Before I start talking about link building, I want to make a few things clear. There are a lot of webmasters who think that link building is just some sort of game. They don’t really care if they get links from quality websites or not. All they care about is getting as many links as possible, no matter what.
Link building services are more than just some shady game that you play for the sake of increasing your rankings in the search engines. Link building is about relationships and trust.
Links are still one of the most important ranking factors for Google. However, Google’s view on links has changed over the years. Nowadays, it’s not just about quantity anymore. The quality of links also plays an important role in link building. Link building has become more complex in the last few years. Google’s Penguin algorithm update knocked many shady tactics off their pedestals, leaving those who relied on them scrambling to find new ways to build links.
It’s no longer enough to just create good content and pray that other people link to it. Today, you have to go out and actively earn the right for your pages and posting services to rank in search results by building links pointing back to them.
The good news is there are still plenty of link-building tactics that work, even after Penguin 2.0’s rollout.
Here are four tips for link building that are proven to work today:
01. Create shareable content upgrades
A content upgrade is a piece of collateral you offer in exchange for an email address. For example, if you wrote a post about “10 Ways to Improve Your Homepage,” you could create an eBook called “The Complete Guide to Creating a Great Homepage.” You would then insert this eBook within the original post, but only after readers submit their email address in exchange for it. This allows you to turn traffic into leads while also generating new links from people who found the eBook valuable and wanted to share it with their audience.
02. Choose the Right Keywords
If you want to build high quality links, then you need to choose the right keywords first. The keyword that you choose for your link building campaign will affect the outcome. You want to make sure that you choose relevant keywords so that you can drive relevant traffic.
When choosing a keyword, you also need to make sure that it has good search volume but with low competition. In other words, you want a keyword that is easy to rank on Google, but with enough searches every month so that you can drive significant amount of traffic.
03. Create Relevant and Informative Content
High quality links are not built overnight. It takes time and effort to build them. In order to get people to link back to your content naturally (without having the need for outreach), then you need to create something worth linking back to.
04. Find high-quality link opportunities
Don’t acquire links just for the sake of having them. Look for authoritative websites in your industry that would be relevant to your audience and reach out to them with a natural offer. For example, if you have an article on your website that would be helpful to their readers, suggest they link back to it as a resource in one of their articles. This way, the relationship is mutually beneficial and will not come off as spammy or manipulative.
