make it actionable.
Once done, send an outreach email to those who've linked to the original content and ensure your message contains:
- The new link
- A personalized message
- Reasons for reaching out
- Details on what makes it better
- A call-to-action asking them to swap the links
And to improve your chances of success?
Reach out to other top-ranking pages not originally linking to the content and ask them to link to your article or guide.
14. Reciprocal links
This is one of the risky link building strategies.
But why is this?
It can boost your SEO (search engine optimization) plans or do the complete opposite.
Reciprocal links occur when brands agree to trade links for authority and SEO purposes. Essentially, they “link to you if you link to them.”
It sounds shady, right?
Yes, it does. But it’s one of the link building strategies that can build your brand authority if applied the right way.
So, how can you effectively go about reciprocal links?
Don't focus on your backlink profile or rankings. Instead, focus on offering value to readers by creating high-quality content.
Secondly, enhance your readers' experience by linking only to quality sites relevant to the content you write about. And before agreeing to a link exchange, confirm that each is a high-quality site with good SEO metrics.
The sites must also have the potential to improve your traffic, healthy link profiles, and information relating to your niche.
Most importantly, the sites should not be competitors.
But remember, it's a risky business, and Google's guidelines are against abusing links while trying to manipulate search results.
But what actions can lead to penalties from Google?
- Buying links
- Excessive link exchanges
- Link schemes
- Large scale guest posting or article marketing with suspicious or unrelated anchor text links
- Using automated link creation programs
- Unnatural links not editorially placed by the site owner
- Linking to sites with irrelevant content
15. Resource Page Link Building
One of the popular link building strategies for beginners is resource page link building. This involves finding websites in your niche that have pages dedicated to linking out to useful resources.
Once you’ve identified that a website has this, you can plan content that would be valuable for their audience. Then, you can send out an outreach email to the site owners, suggesting they include your resource on their page. Here are the steps you’d typically follow:
- Identify relevant resource pages using search queries like “[your niche] + resources” or “[your topic] + useful links”
- Create or improve content that would be genuinely valuable for their audience
- Reach out to website owners with a personalized outreach email explaining why your content would be a good fit for their resource pages
- Follow up
This is one of the more effective link building strategies as it provides value to both the linking site and their audience. Additionally, resource pages are specifically designed for external linking, thereby increasing your chances of success.
FAQ
Q1. What is a link building strategy?
A. With link building strategies, you attract or ask other websites to link to the content you’ve published on your pages so that they can rank higher. You create something notable that people would love to link to, thus increasing your chances of getting ranked higher on search engines.
Q2. What are the most effective link building strategies?
A. Some of the effective link building strategies include:
- Guest blogging
- Links for mentions
- Social media links
- Blogging
- Leveraging influencers
- Syndicating content
- Forum participation
For more of these link building strategies, check out the post above.
Q3. Is link building still effective?
A. Yes, it is.
If you employ the right link building strategies, you improve your backlink profile. And the more links you get from relevant pages pointing to your site, the more organic traffic you get from search engines.
These search engines consider backlinks as “votes” and are one of the factors they use to identify which pages they should rank higher.
Q4. How do beginners get backlinks?
A. The following are link building strategies beginners can use:
- Broken link building
- Resource page listings
- Get featured on expert roundups
- Ask influencers or bloggers to review your brand
- Reclaim unlinked brand mentions
- Guest post
Q5. How can I get high-quality backlinks?
A. Use these link building strategies:
- Publish guides, case studies, infographics, or original reports.
- Digital PR
- Guest posting
- Find unlinked mentions
- Work with influencers
- Create resourceful content
- Fix broken links
- Join expert roundups
Q6. What are SEO backlinks examples?
A. The following are examples of SEO link building strategies:
Editorial links or natural backlinks:
These are backlinks you earn organically due to the valuable or epic content you create.
It should be content that solves audience problems, provides value, or educates them on something they didn’t know. It can include guides, video tutorials, infographics, etc.
Outreach backlinks:
These are links you build from reaching out to other website owners and requesting them to link back to your content. Strategies to help you get them include guest posting, getting sponsored links, broken link building strategies, etc.
Q7. How do I find a link building website?
A. Leverage link analysis tools like Ahref, Moz, Semrush, etc., to find out what sites link to your competitors and identify link building opportunities.
Additionally, set up Google Alerts or the link analysis tools to get notified whenever a site mentions keywords or phrases your brand targets. Then contact them for unlinked brand mentions or topic takeovers.
Q8. What tools do you use for link building?
A. Some of the best tools to use in your link building strategies include:
- Ahrefs
- Semrush
- Google Alerts
- Hunter
- GroupHigh
- Moz Link Explorer
Q9. How does link building increase SEO traffic?
A. Link building strategies are essential to SEO because the more quality links you have pointing to your site, the more search engines consider you a worthy resource.
And according to research, the more backlinks you have, the higher the ranking, which can translate to more organic traffic.
Q10. What role does influencer marketing play in link building?
A. Influencer marketing can be an effective link building strategy. By collaborating with influencers in your niche, you can gain exposure to their audience and potentially earn backlinks from their websites or social media profiles. This increases your site’s authority and visibility.
Try These Link Building Strategies for Better Results
These are some of the most effective link building strategies.
And the best part is?
These are all ethical and legit link building strategies that will not lead to your site incurring penalties. But, be careful about your approach to each. As we’ve seen, Google frowns on sites that abuse links in a bid to manipulate rankings.
Now, go ahead and use these link building strategies to build a solid backlink profile and drive more traffic to your website. You can use a combination of these link building strategies to get better results and get more backlinks.
Do you know of any other useful and ethical link building strategies that have worked for you? Let us know in the comments section.
Disclaimer: This content contains some affiliate links for which we will earn a commission (at no additional cost to you). This is to ensure that we can keep creating free content for you.
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