Link Building Tips 2019: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners and Experts

Link building is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO), and it's essential to do it right. According to research, 72% of online marketers consider link building to be a top priority.

Quality over quantity is the key to successful link building. This means focusing on earning links from authoritative and relevant websites rather than trying to accumulate a large number of low-quality links.

Guest blogging can be a great way to earn links from high-quality websites. In fact, it's estimated that guest blogging can earn you up to 25% of the links you would have earned otherwise.

Link building strategies are a plan to improve a website's reputation in search engines and readers, leading to better rankings. To begin, you need to identify the tactic and messaging, which is the analysis part of a link building strategy.

There are three parts to a link building strategy: analysis, guiding policy, and steps. You can choose one of the following methods to get links fast and see how content creators in that field will respond to your message.

Some popular link building techniques include expert guest posting, where you use your expertise to post on other websites about important topics in your industry, and passive PR, where you respond to requests from content creators and journalists who are actively searching for expert sources for articles.

You can also use resource links, where you list your site, study, or product/service on sites that are already listing them. Creating a list of sites, analyzing them, and customizing your pitch for outreach using these techniques will ensure you are challenged to solve problems by showing your company or expertise and experience.

Here are some advanced link building strategies:

By following these link building strategies and techniques, you can improve your website's reputation in search engines and readers, leading to better rankings.

As a first-time link builder, you're likely eager to get started and see results. However, making a few common mistakes can waste your time and hinder your progress.

Focusing solely on paid links is a major mistake. Don't fall into this trap, and instead, build skills for other link building techniques that are more impactful at scale.

These mistakes can cause you to waste a lot of time and reduce campaign performance.

Focusing solely on paid links is a mistake that can hold you back from building valuable skills for link building.

Paid links are easy to build but can be addicting, making it hard to focus on other link building techniques. They're also not beneficial for your site, and analyzing their impact is too complex for beginners.

Google can identify and devalue many paid links that violate their spam policy. This means your efforts can be wasted if you're not careful.

You should only use link building techniques that work with content creators, like enhancing content with subject matter expertise.

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

Don't get stuck in the paid link loop – focus on building skills for other link building techniques that are more impactful at scale.

As a first-time link builder, it's easy to get caught up in making mistakes that can waste your time and hurt your campaign performance. I made a series of early mistakes that are common for first-time link builders.

Avoiding these mistakes is crucial to your professional growth, so let's take a look at what not to do. Here are three mistakes to avoid as a first-time link builder.

Wasting time on link building is a major mistake. I wasted a lot of time in my early days of link building, and it's a mistake you can easily avoid by doing your research and planning carefully.

Reducing campaign performance is another mistake to watch out for. By not building links strategically, you can end up hurting your campaign's overall performance, which can be frustrating and costly.

Delayed professional growth is the final mistake on this list. By making these mistakes, you can delay your professional growth and make it harder to achieve your goals.

Link quality is a crucial aspect of link building, and it's essential to understand what makes a quality link. Google defines quality based on the reputation of the content and the company or people behind it, which can be evaluated using metrics like Domain Rating (DR) from Ahrefs.

To assess link quality, consider the following factors: Authority, Relevance, Anchor text, Nofollow vs. follow, Placement, and Destination. Using third-party metrics like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic, or Semrush can also help speed up the evaluation process.

Here are the key metrics to check when evaluating a link's quality:

By considering these factors and metrics, you can ensure that the links you build are high-quality and will have a positive impact on your website's link profile.

Quality backlinks are a crucial aspect of SEO, but what exactly makes a quality link? Google defines quality based on the reputation of the content and the company or people behind it.

Google's quality raters consider multiple factors, including the reputation of the website and content creators, as well as experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (E-E-A-T). They even provide a scale from lowest to highest quality for reviewers to use.

However, many digital marketers and SEOs rely on popular metrics from tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic, or Semrush. Ahrefs, for instance, suggests that evaluating links involves considering authority, relevance, anchor text, nofollow vs. follow, placement, and destination.

To speed up site reviews, using quality metrics can be beneficial. In fact, Google's review process takes time, but using quality metrics can reduce the time spent evaluating a site's quality during list building or auditing a competitor's links.

Here are some key quality metrics to consider:

These metrics can provide a good starting point for evaluating the quality of a link. By considering these factors, you can get a better understanding of a site's reputation and whether it's worth linking to.

Measurement and Optimize is a crucial step in link building. You need to evaluate the initial performance of your link building efforts by counting the quality links obtained from influential content creators. Focus on analyzing the messaging and how the contacts are responding or not responding.

To measure the success of your link building strategy, keep track of the number of new backlinks acquired, which indicates the reach and expansion of your website's link profile. Not all backlinks are created equal, so assess the quality of backlinks by looking at the domain authority (DA) or domain rating (DR) of linking sites.

High-quality backlinks from reputable sites have a greater impact on SEO, so monitor the amount of traffic each backlink drives to your website. High referral traffic from a backlink indicates relevance and engagement, which are positive signals to search engines.

