Link Building is the overlooked hero of getting noticed online. It is equivalent to making connections and grabbing everyone’s attention at a social gathering.
Our link-building journey from “Oops! That didn’t work” moments to “Yay! We cracked it” has taught us more than any article or YouTube video ever could.
In order to save you from repeating our mistakes, we have crafted this link-building article that encapsulates our proven strategies, decade-long experience, our learnings, and do’s and don’ts of link-building.
Let’s dive into the article to learn some powerful link-building techniques.
What is Link Building?
Link building is a search engine optimization technique that involves acquiring links from other websites to your own. Having a good number of high-quality and authoritative links to a website helps achieve higher rankings in the search engines. Moreover, the links– both internal and external help search engines crawl your website better.
What are Backlinks?
If link building is the process, then the backlinks are the end result. These links are like a signboard or a road that leads from someone else’s website back to yours. These are the links that point from one website to another through anchor text. For instance, if someone links your website through theirs, they are giving you a backlink.
Why is building backlinks important?
Google ranks websites based on various factors, and one crucial aspect is backlinks—incoming links from other sites. In Google’s search algorithm, backlinks hold significant importance, standing as one of the top two ranking factors. The more websites that link to yours, the more trustworthy and authoritative your site appears to Google. This trust and authority can further boost your website’s rank in search results.
Overall, Google considers backlinks as “votes of confidence.” Therefore, it’s safe to say that the higher the number of backlinks your website has, the more organic traffic it is likely to attract.
For instance, let us showcase the transformation we achieved for one of our clients through strategic link-building. You can witness the sharp increase in organic traffic on the website– landing new visitors daily. This surge in organic traffic helped our client triple their conversions in a short span and increase their revenue by 113.6%.
However, we truly abide by the “quality of backlinks is as important as the quantity of backlinks” rule and suggest our readers to follow the same.
Types of Backlinks
Broadly, there are two main types of backlinks:
- No follow links.
- Do follow links.
No-Follow Links
The no-follow link contains a (rel= “nofollow”) tag that hints Google to ignore the link. These types of links offer very little value in improving your website’s visibility or search rank. The no-follow links generally come up from:
- Blog comments
- Press releases
- Paid advertisements
Simply put, links from these sources are not helpful for your SEO.
Do-Follow Links
These links directly lead to your web page once anyone clicks on them. They are highly sought-after backlinks. However, the quality of the do-follow links matters a lot. If your website has too many spammy or irrelevant backlinks, Google can de-index or penalize your site.
Therefore, acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites is essential.
What are the elements of high-quality backlinks?
Although, this is an entirely subjective matter. There are a few indicators that you can evaluate to check the quality of a backlink.
Domain authority and page relevance
Domain authority and page relevance are essential when determining the quality of a backlink. While building backlinks for our clients, we have observed that links from pages with higher domain authority and relevant content prove to be more powerful as compared to links from low authority and irrelevant websites.
Here’s an example: By securing high-quality backlinks from reputable websites within their industry, we helped our client selling “men’s leather jackets” experience a remarkable 37.8% surge in website traffic within a period of six months.
Ahrefs and Moz are our favorite tools when it comes to checking the domain authority of a website.
Relevance of anchor text
An anchor text is the clickable “usually blue and underlined” hyperlink. It plays a role in determining the quality of a backlink because it gives search engines an idea of what the linked page is about. A high-quality backlink with keyword-rich anchor text helps your website rank better if other factors are good.
We keep the balance and include a mix of anchor texts in our blog posts, which include:
- Keyword-rich anchor texts.
- Brand anchors that link to the brand, company, or website name.
- Generic anchors that link to phrases like “for more information,” “click here,” “to know more,” etc.
Another thing to consider is the anchor text should always be relevant to the page it’s linking to.
Location of the link
As the name conveys, the link’s location refers to where the backlink is placed within the webpage content. The link’s location significantly influences the value and impact of the backlink.
The common locations of a backlink include:
- Body Content: The links placed within the main body of the content tend to be more valuable. Search engines often prioritize such links because they are most likely to be clicked by the readers to seek additional information.
