Link building has undoubtedly become one of the cornerstones of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Whenever we build a website, we start seeking recognition for it, don’t we? That’s even the whole point of all our efforts. We want to increase our visibility in order to reach our desired ranking on SERPs (search engine results pages). Backlinks are one of the main elements that act as connectors, ensuring that our website draws attention.
What about you? How are you doing with your link crafting activities? If you think that it’s quite demanding work, we totally understand. That’s why our topic of the day is link-building checklists. This kind of tool can assist you in making things more organized and keeping your link collection always up-to-date. Keep scrolling to find out more about it.
Start by Downloading a Sheet
It sounds obvious, right? As you need to follow your building strategies closely, you should start by downloading a checklist. You may then modify and revise it to your convenience. There’s, for example, a model provided by Google Sheets that you can download and use. There are also a few others available for free on the internet.
Indeed, even if we are about to give you a checklist model in this article, nothing is 100% immutable. You may need or want to add, remove, or modify certain elements. Personalized material can even motivate you while spending time on the tasks. So at the end of the day, it’s a matter of preferred style too.
Chase Link Building Opportunities
No secret here: Link building is, above all, a matter of taking the initiative. The outcome of your link-building campaigns will depend on how well and how much you seize every potential opportunity on your way. Here are some of the objectives that you should incorporate into your checklist and then materialize:
- Make a list of websites where you can obtain guest posting opportunities.
- Conduct competitor analysis and figure out their link sources.
- Join an affiliate marketing program in order to broaden your contacts list and create new partnerships.
- Find and contact relevant directories.
- Use SEO tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz Pro, etc.) to receive additional guidance on link-building strategies.
Be aware that the above list is not exhaustive and that you won’t have to do everything on it at once. Those tips are useful mostly when you begin your link-building journey. However, you will need to apply them afterward as well and possibly on a regular basis. Why? Because nothing lasts forever, as they say. The links you get are not eternal, and the business world is subject to constant change. So you will definitely have to sustain your efforts in the long term. That’s, for example, the case of competitor backlink analysis. Especially if you work on link building for an e-commerce website, you should consider these analyses.
Stay Cautious about Your Sources
That’s a fact: The online environment is prone to all sorts of scams. You don’t want these to ruin your hard work. Thus, you must carefully assess your backlink sources and ensure they are reliable.
- Always go for niche-relevant sources, meaning that the best links are those gotten from those from businesses belonging to the same niche as you. Try to get quality backlinks.
- Verify the domain authority (DA) score of the websites you intend to work with.
- Make sure that the sites in question are not blacklisted in any way.
- Conduct a content analysis. Assess the quality, relevance, and exemption from spam.
- Beware of link farming and avoid any suspected website.
- Prioritize websites that have high levels of organic traffic.
- As said previously, find out any guest posting/blogging opportunities.
Clean Up Your Backlink Portfolio Regularly
What do we mean? The precondition of a perfect link-building SEO roadmap is… to keep the road clean. You don’t want obsolete, incomplete, or defective material to create useless obstacles between you and the search engine podium. So do apply the following diligently:
- Reclaim any broken link and provide updated ones instead.
- Track any unlinked mentions of your brand/business. If you find any, do your best to get them linked as soon as possible.
- Keep an eye on your disavow file. Remove websites that don’t serve you anymore and add new ones if necessary.
So one of the key ingredients is to take care of your links. You can’t just obtain them randomly and then walk away. Adopt them as any other essential task of your daily SEO practice. Because really, that’s what link building is all about.
Create the Right Content for Your Links
Your links are not here to point to thin air. There must be tangible and preferably high-quality content backing them. Indeed, no one, not even your closest friends, would distribute backlinks for nothing, correct? Content creation is probably one of the phases on which you will need to spend the most time and energy. Here’s how you can proceed:
- Determine your topics. Assess their relevance and possible interest for your link providers (people won’t link to anything they don’t have a minimum interest in).
- Take the time to study your link provider (aka target website). What are their guidelines? What kind of material do they publish?
- Choose your anchor text wisely. That’s where you will add your link.
- Create original content. Avoid plagiarism by using plagiarism checker tools, and if you really need to quote someone else, please give them the appropriate credits on your page.
- Be kind and diplomatic. Return the favor by adding internal links to your provider(s) on your own site.
- The same goes for other sources. Avoid any egocentric approach by placing external links on your site.
- It’s usually best to place the links on the top of the content instead of at the end… just in case some people don’t read the whole content!
- You should research how to promote your blog and promote your content for finding new contact.
90 Link-Building Strategies
Technical Link-Building
In the link-building process, you should take some steps that will both increase your website quality and improve your website in terms of technical SEO. There are also some important terms you need to know for link-building.
- Use Competitor’s Strategy
After you analyze your competitors, also you can analyze their strategies. It is okay to imitate your competitor’s strategies.
