If you’re planning to grow your website’s audience in 2023 and boost your SEO, you’ll definitely need a link building strategy. Wondering what link building is all about? Looking for a quick guide to share with colleagues? You’ve come to the right place.
In this post, we’ll explore:
- The definition of link building
- How good link building works
- How SEORadar can take your link building efforts to the next level
Let’s get started.
What Is Link Building?
First things first: What do we mean by link building? Put plainly, link building is the process of getting third-party websites to link to your site. This definition is good for now, but throughout the next sections, we’ll make it a little more precise.
At this point, you may be wondering: What’s the purpose of getting a link from a third-party site?
As we mentioned in previous posts, Google ranks sites that show signs of:
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
These three elements are usually referred to as the “EAT” formula. Having other reputable sites linking to you suggests to Google that your content is of very high quality.
So, more backlinks = higher chances of ranking among the first search results.
Additionally, when a high-traffic site links to your site, they’re giving you the chance of attracting new users. And if the website linking to you has a loyal user base, a link to your site will be interpreted as a recommendation from someone they trust.
At this point, you may be wondering what a link building strategy usually looks like. In the next section, we’ll dive into the key components of successful link building.
What’s Behind a Successful Link Building Strategy?
There isn’t a universal winning formula for link building. What works for you will depend on several factors, including your niche, your product, your goals, and which local market you’re operating in. For instance, the link building strategy for a new Brazilian FinTech company will be very different from the link building strategy of a popular fashion company targeting German users.
Generally, there are three ways to get backlinks: You can earn them, ask for them, or buy them.
How to Earn a Backlink
Earning backlinks isn’t a strategy, as much as it is the consequence of offering great content. You earn a backlink when a third-party website spontaneously links to your content because it provides extra value. Backlinks are most often earned by websites that already have a considerable base of followers, and are viewed as reliable sources.
But, even if you’re just starting out, you could earn backlinks by:
- Creating visual content that other users can put on their own site, linking you as a source. For instance, infographics.
- Guest blogging (and linking to your site)
- Helping a journalist. A journalist will probably link to your website when citing you as a source.
- Appearing on a podcast. Podcasts will usually post guests’ bios on their websites. Your bio could include a link to your company site.
How to Ask for a Backlink
Remember the definition of link building we shared earlier? In real life scenarios, link building isn’t just about links. It’s about connecting with the people behind third-party websites. While your short-term goal could be getting them to link to your site, just focusing on the link you’re asking for isn’t a good strategy.
Most link building campaigns are about asking for backlinks. Basically, link building experts will cold email publications that may be interested in linking to your content.
Should You Buy Backlinks?
In short, no. While it may seem tempting to buy links, the growth that comes from buying links is less sustainable and more artificial than getting links organically. Besides, Google’s December 2022 link spam update now neutralizes any bought link it detects. In other words, content with bought backlinks will be considered spammy.
This is one of Google’s intent to prevent low-quality content from ranking high on search results. Knowing that you can simply buy links in bulk may prevent you from improving your content, or creating valuable link-worthy material. Investing in good content is always better.
On the other hand, if you’re buying link packages, you’re probably getting tons of low-quality backlinks, from websites that hardly rank on Google and have very little traffic. These websites can’t offer you more than a link. So, you won’t be getting other benefits of link building, such as exposure to a large audience.
The Key Components of Successful Link Building
Whether you’ve recently launched your website, or you’ve been online for a long time, your link building strategy should have 4 pillars:
- Great content
- Research
- A personalized automated email
- Automated follow-ups
Great Content
Without high-quality content, you have nothing to pitch. Before you get started, select your best material, and build your link building strategy around them.
As we mentioned previously, your visual assets could be a great link building tool. Instead of pitching links to articles, you could offer editors an infographic that they could include to boost their content.
Industry Research
You may be wondering where to get started. Research is always a good place to start. What are your competitors’ most linked pages? Do your top competitors have any valuable pages that have been deleted? Which publications are accepting guest posts? Which publications are linking to your competitors (but would find it more valuable to link to you)?
