Link building has always been a big part of SEO strategies. However, as search engines have been evolving and becoming smarter, link building techniques should also change to remain effective. Many are asking if link building is still relevant, and the answer is YES. But some traditional strategies aren’t effective anymore. As Google’s focus is now predominantly on the quality and authority of a page, you should also focus more on the quality and authority of the backlinks. So, in this article, we’re going to discuss the most effective backlink strategies that can actually improve your website’s ranking and authority as well as some strategies you need to avoid.
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Why Link Building Is Important for a Successful SEO Campaign?
Link building in simple words means using some techniques so that other websites link to your website, which are called inbound links or backlinks. As these backlinks are a ranking factor for Google and other search engines, link building has always been a part of SEO optimization. Here are the most important benefits of acquiring good backlinks for your website.
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Better Search Engine Rankings
When other websites (which are relevant and reputable) link to your content, it shows the search engines that your site is useful and trustworthy. So, these high-quality backlinks give your website the authority and credibility it needs to rank high for related and targeted keywords. In other words, the more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher the search engines tend to rank you.
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More Referral Traffic to Your Website
Imagine a very reputable and authoritative website relevant to your business links to your content, products, or services. For sure many users of that website come and visit yours as well. This means you’ve got yourself a new audience that can trust you more easily and are high-quality leads.
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Brand Visibility and Authority Improvement
Nowadays people follow influencers in different fields. If an influencer, or even a publication, that has a good reputation in your niche, links to your website, it will help your brand to be considered reputable and authoritative as well. Improvements in your brand visibility and credibility lead to more and better leads.
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Long-Term SEO Success
For Google, backlinks are one of the top ranking factors. So, having a good and diverse link profile is necessary for your website’s sustainable SEO success. High-quality backlinks positively affect user engagement, bounce rate, dwell time, and some other important factors. Overall, Backlinks from high-authority sources are votes of confidence for search engines. Adopting advanced link-building strategies to make a robust link profile for your website means ranking higher, improved brand visibility and credibility, more traffic and leads, and staying ahead of the competition. That’s why, it’s necessary to update your link building techniques to ensure you’re getting the quality backlinks you need.
Latest Link Building Techniques to Stay Ahead of the Competition
Here are the most effective white hat link building strategies to use in 2024.
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Content-Driven Link Building
High-quality content is a prerequisite for a good backlink profile. If you consistently publish valuable and informative content that engages the users, other websites start linking back to it in related blogs. For example, you have an online carpet store and have posted a useful and comprehensive guide about ‘how to repair snagged carpets at home’. Now, another website in your niche which is talking about ‘carpet damage’ links back to your DIY guide, because it provides new practical information that users are looking for. So, creating link-worthy content (blogs, videos, images) is essential for successful link-building. Learn more about high-quality people-first articles and visual content.
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Guest Blogging for Link Building
Within any niche and industry, there are some high-authority and respected websites where you can guest post an article and link back to your website once or twice in the text. Come up with a few good and trending topics and pitch them to these websites. Then, craft a great article and they will publish it on their websites. Guest posting isn’t a new tactic but it’s still very useful and common.
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Influencer Link Building
Find reputable experts and influencers in your niche and see if they’re ready for a collaboration. It can be anything, from guest posting, to interviews, or a podcast appearance. These influential figures have an audience, credibility, and authority that is very effective for earning good backlinks.
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Social Media Link Building
The effect of social media engagement on SEO and link-building is undeniable. Have active accounts for your brand on social media and publish your content there. This makes more people and even influencers get familiar with your brand, engage with your content, and even share it. This will raise the chance of getting backlinks.
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Create Natural Link Building Opportunities
Try to increase your chance of getting natural backlinks by finding reputable websites in your niche (use Semrush) that can be suitable for linking back to your website. Connect with them and see if they’re willing to link back to your content. However, sharing links between websites in these kinds of networks shouldn’t be forced. Excessive reciprocal link exchanges will be penalized.