Here are some key metrics to check when evaluating the quality of backlinks:

By regularly checking these metrics and adjusting your link building strategy as needed, you can refine and optimize your efforts for maximum results.

Link outreach and collaboration are key components of a successful link building strategy. Outreach involves contacting content creators or websites through email, phone, or social media to secure links.

You can use tactics from influencer marketing and digital PR to secure links through outreach. This can include creating linkable content, being seen as an expert in a specific field, adding value to creators, and building relationships.

To collaborate with influencers, you can use tools like BuzzSumo to find popular content in your niche. You can also join private influencer networks (PINs) where influencers work together to help each other rank their websites in Google.

To find influencers and their contact info, you can use services like Hunter, NinjaOutreach, GroupHigh, BuzzStream, or Pitchbox. Once you've found influencers, you can nurture relationships with them by promoting and commenting on their content.

Here are some campaign types you can use for linkable content:

By establishing a partnership with industry-specific influencers, you will get direct access to their followers, who are also your target audience. They will become your brand advocates as they promote your content, products, and services to their audience, allowing you to earn backlinks.

Link building tools can be a game-changer for your SEO strategy. Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Majestic SEO are top-notch tools for backlink analysis, keyword research, and competitor research. They can help you identify link-building opportunities and track your progress.

To streamline your link building process, consider using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Majestic SEO. These tools can help you analyze your backlink profile, identify new opportunities, and track your competitors' link building strategies.

Here are some recommended tools to help you with link building:

These tools can help you with backlink analysis, content research, outreach, and more. By leveraging these tools, you can save time and effort, and focus on creating high-quality content that attracts links.

Paid links can be tempting, but they're not the best choice for building high-quality backlinks. Many paid links are not beneficial for the site, and analyzing their impact is too complex for beginners.

Google can identify and devalue many paid links that violate their spam policy, making them a risk for your site's credibility. To use paid links effectively, it's essential to disclose your relationship with the linked page using rel=”sponsored”.

While paid links are easy to build, they're not a sustainable link building strategy. Focusing solely on paid links can hinder your professional growth and make you less skilled in other link building techniques.

Here are some key considerations for using paid links:

Using link-building tools is a game-changer for finding and managing potential link sources. These tools help you discover new opportunities and save time by automating tasks.

Some popular link-building tools include Ahrefs, Moz PRO, and Linkody. These tools provide valuable insights into authority and trust scores, helping you identify high-quality links.

You can also use Link Prospector to identify website marketers who may like your content and add backlinks. It's a great way to find potential link sources and reach out to them.

Researching competitors is a great way to find "me-too" links. Dig into the data to find directories, blogs, newsletters, media, and other websites that may be open to linking to your site.

Tools like Ahrefs and Moz have special features to save you research time. Their Link Intersect feature lets you compare your website to others to see what links those sites have that yours doesn’t.

Here are some recommended link-building tools:

By using these tools, you can streamline your link-building process and enhance the effectiveness of your strategy.

Regular reports can help you see trends and identify areas for improvement by analyzing your link building strategies. Monthly or quarterly reports are a good starting point.

Comparing your link building progress with that of your competitors can provide useful insights into industry standards and reveal new opportunities. This can help you understand their link building strategies and performance.

Evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of your link building efforts is crucial. This involves considering the cost of link building activities against the value of increased traffic and improved rankings.

Creating supportive tools is a great way to simplify tasks for people and get legit backlinks from your target audience. For example, Travis Bradberry offers various tools like psychological intelligence testing and daily calendars through his TalentSmart website.

These tools help people get to know themselves better, making them extremely popular. With their popularity, these tools get a ton of mentions and links from reputable sites, like Harvard, which mentioned and linked to TalentSmart on their emotional intelligence tools list.

By creating supportive tools, you can give people what they need, and they'll be more likely to share it with others, giving you those valuable backlinks.

Link building is an essential part of SEO, and having a solid strategy in place can make all the difference. A link building strategy is a plan to improve a website's reputation in search engines and readers, leading to better rankings.

To start, you can choose from various link building techniques, such as expert guest posting, passive PR, or resource links. These methods help you get links fast and show how content creators in your industry will respond to your message.

Here are some popular link building techniques to consider:

These techniques can help you create a list of sites, analyze them, and customize your pitch for outreach, ensuring you're challenged to solve problems by showing your company or expertise and experience.

Guest blogging is a powerful way to gain links, and it involves creating valuable content for other websites in your industry with a link back to your own.

To find sites for guest posting, you can use a Google Search operator, or collaborate with other link builders through email, groups, or spreadsheets.

Guest post collaboration is another effective way to find new sites to write for while getting more links. You can join groups, collaborate with other link builders, or share a spreadsheet to access new websites.

Writing an article or blog post for other websites in your industry can be a great way to gain links. Identify authoritative blogs and websites in your niche, engage with them through social media or email, and propose unique and insightful blog post topics.

