Over the past few years, Google’s Panda, Hummingbird, and Penguin updates have drastically altered how we
approach digital marketing. Successful SEO specialists realize that trying new
strategies and adapting to changes is mandatory to keep upward momentum
continuing. Building quality backlinks is one of the few SEO relics of the past
that is still very relevant today, but how you approach link building can make
or break your marketing campaign. Here are nine effective link building
strategies that work.
1. Find and Report Broken Links
Finding relevant broken links, creating
replaceable content, and informing the webmaster is one of the best white hat
strategies out there today. This ultra-white hat strategy is appealing because
its effectiveness is based on you helping people and making the Internet a
better place.
First, you need to locate broken links that are
associated with your niche. To accomplish this, use an SEO tool
such as Screaming Frog to crawl relevant websites and search for dead pages.
Check the context of the link, and if you have relevant content already, you
are good to go. If not, consider creating or outsourcing relevant content.
Finally, simply email the webmaster to let them
know about the dead page, and provide your link as a substitution. If the
webmaster’s contact information is not available, you can try Googling ‘whois’
followed by the domain in question. If this does not produce the contact information,
you may want to contact the site’s hosting company.
2. Create New Content Regularly
One thing all high-ranking websites have in common
is that they are not sterile. It’s not enough to create a website – it should
be an ongoing project. One of the easiest and most effective ways to keep your
audience interested and create internal links is to add a blog to your domain.
Try to update your blog every day, and link to
relevant pages on your domain. Keep your content fresh, interesting, exciting,
and evergreen, and use videos, images, polls, and contests to engage your
visitors. Quality content
will always be in demand, regardless of whether you pepper it with the right keywords
to attract algorithms.
3. Make It Easy to Link to Your Website
Not everyone who links to you is going to be Internet
savvy, so it is up to you to make linking to your website painless. You can
accomplish this by providing a ‘Link to Us’ page at the end of each post. That
page should have an HTML snippet that webmasters can simply copy and paste.
Make sure your contact information is readily available so webmasters can
contact you if necessary.
4. Reach a Broader Audience
Expanding your audience opens new potential for
inbound links, so think big. The most effective way to do grow your audience is
to stay active on social media,
provide excellent content, and hope that people share your content. Another way
to reach a lot of people is to offer your content in other languages. There are
plenty of translation tools online such as Google Translate, or for more
accuracy, you may want to hire someone. Submit this content to non-English
directories. Time can also be your friend as long as you create evergreen
content.
5. Talk to Friends and Family
Chances are very high that at least one person in
your circle has their own website, and it is pretty much guaranteed that most
of them have social media profiles. Sometimes all it takes is nicely asking
them to link your page. It is worth noting that Google’s Penguin update has
been known to penalize webmasters for irrelevant links, so you may want to
request that those who link to you also add some context so that the link
doesn’t feel forced.
6. Reach Out to Local Media Outlets
Receiving a link from a legitimate online
publication like a newspaper or TV station is a great way to boost your search engine rankings.
Reach out to local writers and let them know that you are available for
commenting on relevant stories. You could also try pitching a story about your
company or organization, but that may be a tough sell if you are not doing
anything particularly newsworthy. Make sure that you are confident that you are
in fact an expert in your field before you attempt this strategy.
7. Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce
Joining your local chamber of commerce is a
surefire way to get a link from a reputable organization. As an added bonus,
joining will give you the opportunity to form mutually beneficial relationships
with other local businesses. You don’t need to limit yourself to just a chamber
of commerce either – there are many organizations for businesses to join,
including SCORE, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, NFIB, and Meetup, just to name a
few.
8. Be Community Oriented
In general, being active in your community is
going to help you build links, so sponsor a charity or local sports team, speak
at local schools, and provide testimonials and reviews for other local
businesses. Get your website listed in local directories such as your
building’s online directory, local newspapers, and your city/county directory,
and provide detailed reviews for other relevant websites that are listed using
Yelp, CitySearch, AngiesList, and Merchant Circle.
9. Just Ask
Sometimes the simplest strategies are the most
effective, and it never hurts to ask. Email the webmasters of reputable sites
that are related to yours, and simply ask them directly to link your website.
Offering to link back to them in exchange can actually result in Google
penalties, so consider offering them something in return such as a product
review or a mention on your social media pages. You will receive plenty of
rejections if you get a response at all, but don’t be discouraged. Persistence
is the key to link building.
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Author Bio
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Carolyn
Clarke is an SEO specialist and digital marketing consultant from Denver, CO.
She enjoys both technical and creative writing, and she is currently developing
her skills in programming. When she is not plugged in, she loves skiing,
hiking, and cycling.
Great tips to helping people build relevant links to their website. Link building is a well known SEO tool amongst experienced bloggers and this guide can help more people. I personally like to comment on blogs because I have to read the information and the articles that I usually read are informative, increase my knowledge. I also like reaching out through social media platforms as they can be effective in marketing your content for free. You may even want to create a social media profile for your business or website and advertise the content for a fee.
ReplyDeleteHello Lawrence,
DeleteVery true that link building is a most important factor in SEO process and blog commenting is another great technique not only for link building but also helpful to amplify your understanding.
Glad to know you found this info helpful and thanks for sharing valuable thoughts about link building.
Hope to see you around here again.....Have a great day ahead......!!!
Hi Clarke
ReplyDeleteWhat great linking techniques.
SEO is evolving so it is necessary to try out new strategies. I have learned so much from this post.
Thanks for sharing. Take care
Hello Ikechi,
DeleteThanks for appreciation and glad to know you found this info useful....Hope to see you around here and have a enjoyable Sunday....Take care.....!!!
Regards,
Gangadhar
Great Post, Link building is one of the most important aspect of SEO, as Google new RankBrain Algorithm is also giving value to link as you can read more about here http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440 so link-building will be important aspect for SEO in future also.
ReplyDeleteThanks for exchanging valuable words about link building and Google algorithm.....Hope to see you around here again.....Have a nice day......!!!
DeleteRegards,
Gangadhar
Carolyn, Amazing piece of information.
ReplyDeleteThe points mentioned in the content regarding the link building are perfect for 2016. Your views on the link building strategies is a real eye -opener.
Thanks for sharing valuable feedback about this article and glad to know you found this strategies useful.
DeleteHope to see you around here......Have a great weekend....!!!
Very useful & helpful post.
ReplyDeleteThanks