- Header, Footer, and Sidebar: Links placed in these sections often contain navigational and website-related informative links. These links may not be contextually relevant to the content and, therefore, are less prominent in terms of SEO.
- CTA (call-to-action): Links in this section encourage the users to visit a specific page or resource and are effective in driving traffic.
Link Diversity
Having link diversity, i.e., having links from various sources, can be more beneficial for your website. A diverse backlink profile signals to Google that your website is informative and authoritative.
Simply put, it’s far better to have a higher number of different high-authority websites linking back to you rather than just a high number of links from the same website.
How to monitor backlinks?
Analyzing and monitoring backlinks is a crucial part of the overall link-building process. It involves evaluating the quality and volume of backlinks that point to your website from different sources. This procedure helps determine how these backlinks impact your search engine rankings and what can be done to improve your backlink profile.
As a part of the monitoring process, we conduct a backlink gap analysis for our clients to compare their backlink profiles to the competitors. This helps us discover new backlinking opportunities while keeping a check on the competitor’s strategies.
Use Google Search Console to monitor backlinks
Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you evaluate your website’s performance in Google search results. It incorporates a “links” section that provides valuable insights about the websites that link back to your website.
How to use the Google search console to monitor backlinks?
- Sign up on Google Search Console and verify the ownership of your account.
- From the sidebar, select the “links” section.
- Once you do that, Google Search Console displays all the websites that link to your site. Additionally, it shows the top-linked pages on your website, providing insights into which of your pages attract the most backlinks.
- As you click on the top linked pages report, click on any URL to find the websites linking to specific pages. By clicking on the website report, you can explore which pages on that site link to the selected page.
Use backlink analysis tools
These tools provide valuable insights into your website’s linking profile and overall SEO. Listing down some of our favorite tools that we use for running a backlink analysis.
Here are a few factors that we take into consideration and would like our readers to follow while monitoring backlinks on the website.
- Analyze backlink quality: Assess the backlink’s quality by using metrics like domain authority and spam score.
- Identify toxic links: Identify toxic or spammy backlinks and further take action in order to remove them.
- Monitor the changes: Look out for any new backlinks, lost backlinks, domain authority changes, or any other parameters to stay up to date.
Our advice on how to build backlinks (based on our industry experience)
Link-building is not only about getting noticed; it involves strategically building your site’s authority across the web. Being in the industry for over a decade, we have employed pioneering link-building techniques to help numerous clients achieve higher rankings. Based on our experience, we are thrilled to share some valuable insights that will assist you in the link-building process.
Create Link-Worthy Content
Develop informative, unique, and shareable content that naturally attracts backlinks. This content could be anything from blog posts, in-depth guides, industry data, research articles, case studies, infographics, social media posts, etc.
After analyzing thousands of articles, we have observed that posts mentioning industry statistics, unique data, or new findings attract more backlinks. This strategy works because writers want statistics to back their content, and if you can provide the readers with these numbers, your website will likely generate more links.
Have a look at this article, “Internet traffic from mobile devices” by Explodingtopics.com which has secured backlinks from 2,008 referring domains as of the latest data.
Pro tip: If you strategically want to publish more link-worthy content, you should run a content gap analysis to understand where your content has gaps and where it could be improved.
Claim Unlinked Mentions
It focuses on identifying content that has mentioned your website or blog but lacks a link back to it. The strategy involves reaching out to these websites and requesting them to convert these mentions into clickable backlinks.
To claim your unlinked mentions, you need to be attentive and keep an eye on which websites are mentioning your brand. You can simply use Google alerts (free) to remain updated or use tools like BuzzSumo, Mention, or Ahrefs for detailed information.
Broken Link Building
Another tactic is to outreach websites with external links that don’t work anymore (broken outbound links) and ask if they could replace those broken links with a link to your website instead. Of course, to make this work, your content has to be exceptionally better than the page they were initially linking to. Broken link building works well because it allows the website to fix its mistake and gives the readers something useful to click on.
Using Ahrefs is our go-to method for finding broken links on popular websites. It follows a simple process:
- Go to Ahrefs Site Explorer.
- Enter a popular domain in your industry.