The Skyscraper Technique involves creating content that is more informative, engaging, and of higher quality than your competition's, and then convincing website owners to link to it instead.

To find the best content for the Skyscraper Technique, use tools like BuzzSumo, YouTube, Quora, and Google searches. Look for evergreen topics with lasting relevance and develop content that adds significant value compared to the original piece.

When using the Skyscraper Technique, focus on creating better content than what's already available, and use backlink analysis tools to identify relevant sites that linked to the original content.

Mentioning influencers in your content can be an effective advanced link building strategy. Discuss examples, quotes, and case studies from industry influencers and let them know that you mentioned them.

To find relevant influencers, use services like Hunter, NinjaOutreach, GroupHigh, BuzzStream, or Pitchbox, or perform a Google search with "top blogs/experts in (your niche)".

Here are some popular services to help you find relevant influencers:

Analyzing your competitors' backlink profiles can give you valuable insights into how to adjust your own strategy. Start by identifying your main competitors who rank well for your target keywords.

You can use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush for detailed backlink analysis, which will provide insights into where your competitors' backlinks are coming from, their quality, and the types of content being linked.

Look for high-authority competitors' websites that are linking to your competitors. Prioritize links from relevant sites with high domain authority, since they carry more weight in SEO.

Some of these websites might be willing to host your content as well. Identify gaps in your own backlink profile by comparing it to your competitors'. This will help you understand which strategies your competitors are using and which types of websites are linking to them but not to you.

Consider guest blogging on relevant websites and focus on content formats that have worked for your competitors. Develop an outreach strategy to connect with the websites identified and propose content that is as good as or better than what they currently link to.

Here's a summary of the competitor analysis process:

Regularly monitor the new links you acquire and analyze how they affect your website's traffic and search engine rankings. Learn from both successful and unsuccessful attempts, and adapt your strategy based on what is working well in your industry and niche.

Link building is a process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own, and it's a fundamental part of Search Engine Optimization.

Each link is perceived as a vote of confidence from one site to another, signifying the linked content's value and credibility. High-quality links drive direct traffic to your site while increasing its authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines.

To start, choose one of the following methods to get links fast and see how content creators in that field will respond to your message: expert guest posting, passive PR, or resource links.

A link building strategy is a plan to improve a website's reputation in search engines and readers, leading to better rankings. It has three parts: analysis, guiding policy, and steps.

To create a list of sites, analyze them, and customize your pitch for outreach, use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Majestic SEO for backlink analysis and tracking.

Content research tools like BuzzSumo and Google Trends help identify trending topics, popular content formats, and the content strategies of competitors.

Efficient outreach is critical in link building, and tools like Hunter.io and BuzzStream can help manage and automate communication with potential link partners.

Don't forget that not all links are created equal - links from websites with high authority will contribute more link equity to your pages than links from low-authority sites.

Here are some link building best practices to keep in mind:

By following these best practices and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in link building, you can create a successful link building strategy that drives traffic and increases your website's authority.

Building a strong backlink profile is just the beginning. Advanced tactics like link pyramids can take your link building efforts to the next level.

A link pyramid is a natural tactic that gives you zero chances of getting penalties from search engines. It involves creating a hierarchy of links to a specific page, with each level building on the previous one.

For instance, if you want to rank for www.yoursite.com/SEO, you can create a blog post that links to it using relevant anchor text. This is just one level of the pyramid.

You can use link pyramids for guest posting and multiple formats of content like images, infographics, and videos. This approach is especially effective for ranking specific pages.

Proven link building techniques include a range of methods that webmasters use to gather high-quality backlinks. Each method has its own advantages and can be tailored to fit different objectives and industries.

Link pyramids are a great example of advanced link building strategies that require a better understanding of SEO. They're a sophisticated way to build your backlink profile and improve your website's ranking.

To start building links, you need to have a solid link building strategy in place. A link building strategy is a plan to improve a website's reputation in search engines and readers, leading to better rankings.

You can begin by choosing one of the following methods to get links fast: expert guest posting, passive PR, or resource links. For example, you can use your expertise to post on other websites about important topics in your industry through expert guest posting.

To streamline the link building process, you can use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Majestic SEO for backlink analysis. These tools help identify where links are coming from, the quality of these links, and new potential opportunities to build links.

When creating content, it's essential to make it linkable or shareable to attract backlinks naturally. You can use tools like Google Trends to understand search trends and topics that are currently popular, which is helpful in content creation.

To earn links, create content that creators want for their audience. You can distribute your content through social ads remarketing, social ads, social media organic shares, or Google Ads.

Here are some recommended tools for link building:

Keep in mind that link building is an ongoing process, and it's essential to stay informed about the latest trends and best practices. Regularly visiting SEO blogs, participating in webinars, and joining SEO and digital marketing forums can provide valuable insights and keep you updated on industry developments.