A helpful guide for successful link-building strategies

Today, Google focuses on quality links to ensure that websites providing valuable content are ranked higher. This shift in focus has made link building a lengthy but vital process – site editors no longer need to link to a page ‘just because,’ but instead focus on finding relevant sites for backlinks, as well as providing valuable content for their audience.

With this in mind, link builders must put in the time, thought and energy to create sustainable link-building strategies for SEO to help rank on SERPs.

Publish link-worthy content

When it comes to link-building strategies for SEO, creating content that people would want to build links to is essential as it has broad appeal and sits at the top of the marketing funnel. This is even more important if you’re targeting a specific website to obtain a backlink.

The more relevant your page is to its audience, the more likely it will link to it. Remember, link-worthy content is also educational and informational – it often looks at solving a common problem or answers common questions an audience might have. That is to say, to gain backlinks, it has to be achieved in unique ways such as:

• Evergreen content

• Research that benefits your industry

• Data and trends

• How-to articles

• Inspirational content

• Entertainment

Include outreach in your link-building strategies

An essential part of any link-building strategy is outreach, which is the act of asking a site for a backlink. When creating link-worthy content, sharing it with websites that you think would benefit from it is important. Why?

Gaining backlinks from high-authority sites is one way to tell Google that your site is an authority on a subject, and in this way, backlinks act as ‘votes of confidence’ from one site to another. As well as this, outreach assists in expanding your target audience, bringing new potential customers to your website.

Oftentimes, this method consists of SEO specialists sending articles to site editors explaining why they would benefit from this article, but it also helps forge professional relationships between both.

On the other hand, while outreach may seem like a straightforward practice, there are best practices that should be followed:

Explain why linking to your site or article is beneficial for them:

• Personalize all your outreach – you don’t want to send generic messages

• Keep it short and to the point – site editors don’t have much time to scroll through a long email

• Provide the anchor text for them – the easier you make it on them, the better

Do newsworthy things

This link-building strategy may seem vague, but there are many benefits to earning links from news publications. A lot of them have large audiences, some of which are driven to your site. Additionally, many publications are authorities in their space, which is why a backlink from them can go a long way with Google.

But once again, it’s important to consider what is relevant for your business and your target publication in line with what you deem ‘newsworthy.’ You might want to host an event, launch a nonprofit, announce a new partnership or even donate to a cause.

No matter what method you decide, you’re going to have to pitch your idea to contributors, publications and other relevant media contacts. Make sure your values align, and remember to convince them that your story is essential to them and their audience.

Provide thought leadership in your link-building strategies

You might be asking yourselves: “What is a thought leader?”

Well, this is someone in an industry who is considered an expert at what they do, whether that’s by consistently publishing new content or bringing up new ideas in the industry. So because of this, a lot of people are likely to trust them and use their content as proof.

Essentially, thought leadership content can help your rankings on Google. As more people point toward your content as a resource, Google will also look to you as an authority. Google wants to serve its users helpful content, and thought leadership content is right up that alley.

In order to incorporate thought leadership into your link-building strategies, start with original research, build a solid presence and keep up to date on industry trends. Here are some tactics you might want to give a try:

• Guest blog on relevant sites

• Host webinars/podcasts

• Post answers on Q+A sites

• Create engaging content on social media

• Consistently update readers on industry trends and news

Link-building strategies with digital ethos

As stated previously, incorporating effective link-building strategies takes time and patience. The key thing to remember is that Google prioritizes relevance between links – so instead of going for a certain amount of links, try to find authoritative and relevant ones to your site.

At Digital Ethos, we pride ourselves on building bespoke link-building strategies that fit in with your brand, allowing you to outperform your competitors and future-proof your SEO strategy.

Have we caught your eye? Why not get in touch so we can get the ball rolling?