6 Link Building Strategies To Crush Your Competitors

Link building is a key part of any SEO marketing strategy. It’s one of the things Google values the most. A well-implemented link building strategy ensures that you deliver relevant and high-quality results to people searching online. Not only that, but when you build links correctly (in line with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines), it establishes better trust and authority.

In fact, a recent study by Ahrefs found that 91% of all pages on the web receive no organic traffic from Google, largely because they lack backlinks.

When adopting a link building strategy, it must be done with absolute care. A bad link can hurt your website’s ranking. Instead of boosting your site, it may struggle to keep up.

If you don’t want your website to go downhill, check out these six link building strategies. They might not be the top SEO trends, but they are essential for every link builder out there.

Let’s help you beat the competition online!

Emphasize Quality Content

In the past, search engines weren’t as sophisticated as they are today. If you want increased exposure for your business and want to rank your site at the top of SERPs, you need links that appear naturally. 

In 2018 or even 2019, it might not have mattered much where your links appeared. It was fairly irrelevant whether you were getting a backlink from a low-quality website faking authority. 

However, things are different now. Google’s algorithm has significantly evolved. It can distinguish between fake websites and genuine ones, placing greater emphasis on the quality and relevancy of a link.

Did You Know? According to Moz, 92% of search traffic goes to results on the first page of Google, further highlighting the importance of a robust link building strategy.

Quality Factors of Link Building

The main quality factors of a link are:

Anchor Text:

This is the text that hyperlinks to another webpage. For instance, linking Branex.com’s blog page as anchor text would appear as “Branex Blog“.

Previously, Google relied more on descriptive anchor links, which led to anchor link abuse.

Fast forward to today, link building works differently. For example, let’s say you’re trying to create a natural backlink linking to your website on the keyword “digital marketing services.” Back then, people would abuse anchor text links by adding highly targeted and descriptive keywords like “cheap digital marketing services,” which would make up 90% of all your anchor link profiles. This kind of behavior is a clear signal to Google that you’re trying to manipulate SERPs.

Domain & Page Authority:

Domain Authority (DA) measures the authority of the domain name linking back to your website, based on factors like the number of backlinks.

Page Authority (PA) builds similarly but focuses on a single webpage instead of the entire domain. Tools like Moz, SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Majestic provide insights on PA and DA to assist in link building efforts.

Relevance:

Last but not least, the relevance of the link is critical. A funny domain name might not link back to your website as effectively as a domain more relevant to your niche. For example, if your website sells digital marketing services, a domain name such as “www.digitalmarketingtexas.com” would be more effective in helping your backlink rank accurately than one that isn’t relevant.

Wrong backlinks can cause harm. You could end up on low-quality article directories or content mills, risking your website’s reputation.

Fun Fact: Never buy links, or your website risks being de-indexed.

Develop Useful Connections

As mentioned, quality backlinks are not easy to obtain. It requires constant effort, especially when searching for links within your relevant niche.

The goal should always be to have links to your website appear in relevant places. Businesses must check if the page is original, authoritative, and relevant to the desired niche when making backlinks. If you’ve been in SEO for a while, you may have contacts you can reach out to. Building lasting relationships with website owners in your industry can provide invaluable resources that benefit your link building campaign.

Don’t hesitate to approach a webmaster with an offer. It may help you forge a mutually beneficial and long-lasting relationship. It could be anything worthy of a link—like a product, business, service, or brand name. You might already have something useful that others would link to on their websites.

Write High-Authority Guest Posts

According to a study by Aira, 53% of marketers still believe guest posting is one of the top link building strategies.

Although an old practice, guest posting is still one of the fastest ways to build authority backlinks by connecting with webmasters who accept quality content.

However, one of the worst mistakes businesses make is trying to use guest posts to manipulate search engine results, which can lead to penalties. Instead of adding value, this tactic can damage their site. But if you create quality content that is helpful and relevant to a target market, guest posting becomes a useful tactic you can rely on.

Just don’t overdo it, or you risk spamming the platform.

Use More Variety

No doubt, building links has become more challenging, but there are still plenty of opportunities out there. Many specialists now diversify their link building strategies, leveraging various methods.

In order to build a diverse and valuable link profile, link builders use different forums, social media posts, blog posts, local citations (for local businesses), and other social media channels.

If you’re implementing link building for your business, diversify your approach and ensure you create links that appear valuable to readers.

Place links strategically, or they will end up in spam.

Engage Your Audience

As discussed earlier, it’s important to create lasting connections, which you can only achieve by engaging with your target audience.

Online marketing is a collaborative effort—a two-way conversation unlike traditional advertising, which often focuses solely on sending a pitch.

As a webmaster, you have plenty of opportunities to engage your audience. Social networks provide an easy way to converse, where you can leave comments and add links. You can also leave blog comments and engage your audience in forums for better understanding.