- Anchor Text
Anchor text is the name given to a clickable link of a word or phrase on a website. All links you give or get are made with this system. The anchor text you use while building links must be relevant to the page it sends.
- Find Broken Links
With this strategy, you can find broken links and use their links on your website.
- Use Extensions
There are a lot of extensions for link-building to make your job easier. You can use them to analyze websites, find broken links or new topics, etc.
- HTML Index
Your website and webpages must be indexed for your site to be found by search engine bots and for your links to work.
- RSS Feed
It is a dataflow that makes it easy to follow websites with blogs or online magazines. It allows you to follow the content added to a website without entering the site. Therefore, providing links will be an action you do for your readers.
- CSS/HTML5 Index
The more organized your website’s codes are, the more easily search engine bots will find and examine your website. The visibility of your website is essential in the link-building process, and the organized code structure will make you stand out.
- Link baiting
It is a content method that attracts people’s attention, and wants to share it voluntarily. You can get backlinks organically, as Google suggested, with this method.
- TYNT
Unfortunately, your content can be stolen from other websites. In this situation, you can TYNT tool. It automatically puts your link under the content because someone uses your content without your permission. Therefore you will get backlinks thanks to this strategy.
- Set up 301 redirects
Permanent redirects you make on your site are called 301 redirect. Thus, you can easily reach visitors to different links with redirects between pages.
- Robots.txt
It is a text file that tells search engine bots which pages they can and cannot access. For example, you closed the robots.txt file of the web page from which you got links. Still, search engine bots can index the webpage with these links.
- Dofollow Link
The backlinks you get from reliable and authoritative websites are marked with this tag so that Google is notified that you are referencing the linked site.
- Nofollow Link
Untrusted websites are marked with this tag. Therefore, even if search engine bots visit this link, it has no effect.
Link-Building with Content
The most significant part of link building goes through the content part. Most of the places where you will get or give links will be your content.
- Create Blog Post
If you want to build links to your website, you have to have blog posts. You will get most of the backlinks thanks to your blogs, and you can add internal links to your blog.
- Promote Your Content
When you create content, you should promote it. People can find your content on many different platforms and share it. It will increase your website traffic.
- Create High-quality and Long Blogs
You need to answer the people’s questions in detail. Moreover, your content should be worth sharing. The readers can promote your content in this way.
- Writing about trend-topics
Recent topics will be remarkable for people, and these types of content tend to be searched by people.
- Create Evergreen Content
Evergreen content always means fresh topics. People can search for these topics for years. So, when you get a backlink for your evergreen content, it will be fresh for years.
- Make Lists like “Best of”
All listed articles promise readers an easy and fast reading experience. Therefore it helps your link-building by attracting more readers.
- Create “How to” Blogs
Many people find answers to their questions thanks to Google featured snippets, and these questions’ type is “how to” most of the time.
- Find Topics from People’s Questions
If you can give valuable answers to people, they will tend to share your blog posts, and you will get backlinks in this way.
- Use Quora
Quora is a social website based on questions and answers. The users ask questions, and people give answers. You can find new topics for your blog that might interest people.
- Write About Myths
Many people have right-known wrongs. The correct answers will be attractive to them.
- Be Authority on Specific Topics
Let’s say you have a website about digital marketing, which is a wide range topic. If you focus on specific topics like ‘promoting a company, you may be the first website that comes to mind on this subject. Being authority brings many backlinks.
- Follow the Updates
You should catch the updates so that you can write about them. Your blog post may be the reference when people need information about the updates.
- Case Study
Helpful articles tend to be referenced for the other blogs so that case studies might help link-building.
- Create Viral Content
It will increase your website’s traffic because people love viral content since social media is widespread, and this type of content should be shared to be viral.
- Write News Articles
It is similar to the following updates.
- Book Blog
You can choose a book relevant to your website and examine it. You can share your book blog with the writer.
- Add Slide
Different types of content can be shared on different platforms. You can create slides, and you can share them on websites for slides.
- Use HARO
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is an online platform for getting feedback. You can share your blog and get feedback from people—two birds with one stone.
- Use Digg
Digg is a website for sharing new stories. It helps for interesting topics that people may like.
- Tool Collections
Tool collections are similar to the lists. It is valuable content for people, and you can send your article to the tool owner.
- Use Call-to-Action Quotes
Writing call-to-action quotes will give a fillip to the readers for sharing. “Learn more here”, “buy now”, and “share on social media” are some Call to Action examples.
- Repromote Your Blogs
You must repromote your blogs, especially for your backlinks. Your website should be up-to-date with high traffic.
- Create Beneficial Graph or Data
The websites may want to use your graphs or reports. Then, they have to give backlinks.
