What is Link Building?

Before we jump into the link building tips, it is important to understand what is link building. At its core, backlink building is the process of getting other websites to ‘back link’ to pages within your website.

Why is Link Building Important?

Building authoritative backlinks is instrumental in boosting your website’s credibility, traffic, ranking, and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

When done strategically, backlink building acts as a stamp of approval for other websites. These links allow your content to be viewed as relevant, authoritative, and trustworthy in the eyes of a search engine.

Key Differences Between Link Building & Off-Page SEO

Often used interchangeably (and incorrectly so), link building and off-page SEO are not one and the same thing. Here’s how:

Off-Page SEO:

• Refers to search engine optimization strategies that are leveraged beyond a website’s pages
• Includes backlinks from other websites and brand mentions for improved ranking
• Is considered a part of link building strategies

Link building management:

• Refers to creating a network of links with the end goal of strengthening a website’s authority
• Includes both external links (off-page SEO) and links on your website’s pages (on-page SEO) to boost your site’s relevancy

So, How to Build Links?

There are four ways to build links – Adding, Asking, Buying, and Earning.

1. Adding a Link

Let’s begin by understanding how you can add links using directories and forums (as shown below) as your primary link-building tools. 

In the following examples, we will look at how you can build links for an industrial site.

• Directory: Consider ThomasNet– the world’s largest directory of U.S. and Canadian manufacturers, listing over 156,000 industrial companies:

• Forums: You can also use Reddit and take into account the following Reddit example, which is specifically focused on industrial websites:

Here’s a glimpse of how users respond on the Reddit community:

Source

You can use these kinds of link building tactics based on your specific industry and niche. In the examples above, my chosen niche was industrial tools.

2. Asking for a Link

You can use different types of link building strategies when it comes to ‘asking’ for a link. This includes link placements and guest posting. Here’s an example of how to ask for a link placement and how to engage in link exchanges via guest posts:

3. Buying a Link

The third link building tactic is prohibited by Google – buying a link. This is considered to be a bad practice for building bad links.

Any effort you put in for the following kind of website will go to waste only because there are many categories, and the backlink will get lost or, worse, toxic in the process: 

4. Earning a Link

This strategy is all about other people linking to your website – without you asking for it. It refers to getting backlinks in an organic way. People want to link to your website because they may view the content as useful and value-driven.

The following Backlinko example is perfect for understanding what it takes to build high-quality links that have a ready-to-read user base:

Source

How to Identify “High-Quality” Link Opportunities?

In this section, we will learn about how to engage in high quality link building by using examples of multiple SaaS companies. The idea is to analyze what are the ideal characteristics of a ‘good backlink’ using 8 key metrics and features:

1. Page authority
2. Site relevancy
3. Anchor text
4. Follow vs. Nofollow
5. Link positioning
6. Link editorial placement 
7. Link co-occurrences
8. Destination

Assumptions made:

• You want to build links for: Snack Nation (a corporate gift company)
  
• You select the link prospect as: ZoomShift

In the following section, I will demonstrate how you can use 8 high quality link building tactics to connect every metric and feature with our link prospect – zoomshift.com. Let’s dive in!

Metric #1: Page Authority 

The first great trait of a good backlink is page authority.

When it comes to understanding a particular page’s authority, you also need to consider different metrics, such as domain authority and brand authority. Here, we will search for the domain URL – ZoomShift – on Moz to get the answers as shown below:

The learning: If all the metrics tick the right checkmarks on Moz, the link can be considered to be a good backlinking opportunity.

Metric #2: Site Relevancy

This metric is an integral part of link building management and is all about understanding how relevant the site is for your target domain.

In our example, we want to engage in backlink building for a “corporate gift” site, which employees use to explore gift options.

Here, “Zoomshift” doubles up as a great site where HR and corporate employees can go and explore various time tracking and scheduling tools available at their disposal. The audience for both overlaps about 80-90%, making the site extremely relevant for Snack Nation.

The learning: All in all, when you’re going for link placement or guest posting, ensure that there’s topical relevance for both sites – the target domain and prospective domain.

Pro tip: When analyzing the site relevancy metric, steer clear of directly competitive sites. 

Metric #3: Anchor Text

The anchor text is an important metric in determining whether the link opportunity is good or bad. It can also help to analyze the link placements.

Here’s an example of a target URL – SnackNation: 

Source

From the backlink tab shown above, note that we have taken the DR range as 51-90, and the anchor filter taken is “contains : employee recognition.”

The target URL relates to employee recognition software. We also get to see a table of diversified anchor text.

