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Off-Page OptimisationSEO

4 Link Building Strategies Your Business Needs

By 31 May 2021July 18th, 2022No Comments

Have you ever read an article that was filled with hyperlinks to other sources? Or what about an article that left you wanting more information but there were no links to be found? As a business, there’s a fine line you need to meet when it comes to including links in your content. You want to provide the reader with helpful info, but you don’t want to overwhelm them with too many links. The same goes for businesses using links to other content.

How can you go about getting other businesses to link to your great content? Through link building! Creating a link building strategy is something every business with a web presence needs to do. However, we notice a lot of businesses don’t take advantage of this free SEO tactic. Many times, business owners don’t understand the importance of link building while some don’t have the time to build and implement a link building strategy.

If you feel like you’re not spending enough time on link building, then this blog is for you! We’re going to cover four link building strategies that you can start using today. We’ll also discuss what you need to create a link building campaign. Let’s start with some basics about link building.

What Is Link Building?

Link building is the act of linking to other business websites to improve online search visibility. Typically, these links are one-way and don’t require the other site to link back to your site. One-way links are often referred to as backlinks. If you’d like to learn more about linking for your site, be sure to check out these two blogs:

Still confused on link building? You’re not alone. Think of it like this; when someone links to your website, picture it as a vote for your webpage. Not only does link building help the business using the link to your site, but it also shows your business website as a credible source. In turn, this allows search engines to rank businesses with more backlinks higher in relevant search results.

Since link building was introduced, there have been minimal changes to how it works. However, one major change that occurred is that Google doesn’t just look at the quantity of backlinks. Now, they look at the quality. The more authority a website has, the more likely it will improve your rankings. For example, if a popular website in your industry linked to your business site, that will drastically increase your search ranking. This is because their site has more authority.

While we just touched on the basics of link building, there are a lot of rules that you need to follow. At Higher Ranking, we’re always here to help with your SEO needs. Contact us today to get started on creating the right strategy for your business. Or you can check out the 7 Golden Rules of Link Building (see what we did there?).

Now, let’s dive into the real reason you’re here: the link building strategies.

Strategy 1: Outreach

First things first, you won’t have consumers or other businesses linking to your website if they don’t know you exist. If you’re a new business or a new player in the digital world, you are going to have to do some outreach to others in your industry. It might seem tedious and time-consuming, but this is the first step toward link building.

Many times, businesses think they need to have a website filled with content before reaching out to others. That’s not necessarily true. Your website just needs to have link-worthy content. A few examples include your brand, services/products you offer or even your personality. You need to have something on your site that makes you unique so others want to link to your site.

Another great example of link-worthy content includes a free tool on your website. Nowadays, businesses have more capabilities than ever before to include usable tools, such as a word counter, personality quiz, emoji database, image compressor and so on. Point out what’s great about your site, even if you don’t have a ton of sharable content created yet.

Even if another business doesn’t immediately link to your site, that does not mean they won’t in the future. Many times, outreach is also considered a brand awareness tactic in marketing. Once you get your name out there to others in your industry, it’s likely they will keep up with what you’re doing.

Strategy 2: Take Advantage of Broken Links

This one might seem confusing, but we promise it’s not. This is actually something you could do when completing the outreach part of link building, so keep that in mind when you’re reading.

When you’re searching through a site and come across a hyperlink that leads to a 404 error page or a page that simply doesn’t exist anymore, you can take advantage of that. If you have a piece of content that seems relevant for where that broken link exists, you can reach out to the site and ask them to replace the dead link with a link to your relevant content.

Broken links happen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes websites have errors and pages are temporarily down. Before reaching out to a site, be sure to monitor that link for a few days to make sure it’s consistently broken. You can use this information as ammo when you reach out to the site as well. Here’s an example of what you could say, “Hi, my name is Joe and I work for Melbourne Jewelry. I noticed over the past few days that the “local jewelry store” link in your About Page is no longer working. I just wanted to reach out and provide you with a link to our site as a linkable option. I look forward to hearing back from you!”

While this may seem like a lot of work for just one chance at having your website linked to, there are tools on the web that you can use that help you find sites that have dead links. Check out the Site Explorer by Ahrefs to see what a tool like this can do for your business and link building strategy.

Strategy 3: Utilise Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the most common and oldest link building strategies you can use. When you write a guest blog for another site, you have an opportunity to link to your website in the content. Many times, you can link to a free resource or tool that your business offers. In the bio section on the page, you can also link back to your website. It truly is that simple.

However, you might be wondering how you can begin guest blogging for other sites in your industry. If you have existing partnerships with other businesses, start by working with them. If you want to expand your reach, you can head to Google and complete a search with special indicators. Here’s a template for what you would need to include in a search: topic + intitle: “write for us.” Think back to our jewelry example from before. Joe the jeweler could type in: jewelry + intitle: “write for us.”

When the results pop up, there should be options that appear with how to contribute to the individual sources. Keep in mind, though, that just because they are accepting submissions doesn’t mean they will like your pitch or topic. Don’t let this get you down.

One way around this is that you don’t only have to pitch guest blog topics to sites that are accepting submissions. Often, sites in your industry are looking for guest bloggers, they just do not always advertise it. If your content is well-written and makes sense for their site, it’s likely they won’t turn down free content. If you are really organized, you could even consider pitching a topic during the outreach stage of your link building strategy.

Another important thing to note with guest blogging is that while it’s great for link building, it’s already great for brand awareness and recognition. The more you put your business out for people to see, the more likely they will remember your brand. When you combine your marketing strategies to work with each other, you will see a better result for your business.

Strategy 4: Repurpose Content

While the first three strategies have been outreach-based, that does not mean all link building strategies are. One thing you can do to build links is to repurpose your content into different formats. Consumers don’t always digest content in the same way. Some people like to read while others like to watch a video. Depending on your current audience or the audience you are trying to reach, you will need to repurpose your content into different formats.

Not only can you create inbound links between your content, but you can submit your content to other pages that focus on the format of your content. Even though submitting content to content-sharing sites doesn’t create the best backlinks for your business, it’s a start to getting your name and content out there. Link building can be a slow-moving strategy. As long as you are consistent with your efforts, it’s likely you will see improvement with link building.

Time to Start Link Building

In this blog, we only covered a small amount of link building strategies that you can use for your business. Other strategies to consider include link reclamation, unlinked mentions, paid promotions for links and many others. Keep in mind that while there are many strategies that you can use, it’s important to make sure they all work together if you are using more than one strategy at a time. The last thing you want is to work against yourself and make link building more difficult.

We encourage you to take a stab at creating a link building strategy and begin working through link building for your site. When you create a link building campaign, it can help you work through the necessary steps. First, you will want to set goals that are reachable but not too easy. Next, you need to find which assets you would like other sites to link to. This could be your products, content, data and more. Lastly, you need to decide what types of links you need. Do you need links to your homepage or links with keywords you are targeting?

It’s essential that you take the time to create a campaign before you begin link building. It can be a lot to focus on when you’re trying to run your business, but that’s why our team at Higher Ranking is always here to help. If you are struggling to create a campaign or can’t seem to get the hang of link building, don’t stress. We have the SEO services you need. You can view all of our services or contact us to get started.