- Convert Your Content to Different Formats
Every type of content can be used on different platforms. It means backlinks from many websites.
- Press Release
It is similar to the following updates or writing news articles. Giving information about updates makes your content valuable.
- Translate Your Content into Second Language
To build links worldwide, you should create content in other languages.
- Guest Blogger
Famous bloggers will come with their readers. You can invite a blogger or be a guest blogger on other websites. It is an impactful way for backlinks.
- Write Articles to Be Used as A Source
When you create helpful content, people may use them as a source. You must want backlinks if you find a website that uses your sentences or visuals.
- Add Internal Links
Link-building does not mean just backlinks. Also, you need internal links. You can give links to your other blog posts or your services.
- Indexing Your Content
Indexing is the collection of documents. When you publish your blog post, you have to index it on Google for visibility. Moreover, there are websites like a collection that contain glossaries and indexes. You can add your blog posts to these websites for indexing.
- Add Infographics
Infographics are very beneficial for increasing traffic and promoting your blog posts. You can share them on visual-based social media platforms such as Pinterest. Moreover, other websites may want to use them.
- Outbound Link
You should be careful when choosing a website for an external link. Their authority must be high.
- Add Value Links
You should be selective when you add internal or external links to your website. They need to serve the readers.
- Add Relevant Internal Links
On-page links should be relevant to your content and shouldn’t reduce the quality of the article.
- Choose High-Authority Websites
Before you add links to your blog, you need to analyze the websites in terms of domain age and authority of the websites. You must choose high-authority websites.
- Don’t Add More Than 3 Links to Your Article
The number of on-page links may vary depending on the article’s length, but adding more than three links in an average article will be too much.
Link-Building with Social Media
The easiest way to reach and communicate with the reader is through social media platforms. The more active you use your account, the more links you will get.
- Use Instagram
You can share your website and content on Instagram. If you want to share the story, add an image and your blog post’s link, or you can share a post with a link. Don’t forget to write your website’s link on the bio.
- Use Facebook
You can share your Instagram and Facebook posts in sync. You must add your links to the posts.
- Use Twitter
When searching on Google, you can see tweets on SERP. It is a simple way for link-building with high visibility. You can share your blog posts, and people can share quotes from your blogs.
- Use Forums
You can answer questions or add a topic to the forums. It will provide to create your community. Moreover, you can find your target audience.
- Create Pinterest Board
You can use your infographics or graphs on Pinterest by adding your website’s link.
- E-mail List
After you make any update on your website, send it to the mailing list you created. You can add a button to your website to join the list.
- E-mail Signature
Add your website link to your stable personal information at the bottom of the e-mails you send.
- Do Surveys
Do surveys on social media or on your website if you want to research. Therefore, you can have special data, and people may need this information.
- Make Coupon Codes/ Special Offers/Giveaways
Coupon codes or giveaways usually have some rules for attending. These rules are examples of sharing posts or links, tagging people, and commenting.
- Podcasts
You can build website authority thanks to podcasts. You can share your podcast with social media platforms or websites for podcasting, and you will get backlinks. In addition, it provides a chance to promote your blog.
- Social Bookmarking
You can get index and backlinks by sharing your website’s content on social bookmarking sites with keywords and URLs.
- Create YouTube Videos
YouTube is the most popular video-sharing platform, so you should convert your blogs to videos. You should add relevant links to your posts.
- Wikipedia Posts
You can write articles on Wikipedia like guest blogging and add links to your articles.
- Video Links
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Networking for Link-Building
The network you will get by getting to know people in your industry is an important way in the link-building process.
- Communicate with the Other Bloggers
You should stay in touch with other bloggers who write about similar topics to your website.
- Guest Post
As we mentioned before, inviting other bloggers to your website is possible, and it is free. On the other hand, you can pay to publish your article for promotion on other websites.
- Add Comments to the Other Blogs
You can add comments to the other blogs if there are similar blog posts like yours. It must be relevant. High-traffic websites will help you for boosting your website.
- Create Profiles on the Other Websites
After you create a membership on the other websites, you can add your website link to your bio.
- Write Product Reviews
Companies may give backlinks to your product reviews for their promotion when you send them your blog post. If you have products, you may want product reviews from other bloggers.
- Introduce Yourself to The Famous Bloggers
Having famous bloggers around you will help you develop continuously in the network.
- Request Website Review
Other bloggers may give you feedback, and you can get backlinks.
- Be a Speaker at the Event
When you are a speaker at the event, you can have a chance to introduce your website.
- Be a Host of a Webinar
Organizing a seminar might be chargeable and challenging for people who want to participate. However, you can organize a webinar that is online and affordable. It is an excellent chance to meet other bloggers.
- Be a Sponsor for Events
It is the best way to make your company’s name known.
- Participate in a Blog Community
You can share your blogs with other bloggers in a blog community.
