Link building strategies are actionable goals that focus on getting other websites to link back to yours. These backlinks signal to search engines like Google that your site is credible and authoritative, potentially leading to higher rankings in search results.
Essentially, each backlink serves as an endorsement, with the quality and quantity of these links directly influencing your site's perceived trustworthiness.
If you want actual results, here are seven link building strategies you need to implement.
7 Proven Link Building Strategies
1. Publish original research
Publishing the results of original research can attract backlinks. When others use your data in their content, they typically provide a link back to your website as the original source.
Corina Leslie, PR Manager at ZeroBounce, understands this all too well.
“Hands down, one of the best link building strategies for us has been to publish original research reports. They require significant resources to create, but the SEO and brand authority they help us build is priceless. So far, I’ve created two reports:
- Email Data Decay Report: ZeroBounce validates between six and eight billion email addresses annually. They analyzed the findings to provide benchmarks on how quickly email addresses decay. This report now has 1,500 links from high-authority websites like Inc., Entrepreneur, and HubSpot.
- Email marketing stats report: Creating this report involved surveying to understand how people use email and how marketers can improve their results. This report now has 615 links.
Total earned links over about a year and a half: 2,115. The average Domain Rating (DR) of the websites linking back to these reports is 70.
Here’s what Corina from ZeroBounce did to help these reports rank:
- Press release. “I always start with this. While not the most effective PR tool, it remains a reliable way to boost SEO and brand impressions.”
- Pitching campaign. “Next, I conducted a PR campaign with personalized pitches to target publications.”
- Ongoing promotion. “We regularly promote these reports and link to them in our guest posts.”
“The more I promote these reports, the higher they rank in search engines, creating a snowball effect. Writers need stats for their stories; they find our data and cite it in their articles. This builds further authority for our pages, earning them even higher positions in search engines, which means even more writers will find them.
Our most recent win was getting quoted by CBS News. Of course, our SEO strategy is much more complex, but publishing relevant original data is now a pillar of our approach.”
Key takeaways:
- Ensure accuracy: Provide up-to-date and accurate data to increase the likelihood of earning backlinks.
- Structure content well: Organize content with clear categories and jump links for a better user experience.
2. Write guest posts
Guest posts typically allow you to include a link to your website or other relevant content. Some sites permit multiple links, so be sure to include links that are relevant to your topic. For example, if you’re writing a guest post on B2B SEO, create a related post on B2B SEO strategies on your site and include a link to it in your guest post.
“Securing valuable guest posting opportunities starts with asking yourself how you can be of service to that publication’s audience. You may want to guest post for a certain company, but what are you contributing that’s unique and helpful to the magazine’s readership? If you can tie your expertise to the overarching goal of the publication, you’re in the right place.” — Corina Leslie, PR Manager at ZeroBounce.
At ZeroBounce, they have a two-pronged approach to guest posting:
- One approach focuses on trade publications, where the writer is confident that their insights would be beneficial to others.
- The other approach targets traditional media, where the CEO contributes to tier-one business magazines such as Inc. and Entrepreneur.
“What’s helped me the most in securing guest posts is paying attention to the publication’s guidelines and following them to the letter. I was an editor myself working as a journalist for many years, and I still edit other writers’ posts. I appreciate it when the writer follows the guidelines instead of wasting my time and giving me more work.” — Corina Leslie, PR Manager at ZeroBounce.
Key takeaways:
- Target authoritative sites: Publish a guest post on respected, industry-specific blogs.
- Understand link types: Check if sites offer dofollow or nofollow links and how many you can include.
3. Rebuild broken links
Identify broken links on other sites in your niche and offer your content as a replacement. Start by finding pages with broken links (links that lead to non-existent pages) and then contact the site owners to suggest your content as a substitute.
Webology secured six quality backlinks within seven days of applying this strategy. They sent 250 personalized emails to websites whose content contained broken links.
According to Dan Tabaran, Head of Marketing at Influencity,
“For broken link-building, we rely on tools like Ahrefs and Screaming Frog to identify broken links on high-authority sites. Once we’ve identified these opportunities, we reach out to the site owners with a replacement content offer that fits the broken link’s context.
Our success rate in replacing these links with our content varies, but we find that targeting well-maintained sites with relevant and high-quality content increases our chances of success significantly. This method not only helps in acquiring backlinks but also builds valuable relationships with other site owners.”
Key takeaways:
- High-quality links: Aim for backlinks from reputable sites.
