The Link Building Secrets Revealed

Link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. is easily one of the most challenging and complex aspects of search engine optimisation (SEO). For this reason, you might be tempted to stick to growing your presence across social media or email marketing platforms, so you don’t have to tackle it for yourself.

However, if you want to increase your visibility in the search engines, reach the top positions for multiple keywords in Google, and drive a considerable amount of traffic to your website, you must embark on a link building campaign.

Link Building Secrets

As Google will review your backlink profile to determine your value and trust, you need to discover the best tactics to help your brand improve its search rank. To ensure your success online, here are some effective link building secrets you will want to master for yourself.

Penalties Aren’t Too Scary

Link building can be an intimidating process for many people due to the hype surrounding penalties. While Google will hand penalties to webmasters who attempt to manipulate their search rankings, they are not really that scary, and you will be happy to know your site can recover from penalisation.

Google will more than likely cause your rankings to plummet if you undertake multiple link offences. While a Google penalty will depend on the offence, you will more than likely drop a page or two for your desired keywords. While this can negatively impact your website and business, you can resolve the problem by removing any bad linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. or building higher quality backlinks.

Secure Backlinks on Secondary Links

Securing a backlink on a high authority website could help to boost your position in the SERPs. However, there might be some authority sites where it might feel almost impossible to secure a backlink. If this is the case, you must review the sites they are linking to and then try to receive a backlink from those sites.

This can often be a much easier alternative, as your website will still benefit from the high-authority site’s link juice, as it will flow from the secondary website to your own.

Publish Original Research

Original research and data is an effective link building tactic. Rather than reaching out to websites to link back to your site, it will lead to multiple websites referencing back to your high-quality content in their own articles, as your study can back up their claims and findings.

Google values original, informative and interesting content that improves the user experience, and your fresh industry insights will prove you are an industry thought leader. Remember, Google will reward sites who have naturally developed a strong backlink profile, and there is no better way to do so.

If you want to generate data and research for link building purposes, you must identify a topic you believe your audience will find valuable and ask a question that you would like answered. You should then conduct independent research, collecting as much data as possible, and ensure it is representative of your industry or niche.

Once you have compiled your data, publish the research on your website and start promoting it online. You could also generate more backlinks by incorporating numerous visuals into your article, such as graphs and charts. The more unique and interesting your content, the more links you will receive. Also, don’t be afraid to use the research content on additional blog posts, videos, podcasts and infographics.

Steal Your Competitors’ Links

If you want to beat your competitor in the search engines, you need to act like them. In addition to monitoring your own backlink profile, you must also pay close attention to the links your industry rivals are generating.

There are many free and paid SEO tools available that will allow you to review the many links your competitors have earned throughout the years. Once you have identified how and where they have secured their backlinks, you can make it your mission to secure the exact same links yourself.

However, it is important to thoroughly review their backlink profile to ensure you don’t secure a bad backlink that could damage your profile. While it might not be hurting your competitors’ search engine ranking, it doesn’t mean it will not hurt yours.

If you want to become the one your competitors fear, check out our blog All You Need to Know About Competitor Link Building

Identify Dead Businesses and Secure Their Backlinks

In addition to stealing your competitors’ links, you should also go after a dead business’s backlinks. Analyse their backlink profile to discover links from high authority websites, which are now linking back to an inactive website. You should then reach out to the high-authority sites via email to ask them to replace the dead links with one of your own.

Start Mentioning Influencers

If you want to secure powerful backlinks that will shoot a page up the SERPs, start mentioning your influencers in your web content. Once you have written a high-quality article, drop them a message to inform them they have been featured on your website.

As a result, they might link back to your site on their website or share your post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, which could send both traffic and social signals to your site.

Request a Link on an Unlinked Brand Mention

You might like to think a website will link back to you whenever they mention your brand, but this isn’t always the case. However, many sites might simply need a little nudge, and they might be happy to turn your unlinked brand mention into a backlink.

A link analysis tool can help you to find a brand mention with ease, and you can even filter the results to only include high domain authority websites, so you will only focus your attention on building links that will help you to develop a strong backlink portfolio.