By paying attention to their needs, getting them involved, and addressing their concerns, you build trust and respect, ultimately fostering long-lasting relationships.

A portion of your link building work might even be handled by your audience.

Add More Value

There is no shortage of low-quality content online. Many articles are written solely to generate backlinks.

Google AI for search has transformed everything. Despite this, countless low-value articles and web pages are still published regularly, adding little to no value for readers. Many of these are AI-generated or spun content.

Publishing original, high-quality content not only adds value but also attracts backlinks naturally. Your content may be shared on social networks and bookmarking sites, and webmasters may voluntarily link to your content.

There’s a saying, “Write naturally, and the links will come.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran SEO professional or a beginner, you’ll agree that natural link building will give you a long-term position in Google search ranking.

What is Natural Link Building?

Natural link building is attracting links without investing any energy or time. The links are generated naturally by guest posting or incorporating user-generated content.

The core idea behind generating natural links is that the content on your website is so valuable that people cannot resist linking your website to their content.

The more natural links you’re able to accumulate, the stronger your position on the SERPs.

We would suggest combining both natural link building with current link building methods to double the impact.

Benefits of Natural Link Building

Traditional link building differs from natural link building.

With natural link building, you can improve your traffic, rank, and increased brand visibility.

• Industry recognition: When you get your link mentioned in a famous publication, your brand visibility will increase.
• Social shares: There is a direct relationship between the number of shares and content that attracts natural shares.
• Building relationships: Using natural links can help you build relationships with industry experts.
• Confidence: When you get traffic from natural links, you know that these are genuine people willing to read and take an interest in your brand.

So does one approach natural link building?

How can we glean those coveted link juice that will nourish your rankings to the top?

Let’s dive into six link building strategies that can help you turn the wheels and drive you to the top in a natural way.

1: Content Marketing

The foundation of strong link building starts with creating content worth sharing.

Traditional link building demands links from guest posts and blog comments. The natural link building doesn’t work like that.

Building evergreen content is a sure-shot way to attract links from high-quality backlink websites.

If your content is regularly providing value, it becomes evident that people and high-authority websites will take note.

2: Social Media Platforms

Your personal social media profiles provide a grand opportunity to share links to your website without costing you anything.

Twitter gives you two fields to add a link. (In bio and website section). On Instagram, you can add a link to the profile. While on LinkedIn you have the option to add three links.

Besides all of this, social media will help you to get your content in front of more people.

If your content is relevant and engaging that your audience would love to share, then this will result in attracting tons of natural links.

3: Taking Aid from Resource Pages

Resource pages are evergreen pages that provide high value to the customers. These are the pages that contain PDFs, downloadable content, tips and tools, interviews, and third-party links that offer valuable content. The good thing about these pages is that people visit these pages more often.

At times some websites limit their resource pages for themselves. However, if you can convince the website owner to post your link on the resource page, it would give your website’s ranking a boost on Google.

People looking for answers to their problems often land on these pages. And if they find your content useful, then they will share it further directing more relevant traffic and link juice to your website.

4: Quora

A question-and-answer website that shares knowledge and gives answers to questions asked by people, with traffic of more than 200,000+ unique visitors per month.

To gain natural links from Quora, the key is to provide value. Bloggers use Quora to drop their links whenever they get a chance.

Find a question that relates to your product/service/brand and while providing a valuable answer, subtly direct the reader to your site to explore your offerings.

5: Ebooks

Is an excellent writer on your team? If yes, ask them to write an industry-leading ebook to get some natural links.

An ebook is personal, and if you do it the right way, then your audience will start considering you an expert in your domain giving you authority over other websites.

Once you’ve crafted a highly valuable ebook, you can then intelligently place links to articles, and landing pages of your products and services via hyperlinking text and CTAs.

6: Reddit

Reddit is not just for r/gaming, r/showerthoughts, and r/dankmemes. There are plenty of things that you can do on Reddit. For instance, you can use Reddit to answer questions or share knowledge.

Create an account as a simple user and start answering questions that are related to the industry of your business.

Subscribe to subreddits that are related to your industry. Answer questions that build your karma and share value. Occasionally, drop a link that helps users and at the same time helps other businesses.

If other Redditors like what you have to say, and if your linked content is of interest to them, they may decide to share it elsewhere or even link to it in a future article.

Conclusion

Link building is crucial for SEO success, but it only works when done right.

By focusing on quality content, building strong connections, and using diverse strategies, you can create a powerful link building plan that boosts your rankings and builds trust with your audience.

Keep engaging with your audience, add real value, and let the links grow naturally.

Ready to take your SEO game to the next level? Branex offers expert SEO and digital marketing services tailored to your business needs. Let’s help you dominate the competition online—contact us today!