Link building remains one of the most powerful ways to achieve good search engine rankings. Many like to think link building is spammy, dead, and even harmful to your SEO. Yet still, link building remains a primary task when it comes to an effective performance-based SEO strategy. Best of all, when link building is executed properly, it can contribute to higher organic search rankings. Today I’m going to discuss some specific, actionable link building tactics that are guaranteed to boost your SEO. Just remember, you should attack each link building tactic strategically. That way you can derive the greatest long-term benefit for your website. Success in SEO should be dictated by your long-term investment, not short-term.
Link reclamation – Link reclamation is the easiest and most straightforward way to build more incoming links. The idea behind it is rather simple: reclaim a backlink to your website that was previously there and is now broken or removed. Tools like Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer let you simply type in your brand and then quickly find unlinked mentions from across the web. You can use specific search filters to find mentions of your website and then check whether or not the page provides a link back to it. From there you can reach out to the webmaster and simply request a link back. Another option is to set up Google Alerts which are tied to your email address. That has the ability to just email you whenever your website or brand is mentioned across the internet.
Reverse engineered competitor link building – Leverage tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to download a CSV of 3-5 of your top competitor backlinks. Filter your spreadsheet and tag by their extension, industry, DA/PA, traffic, and other metrics deemed valuable to your campaign. The key behind doing that is to eliminate the disqualifying links you’d never want and discover the good ones that you might also be able to get a backlink from. Using these filters you can look for opportunities related to guest blogging, broken links, influencer relationships, and local reach out.
Resource link building – This is a classic old tactic which requires manual outreach. It has a lower success rate, but links acquired through resource link building tend to generate quality website traffic in addition to passing authority. Using the operator strings ‘Intitle:keyword AND intitle:resources AND inurl:resources’ on Google can help you find existing resources for businesses and websites within your industry and with ultra specific listings.
Influencer link building – Influencer link building is helpful because it connects you to a pre-established audience of similar people. You can use websites like Intellifluence or Upfluence to find influencers that have websites. Trust me, there are literally millions of influencers globally. Then, once you find influencers related to your brand, reach out to them to discuss potential opportunities for promotion. The key behind this tactic is to offer influencers value before they laugh you off. Consider offering them something like BETA access to software, free high-quality content, a cool product you’d like reviewed..etc. Be sure to follow specific guidelines for disclosure in your region. For example, the FTC in the US requires influencers to disclose promotional partnerships with brands – Especially when money is exchanged for that promotion.
Create tools and widgets – If you develop tools or widgets that become a resource for your industry, the number of organic backlinks you can earn may catapult you to the top of search results for keywords that might otherwise be extremely hard to rank for. Essentially, there are two different ways to think about earning links through tools and widgets. The first option is to build a tool and host it on your website (For example, you are a mortgage company and host a mortgage calculator on your site). This option is great because it can become a valuable reason for people to visit your website. The second option is to build a widget that other people will host on their website. If you go this route, make sure it contains a link going back to your website. For example, let’s say you own an eCommerce store that allows others to post products they want to sell. You can create a widget that displays the specific products of each seller. This allows the sellers to post those products via a widget on their own websites. Doing this would generate backlinks because the products will link back to your eCommerce store. Building a tool or widget that becomes an industry standard can deliver greater ROI than any other advanced link building strategy.