Acquire Link-less Mentions

Don’t be disheartened if a site doesn’t update your brand mention with a link. If you want to build a diverse, natural link profile, it will not hurt your ranking to secure link-less brand mentions. There is much evidence that proves that link-less mentions are a ranking factor. For example, Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, said the following in his Brighton SEO keynote in September 2017:

If you publish high-quality content that is highly cited on the internet – and I’m not talking about just links, but also mentions on social networks and people talking about your branding – then you’re doing great.

It is not only Google that values link-less mentions, either, as Duane Forrester, the former senior product manager at Bing, stated during the SMX West 2016 that link-less mentions could be just as strong as backlinks:

Years ago, Bing figured out context and sentiment of tone, and how to associate mentions without a link. As the volume grows and trustworthiness of this mention is known, you’ll get a bump in rankings as a trial.

If this wasn’t enough, Google’s Panda patent refers to mentions as “implied links,” which are a signal as strong as a good backlink.

Find Websites That Are Likely to Link to You

Rather than sending thousands of fruitless emails to websites to secure a backlink, try to find websites that are likely to link back to you, such as sites that have already linked back to a competitor.

To discover them, simply type a target keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. into Google and add the first appropriate URL you find into a link analysis tool to review their backlinks. You will then spot a range of pages that are linking back to a site, such as personal blogs, which you could then target yourself. If they are regularly linking to industry websites or one or more of your competitors, they might be more likely to give you a backlink.

Discover Broken Links

Broken link building can be a simple way to secure a powerful backlink. Rather than begging a webmaster for a link, you will enjoy a site’s link juice while providing its users with value. There are many free broken link checkers online, which can help you to discover a broken link.

The more links a website features, the greater the chances that one of them will be broken. For example, resource pages are ideal for replacing a broken link. Simply drop a webmaster a friendly email informing them about their broken link and pitch why your webpage would be the perfect replacement.

The Skyscraper Technique

It can be disheartening to write a high-quality article only to find that no-one is sharing it or linking back to it. If this is a problem your website is facing, the skyscraper technique could help you to improve your backlink profile organically.

This tactic involves emailing many websites within your industry and encouraging them to read your article. As a result, it could lead to various sites linking back to yours in an upcoming blog post.

It is often just as important to build relationships as it is to build links. If people don’t know your website exists then they will not link back to it, so you must proactively promote your content via email outreach. Reach out to people who will be genuinely interested in your content and send them a personalised email to build a rapport and potentially secure a link.

Correct Any Domain Misspellings

A website might have had the best intention when linking back to your website, but they might have accidentally linked back to a misspelt domain, which is a rather common mistake. This can be one of the quickest wins when building a solid backlink profile. The chances are the author hasn’t realised their mistake, so a polite, friendly email might be all it takes for them to swap it for the correct URL.

To make sure you don’t miss one misspelt URL, use a domain typo generator to browse potential misspellings. You should then copy and paste the list and enter it into the Ahrefs batch analysis tool to discover any domains that feature the typo.

Use Best Blog Links to Find Link Targets

Finding high-quality links can be difficult. Thankfully, there are many blogs out there offering “best blog” lists that high quality, reputable websites. They offer a rundown of the finest websites in an industry, and many may already have a high domain authority and loyal following. To find these articles, simply use a search string such as “the best (topic) blogs” or “list of (topic) blogs.”

Send Feeler Emails Before Asking for a Backlink

Webmasters will receive an endless amount of emails every day. While you might want to cut to the chase when sending your first outreach email, you should have a little more patience. It is possible you might experience better results with a two-step approach. Start by sending them a personalised “feeler” email and wait for a response. Once they reply, send a customised, friendly email pitching a link on their website.

Send Outreach Emails in the Afternoon

Timing is everything when pitching to webmasters for a backlink. If you send them a message in the morning, the chances are it will sit with a pile of emails they received the night before and at the start of the day. Even if they open it, they might not have time to reply. There will probably be a lot less competition in their inbox when you send an email in the afternoon, so they will be more likely to both read and respond to your email.

Conclusion

No-one ever said link building was easy. If you are not willing to work hard, dig into both yours and your competitors’ link profiles, or publish high-quality content that generates organic backlinks, don’t be surprised if you fail to rank for your chosen keywords.

To build a solid backlink profile that will help you to rank highly for your desired keywords, you must focus on creating a naturally-looking backlink profile that features links from reputable domains, which will earn the search engine’s trust.

By learning the many tricks of the trade, industry secrets, perfecting your timing, and developing relationships with bloggers, there will be no stopping you in the search engines.