Link building is one of the hottest skills in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) right now. According to Google, backlinks is one of the most important factors when it comes to website ranking. The entire list contains 200 factors, but Google has identified content and backlinks as 2 of the top 3.
Now, link building is a strategy that has seen some drastic changes in the past few years, for e.g. ten years ago, private blog networks (PBNs) were rampant; so were strategies such as keyword stuffing and other questionable strategies.
Now however, Google has adopted the “quality over quantity” approach and its super smart algorithms tend to sniff out questionable links sooner or later.
So, this question is very popular in 2020:
How to be a successful link builder?
- Ensure website and link relevancy
- Brush up on your outreaching skills
- Understand different market verticals/niches
So, let’s dive right in.
1. Ensure website and link relevancy
In order to understand Google’s intent for what defines a quality backlink, you must first understand the big picture. Backlinks serve a very important purpose of an internal directory and navigational system within the worldwide web. Simply put, each “link click” should take the user to the most relevant page or resource.
Hence, relevant links take precedence over irrelevant links. The same is reflected in Google’s updates, namely the Penguin update that cracked down on spammy links. This was deemed so important that it was later added to Google’s core algorithm.
Therefore, as a link builder, you must make sure you choose relevant domains to build links for yourself or your clients. For example, if you’re promoting an online automation tool for the real estate industry; then your target website has to be a real estate website or a tech website. You should not target something like a “lifestyle blog” simply because it’s easier to get links there.
2. Brush up on your outreaching skills
Outreaching is an essential skill to have in link building. Even If you have some of the best blog writers, you will not find those premium publishing spots without good outreach skills. Now, being a good outreacher doesn’t just mean writing good emails. You need to develop contacts, manage your list of webmasters and be a good negotiator.
Here are some tips to develop a good outreacher profile:
- Become a published author
Why should a webmaster accept your article submission if you don’t have a decent profile? Hence, you should try to get yourself published on medium to high domain authority blogs.
But how should you do this?
Well, it’s simple really; you first need to reach out to new blogs with a domain authority of 5-10. These type of blogs are almost always in need of new content. Once you have a few of these links published under your name, then you can pitch to better websites with domain authorities of 15-25 and show them your previously published articles as proof. Keep repeating this process.
- Develop some good outreaching templates
This is extremely important because you don’t want your email to land in the spam folder. For this, you need to have some good Outreaching templates with high open rates.
Now, why do I call them templates? Well, you’re most likely pitching to scores of webmasters in a day. So you can’t write individual emails for all of them. You will obviously change some important details, but you’ll use the same template.
However, mail providers constantly update their filters and your generic template has a good chance of landing in the spam folder. You can tools like GlockApps to check the spam score of your email before sending it out.
- Be honest
Webmaster with high traffic blogs probably receive upwards of 500 emails a month asking for links. So, if you’re looking to build links within the blog or in the author bio, then you should be honest about your intentions. Most of these guys can spot a hustler from a mile away. So, if you are looking to build links, let them know up front.
- Follow up
Most blog owners are busy people. You might lose out on an opportunity to build links if you don’t follow up after your first email. Just because they didn’t reply doesn’t mean they’re not interested. Always follow up once or twice.
3. Understand different market verticals/niches
If you’re in the business of SEO and link building, you need to be knowledgeable about a number of market verticals; or at least the market niches of your clients.
Link building is different for different industries. What works for one market might not work in the other. For example, real estate SEO is a particularly difficult niche to rank in with a lot of high-value keywords. Hence, the strategies you use here will be significantly different than if you were trying to rank for let’s say, the “gardening” niche.
Additional Knowledge
The aforementioned tips should be more than enough to get you started in the link building game. However, there are some common industry practices that every link builder should be aware of:
- Google Algorithms
Google periodically releases algorithms and updates that focus on improving the quality of search results. Link building strategies are always scrutinized heavily. Link builders should be aware of these updates.
- PBNs and Blackhat Link Building
Private Blog networks offer links for money and their websites usually consist of promotional contents or paid links. Google is in the midst of a crackdown against such websites and links built here are very volatile. If you are building your clients’ backlinks on such websites, then you run the risk of losing their links or worse, getting their website blacklisted.