With different tactics coming and going in the world of SEO, these days you can hardly count on anything. That is – except one trusty approach. Link building is an age old practice (well, at least as old as the web).
Surprisingly it remains almost as effective as it was back in 1998, when Google began. The only problem with these precious links is that they can prove quite a pain to procure. We can’t promise you hundreds of thousands of backlinks, but we can get you started in the right direction with the following effective link building ideas.
1. Attend events.
Attend events in your industry and write a blog post detailing them. Socializing with other attendees will allow you to mention them by name in your content and peak their interest a bit more. Bonus points if you take photos that are free if use if people give credit to you.
2. Host an event.
If appropriate for you business, host a tradeshow or an event with speakers. By selling or allowing people to reserve tickets on your website, others will share this page and link to it.
3. Guest posting.
Okay, by this point you’ve probably heard of this idea but it’s worth mentioning. Inviting guests to write blog posts for your website and interviewing them will help you reach new audiences. These guests will likely share the article they’re featured in.
4. Crowdsourcing.
What’s better than interviewing one guest? Interviewing multiple guests! Find the experts in your industry, get their thoughts on a topic, and compile them in a blog post.
5. Donate, sponsor, or volunteer.
Donations and sponsorships usually lead to gratitude and many thanks. Non-profits will often list benefactors on a page of their website. If you’d rather spend time than money; volunteer!
6. Creating infographics.
Forget about using infographics as content offers. Make it easy for people to access your infographics by including them right in your blog and sharing them on social media. Be sure to make it clear that they’re free to use as long as credit is given where it’s due; with a link of course.
7. Fix broken links.
If you’ve relocated pages and haven’t set up redirects, you may want to check your website for broken links. It would be unfortunate if other websites linked to destinations that resulted in 404 pages. Click here to check your website for broken links.
8. Reviews and testimonials.
Offer to leave reviews for products or services your business uses. The company you provide this for will hopefully link back to you in the review (might be worth reminding them to do so). If the company is local, this will aid your local link building efforts as well.
9. Explore different topics.
Maybe nobody’s linking to your blog posts because you’re writing about the same old topics. Try answering different questions in your niche that haven’t been answered before. Google’s algorithms seem to have a focus on topical authority, so it pays off to explore different subjects within your niche thoroughly.
10. Studies, surveys, and data.
Statistics are a lazy content writer’s best friend. Sometimes it’s much easier to include data in your blog post than persuade readers on a point.
So, it’s no wonder why pages that list stats get a high number of backlinks. There’s also no temptation not to link back, readers trust stats more when they come from an alternate, credible source.
11. Job openings.
If you have a new position open up in your business, take this opportunity to list it directly on your website. You can still use employment websites like SouthernMaineHelpWanted.com, just be sure to link back to your website’s hiring page from there.
12. Revise your internal linking strategy.
Internal linking allows you to strategically pass on link juice. If you’ve been neglecting your internal links to focus on backlinks, check out our guide to internal linking.
13. Grab backlinks from your competitors.
If they’ve managed to get the links they have, why can’t you get them as well? Use a tool like Monitor Backlinks to find out which websites are linking to your competitors.
Then you can either message those websites directly, link to them in hopes of getting noticed, or interact with them on social media and work on building a relationship.
14. Host a contest online.
Promote a contest on your social media page. For example, perhaps you own a pet shop. Run a contest for the best local dog groomer or some other related business. This winner may mention the contest on their own website and link back to you.
Even if you have this contest directly with your target market who probably don’t have their own website, the winners are likely to share the results on social media and drive traffic to your website.
15. Write amazing content.
Perhaps the best idea we can give you is to create content that is worth linking to! If you’ve crafted content of quality, people will naturally want to link back to it as a resource in different articles.
By now, everyone’s creating content. To stand out, rank higher, & convert in 2017 – step it up & create AMAZING content.”
@osc_webdesign