The following table showcases:

• How many times has the anchor been repeatedly correctly
• How many times the diversified anchor text is present

So, if you take the main anchor as employee recognition software, there are 11 different referring page URLs, and all mention the anchor in a varied manner – best practice followed by Snack Nation:

The learning: Do not repeat the same anchor text every single time; try to get some variation (for example, most employee recognition platforms, best employee recognition software, etc.), as Snack Nation demonstrates above.

Metric #4: DoFollow vs. Nofollow

The fourth metric that you need to understand in your link building journey is DoFollow vs. Nofollow links:

• DoFollow Backlinks: The Best Kind of Backlinks 

   

  • These are original links that pass link juice (aka value) among varying pages
    
  • Are considered as ‘points’ by Google
  • Help boost your link building efforts and organic search rankings (by way of PageRank value)
  • Example: <a href=”https://www.example.com”>Visit Example Website</a>
• Nofollow Backlinks: Not a Great Way to Scaling Up Link Building Campaign
  
  • Contains HTML code, also called an attribute, which helps search engine crawlers ignore it.
  • Helps protect search engines from spammers
  • Does not boost your website’s SEO, nor does it add any link juice
  • Example: <a href=”https://www.example.com” rel=”nofollow”>Visit Example Website</a>

Metric #5: Link Positioning

The positioning of the link is the fifth metric you should concern yourself with.

Let’s look at another example to understand this better:

• Consider the following backlink of SnackNation: https://recruitee.com/articles/employee-recognition-program
• Factor the following anchor text: employee recognition software

  

Source

You’ll notice that the link has been placed right before “Conclusion” – not a good example of link positioning. The link should ideally have been placed in the middle of the content.

Surprisingly, the same anchor text has been mentioned in the middle of the article, but the link was not placed there –

Source

Metric #6: Ask Yourself – Is the Link Editorially Placed?

On the off chance that your website gets an “editorial link” from a reputed publication without you ever having approached them – you’ve unearthed the holy grail of link building! This is a rare occurrence.

Note that there’s no set formula to achieve this metric. You should just focus on building high-quality content and establishing your credibility over time. The end goal is to let people want to link to your article.

Here’s an article that’s published by Clockwise on SaaS development trends:

The article is filled with interesting SaaS statistics and contains high DR backlinks from diverse SaaS domains – both great traits of a high-quality backlink.

Metric #7: Link Co-occurrences

Another tenet of powerful link building management is understanding the relationship between anchor text and co-occurrence links of related anchor keywords.

In the following example, with employee recognition software as your main anchor, notice how the context has related keywords/anchors (recognition, 360-degree recognition platform, employees, rewards, etc.) placed adjacent to the main target anchor:

Source

Metric #8: Destination

The final metric – Destination – talks about the three key destinations you can point your links towards when building links to your website:

1. Homepage
2. Pages that must rank higher on Google – one of the trickiest to get links to
3. Linkable assets

To help get links to the most boring pages on your website, engage in strategic and high-quality internal linking.

This is a tried-and-tested strategy that will help make your pages look more authoritative and, by extension, rank higher.

6 Best Backlink Building Strategies to Know: Top Link Acquisition Tips & Tricks

1. Guest Posting

Did you know that guest posting is the third most common technique (47%) for effective link building strategies?: 

Source

But what makes guest posting work? 

The idea is that you write a valuable piece of content for, let’s say, a publication in return for them linking your website – a fair exchange, right?

Useful guest posting tips you can try:

• Start small: Head over to the Ahrefs Content Explorer page to discover top-performing content within your niche. If you do not have many blogs published, start small and focus on building a solid portfolio of small blog content.
• Work on your guest posting offer: Pitching your guest post requires a fair amount of work. You need to think about making an offer the guest site owner won’t refuse. This can include outlining how your post might help boost the owner’s website traffic. You must also include a personalized subject line and outline the value your content will bring in terms of traffic potential, keywords used, and so on, as shown in the following email template: 

2. ABC Link Exchange via Communities 

One of the most common link exchange and link building tactics is using Communities such as Slack to drive the process forward. Here’s an example of how you can use Slack community to scale your contextual link building initiatives:

Source

Typically speaking, all qualified and seasoned link builders use these kinds of Communities for exchanging links to scale their link exchange efforts (and successfully so).

But the real question remains: What is ABC link exchange? 

It can be thought of as a mutually beneficial setup—one where all the stakeholders, including yourself, focus on inserting links to:

• Exchange web links strategically and organically
• Drive link building for SEO
• Build relationships to improve backlinks to your website
• Create guest posts or identify guest post writers
• Gather insights into the industry and niche
• Widen the online reach and presence
• Communicate with experts to ace your contextual link building strategies
• Build on content ideas and search for link-building job postings
• To improve search engine rankings

Note that your Slack link building community can comprise SEO professionals, website owners, bloggers, digital marketers, and more.