- Provide value: Offer content that fixes broken links and adds value.
4. Share your content in relevant groups
Sharing your content in relevant groups increases its visibility and potential to gain backlinks. For example, if you write a post on email marketing and share it in an email marketing group on Reddit, some members might find it helpful and relevant enough to link back to your post in the content they create.
“We look for niche communities where our audience hangs out the most, like Reddit and industry-specific LinkedIn groups to name a few. The best content to share includes detailed case studies, how-to guides, and industry reports. I have shared an SEO strategy case study in a popular digital marketing forum that led to many backlinks from industry blogs and websites.” — Brandy Hastings, SEO Strategist @ SmartSites
Key takeaways:
- Identify content gaps: Identify relevant topics you are yet to cover and create content on them.
- Target relevant groups: Share content in forums and groups where it will be appreciated.
5. Create helpful and relevant content
When content ranks well on search engines and provides value, others are more likely to link to it.
“The VisitUs blog provides useful information about visitor management and the SaaS industry for both potential and current clients. By sharing valuable content about our software, we aim to ensure that it appears in search results when users look for related topics, benefiting both our customers and our SEO efforts.
Additionally, our high-quality content has led to other websites linking to our blog, particularly our posts about IoT and tech advancements like Geofencing which have been successful in reaching a wider audience through general searches.
We focus on creating detailed but easy-to-skim content, including a 'key takeaways' section, which has proven effective in earning good backlinks, especially when shared on LinkedIn.
This success has encouraged us to cover more of these topics.” — Alister Wood @ VisitUs
Key takeaways:
- Improve existing content: Regularly analyze and refresh existing content for better performance.
- Promote proactively: Use outreach and other marketing channels to promote your content.
6. Collaborate with subject matter experts
Partnering with experts for your content can enhance your content's credibility and potential to earn backlinks.
According to Corina,
“Pitching subject matter experts to the media is at the core of PR – and digital PR has only accelerated the effectiveness of this tactic. We’ve secured thousands of pieces of coverage – some of it in publications like Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, MSN – because we’ve positioned our executives as experts in their field.”
Experts are often willing to share content they've contributed to, providing you with additional exposure. While there’s no guarantee you’ll get backlinks, the chances are there.
Michael Sandford, Account Director at The SEO Works, agrees with this.
“If you feature 10 relevant subject experts in your article, you could potentially be sharing a great deal of insight, which is fantastic for your readers. But what's even better is that if those 10 relevant subject experts then share your content with their network, you are exponentially expanding your reach, and to a highly relevant audience.
Of course, it's not guaranteed that this approach will lead to links for your site - sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. But it's an excellent exercise from a brand-building perspective, and as is becoming increasingly clear, Google likes to serve established brands in the SERPs. For that reason, I think that collaborating with subject matter experts is worth doing both in terms of potential SEO value and as a broader marketing tactic.
Key takeaways:
- Boost credibility: Expert insights make your content more trustworthy.
- Leverage networks: Experts are likely to share your content with their audience.
7. Monitor and reclaim lost links
Regularly use SEO tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to monitor existing backlinks and proactively reach out to site owners if you notice that your links are removed.
“It is important to monitor the status of the links you build always. We were building links for 2 years without monitoring the status, and once we started paying attention to the links' status, we found out that 9% of our links were lost for various reasons (we are talking about the 5-figure loss in USD).
Our next steps were to determine why the links were lost and then create email campaigns to contact the editors and reclaim them. The main reasons for losing the links were website owners removing our links, 404 errors, or other technical issues. The results were phenomenal! We achieved an average response rate of 24% and reclaimed 51 backlinks in 30 days.” — Antonio Gabrić, Outreach manager @ Hunter.io
Key takeaways:
- Track Backlinks: Regularly monitor your backlink profile.
- Reclaim Links: Proactively reach out to reclaim lost backlinks.
Link Building Strategies That Actually Work
It's important to note that there’s no universal approach.
To maximize your link-building efforts, keep these best practices in mind:
- Produce valuable and high-quality content that encourages sharing.
- Understand your audience to attract the right visitors.
- Reach out to websites that align with your content.
- Analyze your competitors' successful tactics.
- Use social media and forums to increase your content's visibility.
Successful link-building strategies should focus on attracting new visitors to your website. An added benefit is improved Google rankings. If you see link building as a means to connect with other sites and bring in visitors who will appreciate your content, you're on the right track.