- Go to pages and sort by “best by links.”
- Add “404 not found” response filter.
- You can sort the results by “the number of referring domains” for ease.
After checking the ‘referring domains’ report to find pages linking to the missing content, we follow two things: First, if those links are valuable, write an article on the same topic as the deleted page. Second, reach out to the websites, inform them about the broken link, and ask them to link to the new page instead.
Additional tip: We always personalize our messages and keep the email short while outreaching the websites. The trick is to sound helpful instead of simply begging for a backlink.
Post Guest Blogs
Guest blogging is creating an informative blog and publishing it on another industry-relevant website. It is a powerful link-building tactic that allows you to earn backlinks from different authoritative sources. The technique is to add a link somewhere in the content that leads back to your website.
How to find relevant websites for guest posting in your industry?
- Google search terms like “your niche keyword+write for us,” “keyword+submit a guest post,” “keyword+guest blog,” etc. For example, if you are in the fitness niche, search for “fitness write for us” or “fitness guest blog.”
- Run an analysis to check where your competitors have guest posted. You can use tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs to identify the sites linking to your competitors and request these sites to accept your guest posts as well.
Here are some lessons that we learned after acquiring links through guest posts for 200+ businesses:
- Focus on the blogs that aim at your target audience.
- Be consistent in your efforts and make a rule to publish at least one guest post per week.
- Put the time in research to shortlist popular and relevant blogs.
- Reply to the comments on your guest post to strengthen engagement.
- Before reaching out, make sure these are high-authority and trustworthy sites that aren’t selling posts to everyone.
Implement Skyscraper Technique
Simply put, the skyscraper technique in SEO is a strategy that involves finding content that is popular and well-performing in your industry and then developing something that is 10X better. For instance, let’s say you find a ranking article about “Top 10 Ways to Boost Your Business,” and you see an opportunity to improve it. You carry out research, collect information, add a unique angle, and create a better and more detailed article like “25 Proven Strategies to Skyrocket Your Business Growth.”
After creating the article, you must not stop. The real deal is to reach out to websites, encouraging them to link to your improved version instead.
Skyscraper technique is a smart way of earning backlinks from high-authority websites. (It’s basically saying, “Hey! I noticed you linked to this site, but I have got something better and more informative that your audience might love”).
Try to be on the “Best X” Lists
Earning a spot on the “Best X” lists is definitely a privilege that not only validates your product or service but also secures a link to your site from a credible and relevant source.
Once you find the lists you might be a fit for, you can contact the site owner to learn about the procedure of getting added to the list. Sometimes, it is a paid placement; sometimes, it’s the editor’s decision. However, if you provide them with a compelling summary, they might include you to keep the content fresh and exciting.
Build Links Through HARO
HARO (help a reporter out) is a fantastic way of attracting backlinks from high authority publications. It connects journalists looking for information with the sources who provide relevant details. HARO works well with the link-building process because journalists often require an expert’s opinion to back them up. And if they cite you, the chances are pretty high that they will link back to your website.
We have been using HARO to build links for a long time now. To cite a recent example, we helped our client jump from zero organic visitors per month to 30,000+ organic visitors per month, leading to a great boost in ROI.
How to use HARO to build backlinks for your website?
- Go to HARO’s website and register yourself as a source.
- HARO then sends you emails with inquiries from journalists looking for input on specific topics relevant to your expertise.
- If a journalist includes your input in their story, you get credited as a source, potentially gaining a mention or a link to your website.
After assisting various businesses in acquiring high-quality backlinks from HARO, we are happy to share our top tips that will make the process easier for you:
- Only respond to queries that relate directly to your niche or expertise, as these increase your chances of getting selected as a source.
- Provide value insights and try to respond quickly, favorably within a few hours.
- Offer something exclusive and out-of-the-box to outshine other respondents.
Try Image Link Building
Image link building is a process of building backlinks by creating relevant, high-quality, and shareable images. Creating great pictures on your website could lead other websites to link back to you. Pictures make it easier for people to understand the tricky stuff in a straightforward manner.
Data states that users pay more attention to informational images rather than the page’s text. Moreover, if your images are creative, they make visitors stay on your website longer, earning you quality backlinks.