3. Start Growing Your “Personal Brand”

A tried-and-tested method of high quality link building is growing your personal brand. The idea is to leverage your own brand as a means to express your thoughts and opinions and establish a rock-solid brand presence – one that makes people want to link to your brand.

A great mark of a personal brand is the fact that your content gets as many ‘natural’ links as possible with ‘earned’ and organically-placed links throughout the content.

One such example is what I am trying to achieve via LinkedIn. 

Source

From the above image, notice how I aim to reinforce my authority and thought leadership on platforms such as LinkedIn to gain industry buy-in and build a credible reputation. 

The content that I disseminate on every platform—be it social media or the website—is reader-centric, original, value-driven, and SEO-friendly, helping me build authoritative links and enhance my online presence.

4. Digital PR

When it comes to understanding what link building is, you cannot ignore the benefits digital PR brings to the table.

Before talking about benefits, let’s first understand, “What is Digital PR”?

Digital PR, within the realm of best backlink building strategies, involves leveraging online media channels and content to enhance a website’s authority and credibility.

It entails crafting compelling stories, press releases, and engaging content that attract high-quality backlinks from reputable sources, ultimately boosting a site’s search engine rankings and online presence.

 Here’s a case study developed by the PR Link Building Agency called Search-Intelligence, offering valuable insights and lessons on how digital PR can work wonders for your link building initiatives.

Use-Case: How Bulk (Online nutritional supplements retailer) Earned 40 Links in 30 Days!

Source

The objective: To improve the client’s link building strategy and expand brand awareness as well as reach.

The solution: Search-Intelligence embraced the following link building initiatives for client:

• Newsjacking: They ensured Bulk contributed to the latest news articles by way of original trending content
• Expertise-driven posts: They leveraged Bulk’s expertise to prove authority in topics relating to nutrition and fitness
• Data-backed campaigns: They also analyzed Google and TikTok trends to roll out useful insights that might be of great interest to journalists

The results:

• Healthline = DR 92
• Daily Mail = DR 91
• Huffington Post = DR 89
• Links in 40+ reputed news publications

When you leverage Digital PR for your link building efforts, remember that:

• You might get backlinks over an extended period of time and as organically as possible

   

• The sole purpose of a digital PR campaign is to prioritize content with passive backlinks (as opposed to more active outreach)

   

• Your end goal should be to get high-DA websites to feature your links and drive brand mentions

   

• Boosting authority in the eyes of search engine giants and improving SEO are the biggest advantages of digital PR 

5. Broken Link Building

Broken link building is another important component of link building management.

It allows you to make use of the broken pages within your website. You basically find the dead links and ask the editor to use a working link instead of the old, broken link. After all, no one wants to send readers to a page that is no longer functional, right?

Let’s take an example of what broken link building means. We will compare the following two domains whose main product is “chatbots.”

• Target Domain: engati.com
• Competitor Domain: acquire.io

As you can see below, an article written by Acquire on chatbot trends is now broken. This competitor domain with the “404 status pages” has the highest backlinks:

The brand has already built links for this article with 127 referring domains. In simpler words, backlinks from 127 domains are linking to this (broken) article.

So, how can we remedy this? Follow these tips for a perfect strategy for powerful link building:

• Rewrite a better article on chatbot trends with all the latest data and statistics
• Approach all the domains to replace the old link with the new link you just created

Let’s move on to look at the current target domain situation for “Engati” with the focus keyword – “chatbot:”

Even though Engati has an article titled “What are chatbots?” placed in the 31st position with the focus keyword, it does not have any traffic.

Here’s how Engati can use the “Broken Link Building” method to improve the URL’s footfall:

Step 1: Identify that their competitor “acquire.io” has one 404 page about chatbot trends with backlinks from more than 100 domains!

Step 2: Create an insightful and meaningful article on “chatbot trends” and outreach to all the 100+ domains to replace their broken link with the updated link.

6. Replicate Competitor’s Success with Their Backlinks Analysis

Your quest for successful link acquisition must include a strategy where you’re analyzing your competitor’s backlinks and replicating (for lack of a better term) their success.

Here are some strategies that might work for you:

• Guest posting: If there are multiple links from related blogs, guest blogging might be working for them.

   

• Networking: If the links belong to MNCs and established corporations, chances are your competitors are engaging in mutual collaboration to get backlinks.

   

• Paid: If you find links from numerous high-authority sites (read: CNN, Forbes, Huffington Post, and so on.), the link placement might be paid for.

