The term “link building” strikes terror into the hearts of marketers around the world. Based on building “backlinks” to your website, link building is considered the hardest SEO technique to perfect. In fact, 65% of marketers agree that link building is the most difficult tactic to perform effectively. First of all, what is a backlink?
Backlinks are created when an external website publishes links back to yours. Essentially, they act as endorsements of your site’s authority – and boy, do search engines notice! The more backlinks your website collects, the better – but there’s a catch – they have to come from high-quality websites to count towards your ranking.
So, how do you go about building backlinks? Here, we’ll take you through 5 priceless tips to build your website’s backlink profile the right way, so you can see it rise upwards through the ranks.
1. Perfect Your UX
We’ve often discussed the importance of creating seamless user-experience (UX) in our SEO blogs. The truth is, UX is a grand decider of almost every SEO technique’s effectiveness – and link building is no exception. Giving site visitors a good experience when they click is crucial to making sure they stick around.
If your site provides a positive UX, it’s likely that you’ll naturally garner more backlinks. People simply won’t be as keen on linking to a site without intuitive navigation, relevant content, or fast loading speed.
2. Get Your Tracking Right
How will you know when people link to you without tracking software? Tools such as Google alerts provide an easy way to track when your brand is mentioned, either by name or with a link. Other SEO tools often include a feature that monitors backlinks – Ahrefs is one of our favourites!
There’s a lot of resources out there to help you pick the perfect link building tool. No need to go overboard – less is more with trackers. A handful of tools is enough to meet most people’s SEO needs.
3. Request Testimonials
Impressing your customers or clients with fantastic service is a valuable opportunity to request a backlink through testimonials. Low-hanging fruit? Maybe, but if they have a reputable website then it certainly pays off.
Links from testimonials are highly regarded by search engines, because they are direct reflections of your relationship with the linker. They’re inherently less awkward than requesting links from random websites, and everybody wins with a testimonial backlink: It benefits their SEO as well as yours!
4. Reach Out To Influencers
The influencer has become a powerful figurehead in building brand awareness. More than just Instagram models, influencers are people of prominence within a certain field. In the digital marketing sphere for example, we have Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin, and Marie Haynes as industry heavyweights (you might be waiting awhile for them to get back to you though – they’re that massive).
Before you start sending out requests, consider what type of content you’re going to publish with them. Whether it’s through guest posting on a blog, product reviews or another feature, joining forces with influencers almost guarantees a backlink. Still, it doesn’t hurt to ask nicely!
5. Get Smart With Content
Content is the most reliable and popular way to accrue backlinks. It’s also one of the most ethical and straightforward methods – it rests entirely on your content being valuable enough to get back-linked on its own merit.
Even Google has named content as one of two most important overall ranking factors. But which form of content gives you the biggest chance of scoring a link? Infographics are big. So big in fact, that 61% of SEO experts agree on their effectiveness for earning backlinks. Give it a try sometime – better yet, try making it interactive for extra WOW-factor!
Other lucrative types of content include: List-based articles (like this one), diagrams, charts or anything that utilises data and incorporates visual aspects. Whatever grabs people’s attention in an easily-digestible format is the way to go.
We hope these tips gave you some handy insights on how to get started with link building. We mentioned SEO tools on this one, and that’s a huge topic in itself. If you’re like the other 30% of the internet and run your site on WordPress, why not read our blog on the Best WordPress SEO Plugins to Raise Your Ranking? You just might discover some lifesaving software!