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Constantly Monitor and Manage Your Backlink Profile
You should constantly check your backlink profile to find any low-quality or broken backlinks and address them immediately. Low-quality backlinks can be considered spammy or negatively affect your SEO. Also, if there’s a broken link, you’ll lose the link equity and authority (link juice). So, reach out to the websites that have linked back to your broken link and ask them to update it (link reclamation). To sum up, for more effective link-building, focus on the quality of your content, link building outreach to build relationships, leveraging social media, and managing your backlink profile. Except for these tactics, there are a few other strategies, such as broken link building, directory submission, skyscraper technique, etc., that are rather traditional but can still help you acquire more backlinks.
Avoid These Counterproductive Link-Building Tactics
Acquiring high-quality backlinks isn’t easy and quick. It’s a process that only happens if you truly produce useful and valuable content consistently. So, trying to take a shortcut by gaming the system and settling for low-quality backlinks is going to harm your website. Look out for the following:
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Black Hat Link Building
Black hat tactics will result in severe penalties from Google and other search engines. Some of them include:
- PBNs: PBN stands for private blog networks and it involves creating some websites just to link to your main website. These owned sites are low-quality and the backlinks are not only worthless but it’s a kind of manipulative link scheme which is against Google Search Essentials.
- Buying links: Well, it seems easy, but spending money to purchase links from link brokers or other unethical resources isn’t going to buy you credibility and higher ranks.
- Excessive reciprocal link exchanges: Sometimes a group of websites come together to exchange links with each other. These excessive exchanges are considered manipulative as well and are penalized.
- Automated link building: Using software, scripts, and services to create low-quality backlinks automatically, like comment spam.
- Keyword-stuffed anchor text: Using too many and exact-match keywords in an anchor text sounds spammy. The anchor text shouldn’t be overly optimized. It should be natural and useful for the users.
In addition to these, duplicate content, cloaking, and other dishonest methods will cause Google to consider your page or site as spammy and limit you or remove you from search results. This is happening much more than before after Google's March 2024 spam policies update.
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Other Common Mistakes That Negatively Affect Your Link Profile
- Producing low-quality content.
- Ignoring internal link building.
- Not disavowing problematic and toxic backlinks.
- Trying hard to increase the number of backlinks even if the websites are unrelated or low-quality.
- Using only one or two link-building techniques.
- Not adapting the strategies to new search algorithm updates.
- Lack of consistency.
- Lack of patience.
- Not asking SEO professionals for help when needed.
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FAQs about New Link Building Techniques
Here are our answers to your common questions when it comes to adopting the right link building techniques.
What Are Dofollow and Nofollow Backlinks?
Dofollow backlinks are good and pass link equity and authority (link juice) to your website. These links can improve your SEO. On the contrary, nofollow backlinks don’t pass link juice and can’t improve your SEO.
What Are the Features of a High-Quality Backlink?
A good backlink comes from a website with high authority in its own domain. Besides, the link should be placed in relevant content and in the right context. Also, the anchor text is natural, descriptive, and not over-optimized.
How Long Does It Take to See the Positive Results from My Link Building Techniques?
If you’re doing it right, you may see the results in your ranking after 2 to 6 months. However, being patient and consistent is part of the strategy. Generally, link building is a long-term strategy and doesn’t have instant effects on your SEO.
What Tools Can I Use to Improve My Link Building Techniques?
Different tools come in handy when it comes to link building. Here are a few of the most useful ones:
Conclusion: Focus on High-Quality Link Building Instead of Worrying About the Quantity
Link building is long-term and tricky but can’t be ignored if you wish to see your website rank well for related keywords. This is essential for a better online presence, building more authority, improving your brand credibility, and getting more customers. So, don’t give up on creating useful, first-hand content related to your business. When you have a quality website, other reputable websites in your niche will be encouraged to link back to your website and accept your request for collaboration. Besides, social media has made it easier for businesses to get in touch with people more than before. Don’t let this opportunity go to waste. Ask respected influencers in your industry for collaboration to expand your network and audience even more. These are the best ways to earn natural and contextual links that bring about valuable clicks and views for your website. Our team of SEO professionals is also here to optimize your website and get organic traffic and high-quality leads without any up-front payment. Contact us () to consult with our experts.