Depending on which approach you decide to take, use tools such as Ahrefs or SEMRush to understand your competitors’ backlink profiles. A tool like SEORadar, which allows you to monitor the code on your competitors’ websites, can notify you of changes, even before your competitor knows about them. That way, you can take advantage of link building opportunities early and quickly.
A Personalized Automated Email
Link building is about building relationships. It can be hard to get a backlink from a publication you’ve never connected with before. Consequently, if you’re gonna reach out to site editors at scale, make sure you include a little bit of personalization in your email.
Emailing tools will allow you to customize your message through dynamic tags. Use tags in your favor to add a new layer of personalization. For example, if you’re reaching out to websites you read on a regular basis, create tags to dynamically include the name of your two favorite blog posts, in each message.
Let’s say you’re aiming to build new links through guest posting. Your message could go as follows:
Hi {{FirstName}},
I’ve been reading {{Site}} for a long time, and I thought I’d reach out about the chance to collaborate.
I’m John Doe with MyCompany, and we’re currently connecting with sites we love and offering them a free blog post. In exchange, we’d just include a permanent dofollow link to our site.
I’ve been following {{Site}} for a long time, and I’ve particularly enjoyed {{Post1}} and {{Post2}}. We could write something along those lines, covering {{Topic}} and how it affects businesses in 2023. Would that work for you? If you’re curious feel free to, check out our blog. I think you’ll find {{MyPost1}} and {{MyPost2}} quite valuable.
Let me know if you’re interested in the post and I’ll send you an outline.
Thank you,
John
Adding a bit of personalization to your email won’t guarantee a 100% reply rate. But it will give you a solid advantage.
The Key to More Cost-Efficient Link-Building
Only link-building through guest posts could be very expensive. Especially for those working with limited resources. Luckily, there are alternative ways to build quality links, that require little to no content creation.
Some bloggers reach out to other website owners asking them to add random links to their content. This strategy usually has very limited impact and is quite one-sided.
When building links, you’ll want to provide as much value as possible. Think of it almost like a sale. You’ll want the backlink to feel like a bargain price for something very valuable. However, you don’t want to burn through your content resources.
One of our favorite ideas for building links cost-efficiently was suggested by Ajay Paghdal on the OnlyOutreach blog, and it’s updating old content.
There are tons of great, but severely updated blog posts out there. You can use them as an opportunity to help a fellow content creator and build a quality backlink.
Look for dated but high-ranking content and offer creators to help them preserve their rankings by updating their material.
Your outreach email could go like this:
Hello, {firstname}!
{yourName} from {company} here. I’ve just come across your {postTitle} blog post, and let me tell you: It’s amazing. However, since it was written in {year}, it contains some outdated information. And that could be costing you some traffic and potential links. As you know, Google loves frequently-updated content, and users love fresh data.
Would you like me to update that post for you?
I’m used to creating information-heavy pieces (that’s most of what we do at {company}’s blog), so I can get it done 100% for free. However, it’d be great if you could include a permanent, dofollow link to {company} in exchange. What do you think?
Let me know if this would work for you, and I’ll start working on it.
Best,
{yourName}
Automated Follow-Ups
According to Yesware, following up 3 days after your first email can result in doubling your replies. Meanwhile, continuing to follow up every 3 days results in steadily increasing reply rates.
Design and schedule automated follow-ups, to maximize your link building efforts.
Make sure you don’t spam editors. Space out your follow-ups and make sure you add value every time.
How to Use SEORadar for Link Building
Once you get backlinks, how can you keep them?
If you want to prevent your competitors from stealing your backlinks:
- Update your content regularly
- Keep your best URLs live
- Make sure your site loads fast and offers a good UX
As your website grows, you’ll find that keeping your content optimized becomes harder. Your sitemap becomes more complex, your team begins to experiment more, and you may even consider redesigning your platform to reach new goals. If you’re publishing content regularly, consider using a technical SEO tool, such as SEORadar, to monitor code changes on your site.
SEORadar checks your website’s code automatically and notifies you of any changes that could affect SEO. That way, you can detect harmful code changes before they happen.
Want to see it for yourself? Start your SEORadar trial today.