In the end, your target should be to get natural and organic links from websites like Google to be viewed as a thought leader.

Let’s look at another example to understand this better.

For this example, we will consider the:

• Target domain as monitask.com
• Competitor domain as zoomshift.com
• Focus keywords for link placement as time tracking, employee attendance, employee productivity, employee monitoring, and timesheet

Monitask’s current strategy includes backlinks from mostly news websites: 

In contrast, the competitor domain, ZoomShift, is getting backlinks from major high authority domains:

Monitask can replicate this strategy to get high-quality backlinks and ace their link building efforts—just like their competitor.

3 Key Link Building Metrics You Need to Have!

Any beginner’s guide on link building is incomplete without mentioning the following three link building metrics. Instead of simply measuring the ‘number’ of links built, use these metrics to your (SEO) advantage:

1. New Referring Domains: Study the Growth Trend

In your quest for high-quality link acquisition, To achieve high-quality link acquisition, begin by examining the obvious metrics and understanding the monthly influx of new referring domains.

How it helps: You will be able to analyze whether your link building efforts are headed in the right direction.

Top strategies to adopt:

• Focus on relationship-building in the beginning

   

• Give yourself anywhere between 2-3 months or more for link building to take off in your specific niche

   

• Keep tabs on your competitor’s referring domain growth as a safety net and seek inspirational ideas for your own link building efforts

2. Target Page “Rankings Improvement” on SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

This metric measures the performance of a specific webpage in terms of its search engine rankings over time.

How it helps: 

It focuses on assessing whether the webpage has moved up or down in the search results for targeted keywords.

This metric is crucial as it indicates the effectiveness of your link building efforts in enhancing the visibility and authority of your webpage.

Top strategies to adopt:

• Do not solely rely on Google Search Console to understand the position of your target pages within Google search results; ideally, opt for a trusted third-party position tracking tool (like SEMrush) to get the job done right.

   

• Focus on why certain keywords may not be climbing higher within the SERP. You can use the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer tool to:
  • Learn more about the competitor pages ranking on the first page of Google for a specific search query

     

  • Look up the number of referring domains your website page versus your competitor’s (which is ultimately outranking your page)

3. Organic Traffic Growth

The third and final metric is to measure the organic traffic growth using either Google Analytics or your Google Search Console account.

How it helps: You can check whether the average positions, as well as the number of impressions, are improving for a specific page.

Top strategies to adopt:

• Depending on your niche, wait at least 3 to 12 months before you start acting on Google’s evaluation of your website’s traffic, backlinks, and growth

   

• Do your homework and understand why the best-ranking pages are working within your relevant niche

   

• Compare the backlink profile to the organic traffic report of your pages to understand what’s working and what’s not

5 Link Building Tools Worth Trying

In addition to the link building tips, you also need to have the right backlink building tools by your side to scale and accelerate your link building efforts. Here are five tools worth looking into:

1. Google: Search & Alerts for Free Link Acquisition

Useful For: Anyone looking to find potential high quality link building opportunities.

Top Features: Google Search is the most widely used search engine, which offers the following link-building features:

• Search results: Google’s search results can help you to identify high-quality resources and content within your niche. With the latest information on authoritative websites, you can reach out to them for potential link-building collaborations.

   

• Google Alerts: This feature lets you monitor the web for new content related to your chosen keywords. This will enable you to stay updated on industry trends and focus on innovative link-building opportunities.

   

• Advanced search operators: They allow you to refine your searches for specific link-building prospects. For example, you can use “intitle:” to find pages with your target keywords in the title. This helps increase the relevance of potential link sources.

Pricing: Available free of cost

2. Respona: Outreaching at Its Best

Useful For: Digital marketers, SEO professionals, and PR teams who want to efficiently reach out to potential link partners and manage their outreach campaigns.

Top Features: A full-suite outreach and PR automation platform, Respona can:

• Help streamline the process of building relationships with other websites and securing backlinks.

   

• Offer a host of useful features (think: personalized email templates, product reviews, guest posts, podcast outreach, integration with various CRM and email platforms, and so on).

   

• Help you to find accurate contact information (such as a verified email and LinkedIn profile) for relevant website owners.

   

• Enable you to personalize your outreach emails at scale by automatically inserting variables such as the recipient’s name, website, or specific content details, thus improving your chances of getting positive responses for link-building requests.

   

• Allow you to create and manage multi-step outreach campaigns and build a relationship with potential link partners over time. This can be crucial for securing high-quality backlinks from reputable sources.

Pricing: $197-$399 a month

3. Hunter: Email Finding Tool that’s Accurate & Robust!

Useful For: Users who are actively involved in guest posting outreach and link building.