- Communicate with your Entourage
You share your posts on social media, so why can’t you share them with your friends too? They can find networks for you, or they can promote themselves.
- Attend the Events Where Digital Marketers Come
Regardless of the sector, you should know about digital marketing if you have a website. At this point, it will be beneficial to attend a seminar where digital marketers come and meet them and promote your website.
- Work with an Agency
You can just pay and build links with a professional agency.
- Communicate with Influencers
Most social media users follow influencers and their effects more than you can imagine. Sending a link to a strong influencer is an efficient strategy. Try to benefit from influencer marketing.
- Send E-mails for the Backlink.
If you find a high-authority website and you want to get backlinks, you can send e-mails to it.
- If You Don’t Get a Response, Politely Repeat The Process
Even though you send an e-mail, not getting a response is expected. Kindly try your luck again.
- Offer Corrections to Other Blogs
If you find some mistakes, such as grammatical errors, in other blogs, you can offer corrections and get backlinks for them.
- Offer to Update Other Blogs
Some blog posts may not be up-to-date. You can contact blog owners to update their old posts.
- Create your Community
You can design a website where people can create a membership and share their comments.
Analyze Your Website for Link-Building
You must analyze your website to get backlinks because the website owners will choose high-authority and high-traffic websites.
- Domain Authority
Domain authority means your website’s relevance to a specific industry. The results will give a reliability score and your website’s visibility on search engines. A website with more links has more authority than a website with fewer links.
- Page Authority
Do you know how your page ranking on search engines? If you don’t, you should learn your PA by Moz. You can see specific web page performance on your website.
- Website Traffic
When you have high traffic on your website, it will be valuable for backlinks. If you want to increase your preferability, your website’s traffic is an essential element.
- Use Tools for Analyzing
Many valuable tools for analyzing your website performance include Google Search Console, SEMRush, Ahrefs, Google PageSpeed Insights, etc. Moreover, there are link checkers such as Broken Link Checker.
- Find your Best Links
You add many links to your blog posts, and you can analyze the best links for your website at the end. For example, you can examine the heat map to understand which link readers are most likely to click on.
- Website Speed
People leave websites if they can not access them in 5 seconds. Thus, you need to know your website speed to be selected from other websites.
- Update Your Strategy According to the Results
If there are some problems in your analysis reports, you should solve them immediately not to lose backlinks.
Timeline
Link-building tips are one thing. Applying them in a timely fashion is another. You will need to monitor specific components at certain intervals, and these tend to be different from one another. What this means is that you won’t have to do every task listed every day. You will instead have to proceed mostly in weekly terms. Here’s an overview of the timeline that you may adopt:
Weekly Monitoring
Starting from your initial steps, you need to do a few things weekly. For instance:
- Conduct internal, and competitor backlink audits.
- Browse link opportunities. This is something to be done almost weekly since the link-building market is growing.
- Choose the most appropriate outreach method depending on the prospect’s profile (e.g., email).
- Think about new topics and start building content accordingly. Indeed, posting regularly is a must.
- Submit your content to your target/host website and wait for feedback.
Monthly Monitoring
- Keep remaining in touch via social media or email. It’s always a good idea to “check-in” and reminds of your existence to your prospects.
- Verify mentions. Google Alerts is one way to do it. The objective is to count and evaluate the current state of brand mentions, competitor mentions, and such.
- Consider content syndication as a possible bonus. If you find the right publishers, this can become a new way to revive and even “immortalize” your content.
- Check reviews and testimonials. This is not only to get a glimpse of your online image. It can also act as an extra for new link-building opportunities.
Quarterly Monitoring
This one is about carrying out a broader evaluation of your overall strategy. This is also the maximum interval to review technical aspects. Waiting any longer is usually not recommended. Basically, what you need to do here is to run through almost your entire checklist. The most important part is the audit of your backlinks. You may do it through Google Search Console. Spot any irrelevant or outdated websites. Then transfer them to your disavow list.
Also, this is a good interval for a more detailed competitor analysis. Select your top competitors and examine their backlink sources as well as their strategy. No need to be greedy here. If you can just pick 3 or 4 brands and manage to investigate them fully, that’s already huge. The goal is not to 100% reproduce what they are doing but rather to get inspired and informed.
Build Your Links with Confidence
Now that you know about (or have been reminded of) the importance of link building for SEO, it’s time to get to work. A checklist will ensure that you do things in the right order. In effect, backlink crafting can sometimes be tedious since it requires control of many diverse aspects. That being said, if you follow our guidelines, you should be able to start getting significant results in a short while. What results? Increased visibility, recognition within your niche (and beyond), and authority. In sum, the ultimate stairway leads to higher traffic and thus to better rankings.
If you find this article helpful, check out The Worst Link Building Techniques as well!