Here are a few images that you can create to generate quality backlinks:
- Infographics (Infographics can increase website traffic by up to 12%).
- Product images.
- Diagrams explaining complex processes.
- Stat Graphs and maps.
We use apps like Canva Pro, Adobe Illustrator, etc., to create unique images for our clients.
Additional tip: We always add the company logo while creating the high-quality images for our clients. This makes the image more authentic and is a free advertisement channel for the business.
Leverage Social Media
If you are not posting on social media, you are missing out on an ultimate strategy to reach and connect with potential audiences. By sharing images, news, information, etc., on social media, you can amplify content visibility, attracting attention and potential links.
Additionally, an active social media presence can help you reach bloggers or content creators who might refer or share your content, potentially leading to backlinks.
Publish Digital PR
This is a publication of immense value, especially if you own a brand that can make news from time to time. For example, if your nutritional products company is hosting an event to increase awareness about a healthy diet, you should use it to create digital PR. You can earn hundreds of linked pieces coverage with a single event.
Isn’t it a brilliant way? Indeed! A digital PR gives more value than just the quantity of links. It helps to get links from the most important publications in your industry. You can use your linkable assets (like valuable guides on topics that interest the target audience, for example, dietary guides for diabetics) and also exploit your relationships with the journalists to make the most of the digital PRs.
Link Building Tools
There are plenty of link-building tools available in the market that can help you in your link-building strategy– listing a few of them below to help you in your endeavor.
Let Our Company Help You Acquire High-Quality Backlinks with our Link Building Services
We know that building links is an essential part of any SEO campaign. Although link-building is a time-consuming process, if done correctly, it can increase your domain authority and site’s ranking in the search engines.
Alternatively, using improper methods for building links can cause problems, leading Google to penalize your website. Therefore, it is crucial to have trustworthy and experienced link-building service providers that can genuinely help your website generate high-quality links from authoritative and relevant websites.
Our experienced team of 40+ individuals ensures that our link-building practices remain ethical and effective, driving continuous improvement and delivering exceptional results for our clients.
We at SEO Experts Company India help you earn high-quality backlinks by providing the following services:
Comprehensive Backlink Audit: We start by doing a comprehensive backlink audit for your website to check for the current backlink health of your profile. This helps to identify existing links, their quality, and areas for improvement.
Competitor Analysis: We run a backlink gap analysis to analyze the backlink profiles of your competitors. This helps to uncover new link-building opportunities and device strategies for outperforming competitors.
Developing Quality Content: Our team of avid content writers ensures to provide high-quality and informative content that naturally attracts backlinks. Our creative team also offers relevant images and infographics that catch the audience’s attention.
Outreach Methods: Being in the industry for over a decade, our team has honed expertise in outreach and relationship building. We strategically outreach to authoritative websites, influencers, and industry leaders to foster partnerships and earn valuable backlinks.
Guest Posting: Our brilliant guest posting team works hard to secure opportunities for guest posts or contributed content on relevant and authoritative sites. This helps in building a diverse link profile.
Broken Links Reclamation: We identify broken links and 404 errors on relevant websites to further suggest your content as a replacement to earn valuable links.
Claiming Unlinked Resources: We keep a check on the links that mention but do not link back to your website. We further reach out to the websites to claim these unlinked mentions.
Local Link Building: We put efforts into acquiring links from local directories and industry-relevant websites to boost specificity.
Removing Harmful Links: We regularly monitor and remove harmful, spammy, and irrelevant links for your website as these could negatively impact your site’s SEO.
Social Media Posting: We keep your social media profiles up to date as it helps reach the potential audience, further enhancing chances of acquiring backlinks.
Regular Reporting: We regularly provide detailed reports on the link-building progress, performance metrics, and the impact that it has on your website’s SEO performance.
Our agency focuses on ethical, white-hat link-building services that align with search engine guidelines, ensuring improved search visibility for your website. With a golden track record of delivering results-driven link-building strategies, our company enhances your online presence, domain authority, and rankings through quality link-building strategies.
Feel free to reach out to us to learn more about our services.