Top Features: A primarily email-finding tool, Hunter helps you to:

• Discover accurate email addresses associated with a particular domain within seconds.

   

• Drive effective outreach campaigns when you need to contact website owners/editors and propose high-quality link-building opportunities in the moment.

   

• Access verified data from diverse sources so that you don’t waste time with inaccurate information.

   

• Bulk upload email addresses and speed up the time-consuming verification process.

Pricing: 

• Free: $0
• Starter: $49
• Growth: $149
• Business: $499

4. Ahrefs: SEO Analysis Was Never This Easy!

Useful For: SEO professionals, digital marketers, and content creators who want to:

• Analyze backlinks
• Track their link-building efforts
• Improve their website’s SEO performance

Top Features: While Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool, it’s widely used for its backlink analysis features. Some of its most useful features include:

• The ability to explore the competitors’ backlinks, find broken backlinks, analyze anchor text distribution, and identify new link-building prospects.

   

• One-click access to key link building metrics such as Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) so that you can evaluate the quality of potential link sources.

   

• The capability to identify gaps within your backlink profile as compared to your competitors so that you can target specific websites that link to your competitors but not to you (yet).

   

• The ability to access insights into the competitor’s top-performing content and sources linking to it so that you can pivot your link building strategy.

Pricing: 

• Lite: $99
• Standard: $199
• Advanced: $399
• Enterprise: $999

5. Linkody: Backlink Monitoring is Now Within Your Reach

Useful For: Website owners, SEO professionals, and agencies who want to closely monitor the status and quality of their backlinks.

Top Features: Linkody is a link building software that helps you to:

• Monitor your backlink profile and identify potential link sources that might be relevant to your niche.

   

• Get real-time alerts to new backlinks, lost backlinks, and changes in anchor text.

   

• Access important link building metrics (read: Moz Domain Authority and Spam Score, for instance) to assess the quality of your backlinks.

   

• Keep track of your link building efforts and ensure that your backlink profile remains healthy.

   

• Monitor your competitors’ new and lost backlinks.

Pricing: 

• Webmaster: 14.9$ per month
• Advanced: 24.9$ per month
• Pro: 49.9$ per month
• Agency: 99.9$ per month
• Agency XL: 153.9$ per month

Link Building for SEO is an Art and Science, All Combined in One

Whether you are getting into link building for SEO or want to ace the concept of high quality link building, the most important aspect that you need to remember is that link building takes time. 

While the results may take time to show, note that once they do, it is well worth the wait, time, and effort.

That said, link building encapsulates multiple moving parts and concepts that change on a daily basis. 

We all know that keeping your website on track and your business afloat is already an overwhelming affair. If you want to improve your link building efforts, start by embracing the expert-approved link building tips I have outlined in this guide.

And to get your link building kickstarted on the right note, seek expert help.

Connect with me and let me shape—and redefine—your link building strategy so that you can focus on what truly matters—getting customers through the door while I do the link building heavy lifting.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is link building dead?

No, link building is definitely not dead. On the contrary, what has changed is its primary focus—from number of backlinks to the quality of backlinks.

Is link building easy?

No, link building is not easy, as it cannot be achieved overnight. You need to leverage the right mix of link building strategies and tactics to build high-quality links to your site and boost SEO as well as search engine rankings. 

How much is link building in SEO?

The cost for link building can range anywhere between $100 to $1,500+ per link. Note that the final price depends on the industry in which you operate. That said, a typical link building campaign budget can lie between $5,000 to $20,000 every month.

When should I start link building?

Generally speaking, the right time to start contextual link building is after 3 to 4 months of purchasing a new domain.

The reason is that by this time, you’ll be able to churn out higher-quality content that doesn’t feel rushed and is well-researched, as well as value-driven. 

What not to do in link building?

When it comes to link building strategies, steer clear of these bad practices:

• Do not buy or beg for links; it is prohibited and looked down upon by search engines such as Google

   

• When searching for backlinks, avoid placing exclusive emphasis on Domain Authority. Instead, prioritize linking to websites that share your target audience and belong to related industries whenever feasible.

   

• Don’t send out templated outreach emails that aren’t personalized to your end reader.

   

• Do not create content for the sake of it; focus on creating link-worthy content every single time!

   

• Do not engage in link borrowing or trading to get more traffic to your website – it is spammy and annoying

   

• Do not waste your money on the wrong mix of project management, SEO, and content marketing tools

   

• Do not create only one link building tactic; instead, find alternatives that work for your website and personal brand

   

• Don’t forget about internal link building or broken links when publishing content

   

• Do not bribe bloggers or guest post authors to backlink to your website